Arranging an (in-game) tournament.

[Tywin Lannister]

In a few sessions' time, my players' characters will take part in a grand tourney, arranged by the local lord in honor of his recently deceased son and heir. From all over the Island Kingdoms, participants (knights) and lords and ladies will arrive to participate.

I've scoured the net for basic information on tournaments, and have designed:

The tourney grounds, the rules (archery contest, joust, lances), participating knights, attending lords and ladies, a number of banners and noble houses, some select NPCs, and I have checked out information about chivalry and such.

In the tournament, knights will participate with their field armor, but for weapons they will use wooden mock swords, and some will use whalebone swords.

Any suggestions for stats for mock swords (wood) and mock swords (whalebone)? These "friendly" weapons were called batons in the Medieval ages.

Any suggestions for the tournament in general? Anything else I should include?

I'm not writing any story points, as I assume they will come anyway due to the results of various bouts ("The Red Knight single-handedly defeated our lord, he is gonna pay for that!", "Who is that fair lady?" etc.)

[Brian Leybourne]

Any suggestions for the tournament in general? Anything else I should include?

Well, if it's a tourney there should certainly be jousting as well. OBAM has some notes on that (which I could probably forward you, if you ask nicely *grin*).

Also, historically knights in tournament melee wouldn't use wooden swords - the feel would be too much different from real swords and tournaments are/were thinly disguised training and "how good is he compared to me" exercises, so knights would want to fight at their best. I must admit that I have never heard of whalebone weapons though, so my knowledge may be lacking. Anyway, according to all my reading they used metal swords that were blunted instead - use the bashing table instead of the cutting or piercing table, and drop the damage rating by a couple of levels. Yes, still possible to seriously hurt someone, accidentally or on purpose, we're not talking quilting bees here, but men with weapons hitting each other.

Brian.

[Tywin Lannister]

Well, if it's a tourney there should certainly be jousting as well. OBAM has some notes on that (which I could probably forward you, if you ask nicely *grin*).

Could you please forward them to me? (*bambi eyes*) :-)

The reason I decided on wooden/whalebone weapons was because of some information I found at http://www.chronique.com, a site about medieval jousting, chivalry, tournaments etc.

[Mike Holmes]

When I do this sort of stuff, I always combine it with some popular festival. So that there are all sorts of competitions to participate in. This means that the non-noble characters have stuff to do, and the nobles can slum it if they like.

Footraces, Weightlifting, Wrestling (with animals if appropriate ones are available), Eating and Drinking Contests. Whatever. Just more opportunities to get in trouble.

Mike