The Lists

A tourney knight's whole life, in a kingdom twenty years at peace and ten years from civil war.

You come out of squirehood with a name, a horse, and whatever your family could give you. The tourney circuit is where a lance on the helm pays better than a battle ever did, and the heralds write down everything you do. Ride it for money, for honour, for a lady, or for a seat among the Companions of the Swan. Then the old king dies, and every lance on the circuit is a lance somebody can call on.

What you do

• Joust, course by course. Choose where to aim and how to sit. The odds you are shown are the odds that are rolled. Learn how your rivals ride, or pay a herald to tell you.
• Ride the mêlée and fight at the barriers. Take prisoners for ransom, or let them go for nothing and be sung about.
• Keep yourself. Horses tire, harness wears, retainers want wages, and the winter accounts come every year. Tourneying ruined more knights than it made.
• Live a life. Court a lady against a rival suitor. Marry, raise children, win a barony. Make vows on the swans, stand for the Company of the Swan, shoot at the popinjay and race on the downs.
• Choose a side. The war comes in the tenth year of every career. Where you stand when it does is up to you, and so is what it costs.
• Read your own story. The heralds keep your Book of Feats and a chronicle of every year. When you hang up your lance, they write the last page.

How to play

Play it here in the browser, on a phone or a computer. Your career saves itself in your browser after every course. Or download the single offline file and open it in any web browser: no install, no account.

A career runs from age 21 to retirement, somewhere between ten and twenty-five seasons. One season takes a few minutes; a whole life takes a few hours.

Grounding

The kingdom of Lothmere is fictional. Its tourney is modelled on Burgundy, France and England around 1430 to 1470: John Tiptoft's scoring ordinances, René d'Anjou's heralds, the pas d'armes, the Order of the Garter, and the ransom economy of William Marshal's day.