r/wma

My custom ruleset for a hybrid smallsword and savate sparring game. It may be a little too rough and tumble for the faint of heart and playing on a soft surface like grass or mats may be more comfortable. Some may like a mouth guard in addition to fencing gear but if play is responsible shouldn't be required. This is getting into folk game territory admittedly.

Core Rules:

Thrusts only. All Jackpot points +1 are granted upon a single clean thrust. Simultaneous thrusts result with no points awarded. Instead, add 1 point to the Jackpot held in limbo. The first fencer to score 21 points and lead by 2 points wins the assault.

The jackpot is a way to positively reinforce clean fencing as it does not award doubles. Instead it uses doubles to increase the ponderation of the next clean hit. It is meant to synergize wasted time into game design while adding a wee bit of drama. Cheering and heckling is encouraged.

Rough and Tumble Rules:

Kicks, trips, and open hand pushes carry 0 direct points.

Instant Win: Knocking an opponent to the ground (anything above the ankle touching the ground) using a chassé medium, revers bas, coup de pied bas, or main ouverte opens an instant win condition. Landing a clean thrust on the grounded opponent delivers the instant match victory.

Ground Defense: Downed fencers may defend themselves until they are back on two feet upon which ends the instant win condition for their opponent. If a fencer chooses an action like the passata sotto that fencer does open himself/herself to the instant win condition until back on two feet only. Tackling, closed fists, wrestling, grabbing and throwing opponents are strictly prohibited.

Legal Savate Striking & Sweeping Suite

1. Mid-Level Push Kicks (Chassé Medium)

Execution: A direct piston-like push kick delivered with the sole or heel to the opponent's body (strictly below the collarbone for safety).

2. Low Hook Kicks (Revers Bas)

Execution: A sweeping or hooking kick targeted below the knee, using the boot or instep to hook behind the lead heel or calf.

3. Low Sweeping Trips & Clears (Coup de Pied Bas / Croche)

Execution: A low, sweeping kick or boot-trip targeted at the opponent's shin or ankle, scooping their foot out from under their center of gravity.

4. Open-Hand Deflections (Main Ouverte)

Execution: Pushing, redirecting, or catching the opponent's lead shoulder, wrist, or weapon arm with the non-fencing hand to disrupt balance or unmask the target area.

Peace to us all 🌞

Though orthopedic grips are sometimes seen as just hamfisted MOF pistol grips by our HEMA community, they were designed by Italians around 1904-ish to help those who could not properly grip a foil due to injury to continue fencing. As pictured you can see that chef's kiss grip being facilitated by the orthopedic grip with 3 and 4 fingers respectively. Also featured is a drawing of grips from Giordano Rossi. If not used as a punch dagger, the orthopedic grips do allow and enhance fine motor skills and dexterity if one's mindset is to do that.

I would like to ask if anyone has experience with the Spanish smallsword by timebladeguild? [found here](https://timebladeguild.com/) It looks interesting to say the least and I am very intrigued by its modern garden art charm. Wanted to know if it caused discomfort or blisters.

Here are some video reviews of the Spanish smallsword courtesy of: https://www.reddit.com/user/Dull_Detail_6606/ timebladeguild

LondonLongsword

https://youtu.be/hGNNFRI7E9U?is=Gzf2wn8sDggtnSJ7

OliverJanseps

https://youtu.be/KctqRV48wKY?is=GIdLl0Ei6e0jwdVR

As always here is the Wayback's Jackpot Mode training game you might enjoy: Jackpot points +1 are granted upon a single clean hit or upon an immediate parry riposte (this means no marching in between the parry and riposte for any Olympic types out there) then reset the points held in the jackpot to 0. Simultaneous Hits result with no points awarded. Instead, add 1 point to the Jackpot held in limbo. The first fencer to score 21 points and lead by 2 points wins the assault.

Peace to us all

Private lessons in HEMA are still underrated. They are not as fun as sparring, but the experience you get is much more condensed. It's not even easy for the coach to prepare such a lesson, and it's also quite demanding. But in sparring, you keep repeating the same mistakes again and again unnoticed. In a private lesson, the coach exposes many of those, even subtle errors, and lets the student correct them himself without telling him exactly what to do. (Sometimes he corrects them precisely when the student is clueless :))

STOP! A WARNING TO READERS! Admittedly I was testing the waters with this post on purpose. Wanted to see the data of a post that would most likely generate negative feedback given our sword culture's temperature of today while simultaneously refraining from outright attacking anyone. I wanted to see how much of an echo chamber the culture has become. If you managed to stay positive, thank you and may your inner peace last 😊 As always you are free to dawn your armchairs and ready your keyboards if you feel a call to arms is required.

Social Media culture routinely pairs the Japanese katana with the European longsword as natural cultural equivalents. However, a proper historical analysis reveals that the katana shares far more cultural, functional, and mythological DNA with the 19th-century American revolver.

Indubitably, both weapons occupy near-identical niches in the collective imaginations of their respective nations. Here is why:

Civilian Sidearms of an Era of Peace: The longsword was primarily a military weapon of late medieval battlefield warfare and noble dueling. Conversely, the iconic era of the katana—the Tokugawa Shogunate—was defined by over two centuries of internal peace. Much like the Colt Single Action Army in the American West, the katana transitioned from a larger primary weapon of open war to the ubiquitous sidearm of daily civilian wear, symbolizing personal authority, law enforcement, and individual self-defense.

The Culture of the Quick-Draw: The defining technique of late katana martial arts is Iaijutsu (or Iaido)—the art of drawing the blade and striking in a single, instantaneous motion directly from the scabbard. This mirrors the romanticized quick-draw ethos of the Western gunslinger. Neither knightly longsword manuals nor battlefield doctrines prioritized the "draw-and-strike" duel from a hip holster in everyday encounters.

Cinematic Intertwining: It is no accident that Japanese Chanbara cinema and American Westerns translate seamlessly into one another. Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo became Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, and Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven. The solitary samurai wandering into a lawless town with a katana on his belt is the exact narrative archetype of the lone gunslinger arriving with a revolver on his hip.

Symbolic Mythology Beyond Practicality: As military technology rendered both weapons battlefield-obsolete, they transformed into legendary symbols of a romanticized honor code—the idealized Bushido mythos for the samurai, and the "Code of the West" for the frontier shooter. Both were elevated from simple tools of steel and iron into mythic extensions of the individual's moral character.

While the longsword remains a fine weapon of knightly warfare, the katana and the revolver are cultural soulmates born of transitional frontiers, personal duels, and cinematic legend.

Feel free to check out a fun game for Military Sabre:https://www.reddit.com/r/Hema/comments/1vlmk43/waybacks_jackpot_mode_sabre_edition/

Pennsic MISSING POSSIBLY STOLEN: Two swords from the back of one of my students’ Jeep at E02 last night, corner of Low Rd and Sedalia's Way:

First: Darkwood swept hilt rapier with twisted wire grip as seen in photo, but with a few rust spots. Has fencing rubber tip taped on.

Second: Brand New Sigi Longsword, with faceted pommel and tan cord grip. Un-tipped.

Missing since some time last night (7-8 Aug).

If returned, no questions asked. Will pay shipping.