Combat and Weapons Safety
Combat in Live Roleplay radically differs from the way combat is portrayed in tabletop games. Instead of melee being a skilled action, in which rolling a handful of dice determines success, it is much more akin to theatrical stage combat where each player physically acts out every slash, thrust and parry of the combat. Therefore, a simple set of guidelines should be kept in mind at all times...
Pulled Blows: Each weapons strike must be aimed and delivered without force and at no time should upper body strength be used in a strike.
This is not intended to restrict roleplaying of blows and strikes merely to ensure safety. At no time is it acceptable to strike or aim weapons at or into the faces or genitals of an opponent. No thrusting with weapons, most LARP weapons are not suitable for thrusting anyway, however even with weapons specifically designed for the task its an action best steered clear of.
Brawling: We allow brawling only by mutual consent between players.
Appearance: All melee weapons should appear to be being used during combat, as would the real weapon. The reaction to any blow is crucial to Live Roleplay combat, without reaction the enactment becomes pointless making combat look farcical.
Retaliation: Players and crew must never retaliate if an opponent breaches any of the rules of combat. Instead inform a Referee who will take any appropriate action.
Any armour and shields in use should also be LARP safe, by that we mean no metal shields and any metal armour should have any sharp edges covered to prevent accidental injury. If you are unsure, always show a ref and they will advise you, if in doubt they may suggest a weapon or piece of kit is just kept on you for show and not used in combat.
NEW
Nerf Guns in the Ascendancy System.
The most important thing about use of any non standard weapon is you will need to check with a ref before you will be allowed to use it, the ref will give you guidance if its OK to use. Please check before the event, during the event refs will not have time to give considered opinions.
Nerf Guns (& other Steampunked Guns) can only be used by those with an appropriate technology skill to match the weapons origin or machine empathy since such advanced designs are unreliable, will need constant tweaking and setting up.
The only exception to this is a character without the technology skill but with an appropriate gun skill may employ another character with the skill to do the constant tweaking and maintenance for them.
Note all Nerf guns may be given a bead draw at any time by ref to determine their reliability, especially when not in the hands of an appropriately technically skilled person.
The statement above applies to any steampunk weaponry used in the Ascendancy system
Shots must be called like black powder weapons unless its extremely obvious to the target they are being shot at, foam bullets cannot be felt when they hit and so they need the targets attention, so call the crew members name or something else to get their attention. Always aim nerf guns carefully particularly avoid aiming a shot at peoples faces.
Unlike black powder weapons Nerf gun foam bullets must hit the target to do damage, they do have the advantage in the guns often fire more quickly than cap guns, although the refs may restrict rate of fire if they consider it excessive.
Crew members/other players should not dodge foam bullet, even though they may be able to due to their slow speed.
Nerf gun bullets do 1 point of damage, this goes through normal armour, i.e. exactly the same as normal black powder guns. Like black powder weapons the number of bullets available to a player will be restricted. For a Nerf gun you will restricted to 12 foam bullets per event unless otherwise agreed although the guns builder may make more overnight if they discuss this with a ref.
Any Nerf Gun or steampunked gun must be suitably changed in appearance and painted to have the look and feel of the Victorian steampunk used in the Ascendancy system, most Nerf rifles with lots of bullets, and sci-fi looks will not be appropriate, always check with a ref 1st, send photo if possible. The look of the gun is one of the most important aspects of allowing its use. Do not modify your gun to fire longer distances, this can be dangerous.
Remember every technology item built in downtime/in game must be discussed with a ref, even building multiple copies of the same item, they all need special resources and down time to build, players with the skills to build them are rare, npc's even rarer, and resources hard to get hold of
The use of other steampunk gadgets in system follow similar rules, if your unsure check with ref.
The ref currently looking after technology in the Ascendancy system is RichardH so send any question to him at richardh@ascendancylrp.co.uk
