A Song of Ice and Fire: Tourney at Ashford Previews

[Ichiro Daisuke]

I'm interested in house kellingtion, after a initial browsing...

will give this more attention after star wars though.

[Usagi Tsukimi]

I look forward to taking at my anguish at not being chosen at this miai, and redirecting it to all sorts of shenanigans at the tourney.

[Shinjo Kemuri]

Interesting. A pre-gen could be fun to play.

What is the system like?

[Kitsune Takeo]

Roll and keep with D6s I believe.

[Kakita Nanami]

Roll and keep with D6s I believe.

This is, essentially, correct.

The entire system runs on d6s. You take as many dice as you have in your Ability and, if you have a specialty that applies to the situation, take as many dice as you have in it and add them to the dice pool. Then you roll those dice and keep a number equal to your Ability - then total the dice you kept; that's your roll. You're aiming for a target number (difficulty) which is usually a multiple of 3; if you roll equal or higher, you get one degree of success. For every full five points you hit above the target, you get an additional degree of success (up to a total of four) which are roughly equivalent to raises.

[Kakita Nanami]

Another dose! This time, a set of... well, let's say mechanics? One is the general backbone of the tournament - the Jousting Lists - and the other is the secret game being played in the shadows...

The Lists
Five champions stand forth as defenders of the Lady Ashford on her nameday. As the tournament begins, Lord Darryn Ashford has selected the following five to defend his daughter’s honour:

• Ser Androw Ashford
  Lord Ashford’s eldest son and heir to House Ashford, Andrew Ashford was trained as the squire of Leo Tyrell. Only a handful of years knighted, he has yet to distinguish himself as a knight.
• Ser Robert Ashford
  Lord Ashford’s second son, Robert Ashford was trained as the squire of Lyonel Baratheon. Only recently knighted by his mentor, Robert is looking to prove himself a capable knight.
• Lord Leo Tyrell
  Lord of Highgarden and of the Reach, Leo Tyrell is the current head of House Tyrell. Considering Lord Ashford one of his closest supporters, he readily accepted the invitation to stand as the defender of Lady Ashford’s honour.
• Ser Humfrey Hardyng
  Champion of the Grand Melee at the Tourney of Maidenpool the year prior, Humfrey Hardyng has come to Ashford to prove he has as much skill on horseback as he does on foot.
• Prince Valarr Targaryen
  A surprise entry in the champion list, Prince Valarr Targaryen volunteered himself when his father, the Crown Prince Baelor Targaryen, decided to attend the tourney as representative of the King.

As the tourney begins, these five champions will stand against all challengers. When one champion is defeated, the man who defeated him takes his place in the champions – and must defend his position against those who would ride after him. The five champions at the end of ten days of jousts will together decide the tournament’s queen of love and beauty – and each champion will receive an additional Destiny Point to spend as they see fit.

But allowing just any to challenge the champions would be chaos; in order to organize the challengers, Lord Ashford has empowered his steward, Plummer, to make decisions and select those of highest status to joust the next day.

Each day, those would-be challengers (or a representative of the challenger) must come before the Steward of House Ashford and make their claim for the next day. The challenger or his representative makes a Status (Reputation) test; the character making the test uses his own Status (Reputation) for the test, regardless of whether he is speaking for himself or another. At the end of the claims for a day, the Steward will declare the strongest claims for the day; the top five, in descending order, will select the opponent they wish to challenge the next day.

On the following day, these challenges will be run out using normal joust rules and a new set of challengers will make claims for the following day. Joust matches will begin of Day 2.

Each champion may only be challenged once a day. Once a competitor has tilted against a champion, successful or not, they may not attempt to make another challenge; Lord Ashford’s Steward will deny repeat attempts at the lists.

For example: While on Day 1 there is no jousting, would-be competitors may make their claims for the right to joust on Day 2. The Steward will select the five highest scoring competitors who will select their opponents for Day 2 and challenge them. On Day 2, those who did not earn the right to challenge a champion may make another claim to the Steward for Day 3’s challenges and so forth.

The Red and Black
But as the people of Westeros come together to celebrate a young girl’s coming of age, other sinister agents take the chance to come together and prepare for the future.

