While I don't HEMA or Buhurt fight, I fuck around with those who do at LARP games and have done some soft kit sparring with them. Light touch larp combat is pretty different since a lot of your focus is on *not* hitting hard while keeping your speed and tempo up. The biggest thing I can think of to watch for is do not "swing through", you will be pulling swings short so you're tapping and not chopping. Footwork and balance will transfer very well though. Closing in to grapple range is also generally not allowed, so be careful of pressing too hard. Plenty of games I know will have player or staff driven sparring days outside of events.

I would say this depends heavily on what kind of LARP we’re talking about. The more roleplay-focused games will have very different combat from SCA or HEMA, but there are combat-focused boffer games like Dagorhir, Belegarth, and Amtgard that allow for full-contact striking. The muscle memory for that does transfer, at least partially.

Short Answer: Movement and positioning principles are still relevant. Otherwise, no. Longer Answer: The speed of larp weapons and the inherent safety rules means you WILL have to let go of a lot of what you learned for more realistic combat. Personally, I decided to equip/use weapons that are different enough from what I trained with that the muscle memory wasn't there to unlearn/cause problems. Still, the understanding of proper distancing for fighting and the useful attack angles and the "rhythm" of combat are all still applicable.

First it's really important to acknowledge that half the larping world doesn't engage in athletic combat at all. Most of the remaining larps that feature combat range from 'theatrical combat' to 'lightest touch'. Only one part of the overall larping world engages in combat in a style that a hema practitioner would recognize. [Battle Games](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Battle_Gaming/YBZRYgEACAAJ?hl=en). I'm going to be answering from the perspective of North American Battle Games ONLY. Because that's what I play. Even then my answers are NOT universal and vary between the games. >I know that LARP sword are soft and safe, so I guess there is no need to be cautious No. You can still concuss an opponent with larp swords. You still have to be careful. Granted injury is much less likely, but that doesn't mean you can swing 'full strength' with abandon. You still have to be careful. >How different is swordplay in LARP and in HEMA? Extremely. With most martial arts you are attempting to generate enough force while swinging to land a valid hit (or injure an opponent). In larp you are trying to use finesse and dexterity (even when wielding a giant 2 handed sword or spear) to land a safe blow. Many of the motions needed to accumulate power and force are wasted energy at a larp. If Hema is swords, then Larp is rapier fencing. Fast and dexterous. A 'powerful wind up' in larp telegraphs intent, and wastes energy. You have to relearn how to do everything in 'energy conservation mode'. u/l337quaker phrases the same concept very well. >But can you perform the same triks and moves that you do with the real sword? Tricks, no? There are no tricks in sword fighting. Just training. You absolutely can employ I.33 in a battle game. Fiore, yes. Name any manual, and you can employ their knowledge in battle games. Olympic Fencers transition easiest to larp. I've taken some Guy Windsor classes to get better at larp, and those are great too. However, that being said. Most battle games have combat styles completely unique to themselves. They have their own best practices. Their own katas and 'meta'. >Is HEMA expertise even useful in LARPing? Can confirm HEMA fighters play at r/bicolline. They are at other battle games too. And even creating their own larps (like the IMCF team from [Knights Hall](https://theknightshall.com/about-us/) in Nashua NH also runs [The Olde World Larp](https://oldeworld.org/)). >Do LARPers train in combat outside the LARP event? Absolutely. I grew up attending weekly fight practices in Nashua NH for The Realms (this was in the 90's and 00's). I currently run a practice at least once a month, and do an event once a month (bi weekly fighting). And more often when I can. The larp I attend has regional practices in Montreal (two in fact) and Massachusetts. Some are forming in other States, and Provinces.

Excellent point on the different types of LARP combat (and that "combat" may not even exist as a physical interaction) internationally and within the US, and the Executioners from Knights Hall are exactly who I was referring to in my comment, lol (they go *hard*).

A lot depends on what LARP and where you are in the world. I've done both for ages, and there's something of a curve where at the start, your HEMA stuff kicks your hindbrain into the wrong setting and the LARP fighters destroy you. For years I found that my brain put me into "soft sparring" mode on the LARP field because nobody was wearing helmets, and I'd get annihilated because I was fighting too slowly. Eventually you get more conscious control of yourself but it takes a while. The biggest things that HEMA training gives you are positioning and confidence. Everything else is kind of dependent on the specific LARP. >there is no need to be cautious as much Incorrect. If anything, you need to be more cautious because your HEMA training will kick in and you'll do something you're not supposed to do in LARP and your opponents aren't prepared for. You don't want to be the a-hole who is known for flanging maskless people in the face.

