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What about other riders? We know about the Beast Riders of Prax (Glorantha) and something similar might be interesting. In the real world, we have camel-riders, reindeer-riders, buffalo-riders and elephant-riders and I think that many of these would fit quite nicely.
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Wew! Big big question there. I think it is extremely important for the shared world. Riding strange creatures is a staple of high fantasy worlds. It was one of the first things that caught my eye with Runequest and I have never lost my love of the Praxian nomads. It is important to make sure ours are somehow different though, perhaps here more than anywhere.
I thought of people riding large almost monkey-like creatures in the Green and then shied away. Seemed a little to much like the Star Wars thing in Jabba’s basement ( I think the novels had people riding them in swamps or jungles). Instead I think those hippo-like water lizards may work the best: (humpback lizards). When I get a chance I will write them up.
I like the Mammoth rider idea.
One idea for barbarians would be to ride Rams (I think they are actually called big horn sheep). They are very sure footed in the mountains and look cool.
Another Idea is to have people ride land dragons( natural creatures, not real dragons or orms), big, long, drawn-out, tailed, camel (for lack of a closer animal) looking lizards, with legs down for striding rather than splayed like a real lizard. Two or three people could ride them and they could strap all their living essentials to them. These would work well for plains type nomads or even merchants and caravans.
Possibly the same as above, but a hairless mammal with skin like a rhino or elephant instead of a lizard.
I have always liked the idea of a bipedal lizards as a primary mount.
Side note: I never found many details on the bolo lizard people in Prax. Are there any pictures of them anywhere?
I agree that how we present these mounts and wrap them into culture is just as important as what they look like physically. Weird beasts would not have to be reserved for barbarians either. For instance, we could make the lizards, bipedal and land dragon, the preferred mount of civilized people, horses or mammals could even be uncouth barbaric beasts.
When inventing new creatures, it sure would be nice to have a good artist doing concept sketches. When I am reading stuff like this in game-books one good inking will sell me hook line and sinker.