MuscaDomestica/RideCharms
Alternate Ride Charm Tree proposal to make Ride Charms not suck.
The problem with what's in the book is that the charms listed for Ride merely duplicate what would have been possible with a good number of successes on the mundane normal use of the ride skill as described on pages 257 and 258 of the main book.
The idea would be to throw away the book's version of the ride charm tree and replace it with what's below.
.------------------------.
.---------------|Skillful Rider Technique|-----------------.
| `------------------------' |
V | | V
.---------------------. | | .-----------------------.
|Placid Mounted Stance| | | |Horse-Summoning Whistle|
`---------------------' | | `-----------------------'
| V V |
| .---------------. .-----------. V
| |Ride All Steeds| |Swift Steed| .-------------.
| `---------------' `-----------' |Phantom Steed|
| | | | `-------------'
| | V V
V V .------------------. .----------------------.
.------------------. |Feather Hoof Style| |Giant Hurdle Excercise|
|Ride All Creatures| `------------------' `----------------------'
`------------------'
Skillful Rider Technique
Cost: 1 mote per 2 dice Duration: Instant Type: Reflexive Minimum Skill (ride): 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: none
With this charm, a rider can buy extra dice to roll for any ride skill check, but no more than her normal mundane dice pool for the roll would be (as is typical for these types of charms) As with the dodge charm Reed in the Wind, it can be used to add supplemental dice in addition to the normal dice pool for a ride roll, or it can be used reflexively to allow a new seperate ride roll that would otherwise not have been possible, but without the mundane dice pool being added in if it is used that way. In either case, the number of dice to add must be declared before making the roll.
Placid Mounted Stance
Cost: 5 motes Duration: scene Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 3 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: Skillful Rider Technique
Riding a mount normally bounces you about. While Skillful Rider Technique can help with the Ride skill rolls, there are cases where the Storyteller would normally feel it is appropriate to assign large penalties to other actions a character makes while bouncing around on horseback. Examples of such actions might be: trying to have good enough penmanship to forge caligraphy while on a galloping horse, trying to throw a weapon, trying to craft a bow from a cut sapling, trying to juggle knives, or do a handstand. With this charm active, those other actions are no more difficult then they would be on steady ground, and no such penalties apply. This also means that the rider can have both hands free without any danger of falling off.
Horse-Summoning Whistle
Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Skillful Rider Technique
This charm is identical to the one by the same name in the main book (page 207), except that it links into the charm tree in a different place. I repeat the stats here for reference only. The mount is summoned silently, and will hear the call up to 10xEssence miles away. It moves toward the character as fast as it can, but it does have to traverse the distance between. It is not a teleport. This only works on a steed you know well.
Phantom Steed
Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower Duration: One day Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 5 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms: Horse-Summoning Whistle
This charm is identical to the one by the same name in the main book (page 208), except that it links into the charm tree in a different place. I repeat the stats here for reference only.
Swift Steed
Cost: 5 motes Duration: 1 hour Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Skillful Rider Techniuque
Activating this charm triples the effective speed of the mount. The rider must be in contact with the mount to sustain the charm. If contact is broken, the charm ends and would need to be re-cast to continue.
Feather-Hoof Style
Cost: 5 motes Duration: scene Type: Reflexive Minimum Skill (ride): 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Swift Steed
Activating this charm has the same effect on your horse as "Graceful Crane Stance" and "Feather Foot Style" (pages 193 and 194, main book) have on a person. The horse may run or stand on surfaces that are not normally capable of holding its weight, such as water or bamboo poles.
The rider must be in contact with the mount to sustain the charm. If contact is broken, the charm ends and would need to be re-cast to continue.
Giant Hurdle Excercise
Cost: 1 mote Duration: One Turn Type: Reflexive Minimum Skill (ride): 1 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: Swift Steed
Activating this charm has the same effect on your horse as "Monkey Leap Technique" (page 193, main book) has on a person. The horse may jump vertically up to 10x its strength, or up to 20x its strength horizontally. The rider must be in contact with the mount to sustain the charm.
Ride All Steeds
Cost: 5 Motes Duration: one day Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms: Skillful Rider Technique
This charm allows the rider to use any creature of appropriate size as a mount without causing discomfort to himself or to the creature. The creature may be anything that the rider can fit on, even if it would normally be too weak to carry a rider. Example steeds include, but are not limited to, horses, deer, goats, big dogs, giant sandworms, dolphins, wild boar, giant birds, etc. This charm does NOT automatically ensure that the creature will like you, however. The normal rules for training mounts (page 257, main book) still apply.
Ride All Creatures, Great and Small
Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower Duration: one day Type: Simple Minimum Skill (ride): 5 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms: Placid Mounted Stance, Skillful Rider Technique
This charm is like Ride all steeds except that it allows the rider to ride ANY creature she happens to come across, even if it is impossible to imagine how one would fit on it. Examples of creatures this could work on are, mice, small dogs, sparrows, a swarm of bees, etc. As with any other ride check, the ability to ride the creature does not ensure that it will like you.
