I've recently been running two minute games to aid in recruitment to a local medieval reenactor group. The game was a great success. The idea of doing a jousting game is nothing new. But making the game quick is more difficult. That was vital for this game to be effective in recruitment. The players would have no knowledge of the rules so speed had to come from making the rules idiot proof. The joust in question would be of the simple, ride at one another with long pointy sticks variety. Points would be scored for breaking lances and dismounting men. Three passes would be made per game, with the players receiving a hearty cheer from me at the end for being willing to play the game.

THE SET UP - This game used miniature figures laid out on a green cloth. In fact only two of the figures were used in the game (the two knights). The spectator figures, trees and castle were all put out merely for show. They added a lot to the spectacle nature of the event. The mounted knight figures were set opposite one another. Thus there were no tactical decisions to be made. The game was based wholly on the amount of risk one wanted to take while riding towards the enemy.

THE RULES - Joust is a great hand-fulls of dice game (GHOD) that allows the players to roll as many dice as they wish each turn. I use special painted six sided dice (one green side, one red side, four yellow sides) but normal six eiders could be used as well.

The player rolls to move his knight. For each green (six) rolled the knight moves forward one stand length (about one inch). If when he reaches his opponent, he has left over greens, they are used in his attack. The other knight then gets to make his attack and the two knight pass by one another. I always gave the player the choice of whether to go first or not. This gave them the maximum advantage I could think of over the Black Knight. If reds (one's) were rolled, then complications occurred. One could drop ones lance, fall out of the saddle, or accidentally wound the enemy's horse.

Once down one could roll to rally, but risk running away.

MOVEMENT	MELEE	OOOPS!
1 stand	break lance, 1 pt	.
2 stands	break lance, 1 pt	.
3 stands	break shield, 2 pt	.
4 stands	break helm, 3 pt	drop your weapon
5 stands	Stun opponent, must unstun	fall, must stand up
6 stands	Wound enemy, must bind wound	wound a horse, -3 pt
7 stands	Dismount opponent, must unstun	Fall stunned; must stand & unstun
8 stands	Wound and dismount, 3 pt; must bind wound	Fall stunned, stand unstun
9 stands	Wound & stun, must unstun & bind wound	Fall stunned, stand unstun
10 stands	Mortal wound, fight over	Wound yourself, must bind
11 stands	Kill opponent	Mortally wound yourself
12 stands	Capture opponent	Kill yourself

THE PLAYERS This was a neat game because of one player in particular. The player in question was a three year boy! Three year olds can't even play tic tac toe, but this boy managed to play the joust game. He lost mind you, his hands were too small to roll as many dice as it takes to get a good score. He also had trouble with the idea of letting go of the dice once he had picked them up, but with some coaxing from his mother he did. The average age of the player was eight, and both boys and girls played. This was a very successful game for attracting children. The game was run at a local art fair so it was one of the few free things that one's kids could do.

THE RECOVERY TABLE
Roll	Rally	Ooops!
1	Stand Up	-
2	Unstun	-
3	Rearm Yourself	-
4	Bind a Wound	Stumble, look foolish
5	Stand and rearm	Scream, look foolish
6	Stand and unstun	Wait, lose next turn
7	unstun and rearm	Make Excuse, look foolish
8	Stand and bind wound	Cry, look foolish
9	Unstun and bind wound	Back away from Opponent
10	rearm and bind wound	Run away from opponent
11	any three	Rout, leave everything
12	any four	Surrender

After doing three passes, the scores were added up and the winner declared. I added in some role playing by stressing the dramatic points of the game. When a person fell from his horse it was a race to see if he could remount before the enemy was upon him. If one dropped one's weapon, it was a race to rearm before the pass was made. If did not know how to play, I always encouraged them to roll lots of dice. In that way even if they lost the game they at least had interesting results and got the fun of rolling seventy dice at a time!