Sword Tag

After a few solid sessions, I feel I can safely say I'm back in business for attending sword tag. I've done some googling around and found the act of fighting others with boffers is usually referred to as sword tag (what I do is just one of the variations of it). So far we're up to five regular attendees, with hopefully more on the way.

I've created a Facebook page for Sword Tag to host the videos, pictures, and discussions. It doesn't have the spam or hosting problems that running my own PHPBB2 setup would incur, nor any monetary costs. I understand a lot of folks have a lot of privacy concerns about Facebook, but I don't believe you're any worse off than vanilla forums if you create an account just for the means of hitting the fan page. This way, I can make sure my time is spent constructing weapons and stabbing, rather than maintaining a page that only five people use.

I found the name Sword Tag Google group through some searching. I've previously seen it called "rogue field", "fight night", and "fighter practice". None of those really did a great job explaining what they were about nor had any internet momentum behind them. The biggest difference I've seen with that site's rules and ours is that we're actually a lot more strict when it comes to safety for most things. For example, we don't pad our spear hafts, but we use the electrical PVC pipe (gray), because the white/irrigation PVC shatters when it breaks. I believe their rules also allow for rattan sticks and such whereas we do not. We also don't allow metal of any kind, whereas they use bolts in their shields.

In closing, we have a really good core group so far and are actively looking for more folks. If you have an interest we more than enough weapons for many people to use with the ability to create more in a very short amount of time. Doing it yourself is cheap and going out there requires no special clothing or gear, it's certainly a lot less investment than any sport out there I've seen.