The Armour Archive

I have heard a lot about these SCA bar fights, and they sound like a lot of fun, so I am looking at putting one in at an event I am running at the end of February. My question is, what sort of weapons are used, and how would one make one that is SCA legal.

P.S. Sorry if this has been discussed already but the search button is not working.

captintuba wrote:I have heard a lot about these SCA bar fights, and they sound like a lot of fun, so I am looking at putting one in at an event I am running at the end of February. My question is, what sort of weapons are used, and how would one make one that is SCA legal.

P.S. Sorry if this has been discussed already but the search button is not working.

A mace that looks like a bottle.

Allen

Can we head butt and knee the groin?

Ahh, high school memories.

Uric

Blackoak wrote:Can we head butt and knee the groin?

Ahh, high school memories.

Uric

High School memories??? Mine are stopping off at the bar memories after an event

Vebrand

Well some of us have to grow up Sir!
Besides in High School I was average size, but it seems everyone else continued to grow in college. Me, not so much.

Uric

I dont know if Sir Hrodir is on here or not, but he would be the one to ask imho. Ive heard many stories of his bar fight escapades at a glory.

I'm not sure archive names, but I know that people from Shire of Northern Outpost (East Kingdom) bragged up one to me this summer, and that at least one of them is here on the archive.

I've heard of a rattan guitar, a baby, a cat on a rope (neither the cat nor the baby are living creatures of course), things like this. Sounds like a riot.

MACES- leg o mutton; big fish; etc.
Shields - bar stool; big a$$ mug; bar tray(held by edges)
Small swords and knifes.

One guy had a ratan and foam deer head shield/weapon.

These can be a lot of fun but people need a bit of lead time to make stuff.

Ive heard stories of people picking up the entire table and just plowing people with that. Ive also heard of foam anvils (like what they drop off the walls at pennsic), beer bottles (a small piece of rattan taped and foamed to look like one), etc. etc. THats the nice things about barfights i guess, just about anything can be used.

yes, but is it really a barfight without biting?

i was involved in a dagger only tourney, one phase of which was over a card table.

In a couple of bar fights I've run we have had a broom, picture frame, break-away chair, table(shield) and legs (clubs), coat rack, pteradactyl leg (ala Flintstones), sledgehammer, break-away bottle and tray(buckler), and assorted knives. We tend to look at barrrom brawls as a time to get very creative with weapons.

blintersifrid wrote:I'm not sure archive names, but I know that people from Shire of Northern Outpost (East Kingdom) bragged up one to me this summer, and that at least one of them is here on the archive.

Yes, we had a bar brawl a few years back. I made a few broken bottles (rattan cored pool "noodle") maces that you could smash or stab with. I also made a pair of stools (three pieces of rattan attached to a seat) that could be used to thrust with or used as a shield. It was a blast. We also had a "confiscated" weapons pile in the corner that if you made it to had axes daggers and swords.

We just did a BARNyard brawl at our October event. Wagon wheel shields. Maces that looked like pumpkins, clubs that looked like giant zuchinni. Several maces that were pig shaped, with trusting snouts. Several cats on a stick. Shovels and pitchforks. A cow leg. Oh, and bean bag cow pies you could throw

It was a blast!

Gofanko

- All fighter have to sit at a table (Mace and mug for shield)

then...

- Everyone has a weapon and a mug filled with water (beer). You spill your beer (or it gets spilled), you loose!

D. Sebastian wrote:- All fighter have to sit at a table (Mace and mug for shield)

then...

- Everyone has a weapon and a mug filled with water (beer). You spill your beer (or it gets spilled), you loose!

Saw something very similar for rapier fighters once. The kicker was one of the fighters was an olympic fencer and just put her mug behind her and went to picking people apart.

Vebrand

D. Sebastian wrote:- All fighter have to sit at a table (Mace and mug for shield)

then...

- Everyone has a weapon and a mug filled with water (beer). You spill your beer (or it gets spilled), you loose!

Saw something very similar for rapier fighters once. The kicker was one of the fighters was an olympic fencer and just put her mug behind her and went to picking people apart.

Vebrand

Hey V, WE all can hear well, no need to say it twice!

big love!

