I talked to you in a previous blog post about the upcoming 15th anniversary of Bicolline.

I’d like to talk now an issue crucial to the organization of a LARP: Weapon approval.

If you have already participated in a LARP, you will be aware that the approval of your arms is an important step. It is actually to allow the organizers to verify the safety of your weapon and to approve its use in the LARP.

As a manufacturer of weapons for LARP, we look at Bicolline as a reference for player approval of our products. With this in mind, this year Bicolline has updated  the rules with regards to weapon approvals. The organizers and volunteers have worked hard and the result is a detailed document that I invite you to read in full before you prepare to make or buy a weapon to take to Bicolline this year.

Here is an excerpt from the criteria for approval for Bicolline for 2010: Criteria for approval (French only)

Bicolline 2010 Weapon approval Criteria 2010

(…) The most important characteristic of a weapon is to be safe. The following security criteria must be met for any weapon, whether homemade or purchased from a manufacturer.

Are Calimacil weapons accepted at Bico?

The Calimacil weapons have been used for over six years on the battlefield of Bicolline. It is important to remember that we have always worked with game standards to understand and adapt our products to the needs of players with one mission in mind: “producing the best LARP Arms.”

In all safety criteria, Calimacil passes with flying colors. However under the new rules of Bicolline for rigidity, it is required that a weapon must be able to bend slightly, which is not the case for our 2 handed bastard swords, because their bending is limited on the flat of the blade only. So they are flexible, but not in all directions.

So the answer is yes Calimacil weapons are accepted at Bicolline, but there are a few exceptions that I will explain in detail here.

The Whip Effect “and the stem hybrid”

With regards to rigidity, we have made the difficult choice to use a hybrid rod instead of fiberglass. The reason is to increase the handling, accuracy and performance for key weapons with a length over 112 cm. Based on our tests, a single rod of fiberglass consistently did not have enough strength for this type of weapon. Because of the length, the weight of the blade did bend the weapon, making it difficult to use in combat.

Over the years we have discovered that from a certain length (over 110 cm), the structure is too flexible and will cause a “whip effect”. For example, it is often observed that with the longer fiberglass rods, when a sword hits a shield which would normally protect the wearer the sword will bend to the point of hitting the defender’s head or shoulders, which is not very fair.

To correct this we chose a hybrid rectangular rod for a mass equivalent to the fiberglass, not curved in one direction only. Thus all our long arms or 2 handed bastards are now manufactured with a hybrid rod. It’s a difficult choice that we have made to offer the best weapons to players. Therefore we do not recommend that players attending Bicolline use our weapons over 110 cm or our two hand bastard sword at risk of being refused by the person inspecting them.

The most important criteria: The User

Calimacil Weapons are excellent in a well defined game where a solid hit is counted as a successful hit, as mentioned by the regulations of Bicolline. However, to reduce the risk and considering the possibility of over-enthusiastic players in massive battles, the approval council at Bicolline decided to tighten rules to prevent any unfortunate accidents. We can not subscribe to these new regulations completely but we stand behind the game experience and the experience of the Bicolline council. It is hoped nevertheless that this characteristic of the regulation on the stiffness will be adjusted in the future because I think in these cases the more important criterion is the user.

In summary, it is clear that for us all our weapons offer the level of security necessary for a LARP battle. Calimacil provides weapons for thousands of fans around the world in over 12 different countries and our weapons are universally well received. However, I ask you to listen to the warnings and recommendations from the safety officers at your LARP and receive regular approvals of your weapon. It is because of this that I felt it important to inform you of this change to Bicolline guidelines.

What if my weapon is refused?

If your weapon is denied at Bicolline or another LARP following a purchase, I invite you to contact us or visit us for an exchange. We have a return policy of 60 days on all products purchased directly through our website.

Calimacil Weapons Accepted at Bicolline

Note that all the other Calimacil weapons, whether short or long, daggers or axes, the Novice bastard sword, and stick Kira / Onyx are accepted and will be the perfect companion for your brave adventures at Bicolline this year.

A big event will happen this year in Quebec, Canada. 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of Bicolline .

When thinking about all the work done by Bicolline’s staff since 1995 (with the help of many volunteers) we can not help but be impressed. For me Bicolline is a standard bearer in the world of LARP games and LARP size. Her influence over the Atlantic is huge and it inspires many in Europe.

