Making Weapons

Hey everyone, I'm thinking of trying my hand at making weapons, and I need to know if there's any rules I need to follow besides what's in the rulebook itself? I certainly don't want to spend time making the weapon and find out it's not legal later on...
 
Cerulean Jax;20336 said:
Hey everyone, I'm thinking of trying my hand at making weapons, and I need to know if there's any rules I need to follow besides what's in the rulebook itself? I certainly don't want to spend time making the weapon and find out it's not legal later on...
Feel free to experiment with techniques and designs not outlined in the rulebook, but be prepared for having them fail. Other than the specs outlined in the rulebook (blade length, overall length, grip length) here are the general guidelines to getting a weapon passed:

Melee weapons should flex as little as possible.
Metal cores are not allowed.
Wooden cores are not allowed (except for bamboo).
You must have 3/4" of closed-cell foam around all striking surfaces at minimum. You must not be able to feel the core of the weapon on a NERO-legal strike.
Thrown weapons other than javelins can only use tape and open-cell foam.
You must have a 2" thrusting tip (or more) and a 2" waylay tip (or more).
 
Some more basic tips:
Your tips should not fold back on themselves when compressed, they should just squish.
Don't over-tape your tips, you'll make them too firm.
Technically, foam thickness is 5/8, but you're only going to find 3/4 out here. It's difficult to find sometimes, I recommend calling places in advance to see if they have it. Be sure to specify 3/4" WALL foam, because if you just say 3/4" foam, they'll assume you mean the pipe width, and probably sell you 3/8" wall foam, which is not legal.
Don't try to 'shave' foam down to make it thinner, you'll just mess up the foam.
Don't just poke holes in your tips with a pin. Stab it a few times with a knife. Your tips should compress quickly and spring back pretty instantly.

Remember to tape up the blade, not around.
Remember your 1" overhang, and remember to plug it with more (closed cell) foam.
These two things are the most common mistakes I see new weapon builders make.

If you follow the weapon building guide in the book (the step by step directions on p33) then you should be pretty good. You can take that base and add a head for an axe, shorten it for a short sword, or add open cell to it to make a club.

I recommend cloth tape rather then duct tape. Generally, 3/4" pvc is the standard, but you can do 1/2" for most weapons (especially short weapons). Make sure your finished product doesn't rattle. Have somebody else hit you with it pretty hard (not like baseball swing, but somewhat harder then nero legal), and if you're not willing to let somebody do that, then it's probably not legal.
~Matt
 
awesome tips, thank you both for those! I'll do my best and see how they turn out..is there anyone in easy distance up here in seattle that could check them when i'm finished to make sure they're satisfactory?
 
Cerulean Jax;20340 said:
awesome tips, thank you both for those! I'll do my best and see how they turn out..is there anyone in easy distance up here in seattle that could check them when i'm finished to make sure they're satisfactory?

You know where the Nexus is. I already offered on another thread to do pre-event checking if anyone wants it. Just let me know when's good for you.

If you get them done in time, I'll be at the Cam game early to run a scene and could probably pop down to the garage and do that then.
 
Awesome, thank you sarah!

Sarah;20342 said:
You know where the Nexus is. I already offered on another thread to do pre-event checking if anyone wants it. Just let me know when's good for you.

If you get them done in time, I'll be at the Cam game early to run a scene and could probably pop down to the garage and do that then.
 
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