Lots of Questions Before I Take the Field in September

I'll be coming to the September event, but before that there's a lot I need to work out.

From a character perspective, I'd like more information on the Bedou tribes than is provided in the rulebook.

From a perspective more closely related to my previous experiences in medievalism and combat with foam, wood, rattan, and steel...

Looking for more detail on weapon construction. The rulebook is pretty light on this sort of thing....
-Can a throwing weapon be used as a small weapon? A knife or tomahawk, for instance?
-How do people normally build javelins? The requirement to be coreless has me a bit perplexed.
-What are the poundage limits on bows and crossbows? I heard 28# at 26" for bows, but I couldn't find corroboration on that, and I've seen nothing on crossbows.
-For spears, axes, warhammers, and the like, does the whole shaft of the weapon have to be padded?

I'm sure there's more, but it's what I've got for now.

Page 34 of the rulebook has ARchery rules, and includes the following:

Bows need to be simple recurve bows with no more than 25 pounds at full draw, and with a Draw length of no more than 26”. Arrows should be fitted for this (26”), keeping in mind that the end will be covered in foam, so you may want them a bit longer.

best i can help is.....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin

play it like you want to play it is my take

Hey, Nathan! I am one of the few people stomping around with a crossbow at camp. The majority of us use the IDV crossbows available from calimacil. I use the hunter's crossbow, and a few others use the mercenary's crossbow. I can't make any official statements on the rules of using one, but these are what most of us use: www.calimacil.com/weapons/bows-arrows.html

I love running around with it, but it does require a good deal more safety consciousness than simply running around with a sword. The long minimum range to keep it safe coupled with the high cost of fixing a break or replacing an errant bolt means that you have to carefully plan each shot. If you want to be in the thick of the fighting, maybe reconsider the crossbow as your primary weapon; it tends to become a liability in a swirling melee, so you'll never find my character in the center of the action. However, if you are happy skulking around the outside of the battle, and threatening things from farther than arm's reach, you might just be a crossbowman at heart!

If you have anymore questions pertaining to the crossbow, shoot me a PM, I'm always more than happy to convince more people to pick up the most civilized of the ranged weapons! If you find me at game, I also enjoy letting the odd person or two borrow the crossbow to use on passing elves; maybe try it out before making the (rather sizable) investment!

So, my two main questions would be the first and last ones, or to sum up...

-Throwing weapons must not have cores. Must small weapons have cores, or may a coreless throwing weapon be used as a small weapon?
-Must all hafted weapons be padded for the entire length, grip included?

Hello, fellow Tycho-

You'll find that small weapons and thrown weapons are sufficiently different in construction that one can't really be used as the other.
Thrown weapons can't have cores, and trying to use something built to those specifications for hand to hand combat isn't really practical.

As for polearms, the only ones I'm familiar with are completely padded. As the entire length of the weapon can be used to strike, it makes sense to pad it all.
There are others who may fight with polearms without full padding, but I think it's more limiting, even if it's allowed.

Get an event or two under your belt and you'll have a much better grasp of the game than any wxplanation can provide.

Wondering now mostly about the viability of a throwing-centric build.

I'm looking in this direction because I'm not spending $200 on a crossbow, and I can't make one without poundage limits. I don't have any bows weak enough for KR, and the draw limitation is going to hurt. I'm used to six foot cored javelins, and while I could get used to 3-4 foot coreless, I'd rather go straight to knives and axes.

Looking mostly at Assassin or Archer. Assassin for utility and Archer for pure DAMAGES.
(And yeah, it sounds like I'm being metagamey, but that's mostly because how the character is played will differ very little based on which of the two classes I grab.)

Also, can you put poison on a thrown weapon?

A good 25# bow isn't too expensive, and a bow will fire faster than a crossbow. In any case, you'll find that any fighting class has an investment, be it a good sword, a shield, armor, etc. (Casters get props for their burden...).

Throwing has two major drawbacks compared to shooting, and several minor. The big one is base damage - 1, as opposed to 8, to start. The other is range - you can shoot a heck of a lot further than you can throw a coreless weapon, unless you're REALLY good. Also, the target is more likely to notice being hit by an arrow at range, than a thrown weapon - it simply has more force.

You may want to NPC for an event, and try several options out, to make sure you're happy with your style before you commit to it as a PC.

I have plates coming in for lamellar for something entirely different. I have boffer weapons of various shapes and sizes, and a few bucklers as well. Armor and weapons aren't a problem. I can always make more.
My problem with the archery isn't having to buy yet another bow, it's the fact that my draw length is 31 inches, and having to shoot from 26 is going to drive me crazy. It's not a style I'll be happy with, as you put it.

My name is Sean,
I am a New Player marshal and and Archer in game. For the crossbow we have (and James or any safety marshal can correct me) an unofficial draw of 28 pounds. I use the Ork Crossbow from Calimacil . I know its costly but nothing makes people not charge you then you pulling up a crossbow. Also unlike a bow "point blank" range is 20 feet.
"Safe boffer archery requires common sense. When employing boffer arrows, an archer is not to shoot anyone closer then ten feet away for the safety of everyone. If this rule is commonly broken the archer will be punished, and possibly asked to leave the game.

Rushing an archer is not an acceptable or recommended form of defending yourself, nor his hitting his bow or arrows (which can easily break). If an archer has a bead on a target and the target begins to close within ten feet, the archer is NOT to fire under any circumstances. Instead, the archer should call “Point Blank, X Damage” at the target. Periodic Skills may not be used with a Point Blank shot. No shot should be landed on the target OOG when calling a Point Blank shot."
This is a rule that myself and Chris have had to start using as we are the only two people that I have seen in a long time using big crossbows.
For your archery question I have a bow from LARP exchange . I understand your concern and I would say bring your bow and let a safety marshal/James/rules marshal look at it and determine if it is safe. Also for the archery and crossbow rules we at Knight Realms can no longer use home made arrows we HAVE to buy are arrows.

For thrown weapons they must be coreless.
Two handed weapons or weapons of any type the whole shaft does not need to be padded however most people prefer to error on the side of safety and pad down the entire length of the weapon as a "just in case" measure.

I am one of the few people who uses all of the weapons (out side of Javelins just no place for me to carry any more things) that you are looking to use. If you have any more questions I will be happy to field them for you.

Why must you buy arrows? I don't recall that in the rulebook...

As for safety, I'd be willing to let one of your marshals shoot me in the face from 10 feet with my gear. But I probably still wouldn't do archery, since I put a decent amount of time into my arrows, and don't really want to volunteer any to get dissected.

Do you have any pictures of your throwing weapons? I'm working in a bit of a vacuum here.

www.knightrealms.com/forum/Straight-Talk...rp-arrows.html#74757

There's the post stating the rule change on the arrows. It hasn't made it 's way to the rulebook yet.

I won't be arching, then.