Hello people,
For the Crucible game, I’m planning on playing a Physician/surgeon/ a bunch of other stuff.
Now, I reckon it’s a very VERY bad idea to get actual scalpels, even blunt ones, near anyone in a LARP, so I was wondering if anyone knows where I could get Larp Safe scalpels, and maybe some other larp safe surgery equipment, it doesn’t have to be fancy, I prefer it to be cheap over fancy =P (As long as it doesn’t look like foam wrapped in duct-tape =P).
Thanks for reading,
Kamica
Prema and I both have a lovely set of healers tools from Dunkelart.de (google translate is wonderful here). Otherwise you can always make some - like a coreless larp weapon, but miniature. You can either duct tape them or get fancy with some latex. I recommend at least some of:
scalpel, ~3 larpsafe needles (made of foam, no core), pliers (not metal ones, preferable foamed), 2 retractors (if you want to pull a wound open - I can link you to some things on how to make wound props), and a bone saw (larpsafe).
Those look amazing, and exactly what I need! =D.
Thanks for that! Now let’s see if I can get an early birthday present from my mom Evil grin
Edit: Also, I’m not really planning on also making visible wounds etc. some people might not appreciate it, and I’d prefer to be consistent in how I treat people =P. (Also I’m slightly lazy…) So thanks for the offer, but no thanks =P.
Ah, the wounds don’t get left on people - you place them on someone, do your stuff, then take the prop off, bandage them up, and send them to a mage to speed up the healing.
I am also playing a full blown healer, and let me tell you it can be a hoot! I do suggest using fakeblood. You don’t have to get it on the players costumes, and you can wash it all off (unless the player in question is up for it) but it really adds to the experience. Norm has a good recipe, I’ll find it for you. Also pre-bloodied bandages are a good idea too.
Okay, sure, even if I won’t use it, someone in the future might want to know and might find it here, so it’s bound to be useful regardless, and I’ll definitely give it a thought =P.
Here’s Norm’s recipe:
Fake Blood recipe
This recipe is one I’ve used for years, and always had good results. Note that it depends on golden syrup, which might be hard to find in the US… Not sure. Never tried. But it seems to be the golden syrup that prevents it from staining… ** But see below for a note about food colourings.
1 cup golden syrup
2 tsp red food colouring
1 tsp yellow food colouring
a drop or two of dishwasing detergent (helps it flow)
A bit of chocolate syrup, like Hersheys.
The idea of the chocolate syrup is to dull the colour a bit, and make it more opaque. So it will vary a bit how much you put in. I would start with 1 tsp, and go from there.
On video, the reds tend to get very intense, so it’s worth dulling them down. But you can only really tell by holding an example in front of the camera and seeing how it looks on screen.
You can thin it with water, but go very carefully. A little water can thin it very quickly.
If you need a lot, then you can simply multiply up.
For larger amounts
1 tin golden syrup (1 kg)
2 bottles red food colouring (assuming the bottles are about
20ml)
1 bottle yellow food colouring
a little dishwashing detergent
And squirts of chocolate syrup to dull and opaque it.
Dulling the colour
Another way of dulling the colour which works well is to use instant coffee. Mix up a very concentrated solution of the coffee in water. Make sure it’s well dissolved and then add what you need to get it to the colour you want.
You may need to change the tone of the blood. You can do this by adding a LITTLE bit of blue food colouring. A drop or less is generally enough for the smaller recipe. Be careful not to add too much.
Practicalities
I would suggest rubber gloves when handling because it gets very sticky, very quickly. And of course containers. You may want a squeezy bottle to apply it easily…
So far, it’s proven extremely washable, however, I can’t guarantee that it won’t stain. It just hasn’t yet.
For some reason the colour fades in this mix over the course of a few months. So I advise only making what you are going to use in the next few weeks. You can always add more colour if it has faded… But more accurate to mix it correctly each time.
Note that this is basically very concentrated sugar. So it’s a good idea to let your victim, uh, subject know if they are going to have it in their mouths. Just in case they are diabetic or hypoglycemic. Holding it in your mouth should be fine, swallowing will give a sugar rush…
A Note about food colourings
For years I’ve been using the Hansells brand of food colouring. This is the one that I’ve found doesn’t stain. But now supermarkets sometimes stock other brands, which seem to have a bit less colour density, and now seems like it might stain a bit. So I recommend trying to find actual Hansells brand food colouring…
However there is also some soap based recipes that are less sticky… definitely worth giving a go 
Edible would be best (In case someone has dental problems =P, you never know what might show up) as there’s probably no dedicated dentist XD.
There’s certainly likely to be plenty of armourers with a set of pliers, though. That’s about all you need for a dentist, right?
I’ll be getting the large surgery set from that site you sent me including pliers and a reflex hammer =P.
Though those pliers might not be strong enough for a tooth, so Il’l see what I’ll do, Frontier medicine yay! =D.
Check whether it comes with one or two retractors. Personally, I never saw the point of just one retractor.
Nope, it doesn’t, but that would cost another 12 dollars… I guess I could pay that myself… I’ll figure something out =P.
[quote=“Kamica”]I’ll be getting the large surgery set from that site you sent me including pliers and a reflex hammer =P.
Though those pliers might not be strong enough for a tooth, so Il’l see what I’ll do, Frontier medicine yay! =D.[/quote]
Cool! they are very shiny and pretty, a good investment imo
That’s what both Prema and I did. Also check how many needles they’re giving you - they’re easy to lose and quite cheap. 3 would be a good minimum. They have some other fancy things like cauterizing blades 
[quote=“Walter Hamer”]There’s certainly likely to be plenty of armourers with a set of pliers, though. That’s about all you need for a dentist, right?[/quote]You forgot the whisky shot 
And waste the whisky? Or do you mean for the armourer, cos that’d be a definite - helps still the jitters.
Okay, so I tried ordering it from that place, and apparently they don’t ship to New Zealand. Then I tried having them ship it to family in the Netherlands and have them ship it over here, but they also don’t ship to the Netherlands… Any suggestions?
Oh yeah, that’s right, you have to email them to ask for them to arrange it to ship to NZ. There email is: anfrage@dunkelart.de
Do they understand English? Else I’ll have to put my dad on it =P.