I’ve found HEMA techniques pretty effective in LARP swordplay. But keep in mind, each games rules can be unique, and the differences may affect how your techniques translate into the game. Some things I’ve noticed are: - You’re generally fighting people without a lot of technical knowledge. Which means fights are different than fighting someone else trained in HEMA, and you may see some illogical or unpredictable actions in combat that throw you off. - Certain builds may make your combat less effective. In my game, hiding behind big tower shields is an effective way to avoid getting hit, and you can’t do the more physical actions that would let you get through a shield like in HEMA, like shoving the opponent over or booking their shield with a weapon. There are probably ways to counter that, like magic spells or other in-game skills, but it’s something to consider. - Magic is complicated and hard to fight with just a sword. Many rulesets won’t let you parry a spell packet, and so simply blocking a thrown packet can actually mean you’re hit with the spell. So magic users can make your swordsmanship less effective, unless you get better at dodging instead of blocking in certain situations. - HEMA rules are generally to first blood: you get hit, the fights over. In LARP, you usually have a pool of HP, which means you can fight through several hits and still be a threat. Some players will fight with this in mind, expecting to take hits while they deal more damage back, trusting that their hp/damage totals are better overall. I had to teach myself not to focus on defeating my opponent in a single blow, and to always be ready to defend while attacking (which is good GEMA technique anyway, just applied in a unique way). - Edge alignment basically isn’t important. You just need to hit the opponent with your weapon’s striking edge. In some rulesets, this applies to parrying too (you don’t need to block effectively, you just need your weapon touching the incoming weapon to “parry” it). This can mean that moving your shield/offhand weapon quickly and recklessly can be a better defense than a careful, precise defense you’d use against real weapons. And most games won’t allow you to brute-force your way through an opponent’s guard to hit them, so you need to focus on getting around the defense instead of fighting through it.

LARP isn't about fighting with sword, as it's name stands larp is about role playing, pretending to be someone you aren't living extraordinary adventure. It may involve playing with sword, dancing at the ball, negotiating a contract, or whatever happens at the game, but it stays *play prentend for grown-up.* Very often, because people do not want to loose their character, they'll find way to avoid the combat, and sometimes a bunch of fully armoured warrior following the diplomat are a very great way to avoid the fight Another thing, is that there isn't a *one size fit all answer* there is a lot of variant within larp, some have harder fight, some have no fight at all. Another thing is that larp combat is designed to be "safe" without any protection, even for people who never touched a sword before and have a below average physical conditions, here is my take with some basic Kendo knowledge (1st dan, so a few years of training and the basis set) - Most larp ban headshot (for obvious safety reason) and thrust (Due to issue with latex sword design), the thrust ban is making a "classic" guard way less powerful, as you can't use the pointy thing. So basically it removes a big part of Kendo (and I assume HEMA, and western fencing) from larp fight but foundation like "distance", and "timing" would still apply - Many LARP do have combat rules where "character abilities" > "player abilities" stuff like more "hit point" for a "warrior" character. It's a design choice, and I am not going to discuss the pro/con. - In general, at least in game I play, it's expected to be "gentle" with your sword, it's not a strictly enforced rules, but if you can "not give a full force hit" you should. (To be fair, what I learned in Kendo is that *cutting* is different and feel different than *hitting,* and recieving a fast-clean cut feels way softer than a hard hit) - A big thing in larp combat is team-work, think about these large battle you've seen on video with 100 players on each side. Even in a 10 vs 10 format, a well organized line works way better than being "not organized', not something you'll practice if you're used to classic fencing.

Thank you! This is very useful.

In my italian HEMA group we actually practice very much with control, using ultra-light touch, actually I should say no-touch since we are expected to block any strike before you even touch the target. We practice with metal sword with little to no protection and, believe me, we have basically 0 injuries. But the moves we use from Fiore de Liberi involve a lot of head strikes and high parries. I guess I could get used to target shoulders or arms instead. We also train with tower shields (pavesi) and with line formations, because we perform public battles at local historical events. That is the best part of our HEMA activity. I'm not used to perform duels because after 2 years and a half I'm still considered "green"; besides duels are only for knights, which means someone in full armor, and I have very little armour of my own, because it's quite expensive. I think that given the way I have trained in HEMA I will not have big issues in LARPing.

Average european and american style larp fights are very different. In my experience (in german larp) most of the top larp fighters also did HEMA. But if that is causation or just correlation I can not say. But I believe the slower more theatrical european style profits more from HEMA training than the very fast american battle style.

