WAR Weapons and Armor Policy 2007

Goal:

The goal of this policy is to maintain safety in fighting, as well as using the Smithing and Armor Suite playtests in the spirit in which we believe they were intended.

Weapon Safety:

With the variety of materials and technology to make weapons, it’s important that we maintain the safety for our players. For this reason, a Weapon/Armor Marshal must inspect every weapon to ensure safety. For each weapon checked, the weapon marshal will provide a safety tag with a description of the item. This tag must be attached to all approved boffer weapons, and must be kept on the person for all latex weapons. Weapon Marshals are trained and will decide whether a weapon passes or not. They have the right to deny any weapon for reasons pertaining to safety. ULTRALIGHT WEAPONS ARE NOT PERMITTED.

Latex swords in particular have been found to be possibly painful and subject to wear. No latex weapon can be used for waylay or for thrusting. Players using latex weapons are suggested to check their weapon after every combat to monitor the condition of the weapon. All players using latex weapons must find a Marshal at some point in the Afternoon each day of an event for another inspection. Failure to have your weapon checked can result in a verbal warning and habitual failure to get the weapon checked could result in the player losing their right to use their latex weapon.

In addition, a player’s fighting style may not work with a specific latex weapon. If a player is found to be hitting to hard, waylaying or thrusting, or making other players uncomfortable by their use of a latex weapon, that player will be warned. If these issues continue, the player may lose the right to wield that weapon, or possibly any latex weapon. This ban will never be more than 3 months, but when they return, they will not be given a warning and if the issues return, then the player may be banned altogether from using latex weapons in WAR.

A player’s weapon, which is found to be wearing down, can be passed on a temporary basis. In this case, the character’s sheet will be marked with a note describing the weapon in question. If the player brings that weapon to the next event and the problem is not fixed, they will not be permitted to use that weapon, and the availability of a weapon will be under plot’s discretion. In almost all cases with common weapons, a plot weapon will be provided, but plot and not the player will decide upon the rep used.

Players found using unsafe weapons and weapons with no safety tag will be subject to disciplinary action.

General Armor Rules:

WAR will be using the Armor Suite rules for the 2007 season. In the past season using Armor Suite, we have found some holes in the structuring of the system and we will be working to correct them.

Players must have their armor rated each and every event that they attend. There is a spot on their character sheet where their armor rating is recorded along with the marshal that rated it. If later in an event a player adds or removes pieces of that armor, it must be re-rated.

Five points of costume armor can be earned, but IT MUST BE MARKED BY A MARSHAL. Players cannot use the costume armor without having it rated. Unlike past years, it will be more difficult to earn the five points for costume.

Characters wearing armor can have their costume based on the materials used to make their armor. If players have a minimum of armor necessary to cover the area, use materials that would not be reliable as real armor, or armor that looks out-of-game, will not get the five points of costume credit.

Remember, the 5 points of costume, should you earn it, does not need to be represented but counts towards you maximum armor for your class.

A character can only rep as much as their sheet says, and anyone found carrying or using an armor tag/tags any higher than their rep will give up tags until they no longer exceed their rep.

Players who take off armor due to breeches in armor should get a verbal armor rating from a marshal the first chance they get.

Players who abuse the rules by habitually not having a rep for armor or abusing the armor rules will be subject to disciplinary action.

Charging:

Charging is whenever a person gets too close to a person in order to fight safely. Different weapons have different reach, and players should not lose effectiveness on their weapons. As such, use judgment when calling charging. When in doubt, let a marshal who is not involved call charging. Players continually abusing this by habitually calling charging on players to get an edge will be subject to disciplinary action.

Smithing:

Smithing allows two IG skill effects, and those are Sharpening and Refitting Armor. A player may use their ranks of Smithing at any point in time during the day to sharpen a weapon, but if they use they can only use their workshop levels to sharpen weapons at logistics. Even though we only hold logistics at the event, a sharpened weapon will only be sharpened for a single day and will lose their sharpening at normal re-up (6:00 PM). In order for a character to sharpen a weapon, they must have the required levels of Smithing to be able to do it without the aid of a workshop. Thus, a character must have 3 levels of Smithing to sharpen a weapon to +1, 9 levels of Smithing to sharpen a weapon to +2, and 21 levels of Smithing to sharpen a weapon to +3.

Sharpening outside of logistics requires 5 minutes per +1 to the weapon. During this time, a character should roleplay sharpening/weighting/reinforcing the weapon.

Even though the term sharpening would not help weapons without edges, sharpening can be applied to any weapon, including bows, which bestow the sharpening bonus on all arrows fired, as per the Archery Aura playtest. To help maintain better atmosphere, smiths are suggested to call it different things for different weapons, such as weighting blunt weapons and reinforcing bows.

Smithing levels can also be used to refit armor. By exhausting one level of Smithing, a smith may refit armor on a 3-second count (Rapid Refit) or refit armor that was breeched to full on a 60-second count (Flawless Refit). They cannot do both. The Flawless refit must be completed within 5 minutes of the armor being breeched for it to go back to full value. For both of these instances, characters must follow all rules for refitting, found below. If a player is interrupted during a Rapid or Flawless refit (uses any IG skill or walks away from where they’re standing) the skill is expended, even though the refit was not complete.

Refitting:

In-game, refitting is the act of completely adjusting one’s armor after or during battle. As such, this act requires both hands to be free. In addition, nothing can be held under the arms or any other way to free up the hands outside of the spirit of the rules. This act requires full concentration, and the person wearing the armor cannot move from where they’re standing. People cannot refit their armor simply by patting themselves on the chest.

Refitting is a visible act, and simply tapping yourself on the chest and hiding it in some way is not allowed. By the NERO 8^th Edition rules, players are expected to drop to one knee to refit. Since many of our players have bad knees, we will not require that. Anything that makes it obvious to those around you is acceptable.

Finally, note that the 3^rd level spell “Refit Armor” only emulates a normal refit. If armor was breeched, the spell will not restore that breech.

Disciplinary Action:

Players who are found abusing the rules can be subject to disciplinary action, which can include losing access to skills, suspension, and banning. While these are extreme, we do not expect to have to use any of them. Everyone is here to have a fun time and remain safe within the rules.