My players in one of my ongoing games are about to attend a tournament, in classic mediaeval jousting-and-melees style. This tournament has been foreshadowed for the entire campaign thus far and I now need to come up with some structure for it. If you happen to be one of those players, you can skip these preliminaries and go straight to the section where I lay out the procedure, below, or read it all to see my working if you want!

This post isn't getting an edit before posting, so apologies if it's more verbose than usual (and doesn't have many pictures). It's been written up around various tech issues, and I'm tired of it and ready to get on with using this material at this point. Expect later heavy revisions if/when I find some of it lacking. It's a first experiment in blogging my process in making up a janky improvised system for a specific niche thing, which I'd normally make then discard once it was no longer useful (I have done this with warfare systems about a dozen times).

My reading time calculator tells me it's about a 55-minute read... oh dear. Oh dear. OK this is fine.

After Johannes Steenstrup, by Firkin on OpenClipArt

I have a vague understanding of how tournaments run already, and since I'm running broadly FKR-style (fiction-first, systems minimal)[1] you might think that'd be all I need. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a good way to make that into a fun game since my understanding mostly centres around a structure for people to joust in, and a hill I will die on is that jousting is not in itself a very interesting activity for TTRPG characters to engage in. It's a set of lots of fights in very constrained conditions, which might make for an interesting minigame for some folks but presents only quite limited narrative payoff per fight. There are interesting things that can happen in a joust, but if they happen in every joust then it rapidly becomes quite implausible, which fiction dealing with tournaments seems generally to recognize. Also, of course, for a long time tournaments weren't really about jousting! Although I'm focussing on a period when the joust was becoming pre-eminent, the original purpose of the tourney (and, circuitously, its namesake) was the melee, and other competitions also existed.

So, what is interesting about a tournament from a TTRPG perspective? IMO:

Information. Tournaments are a way of establishing which characters are (martially) powerful, and which are duplicitous, where alliances and rivalries exist. They're full of rewards for a character paying attention to social dynamics, and the rigid structure only makes situations where it's broken stand out more. Have a look at this scene of the joust between Loras Tyrell and Gregor Clegane from Game of Thrones, and see how it establishes the relationships and characters of Loras, Renly, Gregor, the Hound, Robert, and Littlefinger (with Sansa, Ned, and Littlefinger as observers). People in the stands here have just as much agency in the scene as those riding down the tilt.
Networking. There are also opportunities for social proactivity. Gamble on the results; beseech the favour of somebody powerful, proving your loyalty or secretly professing your love; behave with honour towards an opponent to win them (and/or observers) over.
Showing off how the society in question thinks or thought about war. I'm shamelessly citing wikipedia here, but apparently the name 'tournament' comes from its original core focus, a large melee where the teams would attempt to perform an orderly pivot after breaking their foe's ranks, demonstrating their discipline and the subjection of their opponents by pulling off a difficult manoeuvre. It sticks around even after the melee is replaced by jousting as the core event! Similarly, the move away from capturing and ransoming opponents towards prizes given by the organizer seem to me to mirror increasing centralization of power over time.
Establishing and subverting power hierarchies. "The most capable warrior wins" is absolutely fine from the above perspective of providing information, but not interesting in itself. What if the most capable warrior deliberately loses to their superior in the last round? (Very common, especially with kings.) What if somebody - through incompetence or malice - lets their lance slip and strikes the most capable warrior in the groin, knocking them out of the contest? What if several rivals jump them on the way to the tournament and steal all of their gear? Etc.
Costs & rewards. You need a certain amount of wealth and equipment just to get through the door, and better equipment will give you a better chance. How much are you willing to spend? If you don't have the money needed, can you pull some favours to give yourself a chance? What is there to be won, and what are you willing to do to get to it? Display of wealth and status was a critical part of real tournaments and needs to matter in fictional ones too.
Other contests! Melees are in fact just a standard TTRPG tactical combat, but one where you can fight people like you and walk out the other side as friends (maybe.) Archery, quintain etc. are simpler, but still fun little mini-games, and potentially ones with more chance of an upset since they're not the main status-gathering events. Who doesn't want to try their hand at being Robin Hood splitting the arrow?

Given this, I'd like to try to create a play framework that emphasizes these elements, and does so in a way that doesn't create needlessly complex or compulsory subsystems. Hopefully it'll also be something that works reasonably well for play-by-post as well as conventional play, because that's how I suspect I'll be using it.

Setting Peculiarities

This material is all based around one of my own settings, the Elector Pharoahnate of the Hyryaza of the Sixth Face of the World (henceforth the Hyryaza Kingdom) which, as that title might imply, is not quite typical mediaeval eurofantasy, though it's probably closer than might be expected. I'll be aiming to make everything as transferrable as possible, but I will sometimes note variants for the setting, so here are some brief notes:

Genre is 1/3 Arthuriana, 1/6 Arabian Nights, 1/6 OSR mediaevalism, 1/6 pulp fantasy, and 1/6 unattributed worldbuilding-fallout weirdness.
Technology (including social technology) is late-mediaeval, with some differences: no gunpowder weaponry, but pulleys and clockwork are comparatively developed. NOT CLOCKPUNK - they're just a few centuries ahead of IRL 'contemporaries' in these areas.
The religion believes in a sort of force of will/inner strength called Hyr possessed by all humans, which can be tithed to others. This ritual submission is what their feudal system and electoral monarchy is based off: peasants give all of their Hyr to knights who give most of theirs to various tiers of barons, counts etc. who in turn elect one of their number to receive the greatest tithe as King. Money also flows, of course.
Hyr-concentration allows for feats on par with cultivation in Chinese myth and its epigones, but within a very different martial paradigm (see below) and cultural norms, so perhaps more like the legends of Arthur's knights displaying superhuman potency in the Trioedd Ynys Prydein or Sir Kay being able to grow to giant size and generate heat from his hands in the Mabinogion.
Any supernatural potency which directly affects something outside the body, however, is a perversion of the flow of Hyr and classed as witchcraft, punishable by death for commoners or exile for lucky nobles. It still exists - the supernatural and material worlds are only thinly separated - but it's the subject of fear. This includes to-us-mundane external effects like poisoning, though not its more useful medicinal cousins (thanks to the ceaseless efforts of more sensible philosopher-scholars.)
There's not a concept of sin to accompany the notion of witchcraft. One might be unchivalric, dishonourable, disloyal etc., and these are terrible because they disrupt the socio-metaphysical order of the kingdom, but they aren't going to damn you to eternal perdition.
Knightly chivalry is quite like IRL, but without as much of the gendered aspects. It's not a gender-blind setting, but the Hyri philosophy specifically has had quite a few female leaders over time. Women, especially once succession to a family title is secured, may fight as knights. Courtly love is still a thing, but the burdens of associated heroism and pining are expected to fall more evenly.
The upper aristocracy produces senior priests, lords, and knights. They tend to fight as heavy cavalry from horseback, much like your classic knight. The 'gentry' is a much larger, mixed class which produces - all from the same lineages - merchants, itinerant warrior-scholar-jurists, knights, and lesser priests. They fight as medium or heavy cavalry from (the much more abundant) camelback, wielding the atlatl-lance, a curious device which allows one to hurl a spear with great force into the enemy ranks moments before adjusting grip and charging any gaps opened in their ranks.
The warrior-scholar-jurists (normally warrior-scholars) practice a distinct and highly technical swordfighting style, and many of them also use the less-effective courtly duelling techniques in judicial matters.
Currency is the Serel, which is the old British pound/shilling/penny but with names changed: one Serel = 20 Isins = 12 Ryas. Prices are, insofar as possible, pegged to/estimated off 1330s England, in that beautiful stable-ish period between the Great Famine and the Black Death. I'll use standard l, s, d notation to indicate these. I primarily use this list, this one, and the prices in Fief (see below), converting prices outside the 1330s according to the tables in this article. (Note that contra the use of currency as a sort of leveller of otherwise uneven trades which appears to have existed amongst at least some of the rural peasantry, aristocrats - including most of my PCs - were definitely living in a monetized world at this point.) For ease of reference, one year's worth of unmilled grain for a typical family in a good harvest year costs in the region of £1 7s. For a piecework labourer that's 67+% of their income before tax; for a master craftsperson it might be 1%.

