Animal Handling

This broad skill provides a character with the basic ability to train

animals to perform a variety of tasks, including doing labor,

accepting riders, tracking, and attacking. It’’s also used to determine

if a character can get a trained animal to perform a task, to ride an

animal, or to calm, capture, or otherwise handle a wild animal or an

unfamiliar domestic animal. Note that the methods of training and the

commands used with different animal species can vary widely.

Purchasing the broad skill entitles a character to select one type of

animal that he is able to train, subject to the approval of the

Gamemaster. For instance, it may be possible for a character to select

“horse,” or the Gamemaster may dictate that separate applications of

the skill are needed to train quarter horses and draft horses. In such

a case, the character would need to have the specialty skill animal

training in order to be able to train and handle more than one type of

horse.

Any use of the Animal Handling broad skill to train a creature

requires a complex skill check. Depending on the type of animal being

worked with, a modifier is applied to each segment of the complex

skill check, and certain types of animals take longer to train (more

successes needed) than other types.

To have a chance of successfully training an animal, a character must

spend at least 4 hours a day working with the creature. At the end of

each week of continuous work, a skill check indicates how many

successes were achieved toward the goal during that week. If the

training schedule is interrupted by one or more days of no work, any

days of work since the last skill check are lost. At the Gamemaster’’s

discretion, an interruption of a week or more could mean that the

training of that animal automatically fails and any successes that had

been accumulated are lost.

If the complex skill check ends in a Critical Failure, the animal goes

berserk and attacks its trainer. If the check is aborted because of

three Failure results, the animal simply refuses to be trained (but a

different character might have better results).

After an animal has been trained, other situation modifiers (listed in

the bottom section of the sidebar) apply to any attempt to have the

animal perform a certain task. “Unfamiliar animal” refers to a

creature that has been trained by someone other than the character

who’’s trying to make it perform. This modifier is cumulative with

those listed under “Trained animal,” so that trying to get an

unfamiliar trained animal to perform a Good task carries a +3 penalty.

Someone with the Animal Handling skill may be able to get a wild

animal or an untrained domestic animal to do something, but in no case

will such an animal perform a task of greater than Ordinary

difficulty. Ordinary tasks include activities in response to simple,

one-word commands such as “Attack,” “Come,” “Sit,” “Stay,” “Fetch,”

““Speak,” and “Quiet.” A Good task could be a combination of two

Ordinary tasks (in succession or simultaneously), or it could be

something more difficult, such as a dog pushing a lever with its paw

when directed to do so. An Amazing task is just that—something that

very few animals can or will do on command, such as running into a

burning building to rescue a child. Of course, the Gamemaster has the

final say on whether a task or trick is Ordinary, Good, or Amazing.

The broad skill also enables a character to ride any animal that can

be used for basic ground transportation—generally meaning horses,

mules, and other large quadrupeds. When an animal is being ridden, the

creature moves in every phase. During a phase in which the character

has an action, he can use this skill in an attempt to maneuver the

animal. See page 198 in Chapter 12: Vehicles for information on the

types of maneuvers—Routine, Moderate, and Extreme—a rider may attempt.

(Although an animal is not normally thought of as a vehicle, the same

general rules apply to riders of animals and drivers of vehicles.)

Animal Handling Situation Modifiers

Other Modifiers

---

Animal riding

This specialty skill enables a character to improve this aspect of

the Animal Handling broad skill. A character with this skill can

attempt racing over dangerous terrain, making jumps or performing

other stunts, and engaging in mounted combat.

▶ Trick Riding: When a character reaches rank 3 in this specialty, he becomes able to perform trick riding. This allows him to direct his mount to jump fences, leap chasms, or move backward.

On a Critical Failure result, the animal trips

For making horizontal leaps, success on a skill check adds to

an animal’s natural jumping ability:

• Ordinary, animal leaps normal distance plus 1 meter

• Good, normal distance plus 2 meters

• Amazing, normal distance plus 3 meters

For jumping over obstructions, the results are:

• Ordinary, normal distance plus 1 meter

• Good, normal distance plus 1.5 meters

• Amazing, normal distance plus 2 meters

For moving backward, an:

• Ordinary, means that the animal backs up at one-half of its walk

movement rate;

• Good, animal backs up at its full walk movement rate;

• Amazing, animal backs up at one and one-half times its walk

movement rate.

A character with the trick riding ability can also **use his mount

for cover**. This provides a penalty to an opponent’’s chance to

hit the rider, depending on the result of the rider’s skill check:

• Ordinary, +1 step

• Good, +2 steps

• Amazing, +3 steps.

Of course, this tactic doesn’’t protect the mount in any way.

Trick riding can’t be combined with any other action; for

instance, it’’s not possible to make an attack while you’’re urging

your mount to leap over a wall.

---

Animal training

This skill allows a character to become able to handle, ride, and

train a specific type of animal. He must purchase and improve this

specialty skill separately for each type of

animal he wants to train. Types of animals include riding animals, pack animals, attack animals, and guard animals. Your Gamemaster has the final say on how animals are classified, and which

ones require separate applications of this skill.

---