I've heard mention of this some, but only in passing. Something about sneaking weapons in past a 'bouncer' as well.

For those of us (frankly, me) who don't know much details, could you... uh... go into more detail?

Padraig Mac Oda wrote:I've heard mention of this some, but only in passing. Something about sneaking weapons in past a 'bouncer' as well.

For those of us (frankly, me) who don't know much details, could you... uh... go into more detail?

From what I know it is a typical SCA melee but the only weapons allowed are those that you could find in a period bar. My guess is that there are some regional variations on the theme but that is what I have heard. Oh and supposedly they are a lot of fun.

And thanks for all the great responses…

arent there plenty of d&d larp groups out there for this type of silly crap? whats this got to do with a medieval tourney held in a court in medieval europe?



logan

So, is this a sort of "capture the keg" thing?

Cause, if my off hand weapon can be a wooden mug... I'm in on this.

I'll volunteer for the first wave... we'll take the keg and hold it...

You guys...

Fight or something... while we hold the keg.

When somebody blows a whistle or something... my side will have controll of the keg, or flag... or whatever...

I'm hip on this...

I normally like a straight tourney, but I'm seeing the light here...

I vote for an amber boch... or... maybe a IPA...

A good IPA... like Harpoon.

Yeah...

dukelogan wrote:arent there plenty of d&d larp groups out there for this type of silly crap? whats this got to do with a medieval tourney held in a court in medieval europe?



logan

I'm sure there are.

Absolutly nothing! Then again so does Pennsic.

Well, the event was called "Stopping at an Inne on the Way to Canterbury." The person running the event wanted a tourney to go along with the theme, so we did the "bar fight". Tourney held in a court? There was no court... not a whole lot of royalty come out where we are. The only royalty who have visited in my SCA tenure have been friends of the shire. Guess this is the sort of thing you get from us backwards ass country folk.
We also had combat at the barrier, counted blows afterward. Everyone involved had a blast with both parts... the counted blows at the barrier tourney was pretty much the first one of its kind up in our neck of the woods.

dukelogan wrote:arent there plenty of d&d larp groups out there for this type of silly crap? whats this got to do with a medieval tourney held in a court in medieval europe?



logan

dukelogan wrote:arent there plenty of d&d larp groups out there for this type of silly crap? whats this got to do with a medieval tourney held in a court in medieval europe?



logan

Or choosing rulers through tournament combat?

It's different, some people just want to have a little bit of silly fun. No harm, IMO. Those who don't want to participate don't have to.

i never said the sca was perfect. what i am opposed to are efforts to widen the already too wide expectations of the organization. whats being suggested is fighting with simulated loaves of bread and beer bottles. the charter states that we are only to use weapons found in a medieval tournament. table tops and bar wenches dont meet that requirement.

whats next? what happens when someone decides it would be fun to fight a touney blindfolded? i think it would be fun to throw rocks at a wide receiver that is jumping to catch a football. but thats not what football is about. but bar fights?

tourneys are enjoyable. there are so many formats that tourneys can be held in that shift the enjoyment factor around. so why not stick to productive formats and just ask those in attendance what they want to do? is that too much to ask?

regards
logan

Irish wrote:

dukelogan wrote:arent there plenty of d&d larp groups out there for this type of silly crap? whats this got to do with a medieval tourney held in a court in medieval europe?



logan

Or choosing rulers through tournament combat?

It's different, some people just want to have a little bit of silly fun. No harm, IMO. Those who don't want to participate don't have to.

Yes it is totally wrong to try to have fun. You should not try to break up the monotony with such frivolous ideas!

I hope your bar fight brings forth much laughter and merriment.

Theoderic wrote:Yes it is totally wrong to try to have fun. You should not try to break up the monotony with such frivolous ideas!

My sarcasm sense is tingling...

Where do you draw the line Theoderic?

Between somebody's fun, and something that is totally inappropriate?

I guess I just don't see it as some horrible affront to the SCA....

If they choose to run a bar fight, it is one "fight" (I've never seen a "winner" declared in an SCA bar fight) in a day, in all the tournies in all of the SCA.

It is just goofy fun. We're adults dressing up in suits of armor and playing stick tag for the love of god - how serious can we be?