I'll be trying as hard as I can to make it easy to adapt everything I do into a more generic setting, and for the most part I think that should be simple enough. The changes don't affect as much as one might expect.

Art by one Sebalcalka, widely used since it appeared on wikipedia (since delinked as no permission, but the artist appears to have no online presence soooo...) No, that isn't an atlatl-lance, but frankly it's hard enough to find art of heavy camelry online (though a lot easier to find bad art of heavy cavalry from post-2022 for some reason...) without adding in made up stuff.

Systems & Inspirations

Chainmail jousting system by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren - semi-explained, revised and solved at Delta's D&D Hotspot. Complicated but purportedly quite interesting. Secretly note an offensive and defensive approach, then compare to the opponent's to determine a result. No account taken of character skill or chance.
Demesnes and Domination tournament event rules by Brian Larkin - primarily focussed on the costs and benefits of players hosting from a domain management perspective. You can pay more to attract more powerful lords, etc. Setting is broadly late-medieval (i.e. gifts are given to winners rather than them claiming the foe's equipment). Randomized complications. Simple, abstract jousting system (hooray!) and similarly simple rules for several other hastiludes. Random tables to fill out brackets with NPCs unfortunately rely on use of a class-level system.
A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition (now out of print, seemingly?) tournament sections - Hosting tournaments is presented, but is a pretty simple exchange of a noble house's Wealth stat for its Influence stat. The fiction side of things has some internal contradictions and the numbers of participants listed are very much on the low end. Jousting passes are a simple stat roll-off: each jouster chooses one of five modifiers, attacks against their foe's animal handling (credit for including that element), then works out the results against a short table based on degree of success. Rules are included for recovery between passes and for cheating. Brief explanations and procedures are given for archery contests, grand melees, equestrian competitions and a maesters' conclave to give scholarly characters something to do.
HarnMaster Third Edition jousting rules by N. Robin Crossby and Tom Dalgliesh - There's lots of setting-specific fiction woven into the two pages of rules, as you'd expect from Harn. The symbolism of different types of favour is briefly discussed! A set of common diegetic rules for winning is presented based on points-scoring, as well as a complex matrix of 'tactics' to modify HarnMaster's already crunchy combat system. Extra fiction and heavier core mechanics aside, functionally very similar to ASIFR.
The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin jousting rules by Alchemic Raker - Unsurprisingly, the Chainmail reorganization/retroclone has an intricate matrix-based minigame very close to Chainmail with victory determined by a points system. Does raise some interesting points of detail, such as how 'When a Knight loses their helmet or breaks their lance, they must always go Steady Seat [a defensive position] in the next ride.' Makes loss of helmet rather too likely, however, and suggests inaccurately that points are lost for breaking a lance.
Fantastic Medieval Campaigns 'Jousts and tournaments' rules by Marcia B. - Again, a matrix system, but a nicely explained one by comparison. Contrary to the title, the 'tournaments' section consists of three lines sketching a potential structure where abstractly-sized 'teams' of knights pool their points from jousts (singular) to determine who wins.
'Simple jousting rules for 5e' by Homebrew Homunculus - They're very simple! Impressively minimalistic rules for how to unhorse somebody and six stances you can take to change your attack roll/AC/Animal Handling check to stay seated, most expressed as +5 to one and -5 to another. Elides some details, i.e. lances break automatically.
Errant by Kill Jester. - A highly abstract card-guessing game is used for duels, which it's mentioned could be adapted for jousts with some changes.
Fief by Lisa J. Steele - Not a system, but a description of how tournaments would typically work and their evolution over time for TTRPG purposes. It's my primary historical basis for any context outside the Scottish borders (see below) and source of organizational information.
Game of Thrones (the TV version, which I rewatched snippets of for this)
I did a modest amount of reading about jousting in the last year of my undergrad, but mostly 'jousts of war' conducted before or instead of battles on the Scottish borders. The most generically relevant thing was likely 'Yron & Stele: Chivalric Ethos, Martial Pedagogy, Equipment, and Combat Technique in the Early Fourteenth-Century Middle English Version of Guy of Warwick' by Brian R. Price, which discusses the role of tournaments in knightly learning a little and emphasizes what none of these more 'simulationist' systems do: that a primary factor in knightly prowess in these affairs is considered to be 'wylle' and 'harte', the desire for battle and for glory through it, underpinned by chivalric values and faith.
'According to [Portuguese monarch Dom Duarte, who wrote a treatise on jousting] will is what keeps the jouster's eye on the mark at the critical moment when impact is imminent, and he outlines four reasons why this might be, including: "First, because they do not really want to joust with the other rider. Second, because they are still with fear and so, they are very uncomfortable at the moment of collision. Third, because they move their bodies and spears too much, being too anxious for the moment of collision..." [Price conveniently does not list the fourth and the translation is £94 on Ebay :( ] In the fourteenth century we still see an emphasis in the world of chivalry and men-at-arms on strength ... But the tradition of writing specifically about technē [technique and skill, as found in martial manuals such as the Fechtbücher] was alien to chivalrous society.'
This makes me think somewhat of the use of escalating contests in Poison'd (a game about pirates which I reviewed here), where fights essentially consist of a series of contests of a character's weapons and willingness to use them, with the defeated being allowed to accept the consequences or escalate to another roll with greater consequences.

With all of those in mind, time to actually make the damned thing.

Tournaments in the Hyryaza Kingdom and Elsewhere

Notes on the system: These rules assume you are using a light or narrative system where character capabilities are described. The general structures of competition might help you if you're running another sort of game, but you'll definitely want more structured rules. The assumptions made here rely on always being able to resolve a complex or unintuitive situation using my invisible rulebooks, and first and foremost this is a set of guidelines to expedite that process. This is much harder to do if playing within a specific rules structure. Thankfully, lots of people have already come up with rules for that, many of which you can read above.

The primary purpose of these procedures is to bear the burden of doing lots of hard things, and to weave stories out of it. It should allow you to quickly make a tourney's worth of knights and other competitors, then determine who wins when the scene isn't sufficiently dramatic to play out (see Quick Resolution and Upsets, below) whilst also highlighting the occasional moments of drama that might arise from apparently uninteresting matchups.

Preparations

N.B. This section is intended for preparations for players who might attend a tournament, not those wishing to host one. I may edit later to add a section on hosting tournaments.

Organization

Characters will first learn of a tournament via messengers. These will be sent to invite specific chosen lords. Normally this will include every one of the host's direct subordinates, and will provide them with a quota for how many of their own subordinates they may bring. Direct invitations to indirect subordinates are a rare and special favour. Others may hear of the tournament along the way, from peasants hoping to try their hand in the slinging contest to vagabond free-lances seeking special patronage, and make the journey alongside those invited, but they do so with no certainty that they'll be able to enter.

Arrangements for travel to the site of the tournament must be made in accordance with normal travel procedures. Generally, the first messengers will be sent out in time to reach the furthest-flung invitees and have them return, plus a week or two's leeway. As such, the time left for a recipient to reach the tourney, assuming they are where the messengers expect them to be, is equal to (fast pace days to furthest invitees*2+7)-(fast pace days to recipient+2d6-1d6). A message may pass through several intermediary steps - for example, being relayed by a local baron to their vassals.

Equipment

The bare minimums of equipment you need in order to enter are already fabulously expensive, but probably possessed by most nobles. In addition, any competitor in the Tilts (see below) will need to have a surcoat, banner, and caparison for their steed bearing their colours. Additional equipment may be purchased, providing certain benefits. These benefits are measured as bonuses to jousting effectiveness (+[x]E) and to impression (+[x]I). These numbers inform approximately how far a character progresses in the tourney and how much attention they attract whilst doing so.

(This may seem counter to the goals of FKR play, but it's only intended to facilitate various background systems for quickly working out when interesting things happen, on which more later.)

