Horse racing rules

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Horse racing rules

Postby Rebecca of Valaris on Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:01 pm

Right...I haven't seen any rules for horse racing so since it was something I quite fancied doing I've put some together. I've used this and enjoyed them myself so thought I would share. I'll go on to explain the logic of my thoughts and the mechanics below, including rules for flat racing, jumps and options but just to say you're free to disagree, modify etc for your own use as you wish. It's no mud off my jodhpurs :wink:

In looking at the stats that seemed most appropriate to use I picked STR, INT and AGI as the basis. STR to be able to control the horse, INT to know how to control the horse and AGI to be able to stay on the top of the wretched nag when it's jumping around. Also, I looked to be able to use the stats in such a way as to provide a balance between the physical and non physical classes. Not every horseman or horsewoman is a powerhouse of strength. All references below will use an example two players but more can take part. Anyway, the rules:

Flat racing

Flat racing is a race over even ground on a set course or between two agreed points. The players agree on the number of rounds that the race will last. My advice is that 5 rounds is a good place to start for a first or a quick race.

Each round the players make a roll of STR INT plus any modifier they have for horsemanship skill points. So a novice would get +1 bonus etc. Which ever player has the highest roll moves one furlong (1/8 mile) ahead. IC both horses are moving it is just that the winner of the round has moved further. Whoever is in the lead at the end of the agreed number of rounds is the winner.

For example: Bob and Alice race

Rnd 1: Alice wins and moves ahead
Rnd 2: Bob wins and draws level
Rnd 3: Bob wins and moves ahead
Rnd 4: Alice wins and draws level
Rnd 5: Bob wins and moves ahead and wins the race

For races involving more than two people then a scoring system should be used instead for each round. 1st place getting 3 points, 2nd place getting 2 points, 3rd place 1 point. Any riders after that get zero points.

So for example, taking Alices and Bob's race and adding Eric to the mix we get the following results:

Rnd 1: Alice wins, Bob second, Eric third. (A=3, B=2 E=1) Running total (A=3, B=2, E=1) Alice in the lead
Rnd 2: Bob wins, Alice second, Eric third (B=3, A=2, E=1) Running total (A=5, B=5, E=2) Alice and Bob neck and neck
Rnd 3: Bob wins, Eric second Alice third (B=3, E=2, A=1) Running total (A=6, B=8, E=4) Bob in the lead
Rnd 4: Alice wins, Bob second, Eric third (A=3, B=2, E=1) Running total (A=9, B=10, E=5) Bob just in the lead
Rnd 5: Bob wins, Eric second, Alice third (B=3, E=2 A=1) Running total (A=10, B=13, E=7) Bob wins

Jumps

The basic mechanic is the same as flat racing. Agreed number of rounds and whoever is ahead at the end wins. However, players may also add jumps to one or more rounds of a difficulty in blocks of 5 ranging from 5 to 100. A simple jumps course would consist of a jump at the end of each round with the jump being the same level of difficulty throughout but players can have as much variety on their course as they wish. For example:

A simple course for a 5 round race would be 5 jumps of difficulty level 15. A more complex course might be : level 15, no jump, level 30, level 20, no jump etc

To make the jump, the player must roll higher than the difficulty level using INT AGI plus horsemanship modifiers. Equal or less and the player has come off or the horse has refused the jump etc. In this case, the player is out of the race.

Options

Riding crop and/or spurs. Not a fan of them myself but others in the Empire would be less choosy I'm sure. If players agree the crop/spurs option may be used. The mechanics for this are if a player actually owns these they may choose to use either or both or their crop or spurs in any round giving them a plus one modifier to their roll for that round for one or plus 2 for both. The penalty for this is that the cumulative total of crop/spurs modifiers they have used is used as a negative modifier for the last round. So IC this represents the additional effort gained from the horse at a particular point but also represents the additional tiring at the end.

Handicap system. Claw is of course the best mechanic for evening our a race between two different level opponents but a simpler mechanic, especially where more than two players are racing is to subtract the players level from that of the highest racing player and use that difference as an additional modifier to their dice rolls. For example:

Bob is level 5, Alice is level 8 and Gertie is level 15.

Bob would have a plus 10 modifier, Alice a plus 7 modifier and Gertie 0

And that, as they say, is that. As I said at the start, feel free to modify, disagree etc as you wish but I hope some of you find this fun and or useful. It can make for some fun RP, especially when your opponent goes flying over a hedge. :D
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby miyuka on Tue Sep 22, 2015 5:03 pm

This could be used during any number of events should an event runner choose to and the quest team or available op chooses to allow for such.

A better way to even things out without using claw is to just use the combat dice system and agree upon a number for each player to roll. Such as everyone rolls !cd 50 50 +modifiers or the higher leves players gain a slight advantage so that levels 1-20 would roll !cd 20 20 and levels 21 and above would get a !cd 25 25 or however you wish to do the handicap, instead of using claw system. Either way works though, just figured I'd add that in there for an alternative balancing/handicapped method method.

good stuff.
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby Rebecca of Valaris on Wed Sep 23, 2015 7:07 am

miyuka, thanks for the comment and suggestion. I'll confess I hadn't thought of using a modifed combat dice. #-o

Absolutely, I think as long as the players are content with whatever method they choose to even it out (should they wish to of course!) and have fun that's all that really counts.

Of course it doesn't have to be used purely as a race mechanic either and could be tweaked slightly for pursuing or trying to catch someone on horseback. Thief trying to run out of town and evade the law, slaveowner trying to recapture that errant catgirl etc then use it a pursuit mechanism perhaps on the following lines:

Pursuit option

Players agree number of rounds and jumps etc as above but the pursued starts off with a two furlong/round advantage. The pursued escape if at the end of the race they are still ahead. The pursuers win if at any point during the race they draw level.

Just an additional thought :)
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby Tehya on Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:30 pm

I love this idea, event, que
A few years ago we had ranches that taught us. For something nice to do with Tehay she trained for skills like riding standing upright and making the horse dance. Could skills be added to it? I think others had went to that ranch to learn too. Just an idea... thumbs up as it is.
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby Tawny on Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:23 am

This has been done with the 1d10 dice several times and that makes it perfectly equal for a race. As far as using skills I personally don't think that would work since your racing and not doing a show of some kind. I don't think you going to be standing in the saddle while racing. Course this is just my thoughts on it is all.
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby Rebecca of Valaris on Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:12 pm

Tawny, Tehya, thanks.

Tawny, you're quite right. 1d10 could just be easily used. I just fancied having an option that was a bit more stats based and gave bonuses for the horsemanship skill set and equipment.

On the subject of trick riding or dressage type riding, I'll be honest I just don't know enough about them to come up with a concept that would stand scrutiny. Although, having said that, I'm meeting an old friend at the end of next month who used to do dressage and she also played/plays D&D. I'll get her thoughts on this.
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Re: Horse racing rules

Postby Rebecca of Valaris on Sun Nov 15, 2015 6:43 pm

Edited rules for suggestion for scoring system when more than two riders take part.
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