Today at the AD&D game, the players were leaving the goblin outpost with a group of freshly liberated slaves that they had "bought" freedom for. They were about halfway home, when a group of 6 suspicious goblins mounted on worg wolves circled around and stopped their caravan.
"We knew you guys weren't really slavers! Now we'll have to take those slaves back.. and you with them!"
Combat ensues, and it was a hairy one, with teeth and fur flying.
Anyhow, here's the second and third houserules of the session, neither of which I am sure of:
As battle ensued, it was kinda trivial to kill the goblin riders with arrows, but the unmounted worgs were powerful. Settembrini's character (a ranger) decided he would try and bring one of them down and try to dominate it.
So here's my first big ad hoc ruling: He wanted to "climb aboard" on the wolf. I can see this happening again and again in games (like Conan climbing aboard a dinosaurs head and stabbing it or something..) So I ruled it like so:
"Make a roll to hit. If you hit, you are on the beast's back and it cannot attack you. Your attack does no damage.."Once you on board, you may try to 'ride it down' (like breaking a mustang kinda thing).
Now, it seemed fair, that I should also allow the Worg a chance to shake the rider loose on *its* turn. So if it attacked and hit, it shook the rider loose. I think I caved on this or forgot or something. But I DID NOT implement this ruling. I kinda regret it now, because it kinda makes sense.
Ok, here's ad hoc ruling #2:
"If already 'on board', make an attack. If the attack hits, you do no damage. Instead, roll a d12x5%. This becomes the subdual percentage for the beast so ridden down."Now obviously, not every beast can be subdued this way, but a potential mount probably should be. I could see using these rules for a griffon or hippogriff or even just a wild horse.
During the game, Settembrini's ranger had no trouble getting on top of the Worg, but couldn't ride it down, (he kept rolling 8's and 7s). Until finally he managed to get it twice in a row The first roll of the d12 was 30% which he missed, and the second roll was a 1 ("5%"), which he miraculously made.
Anyhow, at the end of it, Settembrini's ranger subdued the wolf but unfortunately all three of his hunting dawgs were killed. DeadUematsu's multiclassed elf whittled away at the opposition with arrows and crossbow bolts. Werekoala used his potion of heroism to destroy the last few worgs (wow, thats a powerful potion..) and Norcon kept up a steady stream of missed shots. I assumed that Settembrini would keep the Worg as a pet to compensate for the lost hunting beasts, but instead he rode it straight back to goblintown and sold it back to the goblins.