Beast Riding

^{Source: SoT:80}

Riding a beast is similar to riding a vehicle except you use Survival in place of Piloting. A beast must have:

• Silhouette - If none given, defaults to 2. Beasts of silhouette 1 or less cannot usually be ridden.
• Speed - Equal to half the beasts' Agility rounded up.
• Handling - The beasts' Agility less silhouette less Willpower. If a beast has a ranked Trained Mount ability, add that many to the dice pool. This is in addition to or indicated by the handling characteristic.
• Riding tack - If no proper riding tack upgrade difficulty of all checks once.

Normally, training a beast for riding takes approximately four weeks. The PC makes a Hard () Survival check. Upgrade the difficulty of this check a number of times equal to the beast's Willpower.

On success add Trained Mount 1 to the beasts' abilities. Every generated reduces the time by a week, while every extends the time by a week. allows the beast to obtain Trained Mount 2. indicates the trainer sustains a critical injury. Unsuccessful checks indicate the beast is not trainable.

The Trained Mount ability can increase in ranks by retraining but the time it takes is double the previous amount of time.

To mount an untrained beast you must pass an Average () Survival check. Trying to ride an untrained beast upgrades the difficulty of any check a number of times equal to the beast's Cunning. Failure results in the rider falling off the mount. If failed and a result the beast makes a free attack on the dismounted rider. A successful result and a could have the rider stay on, but the beast charges in a random direction.

The beast has wound and strain thresholds, melee and ranged defenses and soak. It does not have hull trauma or system strain thresholds. Attacks against the beast are resolved as normal in personal combat scale. Any system strain the needs to be suffered gets translated to strain.

Beasts do not have their own initiative slot unless they are rendered riderless.

The following maneuvers are available to a beast rider:

• Accelerate/Decelerate - Rider only Increase or decrease speed by 1.
• Fly/Drive - Rider only Dependent on the beast's current speed.
• Evasive Maneuvers - Rider only Silhouette 1-4. Speed 3+. Upgrade to for all attacks made against this beast/rider until the end of the next turn. Also upgrades to to all attacks made by the beast/rider until the end of the next round.
• Stay on Target – Rider only Silhouette 1-4. Speed 3+. Upgrade to once for all combat checks from this beast/rider. Active until the end of the next turn. Any attacks against this beast/rider upgrades to once.
• Punch It – Rider only Silhouette 1-4. Immediately go to maximum speed but causes 1 strain per point of speed increased.

The following actions are available to a beast rider:

• Damage Control – Use a Medicine or Survival check to simulate the application of stimpack.
• Gain the Advantage – Rider Only Silhouette 1-4. Speed 4+. Make a Survival check, difficulty is the relative speeds of the two beasts/vehicles. See table 7-3 on page EotE:234. Success allows the attacker to ignore all penalties associated with Evasive Maneuvers until the end of the following round and the attacker chooses which defense zone he hits. Gain the Advantage can be cancelled out next turn by the target if they successfully make a Gain the Advantage action.
• Use Weapon – Use Survival checks to use the natural weaponry of the beast. Alternatively, use the characters own melee or ranged attacks.
• Climb or Jump - Rider Only Silhouette 3-. Speed 2+. Beasts that have the Climb ability can climb or jump. The rider must succeed a Hard () Athletics check to navigate the obstacle. Any can be used to cause the rider to fall off the mount.
• Push - Rider Only Silhouette 2+. Speed 0-1. Beasts that have the Trample attack can attempt to push solid objects. For objects the same silhouette as the beast make a Hard () Survival check. The difficulty is reduced by one for every silhouette smaller the target is. To move an object one silhouette larger than the beast make a Formidable () Survival check.