Here's what I know from playing L.A.R.P. First I will tell you about the weapons, and i'll even explain how to make one.

How to make "harmless" weapons

Violence plays a more or less significant part in role-playing games, Live RPG's as well as ordinary RPG's. The hero fights monsters and villans, knights duel for honor and glory. Most people rather quickly realise that using real weapons might not be such a great idea. Live RPG is fun, loosing bodyparts isn't. So how do you get your hands on harmless weapons? Well, you've got a few options. One is to buy them, so-called Latex weapons. These are various types of weapons made out of fibre-glass rods, padded with foam-rubber and coated with latex. The benefit is that you get a very realistic and safe LRPG weapon without having to do any of it yourself. The drawback is they cost quite a bit of money. Second option is to make your own weapons, a procedure I will describe here.

Boffer vs. Latex

There are basically two types of LRPG weapons. The above mentioned Latex weapons (which you can also make yourself) and boffer weapons. The basic differances are Latex weapons: looks good/realistic but are more difficult and expensive to make. Boffer weapons: don't look all that good but are very cheap and easy to make. On this page I will describe how to make boffer weapons since I don't have so much experience with making latex weapons and since boffers are more practical to start out with (they cost less so you don't have to be afraid of experimenting and learning-by-doing). For those of you who wish to make latex weapons, just follow this link: Making weapons for live role playing

Boffers

The name "boffer" weapon comes from the sound it makes when you hit something with it (*BOFF*). They are basically wood sticks or plastic pipes with foam-rubber padding covered by tape. Well, enough tering, lets get on with it shall we ?

Swords

The most common and generic fantasy weapon I know is the broadsword, so lets start out with that. What you need to build this is: a wooden staff approximately 80 cm long and 2 cm thick. IMPORTANT: DON'T use fresh wood! I.e don't go out and cut yourself a stick in the forest. REASON: Fresh wood is hard, heavy and doesn't break very easily, and the point of any LRPG weapon is to break before bones break. Use light, dry and brittle wood and most of all use COMMON SENSE!!! LRPG is fun, a broken arm is not. You can also use a plastic pipe, about 2-3 cm in diameter. You also need a few meters of foam-rubber pipe-isolation, some strong tape (like silver-tape) and a leather cord (for the handle).

First cut the stick or plastic pipe to an appropriate length (about 80 cm for a broadsword). If you use the plastic pipe, wrap it in silver tape. That will prevent it from splintering when it breaks (plastic splinters can be VERY sharp). Next, cut the foam-rubber pipe (the blade) and make it about 10 cm shorter than the stick. Also cut two pieces of foam-rubber pipe, one about 30 cm long (the crosspiece) and another about 5-10 cm (the pommel).(see picture). Now, insert the stick into the foam-rubber pipe (the blade), letting the pipe protrude about 10 cm from the stick, so that the handle is about 20 cm. At the handle, use silver tape to fasten the pipe to the stick. At the tip, fill the hole in the protruding pipe with foam-rubber pieces and seal it with tape. The reason for letting the pipe protrude is to make the tip soft and yielding so that an accidental thrust doesn't damage anyone. The reson for filling the hole is to prevent the stick from 'sticking' out, should it loosen from the pipe. Stick Padding Blade
Next, we want to fasten the crosspiece. Cut a hole straight through the piece and then push it onto the blade so that it sits where the blade ends (at the handle) and use tape to fasten it. Some people prefer to fasten it on the handle, below the blade instead of directly on the blade. It looks better that way, but when I tried that I couldn't fasten it properly and it came loose as soon as I used the sword. It's up to you of course, and as always, experiment. After that we fasten the pommel. Insert the handle into the pommel piece and let the pommel piece protrude a bit from the handle, in the same fashion as the blade at the tip. Again the reason is to prevent the stick to 'stick' out where it could hurt someone. You only have to let the pommel protrude a few centimeters though, not 10 as with the blade. Again fill the hole with loose peices of foam-rubber and use tape to cover the hole and fasten the pommel to the handle. Hilt Finish
Now we're almost finished. All that's left is to wrap the entire blade, pommel and crosspiece in silver tape, to make it look good and to keep the sword together. You could either wrap around the blade (as in the picture) or along the blade. You could also use some other color of tape for the pommel and crosspiece or simply paint them if you want them to look, for instance golden or something like that. And then for the final touch: wrap a leather cord around the length of the handle to give you a good grip and to make the sword look better.
Voila! You got yourself a broadsword! 		Sword
There is of course a whole range of different swords, from two-foot short swords up to six-foot claymores. The only thing you really change when you make these other types is the length. Important to remember when making longer swords is the length of the handle. For one-handed grip weapons the handle should be long enough to fit two hands and for two-handed weapons it should be long enough for three.

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