I've actually used a couple of different bows from "horseback" - this was for a competition, and the person running it made a frame for the middle of the horse, then stuck onto that a saddle, and some bits for the front and back. We had to shoot from that using a crossbow, a recurve (shorter) and a longbow.
In all cases, it was more difficult to aim because your stance wasn't static. Instead of having your feet comfortably set on the ground, you had to hold onto the saddle with your legs, just like a real horse. None of us were used to that, so it made for some interesting shots ;)
As for keeping the bows out of the horse's way - the crossbow was easiest, but reloading that sucker on horseback was painful. Either you'd have to stop a real horse to use a foot stirrup (or have a DC25+ or so to survive reloading with one foot out of the saddle) or you'd have to push against your stomach, and while it's doable, after a while that HURTS, even with reinforced leather for a brace.
The recurve, not surprisingly, was a bit easier than the longbow. The actual arc of the string wasn't as important as you'd think, because the biggest problem was keeping the bottom point of the longbow from getting tangled up in your foot, or the horse. The main thing it showed was the horse archers of the Mongolian hordes had it right - short, smaller horses, with short, powerful bows equals a deadly army.
And I've always thought the smaller bow equals less damage rule is stupid. I have a "smaller" bow - it's a recurve, it's 40 pounds, but in gaming terms it would be considered lighter than a fiberglass "longbow" which is only 25 pounds.
Whichever way you want to run the house rule, make sure if your longbow really is almost the height of the person (traditional size) that the arc you can shoot off of the horse is smaller than if it's a shorter bow. Aside from that - the rules are simplified versions of reality. If you want your bow to be d10, make it d10 :) Just make sure it's more difficult to shoot from horseback, because it really is.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-06-08 12:09 pm (UTC)I've actually used a couple of different bows from "horseback" - this was for a competition, and the person running it made a frame for the middle of the horse, then stuck onto that a saddle, and some bits for the front and back. We had to shoot from that using a crossbow, a recurve (shorter) and a longbow.
In all cases, it was more difficult to aim because your stance wasn't static. Instead of having your feet comfortably set on the ground, you had to hold onto the saddle with your legs, just like a real horse. None of us were used to that, so it made for some interesting shots ;)
As for keeping the bows out of the horse's way - the crossbow was easiest, but reloading that sucker on horseback was painful. Either you'd have to stop a real horse to use a foot stirrup (or have a DC25+ or so to survive reloading with one foot out of the saddle) or you'd have to push against your stomach, and while it's doable, after a while that HURTS, even with reinforced leather for a brace.
The recurve, not surprisingly, was a bit easier than the longbow. The actual arc of the string wasn't as important as you'd think, because the biggest problem was keeping the bottom point of the longbow from getting tangled up in your foot, or the horse. The main thing it showed was the horse archers of the Mongolian hordes had it right - short, smaller horses, with short, powerful bows equals a deadly army.
And I've always thought the smaller bow equals less damage rule is stupid. I have a "smaller" bow - it's a recurve, it's 40 pounds, but in gaming terms it would be considered lighter than a fiberglass "longbow" which is only 25 pounds.
Whichever way you want to run the house rule, make sure if your longbow really is almost the height of the person (traditional size) that the arc you can shoot off of the horse is smaller than if it's a shorter bow. Aside from that - the rules are simplified versions of reality. If you want your bow to be d10, make it d10 :) Just make sure it's more difficult to shoot from horseback, because it really is.