Grand Day of Tournaments Rapier Schedule
October 28, 2023
Rapier MIC: Lady Birke die Jaegerin
C&T MIC: Lord Andries von Voorburg
Youth Rapier MIC: Master Michael McCay
Rapier List Schedule
Rapier Activity Descriptions
Open Pick-Ups and Teaching, All Day, List 3
List 3 is open all day for pick-ups and one-on-one teaching. Please share with your fellow combatants and have a great time using this space to have fun and learn at your own pace.
Authorizations, 9 – 10 am, List 2 (Heavy Rapier) and List 4 (Cut & Thrust Rapier)
Show up to the event early and get those authorizations in! Check in at the list table and ask for marshals to conduct your authorization. Authorizations may be accommodated later in the day if there are marshals and space (always ask!), but come by 9 am to make sure you can make it happen.
Early Bird Poker Tourney, 9 - 10 am, List 1
Early birds get the worms… er, poker cards! Warm up for the day in a laid-back poker card tournament.
Bringing whatever weapon style you choose, line up at the entrance to the list and grab the nearest opponent in the line to fight, once there’s an open spot on the list! There will be a deck of cards sitting at the corner of the list table. Fight your opponent, and as you leave the list, the winner draws 2 cards and the vanquished draws 1 card. You must discard down to 5 cards if drawing gives you more than 5 cards. The person with the best poker hand by 10 am wins!
Vigilant Raphael Holding the List, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, List 4
Vigilant to Master of Defense Raphael di Merisi will be holding the list from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm.
Warder Arnolde’s Memorial Tourney, 10:30 - 11:30 am, Lists 1 & 2
Warder Arnolde inspired everyone around him with his sheer joy of rapier and encouragement of others to further the sport we play. To that end, the Warder Arnolde Memorial Tourney (sponsored by his cadet Lord Galen O’Conaill) has a grand prize of a $200 gift card to Castille Armory. In this tournament the points can be weighted and donated to spread the joy of rapier to all involved.
Fight everyone once, round robin style (as many people as you can get in the span of 1 hour): Use whatever style you wish, and fight best of 3, re-fighting doubles. You get 1 point for person you fight, and 1 additional point for winning the fight.
At the end of the tournament, you have the option to donate your points: You can donate 50% of your points to one other opponent, and/or 25% of your points to one different other opponent. So, at the end, you can have all of your points, ¾ of your ports, ½ of your points, or ¼ of your points, depending on how many you give away.
After points are donated, then points are weighted:
- First event ever (and authorized) all points are worth 175%
- First authorization ever (but not first event) all points are worth 150%
- Not first event, not first authorization, no awards, then all points are worth 125%
- Not first event, not first authorization, only an aoa then all points are worth 110%
- Everyone else, all points are worth 100%.
Youth Rapier, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm, List 4
From 12-1 pm will be youth authorizations, sparring, and learning opportunities! At 1 pm, Master Michael McCay will run a youth tournament for any who wish to enter.
Halloween Monster Tourney: 12:30 – 1:30 pm, Lists 1 & 2
Roll a die to turn into a Halloween Monster, ah – ah – ah! ! Fight your fellow monsters to the death in this winner’s bear pit with special monster rules.
Dice rolls:
- Vampire: Cloak and dagger. Only can be killed by a torso shot or draw cut to the neck.
- Zombies: Double dagger. Must cut off all limbs to kill it.
- Villager: Sword and shield. Can be killed in the standard way.
- Skeleton: Sword and dagger. Only can be killed by draw cut.
- Werewolf: Case. Can be killed in the standard way.
- Ghost: Single sword. Only can be killed by a head shot.
Roll the die and get in the line for a bear pit. Winners stay in for up to 3 wins. The vanquished leave the bear pit, re-roll the dice, and get back in line. Winners report their wins to the list table before getting back in line.
Field is open for the entire hour. Fight each bout as best of three passes, and the winner gets one point. Doubles are losses for both parties. If you are not authorized in the style you roll, choose a style you are authorized in. If you do not have the equipment but are authorized in the style, try to borrow the equipment if you can.
