[Ansteorra] Questions regarding slings & Tavern Fights

[Chris Zakes]

At 03:18 AM 7/29/2011, you wrote:
>>>How does one determine what is a SCA Tavern Fight Legal Weapon?
>
>I'm not sure what you mean by SCA Tavern Fight Legal Weapon. This is
>probably something okay'ed for a specific event.
>
>Are you speaking of what I call SPDs (Silly Parrying Devices)? Often
>used in special rapier scenarios? I think these may be restricted to
>being defensive only weapons. But again ratan(?) daggers that are
>similar, used to be allowed in SCA rapier as secondary weapons but are
>now not allowed while flexi-daggers are now allowed. Maybe someone
>from the rapier community can add to this or tell where I am wrong.
>SPD-msg (14K) 12/ 6/95 Silly Parrying Devices for SCA rapier combat
>
>http://www.florilegium.org/files/COMBAT-RAPIER/SPD-msg.html

As a broad generalization, if you make the "weapon" out of soft 
materials--typically foam and duct tape, maybe a golf tube for 
stiffening--then the only limits would be your own imagination, and 
the only restriction is that you want something that will kill your 
friends, not hurt them. They'll still need to be inspected by a marshal.

Things I've seen specifically for tavern fights:

boffer bottles (easy to make from carved-down pool noodles) including 
a few "breakaway" bottles with jagged edges.
Boffer mugs (made from a beer coozie, or the connecting tubes for 
pool noodles.)
Boffer fish (including the notorious Halibut Nevilsbane.)
Boffer cheese.
Two or three day old French bread (so it's nice and stiff.) Be aware 
that using bread leaves crumbs *everywhere* so you'd want to do this 
outdoors, and that bread against a fencing mask gives a cheese grater 
effect which is not much fun for the person inside the mask.
A parrying lobster (this was made from wood, leather and some metal 
and was *not* designed for offensive use.)
A tablecloth that could be pulled off the table and used like a cloak.
A boffer bar stool (made from foam and golf tubes.)

Other boffer weapons I've seen:

Boffer torch.
A long, skinny fish with holes in it (billed as a "Swiss pike.")
Boffer arms and legs (I made a set of these for Bryn Gwlad's annual 
pre-Halloween Zombie Tourney. They also got used in the zombie 
scenarios at Gothic War last year. 
http://kelly.dwarfworks.com/lj/GothicWarXIX/ )

Someday I'm going to make a boffer cat, with magnets in the paws, so 
it'll hang off my opponent's mask.

         -Tivar Moondragon