Choose stance:
Aggressive: +4 initiative, +4 to attack, -4 AC, -4 Shiny Side Up
Neutral: 0/0/0/0
Defensive: -4 initiative, -4 to attack, +4 AC, +4 Shiny Side Up

Declare any use of Power Attack.

Make a ride check:
<5, You fall off and embarrass yourself
>10, +2 to initiative, +2 to attack, +2 AC
>15 +4 to initiative, +4 to attack, +4 AC
>20 +6 to initiative, +6 to attack, +6 AC

The To-Hit is calculated normally. The AC uses a bonus of 6 for full plate and the shield and assumed a maximum dex bonus of 2. This is because it is a sort of touch attack, but the armor is designed to deflect the lance away, so you get roughly half the bonus from armor and shield. If you are not using full plate and a shield, you are probably going to die.


Winner of initiative attacks first:
Roll to hit and deal damage. A lance deals double damage in this attack. A critical deals 3x damage. This does not cause real damage to the jousters
If the damage is equal to or greater than 20, the lance breaks
If the damage is equal to or greater than 25, the opposing player makes a Ride Check with the Shiny Side Up modifier vs DC (Damage Dealt - 10) or else falls off horse.

Loser of initiative attacks second:
If they fell off the horse, it's obviously over and they get no attack.
If a lance was broken against them, they take a -2 to the attack roll.
Otherwise, same attack as above.

Points
A solid hit: 1 point
Breaking a lance: 3 points
Unseating opponent: 9 points
Winner is the first to 9 (no ties, go until someone is ahead after a joust)

Just so it's clear, this applies only to tournament jousting with tournament lances. This has nothing to do with trying to kill someone with a real lance.

Yeah, lots of rules, but as you said, it's not something that's going to come up very frequently, so there's no need for it to be simple.

I think it starts spiraling a bit out of control when you get to the "options" part. Maybe get rid of the aiming thing, but keep the modifiers for armor.

Honestly, I think it would play pretty quickly. First, if you're not a knight in heavy armor who plans on competing in a joust, then you will never have to worry about it. The called shots are really just Power Attack for a joust. Less chance to his, but more likely to do damage.

And then there is the kill shot... I think we all know the Mountain that Rides meant to kill that poor young knight.

I am currently leaning heavily towards changing Kill to Unconscious and dying, and some dice will dictate the level of dying.

Ok, I made some changes. No new skill, just spend two skill points to be able to do it. The opposed checks are a little easier, and so is a critical.

Kill is no longer absolute. It could be since, in E6, people will have fewer hit points.

I think jousting in E6 will work better anyway. You shouldn't be able to kill a 20th level fighter in a joust. With 200 fucking hit points, the lance will just slide directly along one of his ribs or something.

Agreed. I should be able to come up with something reasonable for E6. It's hard to take the real world jousting and figure out how a talented knight would do against a demigod.

Updated. I think a level 1 fighter will get rocked by level 6 who has focused on the lance, but there is still a lot of chaos in here. It's the damage where it's hard to introduce chaos because it's off a d8. Well, anyway, for as little jousting as I expect the group to do, this will be satisfactory.

We can still bet on the jousters right? And the joust will resolve according to rules?

Mostly, yes. I will admit there are at least two jousters whose outcome is part of the scripted introduction. So sue me.

I have not assumed you guys are really going to sit there and watch the jousts, though. The rules exist in case one of you decides you want to enter, in case it comes up later in the campaign, or, as you said, you want to bet on some particular joust.

To enter this tournament, you must be knighted, be noble, or have shown competency by placing well in a lesser tournament.