Monday 24 September 2018

Surely You Joust

I went to the St. Ives Medieval Fair this weekend, which is the first time I've been to a reenactor event since we emigrated here ten years ago. It was a big affair, with a range of late Dark Age and medieval groups displaying their skills. The highlights were the working trebuchet (truly a sight to behold) and the jousting, which is part of what appears to be a thriving international competitive jousting circuit. The St Ives event is the only solid-point lance competition held in Australia. The lances are just that - solid wood, with a steel crown - there's no balsa or papier-mache breakaway parts. It's full on, and fantastic to watch.

Here's a few photos.





Anyway I felt inspired to try some tabletop jousting. Victor had pointed me to a set of rules he's planning on using at MOAB next Saturday, which are very quick and simple, but I fancied something with just a touch more depth. So this lunchtime I wrote my own, and Catherine graciously accepted the challenge of giving them their first outing this evening.


They still need a bit of work, but the core mechanism seemed to hold up OK. Each joust consists of three tilts, and knights score points for hitting their opponent or breaking their lance. They should score points for unseating their opponent, but I haven't quite sorted out that mechanism yet; in the St Ives event the scores a 1 point for a hit, 2 if you break your lance and 3 if you unseat your opponent. Some rules have unseating your foe as an automatic win, but for a game that seems a bit 'sudden death'.


Each 'tilt' consists of four rounds, at the end of which the knights are assumed to pass and their attacks are resolved. In each round the knight seeks to build up scores in three attributes - Balance, Aim and Force. These all start at '1', and can go up to '5'. At the start of the 'tilt' one attribute is declared as the 'focus'. In a round a knight rolls 3D6, and each dice that scores 4 or more allows one to be added to the total of an attribute. However the first point spent must be spent on the focus attribute. If there is a double in the 3D6 roll then after assigning points the knight can change the 'focus' to a different attribute. When attacks are resolved, each knight rolls a single D6 against each of their attribute scores, looking to get equal to or less than the value. Balance is resolved first, representing the knight leaning away from their opponent, parrying or deflecting with their shield. A successful Balance roll allows the knight t reduce either their opponent's Aim or Force score. Aim is used to determine if the knight scores a hit, worth 1 point. If a hit is scored, the knight can roll against Force to see if it breaks their lance, increasing their score to 2 points.

Most of the work now lies in balancing the numbers a little, as well as introducing more decisions, which I think will revolve mostly around how the doubles are used. In our games, as well as being allowed to shift focus,  a double could be used to gain a lady's favour, offering rerolls in future rounds. I also need a mechanism for unseating your opponent; again this could be something doubles could be used to increase the chance of.

Anyway, the game was quick, and relatively fun. Our first joust ended in a 2-2 draw; Catherine scored two hits to my zero in the first two tilts, but I saved face in the last tilt with a broken lance. In the second game Catherine won 4-3.

Obviously if I get it past the 'scribbled notes on a bit of paper' stage, I'll post the full rules in my Free Stuff section.




10 comments:

  1. The pictures look fantastic. I have been to a few medieval events but never seen jousting that realistic. Considering that I know people who have died falling off horses doing much simpler things, this is all rather hair-raising.
    The game looks fab.

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    1. The jousting does look hair-raising, but there seems to be a thriving international competitive circuit of people doing it 'for real' like that. And I say 'people' - the knight on the right (behind the lists) in the final picture from the event above is Caroline Egelman from Sweden. I think it's the first time a woman has competed at the St Ives event.

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  2. Sounds interesting - saw jousting at an English Heritage castle event a few years ago. Featherstone's Solo Wargaming has a simple joust mechanic in the Wargaming in Bed chapter.

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  3. Interesting rules, l look forward to seeing more about them...

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  4. wasnt there a gw game about jousting called full tilt

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    1. There are several jousting games available, both commercial and otherwise. To be honest I sometimes just enjoy the mental exercise of putting together a game myself though :)

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  5. The problem with games like this is getting enough decision making in contrast to the amount of luck. Having played many of your rules in the past (See the Elephant, Munera, GNW) I'm really looking forward to this!
    Some ideas...
    1) Allow knights to vary the speed of their advance thus altering their Force rating and possibly reducing their opponents Aim.
    2) Aiming for specific points, i.e. Head, Shield, Torso. Selection could be before charging, then allow a player to change if his Aim score gets up to a certain number. A hit on the selected point could effect Unseating or Force. A successful change might reduce your opponents Balance as he adjusts to counter you.
    The Doubles idea made me think of the Special Events in your Gladiator rules, which is a great mechanic.
    Barry

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    1. Thanks. I'm trying to keep this game pretty simple, with just a couple of minor decisions, so it plays as quickly as possible and reflects the nature of a joust. As you say, the balance is always between pure randomness and allowing the player some control. As with anything I do, my aim is to abstract as much as possible. The current version is looking pretty good.

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  6. I also always had a soft spot for jousting games, but they always struck me as very 'rock-paper-scissors'. There is a limited amount of decision-making you can do, and in a game, you should also be able to react or interact with the decisions made by the other player. In other 1-1 games, such as gladiatorial combat, you still have movement to play around with, but in a jousting game, even movement is limited and pre-determined ...

    That doesn;t mean a jousting game cannot be fun, but it's hard (I think) to put in meaningful choices and counterchoices.

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    1. The more involved ones require you to adjust your aim and position relative to the other knight, whilst working to a time limit imposed by how fast you're going (where going faster gives you a better strike). I've tried to capture that in my game whilst keeping it as simple as possible. I would say that it has less chrome than our gladiator rules, but offers about the same level of interaction and decision-making.

      But, yes, it's not an easy thing to write a game for.

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