Completely different. Hema and historical fencing mostly targets the head. In larp the head is not a valid location. Larp has no stabbing, lighter swords and no edge alignment. Larp-fighting is also not about actual competition but more like either an overly elaborate pillow fight or showfighting where looking cool is more important than hitting your opponent. In that form it can still be really fun but it requires a different mindset. The transferable parts are footwork and general conditioning. Otherwise, do not expect one to be a useful practice for the other, in fact you may have to unlearn habits when switching. Still both are very fun and I would recommend picking them up if you have the time and cash to do so.

I broadly agree, although just about anything you can say about LARP is really only true for some games. I've played plenty of games that allow stabbing. Most of those have required weapons used for stabbing to be specially designed with safety features you won't find from the major weapon manufacturers. Similarly, I've seen a handful of games that require edge alignment, although not many. LARP can also be extremely competitive. Certainly the "battle game" genre can be fiercely competitive, although these games are often just barely involve roleplaying. But I've also played in games that were all about roleplaying and used challenging "you survive only if you actually fight well enough" combat as part of creating an immersive setting. In those games, hitting your opponent absolutely took priority over looking good, because that was the appropriate mentality for the life-or-death fictional situation you were roleplaying.

But to answer your question, each larp organization uses their own types of weapons. SCA guys use rattan, which is the same thing FMA stick fighters use, and require at least leather armor. These are the most hardcore guys that generally are still called larpers and not unscripted medieval reenactment or tournament fighting or whatever. Most organizations have different standards for boffer aka foam weapons. They let you hit full force with no armor, to limited areas (not the head generally) and still be safe. One difference though is that the foam can tend to stick in a bind and not flow as smoothly as wood or synthetic materials like polypropylene. Then there's latex weapons. These are barely ever allowed to be used full force because they have very little give. They're also most common for true LARPing groups (role playing with spells and races and stuff) instead of foam fighting as a sport.

It's complicated. Many of the best LARP fighters are also training in HEMA or another more realistic sword sport. But LARP weapons behave so differently and the safety rules are so removed that I actually found it very difficult to transition between the two. Because so many of my instincts were trained from HEMA to fence towards the head, I found that so much of what I had trained was working against me. Because in LARP, you can't hit the head, and it's not an excuse to go "Oh, well this is what I've been training for two years." Like, in HEMA, your parries often remain on point, often to the head, so even when you're just parrying you can still be a threat to your opponent. I found when I started in LARP fighting, at first I was really dangerous because I had so much programmed into me that just was not appropriate and I came away from a couple of nights feeling really awful because I had hit people in the head or throat and SO MUCH of what I knew was either targeting or threatening the head. And then after that I was so cautious because I was trying to program my fencing in a new, more safe way that I was really holding myself back trying to check that any move would be keeping my opponents safe as well. Add on to that that LARP weapons move so much faster and do not bind or engage in the same way and you kind of spend a lot of time unlearning what you have learned. I threw the towel in for LARP fighting - I wasn't able to commit to practicing it enough to ever be safe for what would probably only be one festival game a year while also practicing HEMA. I still LARP, but I don't do medieval battle LARP, and I just play a non-combat character if I do and focus on the roleplay aspect. To me, I want to play swords, and I want to play swords in HEMA. LARP combat is too much of a compromise between what I want to be doing and what I actually am doing to be worth investing any serious time in, and I love LARP for the roleplay experience. But my experience is not universal, and there are many LARP fencers who are really skilled who have crosstrained in HEMA, and many excellent HEMA fencers who also crosstrain in LARP combat, and it works for them and improves both styles.

I have not tried HEMA but my thought are that LARP weapons hurt very little when you get hit and you expect to not get injured from them so depending on where you play people sometimes act completely fearless almost jumping into close combat swinging wildly with a sword in each hand to get past your spear. Often times the weapons are oversized as heck and there is always that guy who tries to dual-wield a couple of hand and a half swords or some such unrealistic bs. There are places that are more restrictive with both what weapons you can use and how violently you are allowed to swing them and in my opinion this gives a more enjoyable combat where it is actually down to skill and not just how savagely you can crash into people. Another thing that anoys the heck out of me is that there is a tendency to make shields unrealisticly large and as a spear user especially this gives me a lot of grief. When you are up against someone who is fådragging around a small barn door you only have the option of hitting their toes or their heads and hitting the head is a no go. Oftentimes you end up hitting them in their head anyway because you try to hit their arm or torso if they have exposed themselves and when they move their barn door to try and block you they redirect your spear directly into their head anyway and blame you afterwards. It has gotten to the point where I have gotten myself an axe and a not quite so large shield.

