So I'm interested in implementing the Beast Riding rules into my game, but I'm unsure as to how you handle it in certain situations. My players are on Weik and fighting opponents who can potentially have horses. I've read over the rules and have a few questions.

1. When you attack someone on the mount, do you hit the mount or the rider?

2. If you have someone on a mount with others who are not, all in the same combat, how do you determine Speed? I know mounts have a speed rating, but how does that translate into "on foot" combat? How many range bands can they move and so on.

Any insight would be useful. Thanks.

1) Assuming it's supposed to be like Vehicle combat you hit the Mount unless you do something to hit the rider (Triumph, Aiming...)

2) Something with a speed rating of at least 1 can move "Within (as in 'inside') the close range band" as a single fly/drive maneuver. Note that Engaging is still a Maneuver, so you can't go from extreme to swordplay in one move...

Also worth mentioning that unlike vehicles, animals tire, so moving from Extreme to Short and back again repeatedly in the same encounter could start requiring Resilience checks or something...

On 4/10/2017 at 9:30 PM, Ghostofman said:

Also worth mentioning that unlike vehicles, animals tire, so moving from Extreme to Short and back again repeatedly in the same encounter could start requiring Resilience checks or something...

I generally allow the mount to take a second maneuver for 2 strain just like PCs and NPCs. Most mounts are Rivals, so they take wounds instead. Covers the tiring thing when they start pushing themselves too far and then get hit in combat a few times.

For my group, the simplest solution is that beast mount's "vehicle" speed only comes into play during overland travel or a chase (ie: when being on a vehicle/mount is the point of the encounter). During normal personal-scale combat, I limit a mount's movement to that of a normal character, but the mount's speed and abilities may allow it to ignore certain restrictions (ignore difficult terrain, jump over a chasm, etc). It's also a lot easier to escape from an outdoor encounter when you can hop on a mount and run off. I do the same thing with jetpacks and rocket boots and the like.

I usually explain it the way Dark Heresy explains why vehicles have both tactical and overland movement speeds. In the middle of a fight, especially when you don't have a wide open space to move in, there's only so much of your mount's maximum speed and maneuverability you can effectively bring to bear.