THE WAR HORSE: A NEW PLAYER CHARACTER SPECIES FOR "FAIRIES!"

By E.M. Tinggaard and Thomas Biskup, based on material by Steven Miller

Legal pseudo-babble: Copyright © 1994 Steven Miller. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for not-for-profit redistribution in electronic form. Possessors of this file may create hard copies for personal use in gaming, or copy it into existing version of the "Fairies!" game. NUELOW is Wordsmiths' trademark for its multi-genre role-platying game.

Converted to HTML by: Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes <http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/>

The War Horse as a Player Character
New advantages: Sensitive Nostrils (War Horses only); Speak with Animals
New Disadvantages: Phobia (Intelligence-based, +1); Overly Sensitive Nostrils (Health-based, War Horses only); Sexual preference, fence (War Horses only, Intelligence-based, +1); Taciturn (Personality-based, not allowed for Fairies)
New Skills: Jumping (Strength-based)
Trampling Damage and Attacks
New Weapons
Armor

The War Horse as a Player Character

Originally presented as a Monster in NL01 "Fairies!", the intelligent War Horses, who work with the Crusaders as mounts, are not native to the Fairies world. They are, in fact, the descendants of a group of interstellar explorers who were stranded there after their spaceship was infiltrated by a group of fairies. The War Horses used human slaves to fly and clean their spaceship, and after the fairies seduced the humans, the slaves staged an escape, blasting off in the spaceship and leaving their War Horse masters stranded in the Magic Forest.

Stripped of most of their high technology, the war horses quickly slipped into barbarism, building a culture devoted to the eradication of the fairies where only the strongest survive. After a century of combating the fairies on their own, they happened upon the Crusaders and realized that an alliance between them would speed victory. The War Horses agreed to serve the Crusaders as mounts for as long as there was evidence of fairies in the Magic Forest.

The War Horse species is very proud and strong-minded. Although they serve as mounts of the Crusaders, they take no guff and will throw and trample any rider who spurs them or mouths off. A War Horse is a partner of the Crusader player character or NPC, not a servant or beast of burden.

When War Horses talk, they roll their "R's," and when they are upset they tend to whinny and make other horse-like noises. Picture Mr. Ed with the personality of Basil Fawlty or Gilbert Gottfried and you're getting close to how to role-play a War Horse.

Genetic Advantages

Exceptional Size: War Horses have greater body mass than humanoid NUELOW species. Because of this, they receive an Attribute Rating of 2 in Strength and Health, free of charge.
Magic Resistance: War Horses have a close relationship with the energies that form the foundation of all reality in the NUELOW multiverse. In fact, they pay homage to this energy much the same way other species worship gods. Over the centuries, War Horses have developed the ability to disrupt attempts by characters with the Magical Ability advantage to manipulate the foundational energies in their immediate vicinity; if the War Horse's player rolls a 10 or 11 on two six-side dice, the character cancels any spell effects cast at it. If a 12 is rolled on two-six sided dice, the War Horse may turn the desired effect back upon the spell caster.
Trample Attack: War Horses may trample characters that are human sized or smaller. The rules governing trampling attacks are detailed below.
Attributes: Additionally, a newly created war horse character receives one six-sided die worth of Attribute Rating free in Strength, Health, and Pain Threshold. (Each Attribute is rolled separately.)

New advantages

Some of these are advantages unique to War Horses, but others can be chosen by other character species with GM approval. For more, see the forthcoming expanded list of advantages for "Fairies!"

Sensitive Nostrils (War Horses only): The War Horse is able to smell Fairies within 20 feet of its position, regardless of the form the Fairies have assumed. A successful Intelligence Check +3 is required to do so. If successful, the War Horse knows the locations of one or more hidden Fairies (GM's decision). This advantage costs 10 points.
Speak with Animals: On a successful Personality Attribute Check, the character establishes a virtual telepathic link with an animal. The animal will, to the best of its ability, answer a number of questions equal to the character's Personality Rating. This ability works only with one animal type, which must be defined at character creation. This advantage costs 5 points, and may be used once per day per animal. (This advantage may be selected by other character species, as well.)

New Disadvantages

As always, taking disadvantages can provide extra character points. Some of these are unique to War Horses, but others can be chosen by other character species with GM approval. For more, see the forthcoming expanded list of disadvantages for "Fairies!"

