Ransom Tourney
At the beginning of the tournament, you are given five “ransom ribbons.” If you lose a bout, you must surrender your sword to your opponent. If you wish to continue, you must ransom it back with one of those ribbons.
1. If you lose an arm, you must ransom it back, too. Otherwise, you can only fight single-sword for the rest of the tournament.
2. If you lose an off-hand weapon, you must ransom that weapon back. Otherwise you can’t use that type of off-hand weapon for the rest of the tournament. (So if you lose your dagger or second sword in round one, you can still use buckler or shield in round two, but would have to ransom your sword if you want to continue using it.)
3. If you lose an off-hand weapon, your opponent has the option of capturing it for ransom as well, but doesn’t have to.
4. If you lose an arm, then you lose that weapon for the duration of the bout. (So if you take Baldric’s sword arm and he is fighting florentine, he has the choice of continuing to fight with a secondary weapon. But if Baldric beats you with his off-hand, then he can reclaim his sword and can now ransom yours.)
If you lose a bout, you’ve got to ransom your sword back to continue into the next round.
If you win the bout, regardless of any limbs or weapons you lost, you get them all back from the corpse of your defeated opponent.
Sir Ritter Laurenz Tonnemacher, Heavy Armoured Combat Marshal