The Medieval Role-Playing League Extra Information Page

How to make a sword The weapons that we use are all homemade, mostly from things you can find at your local hardware store. Due to an abnormal amount of breakage that we have had with weapons, the new design will be listed here. I would also like to state that these are weapons used exclusively to the MRPL. These are not up to the normal LARP standards. Actually, these are stupidly stout and hurt quite alot. I wouldn't suggest breaking these out at any other competitions of any sort. You'll most likely get laughed at.

Yes, it sucks. No, I'm not an artist.
This image is not exactly to scale but it will give a general idea of how we do this. After a good bit of
searching we've found that you can simply cut a small, foam football in half and you have a safe point point for the end of your sword.

Retail for about $1.89

If you can find some, the best thing to use would be what's usually called 'egg crate'. Just wrap some
your inner blade and that should be good enough. What is usually used at the MRPL is a foam pool
toy. It has 8 sides and is made of a soft but strong foam. We recommend the Funnoodle² as a good
alternative.

Retail for about $1.90

The safest material to use for the inner blade is 3/8" PVC pipe. Here at the MRPL, we've found that a good alternative is a common broomstick handle. It's not nearly as flexible as PVC (not to mention it hurts like all hell), but it does give the weapons a more realistic weight.

Retail for about $2.00

The guard can be made of anything soft. The most common material is thick cardboard wrapped in a
couple of pounds of electrical tape. Also, a good suggestion is the foam from around a computer card:
video, sound, modem, anything will work.

Retails for free when you upgrade your computer.

The completed sword should be covered in duct tape to strengthen the foam. The first wrap should be
somewhat tight. Another loose wrap should be used to as a just-in-case measure. After a few bouts, you'll realize that the second wrap helps quite alot. A roll of duct tape retails for about $2.00 (60 yards).

Total cost : about $8.00

How to make a shield

You may not need a shield, especially if you're using a two-handed sword but for those of you who aren't then you will find this invaluable. The shield can be of any length or width but it is recommended that you make sure you can still use your weapon without the shield getting in the way.

The simplest thing to use is a garbage can lid (Plastic, please). Another way to go is to just use a piece of wood. The main advantage is that the wood can be cut into any shape that you may want.

Foam should be used to cover the front of the shield. In one of our prototypes we used the plastic garbage can lid uncovered. After about 3 accidental punches on the shield, we decided that for our knuckles sake, it should be covered. The foam can be anything from the egg crate to just plain cotton, It's all up to you. Just keep in mind what your fist would feel like being slammed into whatever you use.

The handles should first be measured to fit you arm. You should measure form the largest part of your
forearm to the smallest part of your wrist. The grip on the right is where the hand actually holds on to the shield at. In order to keep it in place, it's best to use very short nails (for the wood version) or hot and/or super glue (for the plastic version).

If you notice, there is foam on the inside. The foam in the middle is for the wrist. After a dozen or so hard hits, you'll come to appreciate this. Also note the foam on the left side. That was placed there due to the fact that wood and plastic garbage lids tend to be somewhat sharp on the edges. You'll appreciate that as well.

Please note that as we can come up with them, more and more patterns will be put up. If you have a
suggestion, gripe, or comment send it to The Medieval Role-Playing League .

How to make a staff

Alrighty then, for a staff you'll pretty much follow the directions for the sword, except we don't need the blade. First get out your PVC/wood/reinforced steel (that's a joke, lighten up) and get it to about 6 feet or so. We've found it's most easily controlled when it's about the same height as you.

After you break out the staff, you'll want to cover it in foam stuff. This time I would not recommend the FunDoodle because it's very, VERY hard to fit 6+ feet of wood into a very small hole. So this time, go break out the foam and wrap about 3/4 inch around it. Now if you notice in the picture, there are two small gaps at around 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down. Those are actually the hand holds. Most hands, especially womens, cannot reach around this staff comfortably. The holes are there for better leverage. After the foam wrap (or wraps) make sure to at least put a light layer around the exposed hand holds. If your're using wood, it will keep the splinters away. If you use PVC, then it helps to get a little better grip.