Phobia (Intelligence-based, +1): The character has an irrational fear of a natural phenomena, a kind of weather, a kind of animal, environment, or some other specific thing. The player chooses the phobia, and when the opportunity arises in play a successful Attribute check is required to keep the character from running away or curling up into a ball in the ground and quivering in fear. This advantage is worth 5 points, and can be taken more than once. (This advantage may be selected by other character species, as well.)
Overly Sensitive Nostrils (Health-based, War Horses only): The War Horse is not able to bear the smell of Fairies and Half-Fairies. When encountering such beings it must make a successful Attribute check against its full Health attribute or start sneezing and suffer a -3 penalty for all checks while in vicinity of these particular fairies. This disadvantage is worth 10 points.
Sexual preference, fence (War Horses only, Intelligence-based, +1): This War Horse had ancestors with a sexual preference for normal horses and its blood has been tainted with a strand of normal horses. As a result, the War Horse has an amplified rare, but frustrating, trait found among horses: Whenever it sees a fence, it must make a successful Intelligence Attribute check to avoid succumbing to the urge to rub on that fence for 1-6 minutes. This disadvantage is worth 4 points.
Taciturn (Personality-based, not allowed for Fairies): The character is the strong, silent type to the point of rediculousness. A successful Personality Attribute check must be made each time the character wishes to enter into a conversation beyond providing more than one or two word comments. This disadvantage is worth 3 points.

New Skills

Other skills may be chosen from the forthcoming expanded list of skills for "Fairies!" with GM approval.

Jumping (Strength-based): With a running start and a successful Strength attribute check, the character may leap horizontal distances equal to a roll on one six-sided die, plus twice its Strength rating in feet. The character can also jump vertical obstacles equal to a roll on a six-sided die, plus its Strength rating in feet with a running start and a successful Strength attribute check.

Trampling Damage and Attacks

For those who don't have a copy of "The Complete Net.Guide to Being Stomped, Trampled, and Mangled" (or some-such) or NL04 "Horndogs!", here's another repeat of the trampling rules.

Three values are of importance, when the characters are facing a stampede of whatever... the difference of mass of the beings involved, the difference in size of the beings involved and finally the number of beings doing the trampling. These three factors determine the amount of damage the character suffers. The base damage is determined by comparing the character's size and mass to the size and mass of one of the beings (or the average size and mass of different beings) in the opposing horde. Base damage found on the following table:


                             Mass
            lower           equal            greater
Size
smaller    -1/4            0/2              1/1
equal       0/2            1/1              2/1
greater     1/1            2/1              4/1

	Mass
	lower	equal	greater
Size
smaller	-1/4	0/2	1/1
equal	0/2	1/1	2/1
greater	1/1	2/1	4/1

The first number is the base amount of damage points the victim suffers, and if the trampler's size and mass is equal to, or greater than, the victim, the damage taken is lethal. The second number is the minimum amount of creatures required to cause that damage. If there are fewer creatures than that number, no damage is caused. From now on the number of creatures will be called the threshold number.

Total damage is calculated by modifying the base damage according to the number of creatures trampling the character. The GM determines the number of creatures that are passing over (or ramming) the character's body, and each time the number of trampling creatures doubles, the damage received is increased by +1: If the threshold number is reached once, the character suffers base damage; if the threshold number is reached twice, it suffers base damage +1; if the threshold number is reached four times, it suffers base damage +2; if the threshold number is reached eight times, it suffers base damage +3; if the... (Okay, you get the idea.) All is not lost for the character about to become a puddle of gore, however. If the GM is merciful, the character being trampled can make an Agility Check to lower the damage incurred. On a successful check, it suffers but one-half damage (round down). Additionally, characters who are wearing armor have limited protection from trampling; half the character's Armor Rating is deducted from the trampling damage inflicted.

The trampling attack is available to War Horse characters. For the purpose of determining trampling damage, a War Horse is larger and of greater mass than a humanoid creature.

New Weapons

Key to codes:

L: lethal
w: war horse
AT: Attribute-base for Weapons Use skill checks
Agl: Agility Attribute Rating


  Weapon           Type  Damage      Weight     Size    Race  AT 
* Forehead spike   H,E   4L          6 pounds   Medium  w     Agl
  Hoof blades      H,E   3L+trample  12 pounds  Medium  w     Agl

	Weapon	Type	Damage	Weight	Size	Race	AT
*	Forehead spike	H,E	4L	6 pounds	Medium	w	Agl
	Hoof blades	H,E	3L+trample	12 pounds	Medium	w	Agl

*: Provides an armor rating of 1 for the War Horses head.

Armor

Armor for War Horses exists in the same categories as for other character species. However, only head and torso armor is available and torso armor weighs twice the amount mentioned in "Fairies!".

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