Knights are your classic medieval warrior, and jousting was a major part of their skills.
I don't think I've ever seen specialty rules for jousting in all but two games. Palladium Fantasy restricted the Lance weapon skill to knights and paladins. Basic Fantasy RPG has Lance/jousting rules in the Combat Supplement book.
So, currently the "best" RPG with jousting is Basic Fantasy RPG.
Anybody know of a better one?
GURPS covers it a bit and there were advanced Jousting rules in Harkwood because the adventure is centered around a tournament.
Chivalry and Sorcery first edition is probably one of the more painstaking efforts.
I've never read it but I would expect Pendragon to go to some pains.
Does the White Dwarf minigame from the release of the Bretonian book count? It was pretty decent.
Pendragon does indeed have sections on jousting. The mechanics are handled similarly to normal combat, but with lances that break easily, and I believe less damage. But the rules surrounding the joust are also more "ritualistic" (the winner is declared when the opponent is knocked down etc.). Others can probably tell more.
I think a lot of people probably don't know that jousting is a sport, complete with its own gear.
I've seen plenty of artists mix up jousting armor with war armor. Jousting armor is super heavy/thick because you only wear it for a short time. Yet, it may not even have any rear armor or lower leg armor since they won't be hit. Even the helmets are sometimes bolted to the chest plate and have no ability to move to protect against whiplash.
Lances break because it's a sport. They're deliberately weak like that for point scoring and the spectacle.
Hum... I think maybe OD&D had some jousting skills? Or chainmail?
While playing GURPs, I usually had only two checks: a "lance" check to see if you hit and a "ride" check to see if you stand.
This wouldn't be too hard to do in 5e, IMO. Let's see:
1 - Some kind of ride" check, DC 20. If successful, you can get advantage on step 2 or 3 (your choice).
2 - Attack roll with lance.
3 - Make a concentration check to see if you fall from your horse.
Of course, there are LOTs of caveats here.
This isn't great for fighters, since they do not get to use their multiple attacks. Rogues could apply sneak attack with advantage, which would make them the best jousters if they have enough Str.
Probably allowing super-heavy armor or limiting dexterity bonus to AC would work well.
Hard to qualify best without a quality to measure. Most historically authentic? Most complex subsystem?
I would go with opposed ride plus to hit bonus with the margin of success determining results. Something like no points, judges decision (opposed performance check), broken lance, and dismount. Add in a save to take non lethal instead of lethal damage to cover the threat of injury angle.
The Riddle of Steel covered jousting.
Saw a fan conversion of L5R (3rd edition) that made jousting a variant of an iajutsu duel. It was pretty cool as it made jousting both a physical and mental duel between competitors.
Chainmail has jousting rules. I can't say "best" because they are the only ones I've ever used. Nothing from your character sheet comes into play. Participants are equally matched and it is a guessing game of where to aim your lance and position your shield. Both participants make their selections then compare on a matrix. If my memory is faulty someone can correct me. I no longer have a copy of the rules.
Yeah, Chainmail is the first thing that came to mind. There's also some Chainmail-derived rules in the Planet Eris house rules for original D&D. It's a (free) PDF authored by Jimm Johnson. I don't have a link handy, but a Google search should turn it up.