A tournament is a lord's event, a professional's living, and a real risk to your horse. Anyone can enter. There is no class that rides and no class that does not.
Two riders, a fence between them, and a steel lance each.
A pass is one roll against one roll, and the margin is what scores. Beat the man opposite by a little and you have touched him; beat him by a lot and the crowd is on its feet. A glancing touch scores. A solid strike scores more. Take him square on the helm and it is better again, and breaking your lance on him is the best result a pass can produce.
Staying on the horse is its own contest. A hard enough strike puts the question to you, and you answer with how well you ride. Roll badly enough at the wrong moment, or let him roll perfectly, and you are on the ground.
The lances are steel and people die in the lists. You come back the way anybody comes back (see Character), and the ground protects your property throughout, but the day is not a pantomime.
The stake is your horse and harness. Lose the course and they belong to the man who beat you, and you may buy them back for a quarter of what they are worth if you have the coin standing.
That is the whole shape of the sport in one sentence. A professional's animal is the most valuable thing they own, they wager it every time they ride, and a bad season on the Circuit ruins people.
The archery is not a target competition. Two archers, a long field, and both of them shooting to kill.
The range only ever closes. Either archer may call the distance shorter, neither may open it again, and the call binds both of them. A patient shot at the long mark is a slow way to win against somebody who will not close; walking in is faster and puts you inside the range where a good archer kills you first.
Deciding when to close is the entire game.
A standing calendar of tournaments, and the closest thing this world has to a season.
| Village | small field, small entry, a purse worth travelling for |
| City | a larger field and a longer week |
| Hegemon | the largest field in the world, and the horses to match |
Three places pay and only the first pays properly. Second and third cover what it cost you to be there, which is what lets a professional keep riding through a bad run rather than leaving the sport after one.
Mundane and arcane fields run separately where a settlement can fill both, because a rider with magic and a rider without are not competing at the same thing.
Admission, pitches, and standing. A crowd pays at the gate, traders pay for ground to sell on, and a well-run event is a thing people say your name about afterwards.
It is a wager on turnout. Build for a crowd that does not come and you have paid for empty stands and a purse you still owe. Judge it right and it is a business.
Most fairs carry a tournament, and a tournament does not need a fair around it. A lord who wants the lists without the market can simply hold the lists.
More than a horse. You do not ride a warhorse to the venue; you ride something else and bring the warhorse fresh. That means a second animal, and somebody to look after both, and that person needs a mount too or they slow you down.
A serious jouster travels with a stable. It is one of the larger standing investments available to a player, and it is the reason the professionals are a small group who all know each other.
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