Bowser’s Castle Melee Tourney, 1:30 - 3 pm, Lists 1 & 2
This is a fast-paced melee game fought on stone platforms and bridges surrounded by lava! Navigate the bridges successfully to kill your enemies and collect coins as treasure for your team. Watch out, though – touch the lava and you die instantly, and the bridges won’t always stay the same!
It starts off with equal numbers of people randomly in each of the corner platforms (probably 3 in each corner). The MIC will call out which corners are on which team: either equal (2 corners per team) or free-for-all (each corner is a team). The team with the last man standing gets one point awarded to each team member.
After a few rounds of this, coins will appear in the center of the middle bridges. Get a coin back to a treasure chest in your teams’ corner(s) and get a point for your team!
Then the terrain starts to get treacherous as bridges appear and disappear between rounds.
Rules:
- No DFB
- If any part of you touches outside the tape at all, you’re dead (lava!) – if a marshal says you’re dead, then you’re dead. They will be watching for this!
- No jumping over the lava, though you can fight over it (these are stone platforms, with no walls).
- If you can safely hold a coin with a rapier item in the same hand (sword, dagger, parry device), you can still use both hands. Be careful – if I see people being dangerous, I will call you out. Maintain your calibration. No dropping rapier items on the field. You may sheath them on your belt.
- You can pass the coins by hand (no throwing) between living people.
- If you get hit in the hand or arm holding the coin, or you die, drop the coin where you stand.
- As long as the coins are outside the treasure chests, they can be picked up by anyone. Once in the treasure chest, they are scored and out of the game for the round.
- Only carry one coin at a time
If people are having fun and we want to continue to switch it up, other variations thrown in later in the game:
- 3 corners vs. 1 corner. The team in the 1 corner get a point per kill they make (none for double kills), even if they don’t last until the end.
- Some players get mushroom cards – they get one resurrection back in their corner (come back to their corner to use their resurrection mushroom).
C&T One Hand vs Two Hand Tourney, 2:30 – 3:30 pm, List 4
One Hand vs Two Hand Pools: Enter either pool, or enter both pools to double your odds of winning. The winner of both pools with fight in a final. Win both pools and win by default. There is a blade length restriction for the one handed pool of 36” from tip to guard.
C&T Victory Conditions Tourney, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, List 4
Roll for your victory condition, and then meet your victory condition to score points!
Grand Tourney, 3 – 4:30 pm, Lists 1 & 2
Come watch and bet on the spectacle as fencers battle each other in heralded tournament! For those fighting: This is an A-game double elimination tournament with fantastic prizes, including a real medieval coin! For those watching: Bet on who you think will win each bout, with odds based on rank, and rake in coins to try to win the day’s gambling prizes.
This is a double elimination tournament (entrants fight until they get two losses), one pass per fight, doubles re-fought (three doubles in a row and you both lose). The winner of this tourney gets a real period coin as their prize!
Medieval Coin Prize for Grand Tourney: Henry VII half-groat with a story
This coin is a half-groat (tuppence) of England’s Henry VII (1485-1509), the first Tudor monarch of the new dynasty. It is a hammered coin of fine silver with “tun” mint mark, about the size of a modern US nickel although thinner. Unlike most ”royal” coins, this half-groat was struck at Canterbury between 1490 and 1500 under a “grant of dies” to Archbishop John Morton – making this coin a relic of sorts. At some point its rim was chipped – possibly in period and intentionally as a “lucky coin.”
From VCoins:
John Morton was Archbishop of Canterbury from 6th October 1486 until his death on 15th September 1500. He was also Lord Chancellor of England from 1487 and elevated to the cardinalate in 1493. Henry VII had made him Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of his service in the ecclesiastical law courts but more importantly for being an important foe of Richard III, having spent time in captivity in Brecknock Castle for his views. The monument to Archbishop Morton in Canterbury Cathedral's crypt like his coins features the motif of the tun or barrel prominently. This being a pun on his name Morton as "More tuns" and this mint mark is in use 1493-99 upon his joint coinage with King Henry VII.