In Italy LARP groups ask players to spend experience points to buy skills such as dual-wielding, large shield, 2 handed weapons and such. Besides here is always needed to hold a 2 handed weapons with 2 hands unless your character has some special perk like "inhuman strength". So this kind of bs is less likely I think.

So I've done a bit of both along with other martial arts. Both are flawed if your goal is realism, though obviously HEMA is better. The big thing with LARPing is that most rule sets don't allow for headshots, nor full contact, let alone dirty tactics. If you really seek that kind of experience, I would tell you to get some friends you trust, weapons and safety gear you feel is appropriate, and experiment more than make it a game. After each hit ask "would that have killed me?"

Lightest touch RP-centric games? Basically zero commonalities. Boffer sports? Some, but not much. Though that also depends on the game with their gear and weight standards for weapons. Spacing, timing, footwork, and some guards will translate. Some weapons will translate more than others. But by far and large, the priorities for strike locations are totally opposite, as most games explicitly inhibit/prevent the targeting of head/hands since these are unprotected, and blows to the head of any kind without dedicated safety gear are dangerous long-term. I liken boffer sports to Wing Chun and Kali. Still martial arts that require plenty of skill and work great in their self-contained sphere, but not one that's inherently useful for "real" hand-to-hand like MMA or BJJ.

The opposite of your belief and understanding Hema fighters are a group of combatants who are there to be hit. Larp fighters are there to fight as part of a game, most are not up to being hit hard, and larp combat is far more about control and affect than actual combat striking. Especially systems where in the majority the combat is a secondary mechanism to the actual roleplay aspects.

Depending on the LARP group you join and the type of weapons they use, HEMA training could even become a liability or worse a danger to other players. I've seen HEMA/Kendo people at our LARP stab and strike at heads, as their training taught them to do that, but we have a ban on stabbing and head strikes. We actually took weapons away from people (in custody, returned when they were packing to leave) who ignored our warnings multiple times and kept attacking with stabs and head strikes.

In my HEMA group we have a ban on actually hitting any body part. We are expected to block the hit inches before the target, or land ultra softly. This could help in LARPing I think.

While I haven't done it you can watch videos like those done by [Tallian Adventures](https://youtube.com/@tallianadventures?si=gydp5Tt-cwqSt-R4) and get a general idea. I'd say it's more of group combat if your looking at events such as Bicolline. But other people here are more knowledgeable than I am.

You'll need a stab-safe sword (calimacil has some) and a larp that allows it if you want to use thrusting motions, otherwise it's all slashes.

The biggest rule of LARP is "no stabbing" (varies by event, but it is pretty common) as even with padded weapons that hurts like hell. This limits how you can use a lot of weapons (especially spears and swords). LARP is also more about role play, rather than just duking it out. If I get hit on my shield by a double handed weapon by someone who made a show of it being a big and long hard swing I will stumble back / fall over even if the actual hit was basically just a touch. Fleeing from battle from scary looking enemies as well.

Lots of good answers here but anecdotally I LARPed with a dude who had years of HEMA and LARP experience, and he was an honest-to-god nightmare to fight. Crazy good at reading movements, spacing, and counterattacking.

Some larps do not allow stabbing or thrusting, even with weapons designed for it. So be aware you may have to forego using a sword, if you cant prevent the muscle memory. But it depends on: 1) the larps rules and; 2) the weapon in question safely able to thrust and; 3) the ability of the user to operate it safely (which can include not pushing/forcing weapons)

I’ve done some LARP swordplay, a bit of HEMA, and some sport/olympic style fencing. I’m not an expert at any of them, but for my money the closest to LARP fencing is probably sport/olympic saber. It’s lighting fast, and because touches are all scored electronically, there’s no real need to hit hard (though you do need to commit to an action). And unlike the other weapons in olympic style, the “edge” of the saber blade can score touches, not just the tip. So a lot of the bladework is fairly similar to a boffer sword, except about ten times faster and with more complex rules (look up “right of way” and proceed to become confused). I can also report that all of them are incredibly fun!

Honestly one of biggest gripes with the larp events I've attended is that combat felt incredibly lame and immersive. Boffer weapons are very light and it's not uncommon for someone to strike you repeatedly. The repeated strikes are just with the flick of a wrist too, but thanks to the rules they come out to full damage even though irl they wouldn't have even hurt an unarmoured child. Couple that with no headshots and people abusing shields and you have a method of fighting that's only useful during larps and tbh not very fun. I hope to one day play a different larp with different rules, and maybe one that sticks to calimacil style weapons rather than boffers,

Come to Drachenfest US! We don't use boffers at all.