Noble encampment: 10 l per week

Surcoat, banner, and caparison (cheap): 15 s
Surcoat, banner, and caparison (fine): 10 l (+5 I)
Surcoat, banner, and caparison (exquisite): 50 l (-1 E, +20 I)
War-camel*: 28 l
War-camel (good quality**): 6 l (+10 E)
War-camel (legendary quality**): 60 l (+20 E)
Warhorse: 65 l
Warhorse (good quality**): 80 l (+10 E)
Warhorse (legendary quality**): 100 l (+20 E)

Camelry Knight's Panoply: 6 l

Heavy Cavalry Knight's Panoply: 12 l

Specialized Locking Jousting Panoply: 3x base value (+20 E)
Fine panoply: +1x base value per item (helm, main armour, weapon, shield, steed) (+1 I per item)
Exquisite panoply: +3x base value per item (+3 I per item, -0.5 E per item)

Of course, a character may choose to buy items individually.

*Fighting camels were never really bred IRL, and most camelry functioned as mounted infantry, light cavalry, scouts, or dragoons. However, I wanted camelry charges. The use of the atlatl-lance takes advantage of the greater rider height of camels to allow a longer propulsive swing.

** Quality here is rolling in the pedigree, training, and temperament of the animal. If characters want, they can take an animal which has a notable disadvantage on one front and an advantage on another for the same cost).

Dirty Tricks

It's less common than it was in the early days of the tourney, but it's still very much possible to remove a troublesome competitor in advance. Murder, with its harsh penalties, is unnecessary - a group of hired 'brigands' or even an open knight and retainers can ambush a foe as they travel to the tourney and steal essential equipment. This is especially effective against poorer knights, of course, but leaving a foe with a stab-wound to the leg or a maimed steed can cripple even the most capable. These more extreme measures are considered exceptionally poor form, but it is possible to get away with them, particularly if one provokes a foe into striking first.

Arrival and Assessment

When competitors arrive, they must find lodgings around the tournament site and clearly display their personal colours outside. More powerful lords will pitch a tent for themselves and all of their followers, whilst knights buy or are gifted houses in nearby settlements. Heralds of the host will then travel through the town, visiting nobles at their lodgings, ensuring that they have appropriate equipment to compete and entering them into the appropriate contests so that schedules can be put together. At this point, those not invited may make pleas to the host to allow their entry, which are often accepted if turnout is lower than expected or space was deliberately allowed for a few strangers (at least as long as they appear to be of the correct social class and are polite, or at least interesting.)

The Social Environment

Impression

Impression is an abstract measure of the attention a tourneygoer is attracting, positive or negative. To a significant extent it is affected by equipment - see above - but it also has the following modifiers:

Character presents as radically above or below their station: +5
Character has traits relating to sociability, charisma, attractiveness etc.: +10-+50, as appropriate
Character is a relative 'unknown': +15 until they lose a match
Character is of the immediate royal family: +50
Character is of a elector-magnate family/high priest of a famous shrine/legendary scholar: +40
Character is of a baronial family/high priest of a notable shrine/renowned scholar: +20
Character is of an upper knightly family/high priest/noteworthy scholar: +10
Per event or round of a multi-round event a character has won: +10
Per significant breach of etiquette: +5

Character doesn't appear at any significant events on a day of the tourney or withdraws from a future event: x1/2
Caught cheating: +25

In general, unless they have a specific reason to do otherwise, the odds that a tourneygoer has time for you right now = (your Impression score) - (their Impression score/2) %. You could for example roll this when asking for the favour of an otherwise-uncommitted noble, trying to have a conversation with somebody, etc. This represents the odds of you being able to catch them and them having time to listen. You can wait for them to be done with whatever they're doing to roll again, or even just barge in and interrupt, but if noticed that's liable to sour them on you if you don't have a very good reason prepared.

The same % can be used to calculate the odds that you'll be noticed or punished for cheating, again assuming no special interventions; or that you'll be thrown out after doing something untoward.

During events, Impression checks are made against the highest Impression of a person competing.

This system shouldn't be used in any situation where it can't be rolled without breaking the flow of gameplay conversation, nor should it override the natural consequences of roleplaying. It's purely a system for attracting somebody's attention where there's no specific reason they should give it to you in this saturated economy.

Scheduling and Networking

Naturally, characters will have plenty of opportunities to meet people over the course of a tournament, but these opportunities are shaped to a significant extent by the structure of the event. The tournament will include at least one day for initial parades, pageantry, and feasting for all participants and one day per main event (usually jousting and melees). Minor events will be arranged around the more significant ones. Large tournaments drawing hundreds of competitors may require 2-3 days for multi-round events such as jousting, and the length of the melee will vary from 1-2 days depending on format. In the evenings, high-ranking characters will be invited to feasts and fine dinners whilst lower-ranking characters will struggle to avoid being dragged into rowdy celebrations in local streets and fields.

This structure determines when characters will be engaged in activities and which activities they will be able to watch or pursue other actions during. Such other actions can be resolved normally; note that avoiding a day's events entirely imposes a severe Impression penalty.

Example Schedule for a Royal Tournament, with scene qualities in bold

~1 week prior - Majority of guests begin arriving. Heralds collect information on attendees and enter them for the lists. Pleas for uninvited entry are made and considered.
Scene features: price inflation; public order strains
Day 1 - Attendees parade before the King with their colours and in order of rank, beginning with the lowliest gentry and moving up to high nobles and members of the royal family. Assuming no unexpected delays, this begins at 9 in the morning and takes 6 hours. Sections of the parade are interspersed with entertainment from jugglers and musicians. It is proper for those not presently parading or preparing to do so to show themselves in the stands, observing events. Crowds of their families and commoners fill all available space.
Scene features: Excited bodies shoulder-to-shoulder; near-deafening chatter and fanfare; all the realm gathered
After events conclude, a great feast is thrown, in the open if possible or a specially erected royal pavilion if not. Class stratification gives way as, for one night, the great and small mingle, albeit at far ends of the space for the most part.
Scene features: Overwhelming gluttony; near-deafening chatter; all the realm gathered; everyone raring for the violence
Day 2 - Beginning of the Knights' Tilts at 9. Crowds spread out over a wide area between fields as dozens of pools (see below) fight at once. Between, a fairground atmosphere pervades with many of the entertainers who performed on the first day now competing for punters' coin alongside less salubrious entertainments. The archery contest is held in the morning, and knights eliminated from earlier pools or waiting their turn to joust in them tilt at the ring in the afternoon. In the evening, the festival spreads out from the tourney grounds and engulfs the nearby city.
Scene features: Fairground atmosphere; distractions and diversions everywhere; flashes of motion, colour and violence.
Day 3 - Third round of the Knights' Tilts begin at 9 in the morning and continue until 12; the smaller numbers involved allow the less-prestigious slinging contest to be held at the same time. The Lords' Tilts begin in the afternoon and continue until nightfall. Everyone comes to watch these, out of duty or genuine excitement to see the greatest heroes of the realm fight. Afterwards, the taverns and banquet-halls are somewhat subdued after the chaos of the initial events.
Scene features: Bags under every eye and stumbles in every step; broken glass and tattered decorations lying about; crackling, ominous tension in the air
Day 4 - After the manic energy of the first three days, a break from festivities as the Pharoah leads a hunt in the nearby royal forest, setting all the knights and lords loose to chase masses of game. Common folk are split between rowdy parties and clearing up the mess. In the evening, the hunters ride back in with great ceremony, loudly singing praise to the King, and those willing to stay up late can bag plenty of leftovers from the game roasted for their feasts.
Scene features: A sudden half-quiet; everything a memorial to victory
Day 5 - Third round of the Knights' Tilts conducted from 9-11, alongside quintain for those not presently jousting, then armsbearing takes place until 12 - generally, it is entered only by those already disqualified from other contests, as serious competitors wish to avoid exhausting themselves. In the afternoon, the second and third rounds of the Lords' Tilts. All day, simultanaeous with all of this, the Scholars' Contest takes place.
Scene features: Town and tourneyground both quiet; wildlife walks freely in sleeping streets; cautious, precise mirth
Day 6 - The fourth (and final) round of the Knights' Tilts takes place in the morning, then the fourth and fifth (and final) of the Lords' Tilts in the afternoon. The entire place bursts into life once more for the excitement of these final jousts.
Scene features: A sense of sudden blazing climax; rampant speculation and furious recrimination; the greatest of the Kingdom on show
Day 7 - Melees take place in the morning, with the afternoon reserved for rest and recovery after the hard exertion. Preparation is made for the Grand Melee. If the Scholars' Contest is yet undecided, it concludes as others rest.
Scene features: Violence, suddenly much more visceral; winding down too early; everywhere, bloodied warriors, like a city under siege
Day 8 - A Grand Melee takes place. The winner of the Lord's Tilts takes the role of The Tourney King, fighting against a Tourney Brigand played by the winner of the Knights' Tilts. Beginning with the Tourney King, each takes turns picking teams from amongst the winners of the Melees to comprise their 'army', which will come to perhaps 500 warriors on a side. Fighting, which takes place across open fields outside the city, is expected to go on throughout the day, and ends with another feast at Royal expense for both sides (as well as non-participating aristocrats.)
Scene features: Violence, suddenly much more visceral; war in the zeitgeist; gambles come due at last
Everyone winds their way home. Everyone alive and not now embroiled in intrigues in the capital, at least.

