amen

Well dont get me wrong, I am not attackin HEMA or anything if it sounded like, then I am sorry.

From what you have said you make it sound as a sport. A lot of focus on how the fight looks, players being paired in combats by other people.
Larps (at least here) are more of and sandbox-ish DnD irl. Or you could say impro theatre. Its not reenactment, its not show for anybody except the people who are playing.
People who want to get rougher in the fights can (and sometimes do) negotiate beforehand that their fight can get more contact-like. But most people are not seeking it anyway.

I am not accusing you of this, yet there are times when you can hear someone on larp that "hurr durr if this was 'iron' I would bulldoze throu those, and this sucks because you cant get more into the fight and this is for kids with soft weapons harridy darridy." then I ask why would you even go on event like this when the persons focus is obviously just smashing folks and not roleplaying your character.

Add.: Also larps have their "cosplaying" aspect that are about the creativity you put into your costume. Either if you are rich fuck buying it or making it on your own. Having a foam weapons and no contact fights can allow you to make wild fantasy armors and weapons. Like, I would hardly made this hammer from a iron or so.

amen

I would say there are few reasons.
a) There are people like me who enjoy the coordinated fight, but are not really into getting into the mess fights.
b) Safety reasons : because its not really enjoyable to be sent at 1st day of larp home with broken arm/concussion.
Even having your finger hit in a bad way that it swells up and hurts for a week is a real nuisance and can really deteriorate your experience, especially if you are supposed to fight for the rest of the event.
Also having an injury is bothersome as it makes harder to feel in the role you are playing.
c) There is a vast amount of larps, where fighting isnt the core of the event.
d) Some people just don't really need to get into a full on unbraked fight to enjoy the event. Even the larp-battles are sometimes focused on the story aspect.

And as you have said, there are enough events that are just about bashing other people with iron swords and larps are just simply not about that most of the time.

PS.: Also, there is huge variety of people attending larps with very various age and physical build. I mean like, can you imagine some 1.90 full plate armor tackling a 18 years old elf girl?

Well dont get me wrong, I am not attackin HEMA or anything if it sounded like, then I am sorry.

From what you have said you make it sound as a sport. A lot of focus on how the fight looks, players being paired in combats by other people.
Larps (at least here) are more of and sandbox-ish DnD irl. Or you could say impro theatre. Its not reenactment, its not show for anybody except the people who are playing.
People who want to get rougher in the fights can (and sometimes do) negotiate beforehand that their fight can get more contact-like. But most people are not seeking it anyway.

I am not accusing you of this, yet there are times when you can hear someone on larp that "hurr durr if this was 'iron' I would bulldoze throu those, and this sucks because you cant get more into the fight and this is for kids with soft weapons harridy darridy." then I ask why would you even go on event like this when the persons focus is obviously just smashing folks and not roleplaying your character.

Add.: Also larps have their "cosplaying" aspect that are about the creativity you put into your costume. Either if you are rich fuck buying it or making it on your own. Having a foam weapons and no contact fights can allow you to make wild fantasy armors and weapons. Like, I would hardly made this hammer from a iron or so.

amen

" I've never heard of "hammer hardening" And while I'm not a blacksmith, I do have what could be considered bardic knowledge of it"

Yeah? Well I'm an armorer. So sit down. Yes, Hammer hardening is is thing (Price, p. 219), it is pretty significant, actually. The fact that you have never even heard of it proves just how little you know.

"A standard modern hauberk would weigh about 10kg, classical & medieval era mail would weigh significantly more. So half a kilo weight off would be really helpful in battle"

Lol, no. You seem to be the type who thinks everything back then sucked. A medieval hauberk also only weighed about 20 pounds (Price, p.114). As a matter of fact, modern replicas of both weapons and armor tend to weight more than medieval examples (Price, p.116)

"Now, although the bows themselves had a draw weight of 100 pounds, I doubt the archers did. Consider, the average english bowman was a serf, and therefore malnourished and likely a large portion of their numbers sickly. We can safely reduce this to perhaps 90 pounds, perhaps less but 90 seems hard to dispute. "

Actually, 100 pounds is low for a English/Welsh warbow, the examples found on the mary rose, which were perfectly preserved, were 100–185 lbs with a 30 draw, and tend to be in the 140-160 range (Strickland, p.17). And considering how an Archer in English employ during 1346 was paid 3 pence a day, compared to the 2 pence a day given to Welsh infantry(Norman, p.79), the 3 pence a day given to thatchers, and the 1.25 given to thatcher's mates(Dyer,. p.306) that means that every day an Archer would be given enough money to buy a gallon of the best ale (Myers, p.201), 2 whole chickens, and a dozen eggs (Norman, p.78) using only one days pay. Some pretty good protein right there.

The rest of your little tangent is, as you have admitted, irrelevant, and will be ignored. It was painfully wrong, anyways.

Sources:

Dyer, C. (1989). Standards of living in the later Middle Ages: Social change in England, c. 1200-1520. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press.

Myers, A. (1972). London in the age of Chaucer,. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Norman, A., & Pottinger, D. (1979). English weapons & warfare, 449-1660. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Price, B., & Edge, D. (2000). Techniques of medieval armour reproduction: The 14th century. Boulder, Colo.: Paladin Press.

