[quote=“Jared”]Doesn’t excluding some weapon types detract from the desired effect of this whole thread? That being realism?
Jared[/quote]
Yes but no matter what you are doing there will always have to be comprimises made for safety, if larger weapons can be proven to be safe for head shot fighting then sweet as a nut, but i am hesitant about allowing some muppet with a six foot axe swinging at my head.
What about missile weapons?
Does this mean that I can throw daggers at peoples faces? Or are only swordsmen allowed the “advantages” of swinging wildly at peoples heads?
On both heavy weapons and thrown weapons, bear in mind that I’m only suggesting that light head blows be allowed when the attacker feels they can do them safely. And that they should usually be avoided in favour of targetting other areas.
So there isn’t a special rule required for weapons that it would be very hard to deliver a safe light blow to the head with, it’s covered. You can’t control the force of thrown weapons or where they land very easily, so clearly you shouldn’t throw them at people’s heads. Likewise heavy weapons that can’t land softly shouldn’t be used to target the head.
If the QW weapons are all quite heavy as Derek says, I can see how what I’m suggesting would be pointless for you. I was thinking of the lighter latex weapons that are now starting to predominate here in Auckland. Even axes can be made quite light. I’ve made some axes in the fibreglass-and-latex style that I’d be happy to be hit in the head with because they are so slight and soft.
So anyone is allowed to do head shots a long as they aren’t using thrown weapons or any projectile weapons, or spells or heavy weapons or long weapons or older technology,
Or to put it another way, you are only really allowed to do head shots if you are using latex weapons, polyeuarthane or other light weapons…
I feel that this produces an unfair and unrealistic result
Edited to remove comments deemed offensive.
Edited to remove typos.
I can’t really think of an argument that would convince me to play in a headshot larp - sure, it’s more realistic for the martial artists, but as a novice I’m already going to get killed 90% of the time by you in any case. Being whacked in the back or arm or whatever isn’t particularly unpleasant, I might go ow, whereas being whacked in the head lightly by accident I found very unpleasant.
[quote=“Alista”]So anyone is allowed to do head shots a long as they aren’t using thrown weapons or any projectile weapons, or spells or heavy weapons or long weapons or older technology,
Or to put it another way, you are only really allowed to do head shots if you are using latex weapons, preferably Paddywhack weapons.
I agree this is totally fair. It is also a very realistic simulation of comabt.It is much more realistic than the current rules. It seems to disadvantage no players or player classes whatsoever.
I wonder who sells Paddywhack weapons, because I will have to buy one to play under these new rules.[/quote]Tell me, Alista, do you make an effort to be antagonistic, or does it just happen naturally?
I seriously don’t think that Ryan started talking about headshot rules as a way to sell more weapons. He doesn’t need to, he’s already got a large niche in the Auckland market, anyway.
At no point in this discussion has anyone suggested imposing headshot rules or a different make of weapon on your game. Why, therefore, are you so damn mad about it? Grow up a little.
Sorry. I just see on the “Community in Crisis” thread that there is a shortage of players in Auckland, then in this thread several players advocating ways of reducing that number even further. Therefore, I have followed the logic through to a conclusion.
Sorry if this concern for keeping LRP in Auckland alive has offended anyone.
Alista, your analysis is inaccurate.
Auckland does not have a problem with player numbers reducing (as implied by your “reducing numbers even further” statement). Rather, as is clear in the “Community in Crisis” thread, we have a plethoria of games. This is because we have taken active steps to encourage larp game development.
What steps have we taken to kill off larp in Auckland ?
Neither of these are likely to reduce the number of larpers in Auckland.
BTW, Paddywhack is not the only source of lightweight, easily controlled (and therefore potentially safe for headshots) weapons. The Skirmish armoury has plenty, and we also made a number of latex weapons for Mordavia - these are available via the nzLARPS gear library.
So your supposition that Paddywhack is the only option for headshot-safe weapons is, once again, inaccurate.
I don’t think you get it alista.
this isn’t a about a new OMNIRULE (omghaxlolol!!!11)
this is about running A game or a couple of games with head shot rule in it.
no one is saying all games being currently run or games that are going to be run MUST have head shots , it’s a suggestion for A possible rule in A possible game.
Also to assume that Ryan suggests a head shot rule to simply boost customer numbers is absurd. You should rethink the angle your coming at this from because
A. I severely doubt the man who had all four limbs inside Aucklands biggest LARP as a nonprofit organisation would do that to the LARP community.
B.Ryan is not the worlds leading maker of LARP safe latex weapons infact he is only a New Zealand based distributor, there are others. It just so happens that this particullar distributor is part of the LARPS community.
