Jousting for Glory

I wrote a while ago about new house rules I was going to implement for Jousting in my GPC game.  Well, I finally got to test it out this past weekend as my group found themselves at the Roman Tournament.  Three characters entered the joust and all three managed to make it to the 4^th round before being defeated.  Not to toot my own trumpet, but I think the new rules worked rather well.  At least one contest was decided by a single point.  A few NPC knights were forced to retire due to injuries, thanks to some crits by the Player Knights, but for the most part this joust has quite the sporting feel.  I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see a PK vs. PK joust, but as we’re quickly coming to an end of the Conquest Period, I’m sure that will show up soon.  I’d love to hear of any other experiences with these rules, or if anyone has any other variant rules for doing jousts.

Reality Show Give Gaming Ideas

Yeah, you read that right.  The History Channel, oops, sorry, I mean History (I will never get why shortening the name makes it better) recently started running the show Full Metal Jousting, which I think is just awesome.  In fact, one of the off-hand comments from a competitor was that they would like to turn this into a sport, much like Bull Riding (of which I am also a fan).  If they do, I am so there.  But that’s no why you wanted to read this post.  No, this is about how I will be incorporating the scoring system they use into my Pendragon game for tournaments.  The score is as follow:

Strike to the Grand Guard (the shield bolted to the armor) = 1 point

Broken Lance = 5 points

Knocking your opponent off his horse = 10 points

Hitting the helmet of your opponent = -5 points

This is scored per pass, with the maximum points possible being 10 (they don’t add), and each joust has a set number of passes.  The first episode ended with a joust of 8 passes, but I think that’s a little too much.  So, I will be going with the following rules for Pendragon Tournaments.  Please feel free to use these in your own games.

All jousts will consist of 4 passes and will be scored as follows:

Strike to opponents shield (meaning that both sides succeed in their Lance rolls) = 1 point

Broken Lance (standard Pendragon Rules apply) = 5 points

Knocking your opponent off his horse (Knockdown) = 10 points

Hitting the helmet of your opponent (Fumble) = -5 points

The highest total points after the four passes will be the winner.  Should there be no winner after four passes (a tie), additional passes shall occur until a winner is decided.  Should a competitor need to retire, for whatever reason, they forfeit the match.

Obviously, this is intended for tournaments only, where you have score keepers & spectators, but it can be used in any non-combat situations, such as at crossroads or bridges.  I think that this makes for a much fairer adjudication, rather than the “one and done” way jousting is presented in the rules.  I’ll post an update on just how this works out when we get into that situation.  If anyone decides to use these rules, please let me know how it works for you.