Dilan
(Who has occasionally been silly - sometimes intentionally!)

its one fight sure. but where does it end? and why should it end? i mean the concept is totally out of line with the stated purpose of the sca (unlike fighting to choose a monarch which specifically is). so if we accept and allow that line to be ignored how can we put any boundaries on anything? my claiming to have a light saber and therefore have cut you in half with no effort is as feasible as blocking your rattan beer bottle with my plywood bread loaf. you cant stand on top of the rules and claim its just fun.

and again, you (generic) cant defend an inappropriate activity by poking fun at ones that are. and irish your mockery of sca sport combat actually weakens your argument. most of us wear armour to offer us some protection from stout blows thrown by courageous men using rattan batons as they would a sword. if you can find any comparison between that and blocking a fish with a beer mug you go for it.

all im saying is that there are organizations out there that accept bar room fights as fun. heck, they probably are fun to watch (i couldnt imagine them being sporting at all). they simply are not appropriate for the sca and actually go against the stated constraints of the organization. some people think the sca should be this big open club that allows anything and everything. i think anarchy like that is pointless.

regards
logan

Irish wrote:I guess I just don't see it as some horrible affront to the SCA....

If they choose to run a bar fight, it is one "fight" (I've never seen a "winner" declared in an SCA bar fight) in a day, in all the tournies in all of the SCA.

It is just goofy fun. We're adults dressing up in suits of armor and playing stick tag for the love of god - how serious can we be?

Dilan
(Who has occasionally been silly - sometimes intentionally!)

Not poking fun at anyone, or any activity.

I guess I'm not so easily offended.

If I see a tourney or acticivty I don't want to do, I don't go.

Bar fights aren't really my cup of tea, so I don't do them (I can only think of one that happens with any regularity in the Midrealm, did it a few times, haven't in years...). Of course, since I do early period, neither are Pas d' Armes. So I don't go to those either.

Where do I draw the line? I don't. I used to be a over-zealous 14thc nazi. I dropped that because I was alienating decent people, all because they were not as 'pure in form' as I was. The SCA is very wide open hobby. If people do not like it, form your own hobby with your own rules.

Better yet go help out people in life that are in need instead of wasting so much thought and time trying to change a hobby.


Have fun at your bar brawl.

I'm taking one final stab at this...

So... if you are playing checkers with somebody and he starts occasionally flipping a coin... and if it lands heads... he takes one of your pieces off the board...

And you cry foul, and say, that's not how the game of checkers is played...

And he says "look man, if you don't like to play checkers, go play some other game with rules more to your likeing."

What is your opinion of this guy now?

The closest I've seen to a bar fight is a Tuchux Tournament. It's fun to watch, hard to see the rules, and grappeling is definately involved.

A bar fight sounds interesting, but wouldn't it be strange to see people like, say, knights, cracking each other over the head with chairs and other things. It would just be wrong on so many levels.

Maybe you could schedule this "event" on May Day, a traditional day during Medieval times to do the unconventional.

Maybe you could do beer pong fully armored? Drunken samauri!

Or, maybe you could just schedule a battle.

I see your point, I'm just not getting my shorts in a twist about it.

If I knew ahead of time that was how that particular game of checkers was going to be played, I wouldn't play. Or maybe I would, if that's what I wanted to do - under the rules that were agreed on to start with.

But to a degree, that arguement can be applied to a single handed spear tourney, or a holmgang, or a barrier fight, armor requirements for the Battle of 30, combat archery in melees, etc.

There is a lot of variences in SCA combat and the culture of our combatants - that you can bet SOMEONE is going to be offended by damn near anything. Time period bias, tourney vs. melee, combat archery, historical vs. sport armor, serious competitor vs. "I do this 3 times a year for shits and grins", on and on and on.

It's all a matter of degree.

Dante della Luna wrote:I'm taking one final stab at this...

So... if you are playing checkers with somebody and he starts occasionally flipping a coin... and if it lands heads... he takes one of your pieces off the board...

And you cry foul, and say, that's not how the game of checkers is played...

And he says "look man, if you don't like to play checkers, go play some other game with rules more to your likeing."

What is your opinion of this guy now?