Stock thrown weapons?

[Sally]

Lo and behold, I'm GnySgt Sally is able to wield thrown weapons! And, it's not like I've already got an entire junklocker worth of stuff hanging from me, so why not a few more baubles?

I was thinking a knife or hatchet would be good, and saw that Nerf makes a little hatchet. Any one have any experience with them and OR (in terms of safety)? I have fear that they might not be padded enough, but don't know. Seems like, according the rule book, it'd fall in the "dagger" category.

http://www.amazon.com/Nerf-19663-NERF-N ... rf+hatchet

And, if it is verboten...

Who's gone about making a thrown weapon? Seal some birdseed in 5/8s pipe insulation?

[Henry Gondorf]

I have messed around with a few of those in the store for concealed back ups. They are nice and have the possible heft to fly true. The issue is how stiff they are and I have never seen one after use and normal break down sets in. They might just be all foam with the right sealant on them.

I would offer to pick one up and we could test it but A: that means eventually taking head shots and B: I doubt these follow the norm when it comes to being boffer safe.

[ken]

The hatchet wouldn't conform to our guidelines so it's not approved... It looks like it has screws in it which implies some form of core (so it can't be thrown). And it doesn't meet our padding requirements for a Melee Weapon.

Thrown weapons should be sculpted out of open celled foam and then can be covered in duct tape, much like a thrusting tip. The tape should give you enough weight, especially if it's big. Don't use birdseed, if you can avoid it... too much birdseed can also make something pretty heavy, and if it's heavy, it's rejected.

My general rule is: If this hits me in the face, will I be upset?

[kimp]

Ken - I now find myself entertaining the thought of what you will take in the face without being upset.
heh

[Jacob]

Alright, people, alright. Keep in clean. There are chil.... actually, no. Never mind. This game is for Mature Participants. At least in theory.

Carry on.

[Madrigus]

Actually those hatchets are made completely out of foam, but they do have a core.

The type of core is flimsy and I know doesn't match Accelerant safety rules. However, if you pull the core out, then it would fall into Staff's hands for "safe thrown weapon?"

[Sally]

Ah, excellent, thanks for the input, everyone!

I have some car-wash sponges to go buy and shape 'em into beer bottles.

Nothing says drunken redneck like throwing around beer bottles.

/I'm from rural Michigan, I would know.

[liahgeron]

Hey folks,

As someone who has NPCed a previous modern game, I have a request of those making thrown weapons to look out for a few things:

First, the ends of your thrown weapon, particularly if it's greater than 6 inches long. When you wrap it with duct tape, they can get rather hard and weighty, leaving bruises or black eyes. If you can manage it, keep them light as you can and tape on some open cell foam at the small ends if you're making it out of closed cell primarily. Even a centimeter of the stuff will greatly blunt the impact potential. Similarly, stick to just 1 layer of tape if you can as the more you stack, the stiffer the foam will get.

Second, related to the first, shape. Particularly disc shapes but others too tend to get winged at people and can hit surprisingly hard even when made of only open cell foam (the spin actually makes it worse as it adds more energy). Keep it a small as is reasonable for you and try to make it at least 2 inches on a side to make it too big to fit into an eye socket. That'll help prevent some of the misfortune I have seen.

Third, weight. Straight open cell weapons can be tricky to cover in tape, but are honestly the best option. Even if you absolutely HAVE to weight it, try not to go beyond the weight of a typical packet. I tend to make thrown weapons that are effectively packets of open cell foam, a 1 inch disk of 5/8 closed cell for shape, and a small amount of birdseed (about a third of a packet). They fly fine and I've never had a complaint about them hitting too hard even when baseball thrown (they're mostly air inside and collapse readily).

Finally, you will at some point be tempted to mark them with something to make them easier to find at night. At Endgame, some one did this with a small 1 inch glowstick taped to the surface. It left welts on several NPCs before we figured it out and tore them off. Glow tape and reflective tape are bit better, but use only a little and chose the lightest, most flexible versions you can. Duck Tape makes a glow in the dark fabric tape that would work just fine.

And remember, these will get thrown back at you, so have someone huck them as hard as they can at you from about 5ft away as a test.

[Sally]

Thank you for the advice and tips! Do you know if people have had luck using material like cloth (old-Tshirts, perhaps?) rather than tape as a cover. It's about the same effort to sew up a seam as it is to get your tape _just_ right.

[liahgeron]

So, I've never seen a cloth wrapped thrown weapon, but I can see one possible problem: water. Duct tape, while not water proof is decently water resistant and keeps out the damp a weapon picks up from laying on the ground (rain, dew, puddles, etc) after a toss. I'd imagine that at a wet event you might have to wring a cloth covered one out semi regularly to prevent them from getting too heavy and doubling as reusable water balloons (come to think of it, if you're using sponges as the base material you might want to do this anyway). In exchange though, the duct tape adhesive, which erodes foam over time, won't be present so you might get a longer lifetime out of them. However, I only have rarely seen a thrown weapon retired instead of lost during a fight. Might be interesting to try though. If you do, let me know how it turns out!