> Fairly specific question for you all. How would you generally portray a
> Praxian herd raid?
It would depend on which tribes were involved (oh, you already said that), how many people are involved and the kind of raid it is, in my opinion - don't you love answers that can be summarised as "it depends"?
> Obviously it would vary from tribe to tribe, depending on both attacker
> and defender, I recall reading something that Sandy (I think) once wrote
> about bison clans just charging in, scattering everything and grabbing
> what they can, which sounds like quite a cool way to spend an evening if
> you ask me, but the sort of questions I am contemplating are thus:
> Are Praxian beasts ever fenced off or tied up when a clan is camped up,
> in order to keep them together, or is the herd always allowed to graze
> where it will, relying on the skills of the herders to keep them
> together and close by?
>From a practical point of view, herd units owned by families are probably
tethered near the family tents, so they can be close at hand for miling etc.
I doubt whether Praxians fence their herds in as they are nomadic not
sedentary (hopefully the right terminology).
When several family units, or even clans, come together I think that the herds will be less discrete and will be large enough to be left untethered. Clan-owned herds, as opposed to individually-owned or family-owned ones, will probably also be untethered and would rely on intelligent herd beasts and children/young adults to keep an eye on them.
> Would raiders use lassos or similar in order to grab target livestock,
> or rely on just 'driving' them towards their own encampment? I'd have
> thought that antelopes particularly would do their damnedest not to be
> driven in one direction, especially not by a charging herd of bison
> riders.
In the face of a bison charge, probably every herd beast would scatter anyway. Praxians are expert drivers and can pick up herd beasts easily. They would also use lassoos and bolas to catch individuals or strays. Don't forget that many Praxians have experience in herding other types of herd beast as well, so they will know the best techniques for driving impalas as well as rhinos.
> Would deaths (human or animal) be a common feature of such raids, or
> relatively unusual, given that raiding is a common part of nomad life,
> and that capturing livestock is more likely to be desirable than
> actually crucial enough to lay down your life over? (Defending one's
> own livestock may be a different matter I suppose).
Generally, I would think that anyone guarding a herd would make a token attempt at defending the herd, then scarper to raise the alarm. There's no point being killed defending a herd and nobody expects a single herdsman to be able to drive off a raiding party. Also, raiders have a habit of knocking herders on the head and tying them over their saddles as Praxians take slaves without breaking a sweat and nobody wants to be enslaved.
Of course, if you are very poor and only have a couple of herd beasts then you might defend a bit harder and someone may be killed.
> How big do raiding parties tend to be? Or is it a case of a Foundchild
> devotee might sneak in and ride off on a single captured beast (though I
> have difficulty picturing an impala rider making off with a High Llama
> in such circumstances, unless he was good at climbing), whereas a
> family, a group or most of an entire sept might launch a raid depending
> on circumstances and opportunity?
All of these are possible. The single person raids are very dangerous and are normally reserved for displays of bravery or manhood. More common are "blooding" raids where groups of young braves raid other clans and bring back a few herd beasts. Raids involving many raiders are probably rarer, but not uncommon, as they involve a lot of organisation and horse-trading (herd-beast-trading) to set them up. Such raids will probably attract more opposition as more people will be aware of the raid.
Some braves will also raid with a few colleagues to prove how strong they are, show themselves to be worthy husband-material, amass wealth for themselves and their families/clans or just to let off some steam.
> Incidentally, if you're wondering which specific examples would be most
> useful to me, it would be Bison raiding any other tribe, and any other
> tribe raiding bison.
Don't forget that most Praxian clans have other herd beasts as well as their own. Some of these will have been picked up through raiding, others through trading and others through breeding of their own herds. These herd beasts are useful as they provide things that their own herd beasts do not. They can also be slaughtered in preference to their own type of herd beast. So, someone raiding a bison clan may not necessarily be after bison, an impala raid may be looking to get some impala back or to get a High Llama bull to replace the one stolen from them last season or whatever.
Also, each tribe would have different ways of raiding. A bison tribe would, as you say, charge in, scatter the herds and pick up strays from the mess. Impala riders would come in en masse, pepper everything with arrows, round up small units and run off with them. Rhino Riders would charge in as small groups, target a single herd unit, surround it and drive it away while keeping everyone at bay with their melee weapons. High Llama Riders would some in fairly large numbers, but not as large as bison or impala riders, and would tend to use lassoos to capture herd beasts from their high-point advantage, and take individual beasts each rather than herd in numbers. Morokanth would get groups of trained herdmen to flush out small groups of herd beasts. Sable Riders would act in groups similar to the High Lamas but would use arrow fire to break herds up and then drive the herds off in a group. Ostrich Riders would come in small groups and drive off individual herd beasts. Bolo Lizard Riders would come in small groups and capture individuals using their bolas, then would tie them up and lead them away.
Enterprising raiders would use intelligent herd beasts to lead the other herd beasts away or could use magic to stampede the herd in a certain direction.
> Ps. I'm interested in getting a few contrasting views on this, as I
> expect that in the campaign I'm running, quite a few scenarios will
> start off with either "We were just guarding the herds, when..." or "It
> all started when we were off on a raid on a bunch of [xyz], when all of
> a sudden..."
I'm all in favour of the "... when suddenly ..." approach to scenarios.
Simon
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 289
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