Character Creation

I'd like to correct that second statement, if I may. Approved weapons can absolutely still cause significant pain or bruising if swung full force. Understanding that and monitoring your swings is integral to being a safe combatant. We help each other out by letting people know after a fight if they need to scale it back a little - for any number of reasons from getting caught up in the moment to winter air making the foam on a weapon harder than usual - and checking on anyone you think may have caught a harder hit than you intended. Acknowledging that there is still a degree of danger and potential for injury by carefully observing safety guidelines is what makes said risks acceptable and frees us up to take more IG risks by running into the fray.

I second crystal. Even approved weapons can cause bruising or injury. I was sparring a friend and he didn't pull his blows and I ended up getting hit hard enough to cause a vein in my leg to collapse then burst. I've also gotten a concussion from someone who swung hard and hit my head.

If someone you're fighting stops and says "pull your blows", just be aware of how hard you're hitting and adjust. In turn, if you find you're in pain when someone is hitting you, point it out to them. Winter weather especially is tough on foam weapons and makes them harder than normal, but some weapons are softer by nature.

Grigori wrote:
So pick it up and pretend it's the real thing, and then swing. Pull your blow just before you hit your target (either real or imaginary). Does it keep moving and therefore hit the target with more force than you intended? If yes, it may not be approved. (I would say "probably," but I have only ever seen one sword that wouldn't get approved, and that's not a great baseline to judge from.)

Please do not spread information based in personal experience and/or rumor. I personally have not allowed homemade and even professionally made weapons several times a year during my course as a LM.

I take the safety of the players very seriously and do my best to make sure that all weapons and armor are safe for not only you but other players. A good rule of thumb, have your friend hit you with it at roughly the strength that you'll be swinging the weapon. Then ask the following questions:

Did it hurt? If so, it most likely will not get approved.
Did the phys-rep break?(the foam didn't hold and the core pushed through, etc.) Make it better because that won't get approved.

Do you refuse to get hit with your own weapon? Then don't even bring it to the game. Because if you don't want to be hit with it, why would another player.

Hope this clears things up.