We're just coming up to the appearance of Tournaments IMG and I'm probably going to feature an old style tournament in Frankland in the next session as a foreshadowing for the London tournament which introduces Arthur onto the scene. So I was wondering how other GMs handle the Melee when they want to make it a reasonably prominent feature of the game. Do you run it using the skirmish rules? Use Book of Battle mechanics? Work up a house-ruley mini-game?

Also given the emphasis on captures and ransoms, do you run it as an individual speculative venture (ie knights keep what they can get/risk a catastrophic loss) or did you bring in the historical model of tourney teams and a shared pot/shared risk (with great noble sponsors etc)?

Regards
Luke

I like the following tornament rules from 4th eddtion thier quick easy and simple and all you need is the following stats

Kinghts Name thier sword skill sword damage Lance skill Lance damage Horsemenship Armour Knockdown hp unconscious and the passion trait thier fighting for on a sperate peace of paper do this for all the players

also if your planing on running a regal tournament pick 8 npc and awesome these are the best of the best and the player knights must prove them sleves against them and tell them they have made it to the fianl 16 of the tournament.
i usually use Sir Gwaine, Sir Aragvaine, Sir Gathris, Sir Tor, Sir Graflet, Sir Kay, Sir Cynwal and Sir Graid are my default choiceses.

Next i use a quick and simple battle system as follows it is quick simple and easy fro me and my players.

you roll your tourney at the start of the joust the winner goes first in battle unless both make their tourney check then they go simultaneously they then roll their lance skill to see if they hit a success means they do but then must see if the lance penetrate's the Armour for damage and must beat their Armour roll. Sense the best Armour during the early phase was chain mail 12 they need to beat a 12 (ie 13 or more) 12 or less means no damage taken you keep rolling this way till one takes enough damage to knock his opponent unconscious . The winner is the one who is knocked unconscious, unless the person takes enough damage is calls for a horsemen check to see if he stays on his horse depending on the damage taken demureness if he stays on his horse or if a person falls off his horse if he does then the looser is who ever falls off his horse first.

I do this for 1/3 damage taken -1 horsemanship; 2/3 damage -3 horsemanship the next should be close to unconscious which is at a -5

Any way this is how I run a tournament in my campaign and if your wanting the rules for them Tournament of Dreams (1987) used an opposed resolution system where by who ever got their skill and was higher in combat went first but the above rules were pretty much the same this was the first publishing it was refined with a quick rules system found here on pg's 23-24 of Tales of Mystic Tournaments (2000) in the adventure of the grey knight and said assume this to be the new rules from now on when running tournaments, for the other adventures in this book which were the tournament of dreams and the Adventure of the Circle Dor updated. I have yet to look at the tournament rules for 5th so I am unsure how they work.

I hope this helps

P.S. I run all my battles this way against other knights and monsters except we use the battle skill instead of the tourney skill.

I have used the book of battle rules, with the addition of if they win in combat they can roll damage to see if the "knock down" and there by gain a ransom. Conversely if they are knocked down they suffer the same fate. I think in the few I have run generally PK trade their wins to pay for their own caputure as they are more willing to try the risky manoeuvres in a tourney.

Edit
Ah Yes, like Morien below the actual Ransom we used was the much reduced 1L

I have run the tournament melees in many different ways over the years. Currently, we don't go for the ransom taking; I -thought I read from somewhere that Arthur frowns upon the wagering of horse and/or armor in tournaments as that can bankrupt a knight and limits the participants to rich knights in his tournaments (ah, found it, GPC p. 18 under Classic Tournaments). The same logic would be for the ransom taking. So, since that is a less of an issue and we don't wish to spend a good chunk of a session in the melee or the joust, we currently resolve those with just an opposed Sword roll (and Battle, if you are the leader) and award glory as we see fit.

In some earlier times, when that kind of ransom taking was in force, the stakes might be artificially lowered (such as prearranged ransom being £1 or £2 per knight, hence limiting the financial stakes but keeping things interesting). We had a system where the field was basically divided into sections, game-wise: home safe zone, home field, center, enemy field, enemy safe zone. Depending where you were, you were likelier to get ganged up by enemies, and then you had to take the captives back to the safe zone, with their friends trying to save them. I forget if I have notes for that anymore, since it was years ago.

The generic habit of the PKs is to act as a team, sharing the risks and profits. The same is true for real battles as well: any captives taken by any member of the group are divided between the group, and any group members taken captive are ransomed with the prisoners before any division of loot.

Like Vasious, I have also used the basic battle system too, to resolve melees. I am not sure if I let them take prisoners on a knock-down (I did allow it in the pursuit phase of the last big battle we had, figuring that the circumstances allowed the PKs to stop and demand surrender). I would imagine that this results in a whole lot of captives: on average, the damage roll forces a knock-down roll, which is on average about 50% successful. Of course, the same applies to the PKs as well, so like Vasious says, perhaps this leads into a rough parity in the final order of things, with PKs trading in their captives. The other alternative is to allow capture on a critical Weapon roll, which, generally, might still net enough captives for it to be worthwhile, especially if the skills are a bit in excess of 20 for the PKs. Like if there are 5 PKs with skill 21, this is a critical 10% of the time, so you'd expect one critical every other round for the whole party. Say 6 rounds of melee, you'd expect 3 captives for the PKs and one or two of them captured in turn by enemy criticals (assuming enemy skill 20 or less). For a net profit of 1 - 2 captives to be ransomed, resulting around £3.5 - £7 profit if the captured knights were normal vassal knights. Reasonable enough for me. Of course, you could also allow being captured on a fumble, which would increase the number of people captured a bit.

I usually use the mechanics in 4E, tho' not always.

Sometimes, for small tourneys, we play it out in full, or with my house-ruled minis adaptation.

I allow a +1 to all weapon skills if you can walk the melee field shortly prior to the melee and pass a Tournament test, representing knowing the lay of the field, the hazards, and the landmarks to find them and use them in the melee.

(For the eliminations rounds, I allow the same +1 for field-walking, and another +1 for observing the opponent and making an opposed tourney roll - everyone in tourney is trying to not show their personal weaknesses...)

I don't like normal tourneys to be scenarios so use s fast system for them.

In the Tourney/Melee Knights roll: Horsemanship; Lance and Sword (if a Tourney of war) or only Horsemanship and Lance if a Tourney of Peace. Knights who fumble both their Horsemanship and Lance are mortally wounded and those fumbling their sword or lance receive a major wound. A Knight captures one knight for each successful roll of: Horsemanship; Lance and Sword. If a Tourney of Peace they don't capture knights or use their swords. A fumble of both Horsemanship and Lance = a major wound in a Tourney of Peace.

In Tourneys of War the Knights receive ten glory if they succeed with each of their rolls and 20 if they critically succeed, a Heraldry roll is made with each knight captured. if it was a success the value of the prisoner is doubled and if a critical success tripled. if a fumble the prisoner is worthless.

The winner of a Tourney is the one who succeeded with all his skill rolls and also with a Tourney skill roll.

The Level of the Tourney also is a factor.

Baronial - as is
Comital -The character must roll to succeed twice with with: Horsemanship; Lance; Sword and Tourney.
Ducal - The character must complete the baronial and comital levels and then roll again to win the ducal tourney.
King Arthur's Pentecostal Tourney - the character must complete the requirements for ducal tourneys and then he faces a single champion with skills of: horsemanship 20; Lance 20 and Sword 20 (this fight should always be role played). If he beats him he wins the tourney.