Illinois, the Dark Ages

padded medieval weapon and loads of fun

I really should decide on a name for this larp

Story

We look upon a land in turmoil. The good king of old has been overthrown and his line broken. Bandits crawl about the countryside and threaten to overwhelm the few good citizens left. Rumours say that the ancient evils have arisen from their long forgotten prisons. Now is a time of heroes and brigands struggling to save their small nation on the verge of collapse.

Premise

As I've mentioned in the past this is loosely based off a larp I was exposed to in northern Illinois. Now down here where I live (about ten minutes from St. Louis) my friends and I are a bit more story oriented than my northern friends. So myself and my friend who will be referred to online as Eol decided that we should cook up our own version that actually worked right, that their was a clear path of advancement, and that didn't bog down when someone reached the higher end positions. The idea is that you start off as a lowly peasant or a footpad, depending on if you are honorable or dishonorable. You then acquire points for either killing other players, npc beasties, or recovering lost items and turning them in at the church. As you increase in rank you gain special bonuses that you wouldn't have otherwise. In the beginning of our first official season everyone but myself and Eol will be lowly peasants and footpads while we'll be fifth class level just to get things moving. And now on with the explaining:

The Heroic Character

The Villainous Character

Level	Rank	XP	Starting Cash		Level	Rank	XP	Starting Cash
1	Peasant	0	0		1	Footpad	0	0
2	Squire	100	1		2	Thug	100	1
3	Militia	500	3		3	Burglar	500	3
4	Soldier	2000	5		4	Bandit	2000	5
5	Knight	5000	10		5	Assassin	5000	10
6	Noble	10000	15		6	Smuggler	10000	15
7	King	25000	25		7	Guildmaster	25000	25

Materials

• 1/2" white cresline pvc
• 1/2" foam pipe insulation
• duct tape
• electrical tape
• scissors
• 7/8" rubber cap
• a penny
• tape measure
• 1/2" bolt
• thin wooden dowel rod
• heater hose
• 1/2" cpvc beige

Weapon Specs

• 8" to less than 3' total length Dagger or short sword. Nothing more than PVC, Padding and tape is needed. Please note that 8 inches is the minimum allowed length.
• 3' to under 4' of total length Long sword. Weapon must be counter-weighted so as to balance within 4" of the hilt.
• 4' to under 5' total length Hand and a half. In addition to being counter-weighted, weapon must have 2 inches of squishy foam attached to the tip. (Please note, spears should never need counter-weighting as they will always balance somewhere along the shaft)
• 5' to under 6' total length and/or 4' or more of blade Two-handed. Weapon must be counter-weighted, tipped with squishy foam and be reinforced with a dowel rod. The dowel rod should be thinner than the PVC's center whole. We don't want to turn the weapon into a solid mass (thus making it dangerous), just to add some support.
• Greater than 6' total length Pole arm Must be reinforced with dowel rods and have squishy foam on the tip. Can only be used for stabbing.
• Cross-peices Can be no greater than 2 inches long on either side of the blade for each foot of blade you have. (In other words, if you have a three foot blade, the cross-pieces can only extend 6 inches off of either side of the weapon.)

Basic Sword Construction

1) decide on the size of your sword.
2) cut the white pvc to the length of that weapon
3) mark the point at which the pvc stops being the grip and becomes the blade.
4) cover the "blade" with the foam insulation
5) cut off the foam two inches past the end of the pvc
6) place the penny over the end of the pipe, we've found that a 7/8" end cap works just as well
7) fill in the last two inches of foam with bits of foam you have left over
8) cap the "blade" with duct tape
9) wrap the "blade" in duct tape
10) make an incision in the heater hose and widen it until you can fit it over the pvc, slide this to the base of the padding
11) place the bolt in the hilt of your weapon to add balance
12) apply a strip of electrical tape to keep the bolt in place, again the 7/8" rubber cap is useful here as it will hold in the bolt rather snugly
13) wrap the guard and hilt in electrical tape
14) pad the end of your hilt
15) smack your buddy on the head and enjoy
*you might have noticed that i changed garden hose to heater hose, eol and i noticed it wasnt that much more expensive and held its shape a lot better

Mace Construction

1) cut shaft aproximately 30"
2) cap the ends of the shaft with 7/8" plastic caps
3) affix a squishy foam head, I suggest a nerf ball aproximately 4" in diameter.
4) pad the five inches of shaft closest to the head in case you overextend
5) wrap shaft in black electical tape
6) wrap the head in silver duct tape(you might want to do this before attaching the head)
7) bonk the people near and dear to you

Basic Shield Construction

now the parent games site has a number of suggestions such as kickboards and the like so long as you make them look less tacky...unfortunately kickboards will always look bad so i say do the following instead:

1) get the lid to an old 5 gallon bucket you dont use anymore for anything other than a stool
2) punch 4-8 holes in the lid (depends on how involuted a way you want it attached) 3) devise your mode of attaching the shield to you(can be as simple as leather lacing or shoe laces or you could work up a bracer of some sort that it attaches to)
4) use the pipe insulation that you would for a sword aloong the edges of the lid to pad it.
5) pad the face with some flat padding that can be found in sheets ($2 ground pads for camping are good and big enough for a number of shields.)
6) decorate the shield (for our prototype small shield we made small drawstring bags that fit over them as covers, we found them easier to decorate than the foam plus if they get scuffed or dirty you can just take them off the shield and toss them in the washer.)
7) block your friends attacks in style

Spear Construction

remember that a spear is a basic polearm and that you can substitute what ever blade type you want instead of a straight spear point.

1) find a threaded broom handle
2) get a section of pvc around a foot to a foot and a half
3) use the appropriate bushings to make the pvc threaded similarly to the handle
4) connect the two pieces
5) reinforce the connection, i suggest another section of pvc or heavy card board that fits tight over the connection.
6) pad the pvc, the connection, and the top of the handle, remember that just like swords you need the extra padding on the end of the spear(very important as this is a thrusting weapon).
7) wrap the pvc in duct tape, thus marking it as the killing surface
8) wrap the connection and the top of the handle in electrical or some other coloured tape to hold down the padding and mark it different from the blade
9) poke your friends in the stomach from a far

Coming Soon

• Rules and regulations
• Other info
• Axe Construction
• Arrow Construction

Useful Sites