The Random Dm

Continuing our progress through the conformation of our horse and gathering more information about the horse itself, this week I present to you the Body Conformation Table.

Explanations of horse parts: Withers, they are the top of the shoulder where the neck joins the body. Back, is the section between the Withers to the Loins. Loins unsurprisingly are the southern end of the back, right as it transitions into the hips and Rump of the horse. Croup is the area that starts at the highest point of the hindquarters to the top of the tail, it includes the ‘Rump’ of the horse. Tail, is the whippy part at the back-side of the horse. And the Ribcage is on the bottom side of the body running from the chest to the waist.

Continue reading Horse Conformation, II

Our Horse exercise continues as we develop our noble riding steed. First we began with the simple parts, examining the colors of horses and the types of horses that fit into our fantasy settings.  Then we discovered that there were ways for us to continue to paint our horses and make them unique with some markings.

As we continue to dig into what goes into making a horse it’s a good time to remind you were this fits into your game and campaigns. The most obvious place is with the Paladin. So much time is spent on talking about their great companions, but no one has dared delve into the deep dark depths of horse culture. Or if you are playing some sort of Al-Qadim, or Arabian Knights, or Mongol’ish campaign. Horses are the corner-stone. And yet stats or templates are developed for them? It’s because, the Horse culture is fearsome, and scary. Well I have delved there, and hopefully I survive! But it’s become a quest of mine to boil down the multiple parts of the horse and present them to you.

So here we go, this table here is a ‘Conformation’ table. Here’s what we’ve learned about this part of our series:  There is an IDEAL of Horse.  But few specimens actually meet this Ideal.  Let me more specific, there is an Ideal for each breed and an Ideal for each sport/hobby/job that horses take part in.  So we compare our horse against Horse.  What gives us so much pleasure in developing this series is that now we can create stat modifiers based on these ‘Conformations’ so that we can develop these noble beasts into their own unique stat block!

Continue reading Our Random Horse Conforms to Ideal!

Facial Markings Explained

The Markings on a horse are like a fingerprint: Unique. No two horses have the same markings. But there are a couple of regions and types of markings that we can use to develop that fingerprint, and perhaps give them more meaning to the players and the world at large.

First we need to describe the most important markings that are going to be found on our horse, the facial markings.  A horse may have multiple facial markings.

Each marking can be considered ‘normal’ or may have on of the 4 modifiers added on to it to describe it even further.  It should be noted that a ‘star’ result is merely a placement description and does not designate a shape of a star.  One should roll on the shape chart to find the exact shape of the star marking.

Continue reading Marking those horses up

Every great adventurer at some time requires the services of a great steed. And yet, in most game systems this creature is sorely overlooked as the unique and powerful creature that it is, this month RandomDm is going to take a look at this noble companion that can be more trustworthy and useful then those sneaky rogues, or the smartass mages. They may not be that faithful war dog that leaps to sacrifice it’s life for you, but they are a part of the glorious adventure.

The varied characteristics of horses gives each horse a unique stamp that makes it perfect for randominzed tables. Domestication and breeding programs have been going on for generations creating a mindnumbing large set of criteria to rate, categorize, and define a horse. According to the wikipedia entry on horses there are a couple of interesting items that we can use to build our steed tables. These include but are not limited too: Life Span and Life Stages, Colors and Markings, Temperament, Training, and Pedigree.

Continue reading Dapple Grey Destriers of Randomness!

Every Paladin has sworn one, most monks and priest eventually will. And there you find yourself searching for what motivates that guy who has a code of honor, and has sworn a vow of some sort. Well here’s a start to your vow-machinations: