I noticed some discussion about jousting mechanics and resolution, and I offer four options I have used. The first comes directly from 1st edition, the second is the current rules as most of us understand them, the third is a reasonable modification and is my current system, and the fourth option uses a game mechanic suggestion from 1st edition in a new way.

We will need two knights to illustrate them. Let's introduce them:
Sir Robert the Jouster
Lance 17, rides a charger (6d6 dmg)
In our examples, he will always roll a 13 for his Lance attack, and 21 for his damage.

Sir Fit of Peaches
Lance 10, Ride 18, SIZ 15, 12-pt armor
In our examples, he will always roll a 11 for Lance and an 11 for Ride

OPTION 1
Players make an opposed Lance roll, loser falls off horse
Sir Robert (13) beats Sir Fit (11). Sir Fit falls off his horse and takes 1d6 damage not blocked by armor. I like this option a lot. It's quick and easy.

OPTION 2
Players make an opposed Lance roll, loser makes Ride roll or falls off horse
Sir Robert (13) beats Sir Fit (11). Damage is 21. Due to it being halved (jousting lances), Sir Fit takes 11 damage. His 12-pt armor laughs it off as inconsequential. Knockdown is checked; 21 is greater than his SIZ 15 and he must make a Ride roll to stay on his horse. Sir Fit makes his Ride roll (11) and stays on his horse. This places too high a premium on Ride for my liking.

OPTION 3
Players make an opposed Lance roll, loser makes a modified Ride roll or falls off horse
Sir Robert (13) beats Sir Fit (11). Damage is 21. Due to it being halved (jousting lances), Sir Fit takes 11 damage. His 12-pt armor laughs it off as inconsequential. Knockdown is checked; 21 is greater than his SIZ 15 and he must make a Ride roll to stay on his horse. The Ride skill is modified by the difference between his SIZ and the damage. In this case, that gives us 15-21, or -6 to his Ride skill. His Ride skill for this check is only 12. Sir Fit makes his Ride roll anyway(11) and stays on his horse. This makes Ride important, but also takes into account damage received and player's size. This is the House Rule that I usually use.

OPTION 4
Players make an opposed Lance roll, loser's Ride roll must beat Lance result or falls off horse
Sir Robert (13) beats Sir Fit (11). Damage is 21. Due to it being halved (jousting lances), Sir Fit takes 11 damage. His 12-pt armor laughs it off as inconsequential. Knockdown is checked; 21 is greater than his SIZ 15 and he must make a Ride roll to stay on his horse. The Ride check must succeed and beat the Lance attack. In this case, the Lance hit with a 13, so he has to roll 18 or under for Ride, while rolling higher than 13. Sir Fit rolls an 11 and falls off his horse, taking 1d6 damage. This is very similar to option 1, except it gives the loser a small chance if they are a good rider.

Comments welcome

If we are trying to make Lance an important skill, it should be that skill that is tantamount in jousting. As better and better horses come around, it seems that the horse damage will guarantee unhorsing of the knight, so ride becomes less important. I like option 3 (HOUSE RULE) that Makofan suggests, but I don't think it completely addresses the unhorsing problem.

I quite like what you've done with Option #4 there.

Option #1 is obviously the simplest but I don't like the inconsistency of having a Ride check during battle, but not during a Joust.

And of course, others have argued that while a high Ride score does indeed give a high premium, why not? Is that not part of what makes a good jouster? You could say that a great pole vaulter also has to be a fast runner, and that the skill of fast running also gives a high premium to his jumping skill, and that would be true. A technically great vaulter, who ran like a snail would be a poor vaulter.

I think all options have pros and cons. However, option #4 does appeal to me :)

Nice work, Makofan.



Option #1 is obviously the simplest but I don't like the inconsistency of having a Ride check during battle, but not during a Joust.


In earlier editions of the game there was a Joust skill, that was used while jousting, which was separate from your Lance.
It made sense to combine them. But in these kinds of jousts, the Lance is being used as an abstract measure of the knight's ability at all aspects of jousting. Remember, Lance skill already includes an element of riding skill - you can't make a lance charge without knowing how to sit on a horse, couch the lance, brace for impact (and avoid being unhorsed by it), and direct the horse in its approach - among other things. The lance skill is already an abstraction which includes several things to do with riding, so I don't mind it replacing ride rolls during non-combat jousting.

Also, Horsemanship is already very important in Pendragon (since it governs knockdown rolls in combat, in all kinds of meleecombat, and it is also used for chases, etc.), whereas lance has a very singular use: the lance charge. Without a rule like this, lance skill often becomes a poor third (sometimes 4th) to Sword, Horsemanship, and maybe Battle.
With this rule, it bumps up it's importance a bit and since there's no skill more important to the idea of a knight, I like that.

Darren - thanks for enlightening me with regard to the Jousting skill. I came into KAP at the 4th edition so that's new to me.

The lack of ride roll for Joust still get's me, but that's not because I don't see the sense of your argument. I guess it just grates on me... but Makofan has provided enough options to satisfy most people I would imagine

My own group ran into problems with the Jousting rules as written during the Tournament period. It was soon found that players with extremely high riding skills were near impossible to unhorse, with Lance skill not making a difference unless it was high enough to increase the chances of a critical.

My own houserules were that the Tournament judges awarded a point to the combatant who rolled higher on Lance skill, regardless of if he was unhorsed or not. Three points wins the round, with unhorsing an opponent automatically winning.

I do like option 4 given by Markofan, though. A simpler method of adjusting the Ride skill "saving throw" so that it's still there but not automatic at higher skill levels.

I think I will use #3 option. That does it for me. Case closed! :)

Though I have yet to reach the civilised period of jousting!!!

I like options 3.

Only difference between Opt 4 and what I do is the comparison of the Ride roll to the lance roll. I don't.