Calamicil

[Laurent Justeau]

You know I could see this coming in the last year from other Larps. I don't know what's been going on with them but unless one specifically ask for "thrust safe" a lot of their product was coming out pretty darn solid. :blink: I think we ended up with the one particular ordered weapon from them, and then after our experiences stuck with the other companies quickly as unless you were in thicker armour or in the wielder pulled the hit you really could get clobbered something fierce with them at full speed. :whaa:

This is why; and yes I know preaching to the choir; always insist a weapon HAS to go past the weapons Marshall if ever brought in...no just transferring the tag when you "get your new shinny". There are a lot of different manufacturers out there, and all of them have their own "secret formula and method", and it creates different feels and actions of the weapons. Heck different stages in the creation can do it too. Quality control is "supposed" to catch that. :ninja:

As an aside, there has been at Calamicil the leaving of a few "forge workers", and then lo and behold some new companies are popping up in the last year. (Talked about that with one of the vendors.) So that might be part of the quality control problem right there. :whistle:

Mind you, teaching people how to pull their strikes might be an idea too. Many take for granted that "foam and tape" doesn't hit hard. :funny: Yeah the birds circling around my head would protest that...I know not a perfect world but heck I look at what some people in some Larp systems "endorsed" for the bow pull weights and just had to cringe. And last I looked I don't think we're really trying to kill and maim each other! Okay maybe any drow that show up again but that's the principle of the matter... :shock:

 

[MathGwyson]

Feel bad for you David - two events in a row you got hit in the head that makes you quite ill due to other factors. I was hit in the face last event quite hard, but the only thing wounded was my pride thanks to the foam padding.

My understanding of the rules is that one needs to get their weapon checked EVERY event, even if it passed the event before since wear and tear can cause them to become unsafe. (The staff I made in July, for example, I discovered that if I rest it on one end for too long, say a full month, that the thrusting tips actually compress more or less permanently solid. I fixed it before I brought it to Logistics - but if I hadn't had it actually re-checked nor actually changed it it would not have been legal.)

This is part of the reason I thought that we actually get new tags every event. I had taken my safety tags off to get a new one, thinking a different colour was used every event. This turns out not to be the case.

There's a huge discussion about this on Facebook, which you may not have seen, David. We may be losing several players over this (James/Adraur, Dayna/Aengus, Danny/'Sherrif', Anne/'Elf Archer/Bard', Chris/'Northern Barbarian'.. Ulfgar? and possibly others.) Some of these are coming to the Work Day tomorrow for a bit at noon to try to hash it out, but the loss of many of these players will be quite sad.

I don't think an outright ban on the company itself is the right answer - but a more thorough weapon marshalling on each weapon. Some people might have ones that are enough broken in that they are now okay. (Though now that I think that through there might be hard feelings if one person's Calamicil gets approved and someone else's doesn't - but that's the problem when I stream thoughts rather than overthink them.)

As for pulling strikes - the concern with that is about accidents. JP did not intentionally hit me in the head (though he did look right at me before he swung down and behind to hit me - but I attribute that to 'fight reflex' rather than a conscious act and he may not even be aware that he had looked at me.) so even if someone were pulling their blows in fighting, an overzealous swing or accident with the harder weapons it could still be a problem despite that training.

This actually happened to me the last Sunday when I was getting all angered up with my red feathers when I demanded a spar with Adraur - in character I was so frustrated I called '2 normal' (ie - didn't pull my blow in character) and as part of that in-character action I swung my staff hard enough that James was more focused on how hard I REALLY hit him than the fact that I called '2 normal' instead of '0 normal'. My in-character 'behaviour' of swinging hard translated to me swinging harder than was really 'safe' as the player.

 

[mythic]

Weapons do not require new safety tags for each event, just a check to ensure they are still safe. So no need to remove them.

 

[MathGwyson]

Yup - I understand that *now*. I was just indicating that's why I thought they needed new tags, because then everyone *knows* they've been re-checked . I understand that would mean more work for logistics, though, so I'm not suggesting the current policy be changed or anything.

For example - during the July event I found that one weapon on the ground after a battle that not only didn't have a weapon tag - it also didn't have a safety tag (which is why I turned it in to you as soon as I saw that). I know Andreas uses Epic Armoury weapons so it might have been one of his (do you safety tag NPC weapons?) but otherwise it was a bit shocking.