Moving through thick crowds: Characters may attempt to do this by pulling rank with a roll of Impression against the highest value of anyone presently parading/performing, or using traits to muscle or intimidate their way through, etc. Otherwise, working their way in any particular direction takes an hour. Conversation is difficult to hear over the chatter and fanfare, which may be a boon or a bane.

Favour and Favours

The tournament provides an ideal opportunity for nobles to demonstrate allegiance to others. Bets and simple conversations about odds of victory may deliberately favour political allies, projecting an impression of unshakeable confidence. A more obvious way to show one's stances is to beg the favour of a non-competitor, especially a beautiful or powerful one, for a contest - or to accept such an offer if it's made to you. This is likely to be perceived as a chivalric-romantic gesture if both favourer and favouree are unmarried and unbetrothed; otherwise, it's a token of high respect and allegiance (rumourmongering aside).

Betting

If you can catch somebody's attention, many people of all classes are placing bets. Free commoners and the gentry bet for coin, for the most part; the gentry and nobles bet for Hyr amongst their approximate peers, essentially agreeing to perform ritual obeisance to each other if they win. (or for ritual objects, treasures etc. in other settings).

If you bet on specific contestants, the bet should be roleplayed and the fate of the contestants determined using the guidelines below. However, if you're placing many small bets throughout without any specific means of fixing them then use the gambling procedure of your choice. I'm using this one.

Contests

Quick Resolution and Upsets

The guidelines below give methods for quickly resolving most contests in a tournament, generally boiling down to 'the most skilled and best-equipped person wins and progresses'. This method can even be used for most contests involving characters. The occasions NOT to do so are:

When a PC or significant NPC faces a foe with very similar (or different but evenly-matched) capabilities, not one who is vastly their superior or inferior. For this reason, it's worth generating all non-specific competitors against a PC or particularly notable NPC just in case anyone highly skilled turns up. (See the Random Tourneygoer Generator below, or don't if you're one of my players since that might spoil some potential surprises.)
When the outcome of a match has a particular emotional resonance - a character is facing a bitter enemy or fighting for the honour of a romantic interest - and is therefore motivated to behave differently than normal in interesting ways
When the character's opponent intends trickery, cheating, or undue harm

In these cases, it is likely appropriate to play out the specifics of the scene. But what about contests between as-yet-nameless NPCs? Presumably, some of those also have interesting outcomes, but it'd be very hard to map every single relationship and trace every ambitious cheater. As such, many of the events include a chance on a die of an upset. The die is rolled for each bracket in which a PC isn't competing, and if an upset is rolled then something unexpected has happened. Roll a d7 for most contests and a d8 for direct conflicts such as jousting.

Roll twice, re-rolling 1s.
Cheating. Roll again, but the result only appears to be the case.
Rules breach. The victor must make an Impression check against the highest other Impression value in the group. If they fail, they are disqualified and the second best qualified progresses. The breach may be boorish, sloppy, or impassioned; consult your favoured oracle to discover more.
Humiliation. Whether through overindulgence the night before, distraction, etc., the otherwise-victor simply cannot perform, and that is what the poets will say. They lose to the next best.
Extraordinary luck. Random participant triumphs; if would have done so anyway, doubles Impression bonus from the victory.
Lingering injury. The victor (or, in a melee, d6 members of the winning side, including one significant member) suffers an injury that will haunt them later. Roll a d6 in each subsequent round - on a 1-3, the injury flares up and worsens their results.
Equipment Malfunction. The otherwise victor's equipment malfunctions, causing them to lose out to the closest competitor. Everyone agrees it's terribly unfortunate, but there simply isn't time for a re-run.
Terrible injury. Random participant horribly maimed (1-4 on d6) or killed (5-6 on d6). If the victor, they must withdraw to recover for a period determined by the injury. Otherwise, treat as a Rules Breach.

Upsets are the kind of information that PCs are likely to pay attention to even when it isn't happening to anyone they care about. If they do, you can flesh the participants out using the tables given below.

Preliminary and Unofficial Duels and Jousts

Before the main event, some PCs and NPCs may have informal fights or jousts. If they're trying to replicate a formal competition, use the resolution mechanics for that but (probably) absent any (reliable) judges to arbitrate edge cases. If they're just going at each other for the hell or the hate of it, run it as a normal fight! And remember, there are a lot of heavily-armed folks gearing up for a battle about, so any severe fracas is likely to be broken up or escalated rather quicker than you might think.

Jousts and Effectiveness

For quick resolution, jousts of both types rely on character Effectiveness. This is a number expressed as a percentage.

As already noted, many items of equipment give bonuses to Effectiveness. In addition, the score derives from the following:

+5 if the character is a full adult who's been fighting in knightly style since youth

+5 if the character is a veteran of serious combat against equivalently-equipped foes
+10 if the character is an unusually skilled knight (1/2 for individual skills i.e. riding)
+15 if the character is a preternaturally skilled knight
+20 if the character is a supernaturally skilled knight
+5 per character Motivation compelling them to win.
+5 if the character has unusual strength, endurance, swiftness or another indirectly applicable trait

The chance of an Upset in any given pool is rolled on percentile dice, against (second-highest effectiveness-highest effectiveness/2) to a minimum of 01%

In all jousts, two or more judges adjudicate, and ideally call a halt to proceedings if it looks like a competitor is seriously hurt or about to become so. Generally they are older nobles or knights with an excellent past tourney record but who are no longer fit to compete, or - in the case of the Knights' Tilts - nobles who are competing only in the Lords' Tilts. Bribing these judges is, of course, a

Lords' Tilts ('normal' jousting)

Entered by: nobility and upper gentry

Tournaments attended by many of the classes trained to fight as heavy cavalry may feature a pool system as for the Knight's Tilts. Most, however, use a bracketed elimination system familiar from many modern competitions, halving the number of competitors each round.
This is jousting as you are likely familiar with it. Two heavily armoured competitors astride horses ride parallel at each other, separated by a fence or cloth, and try to strike the other with their lances. The outcomes aren't actually described in terms of points, but the rules are best expressed in this fashion: one point per lance broken against the opponent's upper body armour, 1.5 points for striking off the opponent's helm, 4 points for dismounting the opponent. The match goes to the knight with the most 'points' after three passes or when one is unseated. If this is a tie, the knights ride three more passes with blunted swords, axes, or maces, now aiming only to unseat the other or knock off a helm; if this fails, or they both do the same at once, then they dismount and fight on foot until one can knock the other to the ground. Most jousts end well before this point, however.
When quick-resolving, use the generic Effectiveness system above to determine who wins. Otherwise, the Knights must each declare a part of their opponent's body and strike at it as in normal combat. Additionally, as they ride at each other, both must choose what they will wager on the outcome:

Wager Humiliation - you quaver at the thought of the fight, ready to ride and fall with minimal trouble. Additional 1/6 chance you miss any given target point (or strike indirectly and fail to shatter the lance, if a more successful knight).
Wager Pain - you hold your lance steady and sit proud, prepared to absorb the blows of the enemy in the name of victory. 1/20 base chance you suffer a severe wound. Additional 1/12 chance you miss any given target point.
Wager Life - you fix your eyes even as you draw close, risking splinters, and spur your horse on full-tilt. 1/20 base chance you suffer a fatal wound and 1/20 chance you suffer a severe wound.

