People's perception of 2ft may be different, but I can grab a yard stick and show exactly what is and isn't legal.
(tries helplessly to describe this in other ways and gives up)
I guess the short of it is if safety becomes opinion/common sense based, I will not fight under that system. This isn't a threat but more that I just wouldn't feel comfortable with it as I know where it ends and the sound it makes.
My posts in no way reflect that of anyone else nor are they in any way official.
I like common sense based rules. I've used them my whole life and I'm doing pretty well. Common sense is easy. Don't walk off the bridge. Don't get too close to the other guy. Works good.
One thing I want to do at the next WH event, and maybe you guys can do it at the next FH event is take a little extra time during the Game-on meeting and have a 5 minute demonstatrion of Charging. First sit down and agree on maybe 4 most likely scenarios, and go through them with the players to visually show them what is and is not Charging. I think that will help out a lot.
The Riddle of Steel compares a man's heart to a piece of raw unworked iron, hammered by adversity and forged by suffering purged hardened by the fire of conflict A man's heart can only be purified and shaped on the anvil of despair and loss
Todd you aren't getting it, you already know how to fight safely, it seems like something everyone should know to you because it's second nature now, but that wasn't always the case. And people think different things are safe. I called a game stop in the mass battle where Woden died because an NPC was going through the middle of two lines of people standing shoulder to shoulder, completely bent at the waist, hitting people in the shins and they thought it was safe, they figured nobody got hurt, and they didn't knock anyone down. I hate stopping game for something like that but the person couldn't hear me saying stop doing that it's not safe over and over. And when I almost fell over to avoid kicking them in the head I felt I had to. That's just one blatantly bad instance but I used to see at least one un-safe fighting instance happen per game. I don't think 5 minutes at every other game on, or a short fighting class during game break or something like that is in any way a bad thing, it can only help. Besides, what doesn't make you claw your eyes out?
Atrum Draconus House Draconus Hand of King Chimeron Draconus ANNOSUS DRACONUS!
Essentially, if what you are doing is the real-life equivalent of press, you are charging. If someone is forced to give up ground to you due to physical contact, you are charging.
