🎠 Jousting -

In addition to battling in conflict during High Noon, Players of any House may choose to host a Joust. Jousts can be announced during Dawn in any round and take place later in that round during the time where conflicts are resolved.

To host a Joust, the Players from one House must select a region that the Joust will take place in, determine which other Houses/Players are invited to participate and announce the Joust during the next Dawn Phase.

Any House that hosts a Joust must pick one of their home regions to act as the location and Player characters may choose to travel there in that round to participate. Not all Players need be invited to a Joust, but the Joust must be announced publicly, along with the explicitly invited parties.

Anyone who hosts or participates in a Joust during a round may not participate in offensive combat that round, though their banners may be loaned out to an allied Player for such a use. Players must still attend any Defensive actions during the round of the Joust, but may never use their Banner Lord bonus as their character is considered otherwise occupied. Any House Player can Joust against any other House Players who travel to a Joust in order achieve renown. Jousts can be held between Houses, Alliances and even Individuals, allied or not, and serve to gain the those entities, Renown.

No Player is required to attend a Joust, even if explicitly invited.

Players attending a Joust in a particular round, must move to the battlefield tables at High Noon much as in conflict actions. Jousts will be resolved along side actual conflict but Players need not bring their table banners to participate in a Joust. They may either put their banner forces in the care of another for that round, or bring them anyway, in case they are required to fight in any defensive actions, that round.

Resolving a Bout -

Jousts must be overseen by Control to be considered valid.

In Jousts, Players challenge each other with a wager in Renown tokens. To accept a challenge, the other Player must match or exceed the wager. If a Player is unable or unwilling to accept a challenge by staking at least the matching number of renown tokens, they may either demur completely, or counter stake, filling in the difference with infamy tokens to the same or greater value. The challenging Player, in that case, would have the choice to carry on with the Joust, accepting the stake, or raise the stakes again. Alternatively at that point, they may demur entirely.

No Joust can be staked with a wager using infamy from the outset. Infamy can only be used as a counter wager.

It is not often heard of, but particularly famous Jousts have been fought over the control of particular land titles.

If either the challenger or the challenged ends up demurring or is unable to meet the stake; Control may choose to give them infamy in response, and their opponent is free to challenge them to a duel instead if they so wish.

If the wager is accepted; Dice of the number of total tokens used in the wager are added to a cup for each Player. If the Joust is over something else, Control will set the number of dice to be used.

Players face each other directly and upend their cups onto the table, in a similar fashion to liar’s dice. With the dice covered, each Player starting with the challenged, claim how many number of a result their dice are showing, i.e. four, fours; three, twos, etc.

Player’s will then lift their cups and reveal the result.

The Player who gets the most dice correct in their cup has ‘won a pass,’ and may remove one die from their cup. They will then try again, starting with the Player that lost the previous pass and repeat the process.

When one Player removes the last die from their cup, they are considered to be the victor and their opponent is considered ‘un-horsed.’ The victorious Player may claim the stake for their bout and Joust again if they like, and if there is time.

The un-horsed player may not Joust again that round.