Animal Rules Cheat Sheet by dcware

Animals

The Overland consist of various animals, but only a few actually come into play. These are:

Horses

Characters use horses as transp­ort­ation. Standard horses move men at three hexes a day.

Up to two characters or NPCs may ride one horse at a time provided it is not carrying any other items. One character can ride a horse with a saddle along with any of the saddle’s contents (i.e its weight limit).

Other horses, however, have special charac­ter­istics. These are:

Quarter horses - These horses are stronger than most, and can be used to pull carts, wagons or other heavy loads. Quarter horses can carry up to three characters or NPCs provided no saddle is used. Quarter horses with saddles can carry up to 200 lbs of weight along with the character.

Warhorses - These are the only horses with an Endurance value (roll for that value). If the Warhorse is usually supposed to be killed, a roll is made; a successful roll means the Warhorse lives, and is not injured. This applies to all situations involving the loss, or death of the horse. However if the warhorses Endurance is reduced to zero it is dead and no roll is allowed.

Mustang - As a general rule, all horses are Mustangs unless specif­ically classified otherwise. Mustangs follow the normal rules for horses, or mounts. These are the horses most NPC’s will be riding.

Horses with ‘saddles’ can carry up to 150 lbs. of weight for a character along with the character himself.

Camels

Camels are the only animals that can transport characters through deserts.

[Note: When purchasing troops if you wish to supply them with camels you must pay an additional 200 silver pieces per unit. Troops riding Camels count as Cavalry in desert hexes.]

While outside of desert hexes camels only move one hex per day.



Dogs

There are only two types of dogs in Overland. Regular dogs, and Snow Dogs. Dogs may be used to aid players on hunts. For every dog you have with you on a hunt subtract (-10) from the hunted animal’s Agility. Dogs travel at the same rate as horses, and must be carried by characters travelling faster than that.

Snow Dogs - Snow Dogs are the closest thing to a trained dog in Overland. If a character purchases a ‘sled’, and at least three (3) Snow Dogs they can be used to pull a character through Ice Terrain or over snow.

Snow Dogs may also aid a character in combat. Every round, each dog has a 55% chance of getting a ‘lock’ on your opponent. If the dog gets the ‘lock’ it will cause -10 damage to your opponent every round it is on. The dog will only release the ‘lock’ when you command him to; when your opponent is dead; or when your opponent breaks it. The opponent must spend one round of combat striking at the dog, and score a successful hit in order to break the ‘lock’, and in the process killing the dog. Characters decide whether or not their dog(s) will aid them in a particular combat.

Cows

Characters may wish to purchase cows, and raise them for food. Characters who purchase cows must keep them in open land that they own (see: Purchasing Property). For each week the cow is raised in open land it will provide two days’ worth of meals in milk products. Additi­onally, for every week you raise the cow on open land it will provide ten days’ worth of meals when you kill it up to a maximum of 30 days’ worth of meals (i.e. a cow raised two weeks on open land will provide twenty days’ worth of meals.)