Jousting rules

[Thrar]

We're just getting into Arivor's doom, and one of the PCs is participating in the tournament's jousting discipline during the opening. Can you help us resolve some of the apparent contradictions in the different source books?

I'm referring to these sources:

• Arivor's Doom scenario, page 27 (AD)
• Compendium, page 141 (AC)
• Warring Kingdoms sourcebook, page 80 (WK)

Here is how I understand the joust goes according to the books:

1. Prerequisites: Mounted Combat and Tilt special abilities, 8/5 tournament armor, supply of tournament lances, horse.
2. Encumbrance: Mounted combat reduces tournament armor encumbrance by 2 (AC p230), so effectively the armor has 8/3. Encumbrance affects riding checks according to AC p230 and Core Rules p192, but that would make the riding checks very hard even in the best case.
3. Horse's INI determines who rolls first, but since both attacks occur simultaneously this has no actual in-game effect.
4. Make a riding check to charge the opponent (AD), or do not make a riding check (AC, WK).
5. Roll attack using combat technique Lances, keeping in mind the armor's encumbrance.
6. Opponent rolls parry using combat technique Shields, keeping in mind the armor's encumbrance.
7. Damage is 1d6+8, minus 8 from PRO, so 1d6. This 1d6 of damage is halved if the parry is successful (WK). AD and AC don't mention whether the damage is halved after subtracting PRO or before. Before doesn't seem to make much sense, since effective damage would always be 0.
8. Opponent makes a riding check with a penalty of DP/2 (AD), or DPx2 (AC, WK). DPx2 seems to make it next to impossible to stay in the saddle after failing to parry (up to -12), and still very hard after a successful parry on a good damage roll (up to -6).
9. Regardless of outcome, opponent takes 1 level of Stupor for a time depending on the outcome of the riding check. Neither book states the stupor duration on a failed riding check (i.e. being unhorsed).

My questions:

1. Does encumbrance apply to riding checks? (AC/Core Rules: generally yes, but not specifically mentioned during joust)
2. Does the rider need to roll a riding check before making the lance attack or not? (AD: yes, AC/WK: no)
3. On successful parry, is it correct that damage is halved before subtracting PRO? (WK: yes, AD/AC: not mentioned)
4. What is the penalty to the riding check after getting hit? (AD: DP/2, AC/WK: DPx2)
5. How long does the stupor last on a failed riding check?

[tempest13]

First off , the Doom of Arivor was the 2nd adventure written for the 5th edition so it was made before the Compendium and the Warring Kingdom, so I would either use the rules in the module; or preferably use the newer rules in the other 2 sources (if available).

1.Does encumbrance apply to riding checks? (AC/Core Rules: generally yes, but not specifically mentioned during joust)
Since all normal mounted combat rules apply to jousting the answer is yes just like normal mounted combat.
2.Does the rider need to roll a riding check before making the lance attack or not? (AD: yes, AC/WK: no)
See my first statement above. I would go with no since both later versions specify NO.
3.On successful parry, is it correct that damage is halved before subtracting PRO? (WK: yes, AD/WK: not mentioned)
See my statement above. Once again both later versions say YES. Also is mentioned in both Compendium and Warring Kingdoms.
4.What is the penalty to the riding check after getting hit? (AD: DP/2, AC/WK: DPx2)
See my statement above. Both later editions make it x2.
5.How long does the stupor last on a failed riding check?
Depends on the QL of the check to resist. That is what the table is for. So QL 6 is 1CR, QL 1 is 3 hours.

[Thrar]

I asked on the German forums and it seems according to their material, jousting works like this:

1. Prerequisites: Mounted Combat and Tilt special abilities, 8/5 tournament armor, supply of tournament lances, horse. Some tournaments allow other types of armor as well.
2. Encumbrance: Mounted combat reduces tournament armor encumbrance by 2 (AC p230), so effectively the armor has 8/3. Encumbrance does affect riding checks as normal.
3. Horse's INI determines who rolls first, but since both attacks occur simultaneously this has no actual in-game effect.
4. Make a riding check to charge the opponent. This appears to be an error in the English translation.
5. Roll attack using combat technique Lances, keeping in mind the armor's encumbrance.
6. Opponent rolls parry using combat technique Shields, keeping in mind the armor's encumbrance.
7. Damage is 1d6+8, minus 8 from PRO, so 1d6 resulting damage. This 1d6 of damage is halved if the parry is successful.
8. Opponent makes a riding check with a penalty of DPx2.
9. Regardless of outcome, opponent takes 1 level of Stupor. If the riding check in the previous step was successful, the stupor duration is reduced, otherwise the stupor duration from the core rules applies.

We played using these rules yesterday and it seemed to work out fine. The final riding check is very challenging, but according to the Germans that's intentional since jousting is supposed to be hard and require lots of skill.