[MR] New Combat Archery Rules

[Gorm of Berra]

Except for one not very minor detail, your Majesty...

The Baldar Egg Blunts, which are specifically banned (without
modification) by this ruling, *were* approved for SCA use, and were sold
by merchants in good faith, until this ruling which was put out this
past week, which bans them in 2 days.

And the vast majority of combat archers were kept in the dark about this
until after the ruling was made.  Enquiries on the Missile-Combat list
about "I've heard there's a rule change coming...what's going on?" were
met with a "Things are still being worked out, you *WILL* be involved
once the plans are formed".

This, obviously, did not happen.  Just as it did not happen when the
completely ludicrous APD debacle of two years ago was imposed upon the
community. (For those not in the know, basically *all* shafted arrows
were rendered illegal by fiat unless they had an approved
Anti-Penetration Device on the back end...except that at the time the
ruling was made there *WERE* no approved APD's, and only a 3 month
window was provided to develop them.  The Archers managed to squeeze in
the development of several in that timeframe, but only as a result of
MASSIVE, UNREIMBURSED, and UNTHANKED effort by a number of people.

It would be as if because someone almost got a splinter in their arm,
all rattan swords were declared illegal immediately.  Oh, no, wait, that
would never happen, because a change to *those* rules would be
communicated to the community affected before it happened.

Thankfully, as I understand the ruling, I am not affected, as I had not
encountered a need to migrate to the latest blunt technology, so I will
be able to stand by Atlantia at Pennsic...but...as it stands, I wonder
if Atlantia really wants it's archers to stand by it.

Gorm
(If you think for a moment this has anything to do with my official
duties as a Herald, you need to clear your head a bit)


logan wrote:
> these rules were not dropped on anyone.  they already exist in both the armor standards and the weapons standards on a society level.  they are: