Safety in LARP

Combat Safety

• Pull your blows. Always pull all your blows, with whatever you're wielding. The longer your weapon, the greater the resistance required not to hit too hard, and you may need to adjust the force of your blows depending on factors such as weapon size and weight, and remember that weapons can be heavier or harder if it's cold or wet. If someone says you're hitting too hard, then you're hitting too hard!
• Try to avoid hitting the head. While the head is still a legal location in Elysium, it is also very sensitive, and blows to the head should be as gentle as you can possibly make them. If there is another location it would be safer to strike than the head, try to do so.
• Never try to throatslit or hamstring a moving target.
• Never stab. Cored latex weapons are not designed to be stab safe. Don't stab anyone with anything, under any circumstances, even passively. (This means no setting up weapons where monsters can't get to you without risking being impaled on one end of your weapon.)
• No pushing, punching or wrestling. Avoid physical contact with other players, including grappling, wrestling, grabbing, kicking and slapping. If you are playing a character (either monster or player) with claw attacks, they should be delivered as a light tap with an open palm as specified in the rules. Never grab another player (the obvious exception to this is if they're about to go over a cliff OOC) - if IC you are grabbing someone, you should phys rep it by lightly resting your hands on them rather than taking hold. Under certain circumstances, with prior approval by the players involved, the GM and the Refs, players may grapple each other, but this is a rare exception to the normal run of things, and just because someone else is doing so, it does not mean you are allowed to do it. If someone asks you whether they may grapple with you, and you are not happy with it, please do not feel obliged to agree - the GM and the refs will back you up.
• Don't parry with your head.
• Shields Shields are not offensive weapons. Don't shield barge, and certainly don�t use them to strike people with.

Bows Safety

• Don't use a bow unless you have been tested (and passed!) for competancy and safety. Unlike other weapons, the bow has a lot more that can go wrong with it than a normal larp weapon, so only those that have been declared safe with a bow may use one. If you wish to be tested, please talk to a ref.
• Don't parry or grab arrows. LARP arrows and bolts are only safely padded on one end. If you try to parry an arrow with a weapon, it will begin to spin in the air and may hurt someone behind you, even if it misses you. Similarly, don't grab arrows out of the air - if you miss, you may send the arrow spinning off into someone's eye, and if you succeed, you'll be picking fibreglass splinters out of your fingers for the next week. On a related note, if a destroy weapon is ever cast on a bow user, it should be cast on the bow, and not the arrow, as 'destroying' the arrow leads to confusing scenarios where players try to behave as if an airborne arrow that is there OOC isn't there IC, which can be dangerous.
• Don't hit bows The archer you're fighting can't hit you with their bow, and isn't allowed to parry you with it; please don't hit their bow, as it is dangerous and potentially very expensive to replace. If you have snuck up on a bow user, give them a minute OOC to prepare and they will put their bow away or hand it off to the ref and allow you to hit them safely.
• Don't tread on arrows They're expensive, they break, and once broken they're dangerous. Don't tread on arrows, and where possible pick them up so that no-one else will. If necessary, call a temporary 'time out' to remove them from under yours and everybody else's feet before continuing.

Weapon and Armour Safety

• Don't put pressure on a weapon's point. Much like you should never stab with a weapon, you should never put pressure on a weapon's tip, or else you risk exposing the core and making the weapon unsafe. This means weapons should never be rested point down, but should always be laid either lengthways along the floor, or sat upright on their pommell. They should also always be put into the weapon bags point up.
• Don't throw weapons. The only weapons which can be thrown are the coreless throwing daggers, or similar. Never throw any other weapon, either during combat or as a means of passing it to someone else outside of combat, as this could cause injury or damage the weapon.
• Exposed and unstuck cores: If the core of a weapon is exposed at any point along its length, that weapon is not considered combat-safe and should be discarded immediately on noticing the break. Similarly, if the core has become unstuck from the foam of the weapon, it will be obvious when swinging or striking with the weapon, and should be discarded immediately.
• Torn latex is not a particularly serious issue, but may be an indication that the weapon has been heavily used lately, and not safety checked - it will certainly not be sealed against water and damp. Try to get the latex resurfaced as soon as possible.
• Striking surfaces. Most weapons are only designed to be struck with on one part of their length - on swords, this will be the blades, etc; on striking surfaces, the padding will be thicker. Don't hit people with other parts of the weapon, as this will hurt the person struck and may damage the weapon.
• Unsafe weapons Should be kept away from the monster kit, and where possible, immediately put back in someone's car when they are declared unsafe, to prevent any accidental use of them.
• Metal armour Metal armour should be regularly checked to make sure it has no points or edges that could do damage to a weapon striking it, or the hands of a person striking it or healing you. If your armour does have these problems, you may be asked to leave it behind (and thus your character goes without it) in the interests of safety.

Site safety

• Be aware of your surroundings. The site we use is full of drops, pot holes, exposed roots and the occasional bundle of barbed wire. If you are in an unsafe position, or are fighting in a spot where you feel unsafe, say so. Call a time out, and ask to move en mass to a safer spot before continuing. Similarly, if someone you are fighting against looks like they're getting into a precarious position, don't press them further on it.
• Wear suitable footwear. Preferably walking boots or something equally sturdy with decent ankle support that won't fall apart the first time you walk through a mud puddle.

Out of character calls

MAN DOWN!

Walkers!