It’s the Great Pendragon Joust!

[Michael O'Brien]

By Mark Morrison

It’s the Great Pendragon Joust! This was a group event at last weekend's Chaosium Con Australia to get eight people playing Pendragon at the same time.



The second round was the four winners; the third and final round was between the last two jousters. The victor went to the final later in the day.



I made cut down character sheets, and each participant was only allowed one Passion roll in their three bouts. Generally I just resolved each joust on brute force (best D20 under skill), but added more rules to break ties, and a full best of three lances rules in the final.



We gave away a prize each day: two Companions of Arthur community content adventures, and the first novel in our Paendragon Fiction line, Chris Gidlow's Arthur the Soldier.

I liked to make each joust an event, and would not let the players roll until everyone counted in a 3-2-1-HUZZAH!



As always, Greg Stafford has already done anything we do: I recall a joust setup just like this at the booth at Gen Con 1991 or 92. He’d stand at the front of the booth, joust all comers, and in the process demonstrate Pendragon’s opposed D20 mechanic in a minute.

For the minies we used plastic 28mm Medieval Knight miniatures, a multipart kit by Victrix. Nathan Ash from Good Games Ballarat painted them for us as the knights and dames from the Pendragon Starter Set, so I freestyled some little stories about their passions and backgrounds. They are quite fragile so I’m thankful we didn’t have a lance snapped; but Chaosium Con goers are our people!

Sir Avalloc & Sir Clarion​

Cadwallon & Dame Lynelle​

Sir Asterius & Sir Evrain​

Dame Tamura & Dame Cwynhild​