Last Sunday, Avalon, working with Illusion Wind, hosted Japan's first real all-medieval event, complete with merchants. It was a tiny thing by U.S. standards -- maybe 100 - 150 attendees, of which Avalon comprised 25 or so -- but huge by our standards. I might post the other details elsewhere, but I thought folks might be interested in tourney format we were using, as it was considered quite the success by fighters, ladies, and on-lookers alike. I called it a Challenge Tourney.
The fighters formed up in the back of the fighting area. The ladies arrayed themselves to one side. From there, it went like this:
1) A fighter was called forward. Each fighter would have a chance.
2) The fighter boldly announced to the crowd and the ladies his challenge. He basically set the terms of his own fight. He could call out his opponent or opponents by name, and limit himself in any way that he chose. For example, he could challenge a single fighter, by name. He could challenge mulitple fighters, either one at a time or en masse. He could fight half blind, or with one arm. Or he could limit himself to just a dagger or other wise. Fighters could not require their opponents fight a particular weapon; they could only call their opponents out.
3) The ladies would then promise the knight a certain number of ribbons base on the difficulty of the challenge. Before the tourney, I gave them a list of ideas that provided rough criteria, although the final decision was their own:
1 on 1 fight: 1 ribbon
1 against many fighters, one at a time: 1 ribbon per opponent
1 against many fighters at the same time: 2 ribbons per opponent
fighting with a disability: +1 ribbon
fighting with a weaker weapon style: sword and shield vs. dagger
challenge beautifully made: +1 ribbon
Ribbons were not awarded for percieved differences of skill. For example, if Duke So and So challenged a single beginner. If a fighter wants to win that way, go for it. Everyone will know him for the kind of man that he is.
4) The fighters take their places and do battle.
5a) Should the fighter win, the crowd cheers and the ladies award him his ribbons.
5b) Should the fighter lose any part of his challenge, he has completely lost the tournament, no second chances. He cannot make another challenge, although he can still be challenged.
6) After everyone has made their challenge, the fighter with the most ribbons wins. If two people have a tie for the most ribbons, they each get to make another round of challenges until there is a clear victor.
There were several advantages to this tourney:
1) Everyone was involved
2) it didn't require special record keeping
3) the fighter got to make a public challenge at his own perceived level of skill.
4) The fights were always different, so they could be entertaining.
5) A certain amount of though had to go into your challenge: If it was too easy, you would likely not get enough ribbons to win; too difficult and you were out of the tourney.
In this case, the tournament was won by Baron Stephan, who won four ribbons by besting two fighters simultaneously. For this he won a sash and a bottle of German beer. However, there were some particularly creative challenges that were worthy of note:
1) Lady Fox challenged Lord Scales. He was armed with a pole-axe and a dagger. She limited herself to only a shield. She won first by closing and grappling for the dagger with him. When the dagger was dropped by both parties she rushed over and stole an axe from an on-looker (Lord Aaron, I believe). The fought it out with axes for a while and eventually was victorious.
2) Lord Vail fought and won with one eye covered.
3) Lord Gunnar, a new fighter, stated that he would fight a single opponent, but that he would not retreat even a step on pain of defeat. Although he lost, it was due to his opponent's downright blow. He never backed even a step.
I hope that this information is useful to you.
An enjoyable tournament format
An enjoyable tournament format
Last edited by Noe on Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
