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View Full Version : [TROS] Tourneys and Tilting



Tsotha-lanti
2009-02-07, 04:56 PM
I'm working on tournament rules for a The Riddle of Steel campaign set in Stahl (modelled as something of a synthesis of Arthurian Britain, á la Pendragon, and what is Germany from Gothic tribes to the Holy Roman Empire). I'm using The Flower of Battle and Of Beasts and Men (the damned horse armor don't have prices!).


The TFOB tilting rules are nice and simple, really just using regular combat rules. One exchange, both make an attack with the Simultaneous Block & Strike maneuver, roll an AG/Ride check normally to stay mounted if hit.

The TFOB rules don't leave any room for inflicting damage, though, and I don't think it ought to be that simple. Surely there's at least a risk of bruises equivalent to Level One Bludgeoning Wounds. If I just converted the lance damage to bludgeoning instead of puncturing, knights on destriers (supposedly common tourney horses) would inflict, on average, wound levels nearly equal to their margin of success (horse ST 14, +1 damage for a heavy lance, +MoS, against TO 4+, AV 6 for heavy place, and AV 4 or 5 for shield). That seems too dangerous, and too huge of a difference from coursers (horse ST 10) for this purpose.

I'm thinking I might just limit the injuries to Level One Bludgeoning Wounds, no matter the damage after TO and AV. Alternatively, I could just settle for the bludgeoning damage dealt by a fall from horseback - that's DR 5 (equal to a 10' fall), which can be lethal if you're really unlucky. Bruises in the upper body could be passed off as resulting from the blow itself. Falling damage, as I understand, is supposed to ignore AV and TO (because otherwise it would be pointless and hardly ever result in actual bruises).

I do want there to be a possibility of serious injuries like splinters of a shivered lance striking the face through a visor, a blow landing badly and causing serious injury itself... but I guess those could be considered botches, since it's hardly ever the purpose. On a botched defense or offense roll, the blow may strike badly, or the combatant may unhorse himself, or any other dramatically appropriate result. (TROS is very much a game where the GM's sense of drama rules, and very specific rules for botches are not necessary.) Alternatively, players could use Drama points if they really wanted an accident to occur. The same mechanic could be used for other kinds of jousts with weapons and horses - swords and such - where injury probably is less likely.


I'm also pondering over rules for a melees or duels with rebated (blunted) weapons or wooden weapons. My first idea is to change the weapon damage to bludgeoning and ignore Blood Loss and Pain results, or to make the Pain very temporary - passing quickly after the combat is over. (Or maybe each wound would just have Pain 1.) Rebated swords aren't proper bludgeoning weapons, after all, and not weighed to shatter bones the same way.


Drawing on Pendragon, I'm going to include "combat with two-handed weapons to knock-down" as a type of combat in tourneys. Since Knockdown is caused by Shock, I'd use Bludgeoning damage and, as above, ignore everything except Shock (and Knockdown or Knockout results). The fighters would, obviously, make a whole heck of a lot of attacks at the legs and head for a quick win, and trying to save a "buffer" of dice to avoid being reduced under 0 by Shock and thus subject to Knockdown would add an interesting tactical element.


It seems to me that simply using Bludgeoning damage would result in a disproportionate amount of deaths and serious injuries in a tournament, at least dramatically. Then again, TROS is supposed to be brutally realistic, and if serious injuries were actually common results of combat with rebates and of tilting with jousting lances, then I'd like to model that.


Any feedback or ideas would be appreciated, whether it's about the game mechanics themselves, or the concepts and ideas being modelled.