An exceptional site

Located in Quebec, in the Mauricie region, this site brings together more than 100 acres, and in some of the most popular events around 2000 players who will experience a total immersion! Bicolline’s site is complete decorum; no electricity, no internet, no cell phone, etc.. This unforgettable adventure is called the Great Battle. For the the 15th anniversary this year, this battle will last about seven days. A pit has been dug in the field where the most epic, demanding and spectacular battles will be undertaken!

The quality of the site is notable for its decor and ambiance. Among other things that can not be found anywhere in Europe the site boasts a village of nearly 100 beautiful permanent buildings. Most of buildings are built by players who return every year to spend a week-long relaxing holiday with a community of players and families share the same passion. Throughout the stay a geopolitical game takes place; religion, guilds, the warlords and their delegates exchanged maps and resources. They are negotiating positions on the battlefield to ensure victory and treasures.

In my experience it is this particular character that is not found anywhere else which gives Bicolline a unique experience. Many people agree with me that they would choose five days of Bicolline over two weeks of vacation in the south. Imagine for a moment.… No, in fact, you can not imagine if you have not already set foot. One of the things that has struck me most is the people. The people are welcoming and friendly and you’ll find it easy to embrace the atmosphere and visit the various camps which all have their unique character.

My first recollection of Bicolline

I discovered Bicolline in 2003 and since then I have visited every year for a complete stay with my family. I still remember the first major battle that I participated in. At the sound of the horns of war, swarms of arrows left in my direction, monsters more than 7 feet high in the ranks advance, the troops of soldiers in full armor with advancing pike-men supported by machines of war such as catapults and cannons. I quickly forgot that it was all foam and all of a sudden I’m in the movie BraveHeart at the battle on the plain.

Stimulating activities for all tastes

For sports tournaments Trollball is in focus. The goal is to place a Troll head in the zone well defended by the opposing team, while getting rid of your opponent with a touch of a foam gun. There are even female Trollball teams and spectators are likely to encourage the teams. You’d be surprised at the size of the games!

The evening atmosphere gives you the impression of being in another world! I love to walk in the light of torches and dance during the performances of medieval folk music. There are also tribal dance performances, performances by fire-eaters, fighting in the freak show, the Miss and Mr. Bicolline contest, etc.. Given the nature of the event there is, as one might say, the movie magic everywhere!

In this regard, I invite you to go see some video reports on BicoTV, or better, I invite you all to come see us from the 15th to 22nd of August 2010 for the Great Battle of the Duchy of Bicolline!

I wonder, what is your best memory of Bicolline or LARP?

Also we need to find a name for it. if you have some good ideas, please share it in comments section or in facebook. Your suggestions are welcome!

Please look at the picture bellow and vote for the painting color you like and we will do it.

Claymore Silver	Claymore Gold

I have to give Ren Boots props, they really are doing everything they can to make this easy on me, and they seem genuinely sorry about my hassle and very concerned with making sure everything is made right.

THAT’s how you do business.

I’ve been trying to get in contact with them for a few weeks now, but no dice. I’ll try and give them another call today.

I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, because with Ren Fair season kicking off I’m sure they’re fairly busy, but still!

Click here for the first part in what may turn out to be an on-going saga…

This is a big time in the historical re-enactment (or whatever you’d call it) geek world. The renaissance fairs won’t hit the northeast until summer, but they’re already in full swing down south and out west; the convention machine is slowly starting to churn to life, preparing for the summer rush; those LARPs that shut down for the winter return in full force around this time, if they haven’t already; even Knight Realms, who’s one concession to the cold weather is to move to a winter encampment in New Jersey, has abandoned that to return to the (probably still freezing) mountains of Pennsylvania.

This year is going to be pretty cool for me, because for the first time I hope to be able to take Calimacil on the road and work some of the tri-state area renaissance fairs. Growing up in Rockland County as I did, the Tuxedo, NY Ren Fair was the main one I’ve attended my whole life. Sure, I’ve gotten to check out Ohio, and one or two little rinky-dink ones in New Jersey, but that’s about it. I’ve heard legends of the Maryland and Pennsylvania events, so I hope I’ll get to see those this year…

The benefits of a large, well-known Fair aside, there’s something to be said for the tiny, local affairs some towns host, like the (admittedly not particularly tiny) Celt Festival out in…. ok I forgot the name of the town, but it’s in… uh… either PA or NJ. Just off Rt 80? C’mon, someones gotta know this one.

Anyway, the point I was getting at is, if your town has some sort of event like that, or you know of one, give a gal a heads up! Post in the comment section, or send an email to jenna@calimacil.com. Not that I’ll necessarily be vending there of course, but it’s a heck of a way to kill an afternoon.