Strickland, M., & Hardy, R. (2005). The great warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose. Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub.

On most events, yeah.

But going on larp and want a 'realistic fight without any rules binding you', thats like going on wrestling and expecting the same thing as boxing.

I would say there are few reasons.
a) There are people like me who enjoy the coordinated fight, but are not really into getting into the mess fights.
b) Safety reasons : because its not really enjoyable to be sent at 1st day of larp home with broken arm/concussion.
Even having your finger hit in a bad way that it swells up and hurts for a week is a real nuisance and can really deteriorate your experience, especially if you are supposed to fight for the rest of the event.
Also having an injury is bothersome as it makes harder to feel in the role you are playing.
c) There is a vast amount of larps, where fighting isnt the core of the event.
d) Some people just don't really need to get into a full on unbraked fight to enjoy the event. Even the larp-battles are sometimes focused on the story aspect.

And as you have said, there are enough events that are just about bashing other people with iron swords and larps are just simply not about that most of the time.

PS.: Also, there is huge variety of people attending larps with very various age and physical build. I mean like, can you imagine some 1.90 full plate armor tackling a 18 years old elf girl?

Well dont get me wrong, I am not attackin HEMA or anything if it sounded like, then I am sorry.

From what you have said you make it sound as a sport. A lot of focus on how the fight looks, players being paired in combats by other people.
Larps (at least here) are more of and sandbox-ish DnD irl. Or you could say impro theatre. Its not reenactment, its not show for anybody except the people who are playing.
People who want to get rougher in the fights can (and sometimes do) negotiate beforehand that their fight can get more contact-like. But most people are not seeking it anyway.

I am not accusing you of this, yet there are times when you can hear someone on larp that "hurr durr if this was 'iron' I would bulldoze throu those, and this sucks because you cant get more into the fight and this is for kids with soft weapons harridy darridy." then I ask why would you even go on event like this when the persons focus is obviously just smashing folks and not roleplaying your character.

Add.: Also larps have their "cosplaying" aspect that are about the creativity you put into your costume. Either if you are rich fuck buying it or making it on your own. Having a foam weapons and no contact fights can allow you to make wild fantasy armors and weapons. Like, I would hardly made this hammer from a iron or so.

amen

One of the perks living in Europe, larps are always kinda at hand.

Well I am not even going to pretend that I do really understand what kind of chainmail is better or not. (I personally am not really fan of them. I know they were an important/usefull part of armor. But in larps they are not really needed and more of an burden most of the time.) But I guess that when enemy has a good hit on you, most of the time you are still fucked one way or another no matter what type of chainmail you have.
Although I can see a situations where it would definitely mean difference between a death/survived. Just not entirely sure if in those situations would really matter what type of chainmail you had instead of if you had one at all.

" I've never heard of "hammer hardening" And while I'm not a blacksmith, I do have what could be considered bardic knowledge of it"

Yeah? Well I'm an armorer. So sit down. Yes, Hammer hardening is is thing (Price, p. 219), it is pretty significant, actually. The fact that you have never even heard of it proves just how little you know.

"A standard modern hauberk would weigh about 10kg, classical & medieval era mail would weigh significantly more. So half a kilo weight off would be really helpful in battle"

Lol, no. You seem to be the type who thinks everything back then sucked. A medieval hauberk also only weighed about 20 pounds (Price, p.114). As a matter of fact, modern replicas of both weapons and armor tend to weight more than medieval examples (Price, p.116)

"Now, although the bows themselves had a draw weight of 100 pounds, I doubt the archers did. Consider, the average english bowman was a serf, and therefore malnourished and likely a large portion of their numbers sickly. We can safely reduce this to perhaps 90 pounds, perhaps less but 90 seems hard to dispute. "

Actually, 100 pounds is low for a English/Welsh warbow, the examples found on the mary rose, which were perfectly preserved, were 100–185 lbs with a 30 draw, and tend to be in the 140-160 range (Strickland, p.17). And considering how an Archer in English employ during 1346 was paid 3 pence a day, compared to the 2 pence a day given to Welsh infantry(Norman, p.79), the 3 pence a day given to thatchers, and the 1.25 given to thatcher's mates(Dyer,. p.306) that means that every day an Archer would be given enough money to buy a gallon of the best ale (Myers, p.201), 2 whole chickens, and a dozen eggs (Norman, p.78) using only one days pay. Some pretty good protein right there.

The rest of your little tangent is, as you have admitted, irrelevant, and will be ignored. It was painfully wrong, anyways.

Sources:

Dyer, C. (1989). Standards of living in the later Middle Ages: Social change in England, c. 1200-1520. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press.

Myers, A. (1972). London in the age of Chaucer,. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Norman, A., & Pottinger, D. (1979). English weapons & warfare, 449-1660. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Price, B., & Edge, D. (2000). Techniques of medieval armour reproduction: The 14th century. Boulder, Colo.: Paladin Press.

Strickland, M., & Hardy, R. (2005). The great warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose. Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub.