Potential new player questions

Hey guys, my name is Bill, and I'll probably be coming up to play with everyone in June. I'm working on a Barbarian berserker character and wondering about a few things including:

1: Where should I get proper 2h Sword or Axe in terms of either boffer or latex? I know it has to be 48 inches, I've been looking at swords as long as 56 inches, I'm wondering if that is too long for a guy who is 5'9" I'm looking at some latex swords from the Dark Knight armory and whatnot and have no idea if they'll be effective for what I need. I have read the pros and cons of latex weaponry, and for looks alone I think the latex stuff looks way cooler.

2: I'm pretty good on costuming just from help from friends, I'm wondering what I should pick up in terms of incidental stuff like things you might not think you'd need for a LARP but end up using.

3: I wear glasses, how do you generally deal with those in play? Mostly because I am pretty blind without them, so if I can't wear them I'll need to make arrangements now (Probably going to be following my friends around very closely). Also, will I need to take them off for battle? As I'm going to be engaging close in, I'm not overly worried about removing them, I wanted to know if for reasons of safety and not losing them if I should just leave them off entirely.

4: Do you have any build suggestions for the game or early on is there no real wrong answer as far as that goes? I don't want to overspecialize or underspecialize, but this is a pretty different game system to what I'm used to, so any help would bee greatly appreciated.

I'll be coming up for my first time in June with Jason and Ree. Hope to see everyone there, you guys sound super cool.

Very excited to bring you up. I only wish it was this month

Hey Bill! My name's Conor and I help New Player's out all the time.

1: As far as weapon's go it is a matter of preference on what you like so it is hard to say wether it will be good or not for you, I will leave it to someone who uses that size of sword.

2: If you're good on costuming make sure you have a look here: www.knightrealms.com/logistics/189-cloth...-your-character.html

3: Generally if you have glasses you can wear them, safety comes first in this case. As far as combat goes same thing. I would suggest however getting something to keep your glasses from flying off though.

4: Send me a Private Message with what you're thinking and I'll help you out with that. Generally there are no wrong answers, but some things can be better than other options.

As a long time glasses wearer, I'll throw my 2 cents in on that question.
Most people with glasses definitely wear them during game. If you need to see, by all means wear them!
You may notice that I personally don't wear my glasses during game. The only reason I do so is because my eyes are weird enough that I can get away without 'em (I do start getting headaches though, bleh). And as a front line sword & board fighter, my glasses tend to attract boffer hits for some weird reason...I tend to joke that a sorcerer cursed them
However, that's just my weird habits and I would actually advise against that for anyone else. When I was playing an archer I wore my glasses all the time without problem.
I would recommend wearing your glasses, but make sure you wear a pair that if they get beat up/bent/broken, it's not going to be the end of the world (have a backup pair, or an older but still good pair? Take those). Avoid wearing your fancy schmancy designer glasses if possible. But please, do wear your glasses!!! We want you to be able to see when the monsters try to sneak up on you! It's not as much fun otherwise....
If you look through our photos, you'll see tons of glasses wearers in the middle of combat. Just be prepared, and you'll be fine.

Hi. I'm Katie. I also help out with new players. As you can see from my picture, I also wear glasses. I have had to have them knocked off a couple times, but it works out. Let me know if you need any help with anything, I'll be happy to help.

Build suggestions would be great, the gear suggestions that were linked earlier are super helpful.