Last summer at the Tuxedo, NY Renaissance Faire, I was on a mission: A mission for boots. Something that would suit my costume, be comfortable enough to run around in for days at a time, and cost under $300 (actually, I set out with an under $200 goal in mind, but that quickly went out the window). I assumed durability would be intrinsic to cost. Oh how I was to be schooled….

I won’t bore you with details of the whole search, only with what I finally settled on: A pair of lace up Strider’s from Ren Boots. Yes, many people were trying to steer me towards Catskill or Son of Sandlar, but those were all either WAY out of my price range or the completely wrong style. And yes, I was hearing ominous griping from several sources about Ren Boots; that their quality wasn’t as it once had been, that the soles of the shoes had a reputation for, as Ron White would put it, “falling the #&$^ off”. But the style was good, the price was… acceptable… and damned but if I didn’t look hot in them (especially after we threw a few decorative buckles on).

At a Knight Realms event a few weeks later, I had my first opportunity to put my new purchase to use. Friday night, I wrapped them up tightly, gave a few little hops, and I was off to the races. Man, did they look good.

But Saturday morning, something resembling gaps appeared on the bottom of the left shoe.
By Saturday night, half of the sole was flapping ominously.
Sunday morning, it fell off.

It fell off.

IT FELL THE #@^&^ OFF.

*ahem*

Deciding — rightly so — that the bottom falling off of a $275 shoe on its very first wearing was probably the textbook definition of “unacceptable” (not to mention the leather had scratched and stained horribly), I gave the good people at Ren Boots a call. They quickly agreed to repair, polish, and waterproof the boots free of charge, if I’d care to send them back. That seemed pretty acceptable, so I went with it.

It was a long time before I saw the shoes again — apparently they’d been placed on a worktable and forgotten for weeks. But to the owners credit, once she realized what was going on, damned if she didn’t do everything in her power to get them to me in time for my next LARP event, only 2 days away (And managed it, might I add) — and I wasn’t entirely thrilled once I saw them. The leather was still a bit ragged, though I guess I couldn’t expect them to do much about it, but it was also still rather filthy, meaning that if they HAD actually waterproofed them (and I’m still not sure they did), the dirt was now sealed in. But hey, the sole was on and secure, and they’d gotten the shoes to me in time for the event, and that’s all I really cared about.

That weekend, the other sole fell off.

Resolute, I managed to get my hands on some Shoe Goo, and resigned myself to a future of regular repairs. Not too big a deal I figured… they were expensive shoes, and I’d want to polish and clean them regularly anyway: I’d just chalk it up to maintenance. And hey, the glue repairs really seemed to do the job. For the next two wearings (both at indoor, low-impact conventions), they held up quite nicely. Then came the next Knight Realms.

The first weekend in March was an exceptionally wet one at Camp Sacejawea. Things were just starting to thaw from the massive February blizzards, meaning that what parts of the roads weren’t muddy death pits were instead 6″ of slushy snow sitting on top of 4″ of barely-above-freezing slushy water. Fun.

One night of slogging through puddles was all it took: the water rushed in through the lace holes, attacking the (apparently cardboard?) bottom lining of the shoe, the glue dissolved almost instantly, giving the slush a second angle of attack, and my barely worn $275 boots all but unraveled themselves and fell off my feet.

Shoes literally in tatters, likely unrepairable (not that I’d bother), I decided enough was enough. I called Ren Boots. And here’s where the company starts to redeem itself.

I spoke to one of the other owners, explaining my situation to him. Not only did he have the good graces to be absolutely mortified at my experiences, but I’d barely even finished speaking before he was coming up with ways to, as he said, “make it right”. That’s the benefit of buying from artisans, you know: a quality one stands behind his work, darn it. I’d called them expecting a battle (I’ll talk about my phone call with CS Designs another day, once I get THAT situation settled), and was instead met with an owner who takes pride in his business and in customer satisfaction. And THAT ladies and gentlemen, is why I am NOT standing before you today saying “stay away from Ren Boots!”, despite the issues I’ve had.

I sent the owner a followup email after our phone conversation yesterday, and I’m hoping to hear from him soon. I’ll be posting updates as they come, so stay tuned. If, you know, this is the kind of thing that interests you. But really, at an almost 1000 word-count, if you made it all the way to the end, I’d be surprised if you weren’t. Interested, I mean.

