ANIMAL KEN
Description: You can understand animals’ behavior patterns. This Skill allows you to better predict how an animal might react in a given situation, train a domesticated creature, or even try to calm an enraged animal.
Humans think and behave far differently to other animals. It takes a special touch to deal with other creatures, especially if they’re hurt or frightened. A person (or even another predatory creature such as a Nosferatu or a werewolf) with Animal Ken knows how to speak and move in such a way to gain an animal’s trust.
Allowed Specialties: Riding <Animal>, Falconry, Specific Animals (Dogs, Cats, Ravens, etc)
Rules: Animal Ken is necessary for training animals and for working closely with animals whether it’s foxhunting, falconry, the Equestrian sports or leading a mule train. It also plays a major role in certain spheres such as Changeling or Mage, which might involve more fanciful mounts than in a typical World of Darkness game, especially if much of the action were taking place in the Dreaming.
- Without Animal Ken (or a power such as Animalism), even high Humanity vampires or lupus werewolves have a hard time dealing with animals that can sense their Beast or Rage. There’s a lot of dogs in Los Angeles and they do like to bark.
Story Example: Can you distract the guard dogs while you slip in? Roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 8).
- Riding <Horses, Camels, Griffins, Giant Wolves, etc>: You know how to saddle, care for, and ride some sort of animal, thanks to a combination of techniques and bonding. This skillset provides you with a decent chance of getting where you want to go without the unfortunate occurrences of being thrown off, trampled, or possibly eaten by your ride.
- Of course, certain beasts are harder to ride than others, and for truly dangerous or exotic mounts like tigers, griffins, giant owls, etc., you’ll probably need Animal Ken 3 or better just to stay in the saddle.
- Under challenging circumstances such as combat, hard gallops, stunts, flying, and so on, you may need to make a Dexterity + Animal Ken roll. Moreover, Charisma + Animal Ken aids in bonding with your mount, and Intelligence + Animal Ken gives you the knowledge to take care of it, maintain riding gear, and puzzle out someone else’s riding techniques.