Dogsled Rules

[SuperDave]

Personally I'd just run with wolf stats for sled dogs, but...

Well, originally I was just going to have stats for malamutes and huskies, but the project kind of snowballed (if you'll pardon the pun). And then I learned about the qimmiq, and I felt that since they were the original sled-dog, they deserved inclusion here. And then I thought about the presence of traders from Fusang coming to the Great White North, and I thought that chows could stand to have their own stats too. I admit it's more complex to have four kinds of sled-dogs, but if DMs don't want to bother, then they can just narrow the available options down to "racer-dogs" and "freighter-dogs".

Ultimately, I just wanted for there to be an actual mechanical reason to choose different types of dogs to pull one's sled, not just for the sake of flavor.

1. Jump bonuses? why? My knowledge of dogs is not great, I'll admit but I'm pretty sure these breeds aren't exactly built for jumping to the extent they should get racial bonuses. I know that's what the official dog stats say but that's always puzzled me, especially since cats don't get that bonus. Since you're homebrewing you can take the opportunity to fix some things. Wolves, for instance, don't get that bonus and sled dogs are to the best of my knowledge a lot close to wolves than other dogs, performance-wise. They certainly look a lot more like them.

I guess I just assumed it was for leaping up to tear out the throats of large mammals like moose and elk. Attack-dogs are also famous for leaping up on intruders' chests to knock them prone, as well. But if you think it's really not appropriate, maybe it should be cut. I'll think about it.

2. Description of husky says 'fox-like'. Wolk-like certainly, not very fox-like.

Well, that's what the breeder-information I've found says about their features. Using the adjective "fox-like" also emphasizes their mischievous nature. I must admit, I don't really have any experience with huskies, though my uncle owned a chow-chow for many years.

3. Chow-chow's natural armor is +3, compared to the +1 of the other dogs. Is that extra fur and skin really worth that much? Especially considering the wolf only gets +2?

Hmm, I guess I did kind of overestimate how much good all that extra fur would do. I guess I'll reduce it to a +1 bonus to AC. Should this AC bonus count as a Special Quality?

You know, I was thinking about some sort of Dog-chariot homebrew of my own for nation in our Conquest game. Instead of going crazy on the stats for dogs I figured in a gameworld one could breed Dire Hounds, which would let one or two of the animals pull a sled or cart.

On topic- great work. I may end up cribbing some of this.

Thank you very much! I'm flattered that you would want to use this in your own games. Please let me know how it goes: having data from actual play-testing of this system would be very helpful.