[quote=“Rorax”]I don’t think you get it alista.
this isn’t a about a new OMNIRULE (omghaxlolol!!!11)
this is about running A game or a couple of games with head shot rule in it.
no one is saying all games being currently run or games that are going to be run MUST have head shots , it’s a suggestion for A possible rule in A possible game.[/quote]
As such, running a game (not all games) with headshots is not going to turn away players from the community entirely.
I realize this is a difficult concept to grasp with “LARP community” and “Quest Waikato” being synonymous down in Hamilton, but up here we have the luxury of being able to pick and choose events we wish to go to.
Edit: In addition, Ryan ran the biggest, most player-heavy game in Auckland as recent as eight months ago and had done so for upwards of four years. If he was going to introduce a headshot rule and try to bilk money out of the players for Paddywhack weapons, he could have done this at any time.
I’d like everyone to take a big deep breath, in … out.
Isn’t it funny how emotional people can get over such a simple question, “would you attend an [event] that allowed light head shots?”
You’ve got things backwards.
The swords in Auckland have pretty much always been built on UK model of a fibreglass rod with closed-cell foam over it. I for one discovered that approach online back in around 1995 while I was at Uni, and started building that way. Mike’s group Skirmish independantly started building that way years ago too, probably based on some of their members’ experiences in UK larp.
So for the last ten years most people in Auckland have been using quite light larp weapons that I’d be happy to be hit in the head with lightly. Some of the weapons up here are heavier than others, especially axes as we used to make them with PVC pipe cores which are much heavier, and some of those are still around.
I only started bringing in latex weapons as Paddywhack a couple of years ago. We were already using weapons of roughly the same construction as the ones I brought in. Ours were not usually covered in latex, but the latex is just the surface and is not integral to the construction. I brought the professionally-made latex weapons in because we were running immersive larps where we wanted everything to look the part, and I felt that our home-made weapons were letting things down a bit. The professionally-made latex weapons were the best-looking thing I could find on the market, and I believed they were better-looking and probably better-constructed than anything we were likely to make locally. I still believe that, which is why I keep bringing them in. If I just wanted more money, I’d do more software development as it’s around 100 times more profitable than selling a latex weapon every few weeks.
So, long story short, I would love it if people to buy Paddywhack weapons or order their own latex weapons or make great-looking weapons themselves so that our live-combat larps keep improving. Because in my opinion these weapons are superior. But headshots don’t have anything to do with it, as almost all the weapons up here are already of a similar construction to the latex weapons I import and have been for 10 years.
Having said that, we do still have some heavier weapons around and I’d also love it if we could biff them out in favour of lighter ones, because regardless of headshot rules one can still get hit hard in the head accidently. In fact, it happens all the time, and I’d rather be hit in the head with something light.
Thanks for thinking the best of me though, it’s always nice to know there’s such great comradery in our hobby and we don’t jump to bizarre and derogatory conclusions about each other. That’s sarcasm, by the way. Sarcasm is when you say the opposite of what you mean for humourous effect.
[size=150]An Apology[/size]
To the Live Role Play community in general I apoligise for any offense real or imagined. I have updated my thread to read :
[quote=“Alista”]So anyone is allowed to do head shots a long as they aren’t using thrown weapons or any projectile weapons, or spells or heavy weapons or long weapons or older technology,
Or to put it another way, you are only really allowed to do head shots if you are using latex weapons, polyeuarthane or other light weapons…
I feel that this produces an unfair and unrealistic result
[/quote]
Please note I do not feel that Mr Ryan Paddy started this thread as a way of gaining financial gain for three reasons.
I feel that he supplies weaponry to the LRP community more as a social service. I doubt there is enough demand in NZ to make it a big money spinner.
I feel that allowing head shots will decreas his customer base.
And the most important reason ; While we disagree some of the time (~85%) I still feel that he is a gentleman of principle and we both wish the LRP community to flourish. So Ryan, apoligies for any offense real or implied.
Note: Since putting the original posting on the thread have discovered a compelling reason for ahaving a game in Aucjkland with Light Head shots. This does not in anyway negate any of my reasons against earlier, but it provides a reason to change the result.
Best wishes all.
Thanks Alista, I appreciate it.
It occurs to me that Mordavia allowed limited headshots for its whole run.
Specifically the sapping advantage worked by people hitting each other on the head with a very soft weapon. It happened a lot and was never raised as an issue.
Did anyone have problems with being hit in the head with saps at Mordavia?
I don’t think I ever got sapped, so it wasn’t an issue for me.
I got sapped repeatedly at one game. It certainly doesn’t hurt, if that’s your question. 
It was a specific advantage used in a very specific way and with an object that was pretty incapable of hurting… not sure it’s the same as allowing people to go at each other’s heads with the latex weapons.
It was sorta annoying to have it happen over and over, i couldn’t actually get away before i got hit again. grrr. You know who you are! 