[Namron] Blow calling

[Captain MacNamara]

When I first started fighting, I was taught by one person that if it hits
you, and hits you clean, it's a good shot. if it skips off or glances off,
it's not a good shot.

I was told by other fighters that I wasn't hitting hard enough, even though
I kept turning up the heat until I was hammering them as hard as I could,
and hitting them clean. I finally got to where I could throw a good wrap
shot, and could make the blows "hurt", which meant that most people finally
called them. This continued for a while... I eventually entered my first
tourney, and was pulled aside and told I was hitting too hard, to tone it
down or my card would be pulled. I complied, and it went back to everyone
calling my blows light. I was a little irritated, especially when I would
hit someone's head just hard enough to rock their head with the blow and
they'd still call it light. After my first Gulf War, things started to even
out a bit. I entered in my second tourney, the Defender of the Flame... in
one round, I ended up face to face with a Knight who'd been legged... I
wormed my way close to him, keeping his weapon at bay as I tried to kill
him. So he hit my left arm, as hard as he could, nearly breaking it. after
the adreanalin wore off, I couldn't move my arm for a week. I STILL have a
lump in my arm from it. In my opinion, he hit me too damn hard, especially
since he's a knight.

A year later, I entered in Steppes Warlord XXX. I drew a fighter of similar
experience and we killed eachother, and I don;t remember who ended up
winning the second round... I remember that I did not hurt her, and she did
not hurt me, and we were both happy with the results. Then, my second match
was against yet another southern Knight... we danced around a bit, neither
one giving ground. He popped me on the point of my right wrist hard enough
to make my whole arm go numb... I gave the benefit of the doubt, after he
killed me (since I had no weapon hand), and changed my stance to hide my
wrist behind my shield, where he couldn't hit it accidentally. He threw a
blow I caught with my shield, and then I threw a counterblow and pulled it
short, feeling the tip of his blade go whistling by my hand again. I pulled
my arm back, and before I could throw another blow, he nailed me smooth in
the exact same place he had before, on the point of the wrist, which is an
illegal target to begin with. I couldn't really call him on it, because he
was a Knight, and I was but a lowly un-belted fighter... but there's no way
he could have claimed that it was an accident.

Then there was the time I took an unpadded glaive shot that broke one of my
ribs. I was coughing up blood because of the scar tissue in my lungs that
ripped open with that shot. And I know I've hurt people as well. I'm pretty
sure I broke someone's collarbone at Gulf War.

I quit heavy fighting... partly because if my ribs get broke again, there's
a good chance my lungs will collapse, after the trauma they went through in
the car wreck, and in that one fight. And I don't want to hurt anyone
either... The rest of the reasons are the fact that people just hit too
hard. There's no getting around it. You put a baseball bat in someone's
hands, and they're going to hammer someone as hard as they can, it's nature
I guess. And then there are those few people who ride the edge of the rules,
such as in the Steppes bout. And the truth of the matter is, until the
Knights of Ansteorra, and the Knights of the other kingdoms of the Known
Worlde want to change it, it's not going to change. Too many new fighters
are getting carded (I've heard of some being in armor for the very first
time), without being taught the various odds and ends of really fighting.
It's not enough that people know the book rules. They need to be taught not
to hurt people.

I'm sorry if I stepped on anyones toes... this is just my opinion, and in
the grand scheme of things, one that really doesn't count for much.

Duncan