Striking below the waist will result in disqualification if spotted, as will obviously striking at armour joints. There is no real way to avoid blows, only to absorb them, but knights of lower quality or who do not commit to the joust may miss. On a successful blow to an area other than the helm, a foe is usually unhorsed unless their ability in riding and strength would allow them to keep seated. Compare abilities indicating their physical strength and riding skill to those indicating the attacker's physical strength and combat or jousting skill. Ties are broken according to the higher wager, if any.

Note that these rules presume a significant role for motivation, in contrast with most of the jousting rules presented above but in keeping with Dom Duarte's treatise. In my experience, even a small risk of outright character death is enough to make a player start at a particular character action.

Knights' Tilts (setting-specific)

Entered by: gentry and nobility
Knights fight in pools of 4-8 depending on initial numbers. Generally, no more than five rounds will take place, each of which is a round-robin in which each knight faces each other in their pool and the best competitor progresses.

In the Knights' Tilts, both competitors are mounted on camels and wearing lighter plate armour with large joints over padding. They ride at each other - camels charge slightly slower, so this is less of a headlong pelt - armed with atlatl-lances, essentially a long spear-thrower with its own spearhead on one end. As they close, they each hurl the spears (blunted, in this case), adjust the grip and strike with the lance. The atlatl-lances are flexible, and not designed to shatter, so the motion is more of a careful pushing of the opponent from their swaying mounts. The slightly longer fall tends to balance out with the slower speeds, and rates of injury remain much the same. The contest is considered slightly more skillful and many nobles compete alongside their retainers.
When quick-resolving, use Effectiveness to determine who wins. Otherwise, characters need to decide two things: how determined they are, as in the Lord's Tilts, and when they will cast their spear and adjust their grip on the atlatl-lance to striking position. This takes place before anything else, and both are decided secretly. A character who is preternaturally fast or perceptive may have time to alter their choice in response to their foe's.

Casting time:

Long and early: This takes place before anything else, and has a 1/2 chance of missing in addition to any other chances. If it strikes but the enemy is not dismounted and not massively superior in strength or riding skill, they lose a mid-range cast if they had prepared one.
Mid-range: This takes place after long and early strikes, and has a 1/6 chance of missing in addition to any other chances. If it strikes but the enemy is not dismounted and not massively superior in strength or riding skill they lose a last moment cast if they had prepared one and gain an extra 1/12 chance to miss with their lance as they struggle to readjust their grip.
Last moment: This takes place after all other casts and immediately before the lances clash. It has no base chance of missing. If it strikes but the enemy is not dismounted and not massively superior in strength or riding skill they have an extra 1/4 chance to miss with their lance as they struggle to readjust their grip, and the casting rider has a 1/6 chance of the same.

Any missed shots or strikes have a 1/10 chance of instead striking the camel, which forfeits the rider all points for the round.

Then the push of lances is resolved as for the Lords' Tilts, except that lances do not typically break. Points are awarded as in the Lords' Tilts, except that the points awarded for breaking a lance are instead awarded for successfully striking the opponent with both the spear and the lance.

Melee

Entered by: teams, mostly lead by the nobility but drawn from all classes

Teams, typically made up of 24 hand-picked fighters though potentially up to hundreds or even a thousand on a side gather under the banner of a noble. Sometimes, to make up numbers, 'spare' fighters are grouped into other teams. Usually, these fights are dismounted, though mounted melees or melees with a certain proportion of combatants mounted are known to take place. Weapons are lightly padded with cloth, and only close-combat weapons are permitted. The most common format sees teams advance upon each other across a field and fight until they can break or capture (by downing or otherwise forcing into a position of submission) all members of the other group and then perform a pivot before the foe can rally.
Melees may well take a day if both sides are determined; as such, it is rare for them to be fought in multiple rounds, certainly not more than two. If several take place, then, it is typically the team that performs the victory manoeuvre first that is crowned overall victor, though the tourney-holder may judge differently if they feel that the quality of a particular battle was exceptionally high.

The melee is essentially resolved as a battle using whatever system you find works well for this. For quick resolution, ask the following three questions:

Which side has the strongest chivalric ethos, courage, and general cohesion (a product of officer charisma, but also of the mutual esteem and high principles of troops).
Which side has the single most powerful warrior amongst its number, if either?
Which side has the most experienced and skilled men amongst the bulk of its force?

There's typically a 1/4 chance of an Upset. If a team has three of these going for it, it wins handily and quickly, exact speed depending how impressive its advantage is in each case. If a team has two of these going for it, it's a good fight but they force the field after some time. If ambiguous answers to one or all of these questions lead to a tie, then it's a bloody slog which is ultimately determined by an Upset. (Roll on the Upset table.) If a team has only one going for it but the other two answers are ambiguous, it wins after a long and brutal fight with a lot of mutual recrimination.

One option for dramatic resolution if multiple PCs are participating would be to play out a short scene for each of those three questions, allowing the results to swing the answer. For example, the enemy knights are led by Baron Sessu'Ziasila, a bloodied champion of many battles who knocks men down like bowling pins. By default, the answer to Question 2 is 'the enemy', but if the PCs can team up or outwit the baron and bring him down then it flips to them. Meanwhile, the Baron's force is mostly youths hastily knighted after his drubbing in the ambush at Blood Hill whilst the PCs have an experienced team, so by default Question 3 goes to them, but when a couple of their old friends get surrounded they need to act quickly to save them before the question flips into a neutral state with their capture.
PRIZE: The melees determine the outcome of the overall tournament. Generally, the victor will be given some special art object, and all of their team invited to a final great feast.

Slinging and Archery contests

Entered by: all classes

Every participant shoots three arrows or fires three lead sling bullets at a target. All those who miss are eliminated, then the target is moved back ten paces. If any round reduces the remaining competitors to three or fewer, then in the next round the one who lands most shots closest to the centre of the target wins.
Practically speaking, bar any efforts at cheating or special abilities this multi-shot approach means that in most rounds the characters with the worst traits in usage of the weapon in question are progressively eliminated. In the final round, there's some room for upsets due to chance across the three shots (1/20).
PRIZE: Typically a bag of coins, how large depending on the tourney-holder but not more than the annual wages of one of their men-at-arms. A victor in the archery contest is also traditionally given a finely-crafted arrow.

Quintain

Entered by: anyone who can ride a camel or horse and handle a long pole

Participants prove their riding skill 'in the abstract' by riding, with minimal armour, at a dummy target, which is often mounted on a pivot so that a weight on the other end will spin and knock off any who are too slow. Camel-riders typically try to strike the target with their hurled spear, then the spinning weight with their lance, though this is hard to do. Lances are not generally broken. A rider takes three passes; any who miss the target or are unseated by the weight are disqualified. The latter should be easy to avoid for all but the least skilled. Then, judges arbitrate who rode best overall. Ideally, the prize will go to a camel-rider who managed to strike both target and weight each time, or a horse-rider who shattered all three lances, both of which require exceptional skill, a fast steed, and a hint of luck. Within these constraints however, a great deal of favouritism tends to determine the victor, and watching who wins is often a good sign of the judges' political leanings.

Very rarely, a commoner mounted on a luggage camel will manage to pull off a victory at Quintain. Such a person may well be offered a knighthood if somebody thinks they can make use of them.

