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.
