There are rules and ideas spread throughout the Numenera core book on riding mounts. With the help of one of my trusty players (Larry Cooper) I’ve compiled this fairly exhaustive list of mounts and mount rules.
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First off, the basic rules for riding can be found on page 105. They say that riding is a Speed check, using a saddle as an asset, and that it uses the Riding skill. It has a nice table of difficulties for this task, and suggests that for most situations, such as riding to the next town, a skill roll is not needed.
There are almost a dozen potential mounts mentioned throughout the book. Some are land creatures. Some are flying. Some are technologies. Here’s a list of them, for your ease of reference.
LIVING MOUNTS
- Aneen
- Level 3(9) with Long movement. Page 231. Muscular bipedal herd creatures used as pack animals.
- Brehm
- Level 3(9) with Long movement and 1 armor. Page 163. Bipedal reptilian coursers used for cavalry by the Mahal Shards, a military force operating in southern Pytharon Empire.
- Camethosaurs
- Level 3(9) with 24 health. Page 184. Thirty foot long quadrupedal reptilian herbivores native to the Plains of Kataru.
- Espron
- Level 2(6) with Long movement. Page 184. Fast, large antelope-like creatures tamed by the tribes of the Plains of Kataru.
- Rasters
- Level 4(12) with Long flight movement and Short land movement, armor of 1, and 18 health. Page 253. Batlike creatures with gravity suspensors and invisible head lasers, domesticated in coastal regions.
- Razorcats
- Level 5(15) with 24 health. Page 198. Huge tiger-like beast mounts of the priests of Lhauric, in the Beyond.
- Snow Lopers
- Level 3(9) with health 12 and Long movement. Page 259. Hairy bipedal omnivores native to mountainous regions and, rumors say, the warm lands to the north.
- Xi-Drakes
- Level 5(15) with Long flight movement and Short land movement, 2 armor, and 22 health. Page 265. Massive, white-skinned flying reptiles flown by the Angulan Knights. These are the dragons of the Ninth World.
ARTIFACT MOUNTS
- Hover Squares
- Level 1d6 with Short movement. Page 305. Foldable synth platforms that move laterally as directed.
- Wind Rider
- Level 1d6+1 with Long movement. Page 313. Eight foot long metallic wings that can move up to 80 miles per hour. Built by Thereni and Poulla of Draolis where they are used by the military for scouting (see page 152).
RUMORS
There is one more rumored mount in the core book: the horse. On page 151 in the section about the Weird of Draolis you’ll find reference to a lone glaive who rides a mount she calls a “horse” that she unfroze from an ancient tomb. Obviously this is an amazing adventure seed, so do with it what you should.