If jousting isn't a game that it's easy to make interesting at a table, quintain really isn't. Barring active cheating on somebody's part, use fast-resolution. To arbitrate quintain, take the 10 most capable competitors and roll against Effectiveness, ignoring bonuses from panoply, for each. Add +/-20 to Effectiveness based on who the judges like. The one who rolls under their Effectiveness by most wins. If, somehow, none roll under Effectiveness, there's an upset and a random competitor of at least modest competence wins.
PRIZE: Typically a bag of coins, how large depending on the tourney-holder but not more than the annual wages of one of their senior men-at-arms.

Tilting at the Ring

Entered by: gentry and nobility

Not dissimilar to Quintain, but more serious and skilful, tilting at the ring is a practice game with a few variants:

The rider runs at a steel hoop suspended from a rope, and attempts to leave their lance suspended in it or cast a spear through it. Victory goes to whoever manages this in the fewest rides of a potential three, with ties broken by taking the remaining rides and seeing who can manage it most times out of three.
The rider runs at a freestanding steel ring on a podium and attempts to pick it up with the lance and carry it off. Victory is determined as above.
The same as either of the above, but a series of multiple rings is used (often six), with points awarded based on how many rings are pierced/picked up. Victory goes to whoever scores most points across three rides. This approach takes longer since it always requires all three rides, so is usually used at smaller tourneys or to break a stubborn tie in one of the first two forms.

This really is a test of almost pure skill with the steed and the lance or atlatl-lance (note that knights using the latter may choose to strike with the lance or the thrown spear, but may not do both, to preserve equality between the riding modes.) Effectiveness, which considers strength, determination, and equipment, is not used. Instead, the knight who is most skilled at riding and lancing typically wins. Assuming somebody of at least preternatural skill is present, the contest goes to a tiebreaker round where any ties in skill are broken by pure random chance. There is a 1/20 chance of an upset.
PRIZE: Often a jewelled ring or bracelet, though this varies.

The Scholar's Championship (setting-specific)

Entered by: warrior-scholars

N.B. I don't understand enough about weapons-based martial arts, or indeed any martial arts, to properly adjudicate a contest between them in an interesting way. That said, one of my players is playing a Warrior-Scholar, so I wanted a system that'd be somewhat rewarding for important duels.

The Tyazehi sword-arts are the most exquisite of duelling techniques, practiced by the wandering scholar-theologians. Serving as the legal and philosophical caste of the Kingdom, many of the scholars wander the land dispensing justice to communities, and use their remarkable martial arts to defend themselves. (Think of England's itinerant justices crossed with the often-widely-travelled ulama of the medieval Islamic world and the archetypal martial-artist-philosopher of much fantasy).

In the scholars' competition, scholars from around the empire gather to duel. These duels can take seconds or minutes depending on the approach of participants; however, they only take a small space per contest, usually a marked square of rope four yards on a side with a little more space around it for the spectators' safety, so scores of fights can take place at once. Since every scholar is trusted to serve as a fair judge in the majority of cases, there are only one or two actual judges, who travel around to specific disputes.

The contest begins with a period of discussion and argumentation, in which the scholars mingle and argue about law and philosophy. Based on these initial discussions, and on a loose sense of quality, they choose their first sparring partners and an initial round of duels take place. Once the winner, if any (see below) of each duel has been determined, those disqualified all serve as observers for the next round, which is organized in the same manner. This is essentially a bracketed elimination structure, except that the brackets are not pre-arranged.

In a duel, the scholars face each other across the rope square, bow, and then fight. Defeat is marked by blood drawn, a blade placed against a part of the body which would be disabling or lethal if pressure is applied, or a foot placed outside of the ring. Blows with the hands are permitted but do not qualify for victory. Grappling is not permitted. A scholar may choose to engage their opponent in philosophical debate as they duel; the opponent may choose not to respond, but if they do respond and then cannot maintain both the discussion and the duel, they are likely to be harshly judged. This is critical: victory and progression is not an automatic component of the opponent being defeated. The two fighters must unanimously adjudge the victor between them. As such, obviously duplicitous or cruel tactics rarely prosper except against the very timid, and it is considered entirely reasonable for a scholar to disqualify an opponent so intemperate or unskilled as to seriously injure them. Additionally, a scholar who lost but believes that this was obviously a matter of chance, or that the two were evenly matched and the potential victor has no chance of prospering in later rounds, may rule against them. If the two scholars cannot reach reasonable agreement on the victor's right to proceed, a neutral party may be called to judge a rematch. Scholars who try to abuse this system and are noticed find it very difficult to get a kind judgement when they are on the prospective winning end.

In general, then, the less martially skilled Scholar is defeated. However, if they are not substantially less skilled, they may choose to introduce a philosophical debate. Whoever is the better debater wins this debate, and the loser, unless their focus and calm is exceptional, is now on the back foot and loses the martial contest. There is a 1/20 chance of an upset. In the event of an upset, the loser will not grant a victory unless the prospective winner is a significantly better philosopher or otherwise very persuasive, in which case they may argue them round to their position. Otherwise, a victory will be granted.

If two insignificant scholars are very closely matched across the skillsets, normally neither progresses. The fight comes too close for a victory to be granted, unless one is very persuasive or the other (or nearby observers) already favours them.

When a PC warrior-scholar faces a closely matched opponent in terms of attributes, assuming they don't have a Trick or Technique that will tip the scales in their favour, they should describe the approach they are taking to the fight as a Form, a series of linked moves. These are defined by playing cards:

Each player has a full deck of playing cards, sans jokers, beside them and draws ten cards at random, then lays out five in front of them as a hand, concealed from their opponent. (Or notes them spoilered in a group chat, etc.)
When a turn begins, each player plays two cards from their hand to the table, still face-down, then draws four more, places two in the hand, and discards two.
Then the played cards are turned over and the effects resolved, in the following order:

2-10 of Clubs: defensive style. For every pip on the card, the pip value of one of your opponent's played cards is reduced by 1. If reduced below 2, the card is immediately discarded.
2-10 of Spades: aggressive style. For every two full pips on the card, the opponent must discard one card of your choosing from their hand. This does not grant any special ability to read your opponent's hand, for which you need...
2-10 of Hearts: read opponent. For every two full pips on the card, turn over one card in the opponent's hand and read it.
2-10 of Diamonds: rational argument. Your opponent must counter your argument or lose the game. Do not discard the Spades card. In future turns, your opponent must play a Spades card which is placed on this one each turn, until the value of cards placed on it equals or exceeds its own at which point all are discarded. If they do not or cannot do so, they are defeated and must concede or commence normal combat. If both players play Spades cards simultaneously, both are immediately discarded as each flings statements at the other without pinning them down into discussion. A player need only play cards against one Spades card on any given turn, no matter how many are 'in play'.
Finishing moves: These are court cards. The court cards require a certain number of cards from their suit to previously have been played. All are resolved simultanaeously, and, though they have fancy names, all do the same thing: If you play a court card, and your opponent has not also played a court card of higher value, you automatically win. If you both play court cards, they trump each other in the following order: hearts beats spades beats diamonds beats clubs beats hearts; then the highest card wins; in the event that a tie still persists, both fighters simultaneously wound each other. A finishing move should be appropriately described in line with the theme of the suit and its intensity.

Jacks: A card of the same suit must have been played last turn.
Queens: Both cards played last turn must have been of the same suit.
Kings: Both cards played last turn must have been of the same suit, and another card of the same suit must be played this turn.

Masterful Defences: There is only one protection against the finishing move other than bettering it: to play an ace. If you play an ace of any suit and your opponent plays a Finishing Move, the move fails and your opponent must discard one card from their hand as you strike back.
The turn ends, and each player discards the cards that they played with the exceptions noted above.