Meanwhile, feel free to posts in the comments about any exceptionally good or bad costuming/customer service experiences you’ve had. Man the stuff I’ve heard on the Knight Realms forums about some of the garb companies out there…

Due to the hurricane-like conditions currently buffeting the Northeast, the New York/New Jersey area airports were all shut down yesterday, causing mass confusion, cancellations, and yours truly to be stuck out on the Left Coast for an extra two days.

Well shoot.

Weather apocalypse aside, this years show was absolutely incredible. Lots of fantastic sessions, inspiring talks, and informative lectures. And as you can see from the above picture (dig that green CA shirt?), I finally got to have a proper chat with John Romero! Very cool guy by the way.  We had a very interesting conversation about how Facebook and other social platforms could be leading the way to a non-gimmicky gaming revolution… but this isn’t really the place to get into that.

What I DO want to explain to everybody is the Conference Associate program I mentioned in my last post, because it’s something every aspiring game developer (and I find it hard to believe there aren’t at least a few reading this blog) should be interested in. Basically, CA’s are the team of volunteers that run the Game Developers Conference. You know, like the staff volunteers at your local gaming and anime conventions. Except not really, because — and this is fact, not opinion — there is no team on this planet, hired, volunteer, or otherwise, as elite as the GDC Conference Associates.

I could go on for pages and pages about how amazing the CAs are, how former and current CAs dominate every game development competition and awards festival, how many of us are ensconced in top positions at AAA companies, but I’m just going to stick to the basic facts: Apply, show up, put in about 20 hours of work, get an All Access badge ($2400 value) for free. That’s it.

Ok well… maybe its not QUITE as simple as it sounds. That application I mentioned? That whole thing about it being an elite group? There were about 400 CA slots this year… and over 1,600 applicants vying for them. Over 75% of those positions went to returning veterans, meaning fewer than 100 new applicants were accepted to this special group this year. Says something about the ones chosen though, doesn’t it (and it means you really shouldn’t feel bad if you don’t get accepted)? And really, its the people you’ll be working with that make it an incredible experience, almost more than the legendary developers you’ll be getting to rub elbows with. Hey, I said “almost”.

For more information about volunteering, check out this section of the official GDC site. There’s no information about next year yet of course, but its enough to get you started.

Oh, and I almost forgot one of the coolest perks of being a CA: Awesome schwag, and lots of it! This year, we had a few extra special items being given away at our annual CA prize drawing; a small statuette signed by Shigeru Miyamoto; a Macbook Pro; and 12 generously donated Google Phones… one of which I was selected to receive! The only caveat? Google requested that anyone lucky enough to win a phone who didn’t actually intend to use it for development purposes take a pass and let it go to someone who would. I bowed out graciously, much to the annoyance of one of my friends, but I’m fairly satisfied with my consolation prize:

Awesome!

Note: The final color will be black

On this, we need you to find a new name for this sword. The current name is Novice but nobody likes it. So following a suggestion from our fan page in Facebook, here’s the final list that we choose. Please vote and help us to find a name for this sword:

GDC, with an average 25,000-30,000 attendees, is one of if not the largest and most important annual events in the game industry. It’s sort of like back-to-school week for developers, with expos, networking events, lectures, tutorials, roundtables, workshops, and more; not to mention the various award ceremonies that take place, the keynotes (this year, father of computer gaming Sid Meier), and the various Summits for Artificial Intelligence, Social Gaming, Independent Games, and so on.

And of course, there are the parties.

My first year attending the Conference, 2008 (this will mark year three for me), I was lucky enough to be invited to a private Valve party, where the Rock Band track of the Portal theme “Still Alive” made its debut, performed by Jonathon Coulton (those who keep track of these kind of things may also know it as the party where some drunk guy tried to steal the song from the XBox). It was pretty awesome getting to rub elbows with personnel and developers from Valve, Bungie, and various other companies in attendance… almost awesome enough to make up for a facepalm of epic proportions that took place the next day.

So I’m hanging out in the CA (CA = Conference Associate’s, the volunteers who run the show. More on that when I get back next week) lounge, and this guy comes in: swarthy skin, a little stocky, long black hair. And I’m thinking to myself, “man, that dude looks a lot like John Romero“. So I watch this guy walk around, chat with some people, shake a few hands, then go on his way.

I go up to my friend who had been talking to the guy and say “wow, he looked JUST like John Romero”. My friend looks at me a bit oddly and says:

“Uh… it WAS John Romero”.

/Facepalm.

I’m flying out Sunday right after Knight Realms (hey, LARPing happens, conference or no conference!), and I should be getting back to New York the morning of the 14th. I hope to have lots of great insider dirt to share with you guys.

Til then!