I would rather take the risk of having a rebound in the eye (unlikly) rather than a full powerd latex point in the eye…
The stakes are made of open-cell foam. With no core. I’m not sure if they all have latex either, some just have paint. Being unweighted, they’d tumble through the air. So it wouldn’t be like getting hit with a larp arrow with a sharp point. Although personally, I still wouldn’t want the sharp bit in my eye.
In any case, I’m pretty sure the rules say a stake has to be held, so it’s more of a joke than anything.
Personally I like good larp arrows, they add another dimension to combat. Especially in larps with low HP. In terms of construction I’m happy with ArrowKaster or IDV arrows, or well-made safety-conscious homebrews. Big soft hitting surfaces, with hard impact-resistant foam behind, and something solid (like a coin) to stop the core penetrating the head. Getting hit with the notch is a worry, but so long as the poundage is fairly low the impact shouldn’t be massive.
The stake launcher would work nicely if the centre of the stakes had something to give them a slight weight, like some rice or some such.
Of course you could modify them into crossbow bolts too, with a rounder tip… I’d be happy with them in KS if that were the case.
While the idea of a stake-firing crossbow is funny (and also very Van Helsing), as Ryan Paddy pointed out, the rules do state that stakes need to be held. Also, man you’re going to need some truly godly powers of aiming to get them in the heart with that thing…
Yep you’ll need accuracy. Or a lot of ammo and a high rate of fire
Yep you’ll need accuracy. Or a lot of ammo and a high rate of fire [/quote]
my votes with the latter lol “lets rock!!!”
My main problem with larp arrows is not that they are massively unsafe in any given instance of being shot. It’s a little more complex.
If I go to an sca event, I can fight in heavy tournaments (head blow combat with clubs), fencing (rebated rapiers with fencing masks) or wars (mass heavy combat, with arrows). The combat field is clearly delineated and I can opt in or out easily.
If I go to a naama or similar event, it’s similar. There may be some one-on-one combat (head blow or non-head blow), some wars (again, with or without head blow and with or without arrows, canons, horses etc), maybe a bit of wrestling or jousting if I still have the energy. Again, I can opt in or out of an activity easily, because the battlefield is clearly delineated and participation is optional in any activity.
At a larp, I opt in to everything pretty much from when I get out of the car until the game is over. If someone decides to shoot me in the middle of the night from the bushes when I’m returning from the shower, they can.
So, getting back to my problem with the larp arrows…
It is mostly to do with the fact that when they are allowed in a game, everyone is automatically opted in. Unlike sca / naama they can’t just decide “I’ll skip that bit, it looks dangerous”.
actually most sensible larps ban the use of arrows after “dark” / “dusk” and the archers are instead only allowed to call “point blank” shots. Where you stand under 3m from your target and draw - but do not release instead calling point blank.
The point blank call extends to all archery fire under 3 meters for safty reasons no matter what the levels of light are.
That sounds like a pretty good idea - means no one gets hit with the full force from the bow
[quote=“Xcerus”]actually most sensible larps ban the use of arrows after “dark” / “dusk” and the archers are instead only allowed to call “point blank” shots. Where you stand under 3m from your target and draw - but do not release instead calling point blank.
The point blank call extends to all archery fire under 3 meters for safty reasons no matter what the levels of light are.[/quote]
The SCA has a rule saying you can’t shoot people closer than 5m (but you don’t get to declare them “hit”).
Personally, I think archers closer than 3m are probably the safest archers around, as they can almost certainly shoot you in the legs and miss the face.
except in a larp where shooting somone in the legs doesn’t kill but you could actually just point blank them through the chest and with a decent bow hit the guy behind them allowing archers to call point blank is fair and allows them to do somthing at night instead of sit on their arse waiting for day break.
So what happens when they’re holding a shield in front of them?
You usually don’t aim for people with shields as an archer - you aim for the squishie mages
With pointblank tho its assumed you hit even if they have a shield as your probably about to get raped by the shield user anyway. (And yes I am aware there are exceptions to this rule) - Archers are sweet as in the uk