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eruditus
07-03-2003, 11:37 AM
As I gear up for a full write up (which will take me months, no doubt) I figured I would post a few tid bits from the campaign world I am developing around BW.

And in light of the recent posts on horses...

There are five mounted animals that the cultures of Sherim have been exposed to.

The three indiginous species are Horuul, a breed of domesticated rhino, Enkili, stout, flightless birds about twice the size of large emus, and domesticated stags. Nomadic tribes dominate the herding and distribution of all three. The Enkili are the fastest of the mounts. The Horuul are the toughest and most battle ready and the stags are the easiest to maintain being more self reliant than the other domesticated mounts.

The Hircali colonists came across with horses. Horses come in second in all of the above categories thus trumping the other two indiginous species and bvecoming the most flexable of the mounts. Horses have become quite a commodity in the land and many of the native tribe that rely on trade and herding have resented the inclusion of the Hircali steeds into the Sherim markets.

Laslty. this world has recently seen a Troll incursion in the northern-most portions of the land. Although not common, the trolls do have their own mounts. Dubbed Khedeth, these creatures are equine but of mammoth in size and girth. Most men can walk beneathe the Khedet with little stooping. Thier heads are adorned in bony ridges and end in a chitinous beak below a massive horn. It would be beyond the vast majority of men in the land to even attempt mounting these viscious creatures that the trolls have tamed and trained to lead their fearsome cavalry into battle.

Yagathai
07-03-2003, 12:31 PM
Most men, perhaps, but not the INTREPID PARTY HEALER!!! Um, right?

Oh, and what about awarding Arta for last session?

eruditus
07-03-2003, 01:12 PM
Well, you certainly can TRY.... :P

And must you pollute my postings with such drivel...

do you really think that's an effective way to get Artha?

:P

Yagathai
07-03-2003, 03:29 PM
I find it amusing that in a land thick with riding animals, the surgeon is the only character that can actually ride a freakin' horse!

In any case, is the name of this forum not "Campaigns and Stories"? And what am I doing but telling the story of how our GM didn't give us Artha in the last session of our current campaign? :P

What do the trolls' steeds eat?

luke
07-03-2003, 04:09 PM
What do the trolls' steeds eat?

Talkative Surgeons, I imagine.

Claymore
07-03-2003, 09:24 PM
What do the trolls' steeds eat?

Talkative Surgeons, I imagine.

I'm guessing whatever the hell they want!


-Claymore

eruditus
07-04-2003, 08:37 AM
yes and yes.

I have not decided which will be a carnivore, the Horuul or the Khedet.

Although a scavanger would be interesting, imagining them fighting over bits like a couple of wolf-hounds in the meal hall.

Yagathai
07-04-2003, 08:18 PM
Now granted, BW is a fantasy game and so you may want to ignore a lot (or all) of this, but:

A carnivore the size of your troll-steeds -- based on your description, let's call them around 9 feet tall at the shoulder for the sake of simplicity, or approximately the size and mass of your smallish African savannah bull elephant (Loxodonta africana), with an approximate weight of... let's say 8000 pounds or 3750 kilos.

Do you realize what that means?

Assuming that the animal has a very efficient cooling system, they'd need around... 40 gallons (150-ish litres) of water a day to drink. And assuming above-average dietary efficiency, they'd need somewhere around 3.5% of their body mass in food daily. If they're carnivores, and assuming a wild (lean) animal diet, their dietary efficiency drops dramatically -- 6.5% of their body mass is a conservative figure. Using those numbers, if the beasts are carnivorous they need to eat an average of 520 pounds of animal a day to be in good shape. 520 lb!

Assuming a troll encampent of 1500 individuals, with roughly 1/3 to 1/4 of those being combatants, and assuming that only 20% of the combatants are mounted, you're looking at 100 troll-steeds, not counting juveniles, and assuming that both sexes can be ridden. With breeding stock and juveniles, and assuming average fecundity for a large carnivore, let's say that we have the equivalent of 135 animals at that troll war camp. They'd need over 70,000 lb of meat a day for their steeds alone. That means wiping out the equivalent of two herds of adult bison EVERY DAY (or 1.5 herds if it's rutting season and there are males present -- but now I'm just getting nitpicky). The amount of biomass necessary to support an ecosystem like that is staggering: Assuming that troll-steeds are primary predators (they eat the stuff that eats the grass), and their prey animals have highly efficient digestive systems, you're looking at the equivalent of 11,500 bushels of wheat a day. I'd show you how I got that number, but you probably don't care to see it.

In other words, in order to sustainably feed just the steeds in this troll encampment, the trolls would need to be sitting on top of 140,000 acres of prime Kansas farmland yielding one crop a year, and every square inch of that land would need to be farmed using modern agricultural techniques and fertilizers (year-round). Assuming medieval farming techniques, it wouldn't be out of line to multiply that number by at least an order of magnitude.

Hmmm. Eruditus, I think that our problems with the trolls are solved. Inside of a few weeks they'll either starve to death or be forced to move south, having denuded this land of anything that moves.

eruditus
07-04-2003, 09:50 PM
Well, gee, why do you think the trolls migrated here...

(well noted...)

Yagathai
07-04-2003, 10:02 PM
Aha! Well then, the troll problem can be solved in one of two easy methods:

1) Convince the trolls that a lot of walking is healthy, and that personal animal transportation is inefficient.

2) Kill all the troll-steeds.

eruditus
07-07-2003, 09:09 AM
Good luck with that.

It was suggested over the weekend that maybe the Enkili should be carnivores...

:)