The duel continues until a successful Finishing Move is played, a card cannot be played to a Spades card, or a player cannot draw two cards from their hand (they have suffered a touch or shallow cut and lose). If on any turn four cards cannot be drawn from the deck, the warriors have fought each other to exhaustion and neither can progress.
If a character has a marginal advantage in a specific skillset which is not enough to swing the balance overall, they may add 1 or 2 to the pips of any card they play from a relevant suit. For example, a slightly faster swordswoman facing a superior philosopher might add +1 to Spades and Clubs whilst her opponent added +2 to Diamonds.

Deciding if a victory is granted is then probably best resolved as roleplaying, framed by how close the result came.
PRIZE: The winning scholar wins only the respect of their peers, but in this itinerant yet often well-connected community this may be worth a great deal. Offers of permanent appointments from major courts or noble households may even be forthcoming.

Armsbearing (made up but not technically setting-specific)

Entered by: all classes

Competitors must carry a heavy iron shield from one end of a 1-mile track to another, holding it above their heads. If more than one person completes the course, a second shield is added and they are sent back in the other direction. The person who makes it furthest before letting the shield(s) fall is the victor. It's a rare contest that sees five shields carried, and it's a feat of truly superhuman might to complete the seventh mile.
Normally, this very simply allows the strongest character to win. Ties may be broken by traits related to pain tolerance and then by the strength of the characters' motivations to victory. There is a 1/10 chance of upset. Characters may opt to make push rolls (see footnote [1]) to compete with a strong leader or break ties at the risk of musculoskeletal injury, heart attack etc.
PRIZE: The victor is given a beautifully-decorated shield in the same style, crafted with immense care and strong enough to ward off most any blow.

Random Tourneygoer Generator

N.B. If you're one of my players, I'll suggest that you don't read it since it includes a few mild potential spoilers for people who might show up. However, you know best what'll be fun for you; maybe you'll enjoy the anticipation!

Who Should I Generate, and How?

However many people you have time for, ideally. In an ideal world, you'd want the basics for every competitor in the tournament on a big spreadsheet. Start with social class, region, knightly talent, knightly experience, additional traits for each knightly combatant. Colour-code it into starting clumps of 8, and that can be the starting pools. Fully generate whoever the PCs or significant NPCs face. If you don't have time for that - and fair enough! not sure if I do - then just fully generate whoever the PCs are facing, and add an extra roll and pick the highest in subsequent rounds.

To roll a random tourneygoing knight, roll once on each table. For competitions where other skill-sets matter, roll on d4 the knightly talent table and use that as a guideline to base skill, then roll on the additional traits table to see if anything relevant comes up. For Warrior-Scholars, use the Knightly Talent table as a guideline and roll 1d3 (3s explode) for each of Martial Skill and Philosophical Skill.

Class (d100) - do not roll in the Scholar's tournament, all characters therein are warrior-scholars

01-05 - Fighting high priest
06-50 - Knight or Dame, minor
51-75 - Knight or Dame, well-off
76-90 - Knight or Dame, powerful
91-95 - Baron, Baroness or Baronet
96 - Non-dependent Baron, Baroness or Baronet, loyal directly to the King
97-98 - Count, Countess, Grand Baron, or Countine (a word I made up to mean 'count's child'), or other upper nobility
99 - Royal family (or ducal family if you use those, I don't)
100 - Something weird. No more than d6 of these at the event, re-roll all subsequent. Pick something appropriate to your setting or roll d10: 1 - A peasant disguised as a knight. 2 - A dead knight, keeping themselves alive by feeding on honour/Hyr. 3 - A laughing, knowing psychopomp in the form of a mysterious stranger. 4 - A witch-knight from the lands of the Gaesines, teeth sharpened and lightning crackling about their blade. 5 - A troll-lord in armour of copper and bone, astride a steed of living roses. 6 - A wealthy merchant riding in disguise for a knightly or priestly relative. 7 - Roll class again, but the person in question is a legendary hero and functions as if their rank were one step higher. 8 - A spirit of living water in the form of a knight in coral-and-ice armour who cannot be wounded.

Region (roll d100)

01-10 - Marcher – Grim defenders against the barbarian Hiau of Hyazer Marsh, living on poor and marginal land and grappling with their political decline as the wild is pushed back.

11-13 Yeyoan – The new frontier against the Plains Hiau, shield of the Bay, idealistic paladins of the

Pharoah broken away from the March.

14-27 South Bay – The County of Distettosik and the Royal Demesne, heavily developed lands of

merchants and powerful gentry forged on the bones of a long-lost pirate kingdom.

28-34 Gisuri – Up the Gisur Valley from the Royal Demesne, famed for their cunning and their drive

to control the headwaters of the river that gives the county its name, an ambition pursued by war

and pen over many generations and now close to realization under their aged yet cunning count.

35-40 Yargevi – Renowned as rural bumpkins and political nonentities, the County of St. Yargev is

squeezed between forests at the heart of the realm. The ambitious young Count is presently on a

building spree, trying to develop new towns.

41-42 Hæzilforest – wild and rugged folks of the deep and tangled woods of the Central Hyryaza

Kingdom where the trees crave human flesh, woods where no war reaches but violence thrives.

43-52 Sisiyaisi – Second most developed region in the realm, Sisiyais’ naval control of the Ya is

essential to Hyryazan power projection against the Hashate and trade with the League of

Srahjseoise. It’s therefore a damn shame the lakeport is best-known for connivers, witches, and

thieves, including amongst the nobility. ‘Never gamble with maid or man of sisiyais!’

53-65 Jerirshrashan – Ruling vast swathes of low-value land in passes across the Stevyesir Hills, the

Countess of Jerirshrasha spends most of her time keeping banditry low and hunting bizarre

mountain creatures rather than playing politics

66-75 Tæajayan – Great power of the North-West Kingdom and perpetual rivals to the Gisuri. They

founded the Kingdom long past, and it is said it is always at its strongest when ruled by one of

their blood. Indeed, the present Pharoah Seyaya’Syasha is one such, but maternally, his father

being of...

76-85 The Zistay – The fertile Northwest region consisting of the Counties of Maekhza, Eloitus,

Seyaya, and the Izar March. Borders the Gaesine lands and has the strongest influence from

them, with some nobles reputedly still practicing cannibalism and a very strong warrior culture.

86-91 Shikrifan – A marginal coastal region with a rich history, being the site of many of the oldest

Hashate settlements of the Southern Expedition. Considered holy ground by many Hashate

loyalists, who sometimes make pilgrimages in time of peace to its temples and shrines.

92-97 Pyineru - The North coast of the Ya is inevitably beset by war from the Hashate and raiders

from the Bloodplains. It also has the highest density of witchcraft prosecutions, due in no small

part to the proximity of the Magocracy.
98 - Hiau - A barbarian warlord feigning knighthood, tolerated for their political or trading value.
99 - Gæsine – Perpetually feuding semi-feudalized slave states bound under a single ethnocentric Church and its witches. Brutal warriors, hence that most of them remain free of the Hyryaza Kingdom, and the greatest workers of black iron, making it into blades that it’s said bleed courage along with blood. The knight wields such a blade. Mercifully poor riders.

100 - Hashate – The old enemy, the respected rival, the dragon on the border. A noble dressed in the same silvery-shining armour as their legions, backed by immense wealth and the fearful zealotry of their Inquisitors, here to serve the inscrutable whims of their vampiric goddess.

