Battle gaming

Battle gaming is a North American medieval combat sport where participants use mock foam-padded weapons (boffer) in live action battles. The sport began in 1977 with the creation of Dagorhir.

Battle gaming is a combat game using padded mock weapons. The entire game is based on honor where each player calls themselves out of the game by acknowledging the strikes delivered by other players. The sport is rooted in the self acknowledgement of defeat.

Battle gaming is not LARP; it is more akin to table top miniature wargaming. The battle games are short scenarios ranging from five minutes to four hours in duration at the end of which all players are regenerated to play again. Each game is played in isolation. The outcome from one game scenario does not impact the scenario of the next game. Players are invited to dress as and role-play a warrior in the battles. Unlike in LARP, these personas are never permanently killed (removed) from the games.

Battle game combat is fast and frequently chaotic. Weapons are built with foam to prevent injury. All battle gaming groups use a targeted tag system. The common tag targets are left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso and head. Almost all battle game organizations do not use helmets, therefore hand held weapons may not strike at the head target and all weapons must be larger than an eye socket. All battle gaming combat assumes that the weapons are padded enough that full force blows can be received without injury.

The idea of battle gaming was started in the Washington, D.C. metro suburbs and has spread across the U.S. and into Canada. The history of the sport has been one of growth and splintering.

Currently there are three large North American organizations which have chapters in both the U.S. and Canada:

There are also several regional battle gaming organizations:

Each of the battle gaming organizations maintains their own rule sets. Due to the common historical origins of all battle gaming organizations many of the rules are common. This has resulted in many crossover players who play with more than one organization.

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