Weapon Checks for Jan, 2012 event

P

Polare

Count
Good evening,

At the upcoming event, when you have your weapon checked by a Marshal, it will be checked for length as well as general safety. Please be prepared for this and check your weapon length before you make it to the event, or you may have an unpleasant surprise when your weapon is rejected.

As a reminder, latex weapons must conform to the Alliance length specifications, though a thrusting tip is not required for them. This means that the overall length and blade length dimensions especially must be within the accepted range for the weapon class.

Thanks,
Bryan Gregory
Alliance Seattle Head of Rules
 
I actually have a question regarding latex weapons, in regards to a staff.

I believe the rulebook has a requirement of a 3 ft space in the center for hand grips. If I were to get a latex staff, I realize it wouldn't require a thrusting tip, but would it be legal since it's all one consistent length?

Or am I incorrect about the rule regarding staves? I'm rather interested, as there's a couple of latex ones that I've been interested in acquiring.
 
ARB v1.1 Page 83 said:
Staffs may only be handled in the middle
3 feet. The middle 6" of the staff must be padded
with a minimum of ½” thick pipe insulation.
You must have both hands on the staff to
attack, but you may block with only one hand
on the staff, or in conjuction with a short weapon
for the purposes of the Two Weapons skill.
Click to expand...

Well, by my interpretation of the Rules as Written, the only padding requirement for the middle is that the middle 6" must have 1/2" thick foam. And then from the chart on page 82 it seems you can have striking surfaces of up to 30" on both sides, which means that you could theoretically have a 12" center grip area and as long as 6" of it is padded with 1/2" thick foam you should be fine.

I like to have a continual thickness for my staff, personally. Then I can move my hands up and down the grip area as needed.

But, we can't really rule on whether or not a weapon would pass without actually handling the weapon in question. Bryan has reviewed a couple staves, though, from a couple different manufacturers and has some input on them. I recommend linking the weapon you are thinking about purchasing for an initial guess.
 
Draven said:
I believe the rulebook has a requirement of a 3 ft space in the center for hand grips. If I were to get a latex staff, I realize it wouldn't require a thrusting tip, but would it be legal since it's all one consistent length?
Click to expand...

Seth's got it right. There's no requirement for '3 feet in the center except for 6" in the middle must not be padded!', it's just that there are a lot of boffer staves that happen to have been built this way, but it's definitely not the requirement. The 2 "grip" sections specified in the rulebook do not have to be bare core (on the contrary, I agree with Seth that it looks better to have a constant "volume" to the staff than to have two cutouts partway along its length).

As long as the weapon is safe and conforms to the requirements laid out in the book, it should be OK. I would advise everyone to go back and read their rulebooks for their particular weapon type, as it can correct many misconceptions that have built up over the years or expectations based on "well that's how I've always seen it!".

As to the specific weapon you link to, a better description of the same product can be found at:

http://www.king-cart.com/oknight/produc ... arterstaff

Let's take a look at the specs. From the rulebook, a staff's overall length must be between 60" and 72". That means that either length (67" or 71") should work. The site says 3/4" thickness for the foam - yep, that fits Alliance requirements. There's no deliniation between 'grip' and 'striking surface', which works fine for a staff in this case - the middle 6" is definitely padded enough. In short, from the description, it looks to fit everything that's needed.

Now... I've handled this particular staff model before in the past. It should work for Alliance, but it is dense foam and can hit hard (like any latex weapon). As with any latex weapon (or boffer weapon for that matter), care must be taken when striking, and it might be easier to swing "too hard" with a latex weapon than a boffer one.

Hope this was helpful!

-Bryan
 
I took one of those at full swing to the nose. That was epic. Good staff. :D
 
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