Thirteen years ago, the Blackfyre Rebellion tore Westeros in two. Although far from the first civil war to come from the ruling Targaryen line, the Blackfyre Rebellion stemmed from the legitimized bastard Daemon Blackfyre pressing his claim on the Iron Throne. Although in the end the war ground to an end with the death of Daemon and his two eldest sons, one of the Blackfyre’s generals – another Targaryen bastard by the name of Aegor Rivers – helped Daemon’s widow and remaining children escape across the Narrow Sea to Tyrosh. The eldest of those sons, Daemon II Blackfyre, now stands old enough to inherit the full responsibilities of his family… and he and Aegor Rivers eagerly watch the events unfolding in Westeros…

The presence of several high placed members of the Targaryen family – including the first, second, third, and fourth in line for throne – has drawn the attention of agents who would much rather see the throne turned over to what they believe is the true line, the Blackfyres.

During the duration of the tournament, some events will have the ability to shift the balance either towards the Red Dragons – the currently reigning Targaryens on the Iron Throne – or the Black Dragons – the Blackfyres exiled to Tyrosh. On the last day of each session, a special event will be run depending on where the balance between the two sits; if the balance is shifted towards the Black Dragons, for example, the event on the final day of a session may involve a serious threat to the life of a visiting Targaryen.

At the conclusion of each session, the balance is reset for the next series of events.

[Ide Samai]

So, if I understand right...

I challenge Champion #1 on D1, Joust on D2. I win, I become Champion #1. I fail, I cannot challenge Champion #1 again.

If I do win... can I than go against the other champions? Or not?

[Kakita Nanami]

So, if I understand right...

I challenge Champion #1 on D1, Joust on D2. I win, I become Champion #1. I fail, I cannot challenge Champion #1 again.

If I do win... can I than go against the other champions? Or not?

If you win against a champion, you become the champion and take the spot of the one you defeated. Others will then be able to challenge you. You have no need to prove your worth to Plummer again but must ride against anyone who challenges you.

If you lose a joust, though, you're not able to make any more challenges - Plummer won't let you keep having rematches.

[Ide Samai]

No rematches against one specific person, right?

Sorry if stupid question, long day.

Hm... so we can go for the younger knights for a low hanging fruit, or go for the tougher ones for prestige, I assume?

And if we are champs at end, we get to say about the queen.

[Kakita Nanami]

No rematches against one specific person, right?

Sorry if stupid question, long day.

Hm... so we can go for the younger knights for a low hanging fruit, or go for the tougher ones for prestige, I assume?

And if we are champs at end, we get to say about the queen.

It's one and done on the challenges - there's lots of people waiting for their turn at the champions. There may be a way to get a second chance to ride, but I'm not going to give that away at the moment.

Please note: this does give an advantage to those who challenge later in the tournament, as they have to defend for less if they win. But the longer you're defending (and continue to win), the greater your legend will grow (and the more gold you'll be earning from ransom). After all, who doesn't want to brag about being the man who beat ten challengers?

There may also be a way to get Glory for riding against the better champions. That's for a future preview though.

[Ide Samai]

*nod*

And I assume RP benefits come from being awesome champion-man.

[Kakita Nanami]

*nod*

And I assume RP benefits come from being awesome champion-man.

Of course! And possibly some benefits to certain types of Intrigues.

[Kitsu Takashi]

Can a character, whether they succeed in their challenge or not, also speak up for someone else to get a joust? Would it matter if I speak on someone else's behalf first or my own?

[Kakita Nanami]

Can a character, whether they succeed in their challenge or not, also speak up for someone else to get a joust? Would it matter if I speak on someone else's behalf first or my own?

Yes - whether or not you've jousted yet has no impact on whether you can speak up for someone else; in fact, champions can even speak up on behalf of would-be challengers. If you're speaking up for others, you sort of put your own reputation on the line - you're saying "this is a good knight" and vouching for their place in the lists. An extremely poor performance can impact your future attempts to speak for others or yourself - whether they win isn't an issue, it's how well they do in their joust.

Getting knocked off on the first tilt against the weakest champion, for example, would probably reflect poorly on you - but lasting a dozen tilts against the best of the champions, even if they lost, might actually reflect positively on you.

[Otaku Imane]

This all sounds really interesting! Will there be faction limits in place?