Adventure Pet Equipment

Now that you have chosen your pet, you will need equipment and supplies for your pet. You didn't think you could just choose a pet and go without considering your responsibilities, did you? Of course not. Pets cost money and time to keep fed and clean, and if you want to ride one without yanking it's hair, you will need a saddle and other supplies. So choose your supplies and get ready for a life of adventure with your new pet.

Food and Cleaning Supplies For the regular maintenance of your animal, you will deduct from your adventure income. Your pet will need food, scoop, waste disposal equipment, brush, and bathing materials. Below are the costs of supporting your pet based on its size. This also provides an average encumbrance to any vehicle or backpack in which the supplies are stored.

Pet Size Cost/Month Mass Tiny 50Cr 5kg Small 150 Cr 10kg Medium 300 Cr 30kg Large 600 Cr 60kg Huge 1200 Cr 120kg

Collar Collars can indicate that an animal has an owner and is a great way to accessorize your pet. Item Cost Mass Collar (Small) 5 Cr 0kg Collar (Medium) 10Cr 0kg

Licensing In most civilized parts of the frontier, your animal must be licensed. Your animal's license is contained in a tracking chip implanted beneath the skin. If your animal performs a threatening and non-protective act, the master will be fined. If the animal acted of its own accord (untrained and without permission), it may be put down.

Item Cost Mass Tracking Implant 50Cr 0kg

Harness If you ride your animal, you must have a harness or suffer a -5 penalty to ride. Item Cost Mass Harness (Small) 15Cr 0kg Harness (Medium) 30Cr 2kg Harness (Large) 60Cr 4kg Harness (Huge) 120Cr 8kg

Saddle If you ride your animal, you must have a saddle or suffer a -5 penalty to ride. Item Cost Mass Saddle (Medium Mount) 150Cr 10kg Saddle (Large Mount) 300Cr 15kg Saddle (Huge Mount) 600Cr 20kg Item Cost Mass Saddle Bags (2 pouches, Medium Mount) 30Cr 2kg Saddle Bags (2 pouches, Large Mount) 60Cr 5kg Saddle Bags (4 pouches, Huge Mount) 200Cr 13kg

Parka Hairy (Furry) animals may require a parka to help keep them from musting up and to minimize encumbrance from water retention in the hair. Item Cost Mass Parka (Medium) 10Cr 1kg Parka (Large) 20Cr 2kg Parka (Huge) 30Cr 3kg

Talon Guard Birds of prey have razor-sharp claws. To keep the bird from damaging its master, the master should wear a talon guard. Item Cost Mass Talon guard 25Cr 1kg

ANIMAL TRAINER SKILL SET

Taming, training, riding, and stabling animals are all important part of having pets in the campaign. If those skills aren't available, it's hard to keep animals from going wild. So below is a skill set with a list of subskills useful for taming animals.

An animal trainer (from the Biosocial PSA) can Analyze Animal Behavior and Analyze Ecosystems to understand an animal's needs and its environment and what it is attempting to communicate. The trainer is proficient in Animal Taming to provide discipline and structure to an animal's dealings with its master. With the Body Speak and Communication skills, an animal trainer is capable of communicating with an animal in surprising ways. And being a lover of animals, an animal trainer must always know how to Ride Mounts.

The communication skill can be found in your Alpha Dawn rulebook, while the following skills are only found in Zebulon's guide, with some tweaks. Animal Taming combines the Animal Taming, Animal Training, and Stable Mounts skills together. To have a Veterinarian, simply choose Medic as your other skill set upon creation.

Analyze Animal Behavior Success Rate:20% Level Bonus:+10 Prerequisites:None A character with this skill can, if given four turns of observation, make an analysis of whether an animal is aggressive or harmless. Further observations, for 1d10 hours, can also inform the character of whether an animal's den or lair is nearby and what its eating, drinking, and other habits are. For a complete analysis of a creature and how it fits into its surrounding environment, the character would have to use the Analyze Ecosystems skill.

Animal Training Success Rate:10% Level Bonus:+10 Prerequisites: Animals: Analyze Behavior 2, Animals: Ride Mount 3

A character with this skill knows the proper case, feeding, and stabling of mounts. In addition, he knows the best way to hobble or protect mounts during times of sudden danger (dust storms, thunderstorms, blizzards, etc.).

This skill gives a character the chance to tame a wild animal. Once tamed the animal can only be used as a beast of burden or herd animal, unless the Animal Training skill is used to make it a pet or companion.

Some types of creatures are more difficult to train than others. The following creatures have a -10 modifier to the skill check: all tiny creatures, giant herbivores, all insectivores, large omnivores and carnivores. Giant omnivores and carnivores require a -20 modifier.

Monsters, particularly vicious creatures, or Sathardeveloped creatures, cannot be tamed. Examples of monsters would be sand sharks, queequeg, and slither, all included in the Star Frontiers Expanded Rules.

Taming a creature can be time consuming and dangerous. The time required depends on its size and type and is left to the referee's discretion. If a character fails the skill check he must roll 1d100, 01-25 means that the creature attacks the character attempting to tame it.

A character failing a skill check may try again on the same creature after a suitable period of time has elapsed, with a +10 bonus, -10 if the creature tried to attack the character). Once three skill checks have been missed on the same creature, it is considered untamable.

Taming a creature requires the character with the Animal Taming skill to work with the animal day after day. If he misses more than two days of taming time, the creature returns to its original state. Once tamed, however, an animal remains so unless abandoned. Just because a creature is tamed does not mean it does not require a cage, pen, or corral; it simply means that the creature will not typically attack unless unusually provoked.

A character making a successful check with this skill can train a tamed animal. Training includes teaching an animal to carry a rider and obey riding commands, to guard a location and only allow known characters to pass, or to follow a command word. Commands are simple instructions such as "fetch," "attack," "return," etc. and simple nouns, like weapon, Vrusk, box, etc. Teaching an animal requires days, sometimes weeks, of work. The time required depends on the intelligence of the animal and what is being taught.

Body Speak Success Rate:100% Prerequisites:None Base Ability:LOG This skill allows a character to use exaggerated body movement as a form of communication with others possessing this skill. It is most useful when the characters wish to communicate while keeping completely silent (as in laying an ambush) or at a distance where even shouting cannot be heard but radio silence is desirable. Simple phrases can be used, like "go... city... fetch... doctor." Only characters with Body Speak can understand it. Since body speak uses universal symbols, anyone with the skill can understand anyone else using it. It is sometimes used in diplomatic exchanges until a proper translator can be found.

Every pet has the ability to understand repetitive commands from their master, including simple commands like "sit", "lay down", "go on", "stay", etc. Semi-intelligent creatures, like primates, can learn rudimentary forms of sign language, making them capable of interacting with their master on a much higher level. Most semi-intelligent pets are considered to have the Body Speak skill. Where a semi-intelligent animal is unable to learn body speak, they are more adept at understanding verbal communication.

Ride Mount Success Rate:70% Level Bonus:+10 Prerequisites:None This skill allows a character to ride a tamed animal trained to carry a rider. The only time a skill check is needed is when a character first tries to mount a new species, when a difficult maneuver is performed, or when a mount is spooked or feels endangered. A character gets two chances to ride a new species of mount. Once his skill check is successful, the character can ride any mount of that species any time. If a character fails both checks, he must wait at least a year or campaign time before he can try to ride that species again.

If a mount is frightened or is directed in a path that it feels is too threatening (jumping a chasm, narrow ledge of a canyon, etc.), the rider may have to make a check to maintain control over it. The result area needed by the check depends on the circumstances and is at the discretion of the Referee.