Knightly talent (common knights or priests roll 1d4, barons roll 1d6, counts roll 1d8, royal relatives roll 2d8 and pick the highest, weird things roll 2d10 and pick whichever fits their concept better)

1 - Flawed - the knight is very poor at the traditional tasks of their role, given their level of experience. They are disabled in the social-model sense that they lack the abilities required to perform normal tasks for one of their status, and are treated as such, though they do not necessarily have a diagnosable disability in modern terms. Give them a trait to represent this.
2- Average for a warrior with their level of experience.
3 - Talented for their level of experience, the kind of person who might be a professional sportsperson in our world and likely a regular on the tourney circuit if this matches their temperament. They likely have a Technique, special 'moves' they can reliably do, as suited to their temperament.
4-5 - Heroic - Capable of preternatural feats of riding, hunting, warring, and war-sports. The absolute top end of characters in something like A Song of Ice and Fire - think Jaime Lannister, Arthur Dayne, etc. Have at least one or two Techniques, and maybe a minor Trick, a piece of narrative manipulation that lets them directly rewrite the plot to fit their character - think flashback mechanics, stuff like that.
6-7 - Legendary - Capable of feats of chivalric prowess that, to us, would be downright supernatural. King Arthur and most of his knights in the chivalric tellings, or a starting Exalted character. Around five significant Tricks and Techniques.
8-9 - Mythic - Capable of deeds which, beyond even being supernatural, belong to the realm of folk-tales. These folks can pick up and move a hill, mount and ride an angry dragon, or otherwise tyrannize the plausible. The Bogatyrs, the Brythonic Arthur, or an anime fighter. As many Tricks and Techniques of as much power as are needed.
10 - Near-divine - The plot bends and twists at the competitor's command. The field is no longer the same for their being upon it, though this may not immediately be visible. The Green Knight, the Red Death/King in Yellow at their respective masquerade balls.

Knightly experience (roll 1d20; note in attribute as a qualifier)
1-6 - Green - just progressed beyond Squire, or otherwise unblooded. -1 Techniques
7-15 - Trained - combat experience or good instruction - the average knight. +0 Techniques
16-19 - Veteran - fought in many wars and tourneys, likely over a long life. +1 Techniques
20 - Storied - The knight has been through more than any one person has a right to, whether through throwing themselves into life or simple quirks of fate. +2 Techniques, +1 Trick

Special attributes (roll 1d20 then define a Technique for the attribute)
1-2 - Roll 2x more. Duplicates add a Trick and Technique to the attribute
3-5 - Improve weapon usage - pick one weapon and add a trait for using it one tier above their base knightly ability.
6-8 - Improve riding
9-10 - Improve strength
11-12 - Improve agility

13 - Improve pain tolerance

14-15 - Improve courtly etiquette
16-17 - Improve military command
18 - Destined - draw a tarot card to determine the character's destiny. Until its foretelling is somehow met they cannot be killed.

19-20 - Unrelated trait. Generate a skill or appropriate weird ability from basically anywhere that fits within the setting, which isn't apparently anything to do with the knight's martial performance but might be used cleverly to further it. If short on ideas, pick something fitting the stereotypes of their region.

Quirks
Generate quirks using a table as in Adding Congruency to Anti-Canon Worldbuilding. Mine is as follows:

Touchstones (d10)

King’Seyaya’Syasha – the good and noble monarch and the hypocrisies of the concept. Rising up from nothing and fading back into it. Royal pageantry like bright colours on a hearse. “He is a giant of a man. Like a bear, or a wolf, or nothing human. He fights like three warriors together. But… once he fought like ten. There may be hope”. A field pean.
King’Yargev’Zanyas – the bad monarch and his benefits. ‘Highly intelligent and energetic, he was also greedy, self-seeking and cruel.’ A morbid concern with the concept of Hyr and of divinity’s inevitable decay into vampirism. Treachery and high politick. A field ermine.
The coming plague – panic and fire and man turning upon man. Fear of what lurks beyond the bounds of reason. A season of chaos, the world turned upside-down. The new clock marks time towards the time without time. A field sable.
The Pole of Power – Fire, lightning, light and the forces of the world. Power that wants to be studied and tamed. The scholar elevated above mortality into energetic being. The naturalness of what is seen as unnatural. A field purpure.
The Pole of Life – Things blooming in the cold. A light in dark places which is not better than the darkness. Twisted growth. The trolls/elves/giants (distinctions irrelevant). Fallen empire and the lost things of history still dwelling quiescent in their own bones. A field argent.
Ties among the gentry – the merging of past cultures; the links between priest and scholar and merchant and knight, all boosting each other up the social ladder. Great changes coming, new things which are both outside and in. A revolution of the already-privileged taking shape. Sharp climatic divides. A field or.
The Conquests of Oinyadsur – Past conquests, not about here but remembered as legend, imitated by all. Heroes can influence events but not shape them. The dream of a person against the reality. Rise and ignominious downfall. A bare-chested infantryman with a spear. Striving against the shadows. A field gules.
A World Both Small and Large – Something to look at in every nook and cranny, but everything so close together as to easily touch. The spread of power. Mythic things lurking just behind the boundaries of apparently stable and prosperous civilization. A field vert.
The World of Spirit Close – Caves, waters, flux and change and something that is not following the same rules – but is. Matter and essence not so far apart. Dreams, prophecies, tales. Fluidity in all things. A field azure.
Arthuriana meets Arabian Nights – Questing heroes in a world where adventure always lurks. A mythic tone. The value of morality and devotion but also of cunning and skill in their places. Tragic, doomed romance. Preturnatural as natural, playing with scale and scope. World as art, filled with beautiful images that will resonate forever. A field murrey.

Then roll for how this quality relates to the knight:

Connection (d10)

1-3 - Minor Physique - the colour of their eyes, a scar in a certain shap

4-5 - Physique - the colour of their hair

6 - Defining physique - their stature or whole demeanour, maybe even a supernatural trait

7-9 - Minor equipment - a good luck token, a decorative motif on a hilt

10-11 - Equipment - The colour of their armour, the shape of their helm

12 - Defining equipment - Their secondary weapon, the design on their shield or banner

13-15 - Minor background - The character's life has been touched by the quality sufficiently to leave some imprint, but a subtle one. An old foe or mentor long dead, a strange encounter, a quiet and unrecognized ambition

16-17 - Background - The quality has intervened in significant ways to shape who the character is. A great battle where they fought, a political manoeuvre, a story they love to tell of better days.

18 - Defining background - The quality has shaped the character's life. The victory that made them who they are, a beloved spouse, an unbreakable vow.
19 - Ideological support - The character is in some way committed to the principles of the quality.
20 - Ideological opposition - The character is in some way opposed to the principles of the quality.

Temperament (roll 3dx, duplicates intensify the trait to virtuous and/or horribly-flawed degree and grant an Attribute to represent it, triplicates epitomize it to the point of caricature & also grant 1+ Trick/Technique related to it)

N.B. These may not be a person's only traits. I tried to pick things that might be relevant in a competitive/festival environment.

1 Modest

2 Calm

3 Politicking

4 Chivalric

5 Epicurean

6 Persistent

7 Bullying

8 Sociable

9 Loyal

10 Kind

11 Cruel

12 Fickle

13 Arrogant

14 Cunning

15 Cowardly

16 Spiteful

17 Lavish

18 Enraptured

19 Brash

20 Glory-hungry

I might roll up some examples later, but I think that'll do for now.

[1] If you're interested in the actual systems generally used: characters have attributes (general skills described narratively), techniques (specific actions they can always take described narratively), and tricks (abilities that let them steal a bit of narrative agency from the GM, like a flashback). Actions can be certain to succeed/fail (usually) or risky (x-in-6 of consequence).
If a character wants to improve an action from a fail or risky to success, they can 'push', declaring what they're doing to push beyond their normal limits in-fiction and declaring a number from 1-20. If I feel the number is a high enough risk for the threat (there's a loose table for this) then they succeed; if not, they still fail. Then they roll a d20 and if they roll equal to or under the number declared they suffer an additional consequence. I don't entirely like this roll system thus far, I may change it but only if I can think of something that doesn't mean rolling more often.
Characters have a list of motivations sorted into Defining, Major, Significant and Superficial categories highest to lowest; generally 4-8 of them. The rule is you have to play in accordance with them, but you can change them after sessions if you've been suitably influenced by others.
Levelling is literally just that at the end of each arc people can modify anything on their sheet if they can narratively justify it to me.
We're also adding systems that fill gaps this doesn't cover as we go, but thus far that's only produced a 'chance of getting lost in wilderness' chart based loosely on Justin Alexander's 5e Hexcrawl rules and a random which-body-part-you-got-hit-in table (not quite the same as an injury table).

Search This Blog

The Ash, the Elder, and the Hen Elm

Knightly tournament procedures (with camels and atlatl-lances...) for an FKRish game