If someone who is passingly interested in medieval European history were asked to name ten things that they associated with the period, they would probably start by saying the obvious - castles, knights, plague, crusades.
Thank you. I'm not really a detailed mechanics guy and, no doubt, if my back-of-a-fag-packet efforts were subjected to any serious mathematical or statistical scrutiny they would be found severely wanting. But they feel sort of OK and - hopefully - give enough of a sense for someone more competent than I to make a proper fist of it.
I don't warrant their actual effectivenes. I only playtested them a few times - certainly not long enough to reveal any weird outliers that could happen. But if you make use of them, let me know how they played out.
What a fantastic breakdown, and hilarious to read the weekend after visiting New York Ren Faire. I wonder two thing:
1. Is a system of randomization an attributes the best way to work this out in TTRPGs? Sure, it's the way things are usually done -- you have a certain ability score, you roll a check, you reference a result. But I wonder if there is some other way to simulate the moment, like some sort of bluffing game, or a game like blackjack or something?
2. Cliche question: How do you feel about the way Pendragon deals with this?
What a fantastic breakdown, and hilarious to read the weekend after visiting New York Ren Faire. I wonder two thing:
1. Is a system of randomization an attributes the best way to work this out in TTRPGs? Sure, it's the way things are usually done -- you have a certain ability score, you roll a check, you reference a result. But I wonder if there is some other way to simulate the moment, like some sort of bluffing game, or a game like blackjack or something?
2. Cliche question: How do you feel about the way Pendragon deals with this?
1. No idea. Probably. I’m not a mechanics-orientated fellow in the sense that, while I have fairly broad experience of lots of systems, I never really make any effort deeply to understand them from the point of view of maths, probability and statistics. I have a great deal of respect for people who grok this subject and present in-depth critiques and detailed analysis with the aid of tables of statistical likelihood and the way in which mechanical choices interact. But it’s not how my brain works. This is why I was never ‘good’ at Pathfinder - spending hours reading to acquire ‘system mastery’ doesn’t interest me at all. In this case, I started with Worcester’s tournament scoring system and worked backwards from there, the goal being not so much a ‘mini-game’ (a term I probably should not have used) as a way to implement that scoring into more or less any conventional game featuring maths rocks and which overlaid or replaced the elements of conventional mechanics so that events in a joust - the stakes - mattered more than just ‘to hit’ and ‘damage’ rolls because almost all results have a potential consequence when deciding the victor.
2. I’ve only ever owned the 5.2 edition of Pendragon and I’ve never played it and can’t get to my core book right now. From (hazy) memory, I think it allows for the notion of tournament weapons and tweaks to the combat rules for jousts, but without looking at the text, I can’t commit to an answer.
Haha, you're like me, honestly. I love writing adventures and game tools, because I like looking out for how to simulate and play out great stories and battles and stuff, but the second that proper Ludology stuff comes into play -- what the hell is a "trick-taking" system? -- my eyes glaze over.
Really great article! The mechanics of a joust are amazing.
Thank you. I'm not really a detailed mechanics guy and, no doubt, if my back-of-a-fag-packet efforts were subjected to any serious mathematical or statistical scrutiny they would be found severely wanting. But they feel sort of OK and - hopefully - give enough of a sense for someone more competent than I to make a proper fist of it.
I saved the article just in case I decide to make a mini game out of jousting. 😊
I don't warrant their actual effectivenes. I only playtested them a few times - certainly not long enough to reveal any weird outliers that could happen. But if you make use of them, let me know how they played out.
What a fantastic breakdown, and hilarious to read the weekend after visiting New York Ren Faire. I wonder two thing:
1. Is a system of randomization an attributes the best way to work this out in TTRPGs? Sure, it's the way things are usually done -- you have a certain ability score, you roll a check, you reference a result. But I wonder if there is some other way to simulate the moment, like some sort of bluffing game, or a game like blackjack or something?
2. Cliche question: How do you feel about the way Pendragon deals with this?
What a fantastic breakdown, and hilarious to read the weekend after visiting New York Ren Faire. I wonder two thing:
1. Is a system of randomization an attributes the best way to work this out in TTRPGs? Sure, it's the way things are usually done -- you have a certain ability score, you roll a check, you reference a result. But I wonder if there is some other way to simulate the moment, like some sort of bluffing game, or a game like blackjack or something?
2. Cliche question: How do you feel about the way Pendragon deals with this?
Thank you.
In answer to you questions.
1. No idea. Probably. I’m not a mechanics-orientated fellow in the sense that, while I have fairly broad experience of lots of systems, I never really make any effort deeply to understand them from the point of view of maths, probability and statistics. I have a great deal of respect for people who grok this subject and present in-depth critiques and detailed analysis with the aid of tables of statistical likelihood and the way in which mechanical choices interact. But it’s not how my brain works. This is why I was never ‘good’ at Pathfinder - spending hours reading to acquire ‘system mastery’ doesn’t interest me at all. In this case, I started with Worcester’s tournament scoring system and worked backwards from there, the goal being not so much a ‘mini-game’ (a term I probably should not have used) as a way to implement that scoring into more or less any conventional game featuring maths rocks and which overlaid or replaced the elements of conventional mechanics so that events in a joust - the stakes - mattered more than just ‘to hit’ and ‘damage’ rolls because almost all results have a potential consequence when deciding the victor.
2. I’ve only ever owned the 5.2 edition of Pendragon and I’ve never played it and can’t get to my core book right now. From (hazy) memory, I think it allows for the notion of tournament weapons and tweaks to the combat rules for jousts, but without looking at the text, I can’t commit to an answer.
Haha, you're like me, honestly. I love writing adventures and game tools, because I like looking out for how to simulate and play out great stories and battles and stuff, but the second that proper Ludology stuff comes into play -- what the hell is a "trick-taking" system? -- my eyes glaze over.