Greetings unto the Populace of Northshield,
It is with a great sense of joy (and an arguably greater sense of relief) that I am able to announce the new Kingdom rapier rules are now live! They are available for your perusal here.
While many of the basics have not changed (armor standards, rules of the list, etc.), there have been some updates and alterations that will impact both fighters and marshals. I won't attempt to go over all of them here, but I will highlight the larger changes just so people know what to expect.
1. The biggest change in that Cut and Thrust combat is once more a part of rapier combat and no longer its own martial activity. This puts us in alignment with the Society Rapier Rules and most other kingdoms in the SCA. I will go into a better overview in a subsequent post, but the main takeaways are that, a) C&T is now an advanced rapier authorization (much like single sword or defensive secondary, for example), and b) that it can be used on the rapier field rather than requiring a separate list of its own. This doesn't mean that people can't hold C&T tournaments in their own right, just that they need not be restricted to a separate field from rapier.
2. Not surprisingly, there are going to be changes to the C&T marshalate organization and procedures. This will also be covered in a separate post.
3. Northshield no longer has a list of specifically approved rapier and C&T blades. Rather, we now have a list of accepted manufacturers. This means that any blade produced by a listed forge and meets all of the stated requirements can be used on the field. Note that there are exceptions (sharps cannot be modified for rapier use, and not all blades made by a forge necessarily meet the published standards). Overall, though, the hope is that rather than play catch-up every time a new blade is put out by a manufacturer, fighters and marshals can instead focus on using the swords that are made. [If your blade manufacturer is not listed in the new rules, contact the KRM's office and we'll see what we can do.]
I realize that the release of these rules just before Warriors and Warlords in not the best timing. DON'T PANIC. The vast majority of what we were doing before is still the same. If your armor was legal yesterday, it is still legal today; if your rapier passed inspection before, it should pass inspection now (assuming it wasn't on the brink of turning into a steel pretzel or something). Blow calling hasn't changed. And no one is going to lose their C&T authorizations because of the rules change. Basically, if you do what you have been doing up until now, you will in all likelihood be fine.
I understand that not everyone will have have time to digest the new rules before Thursday. That's okay. I will be on site to answer questions, as will many other senior marshals. No one is going to try to play "Gotcha!" I am working on getting a time set aside for a general rules Q&A session at the event -- more information will be posted once I have it. I will also make sure to announce it on the field several times over the course of the event.
This has been a project involving many hands and hearts -- I am but the point man. My thanks to all the marshals, fighters, and gentles of the SCA who have offered advice, observations, and feedback during the course of these revisions. These are rules for a community that have been shaped by the community. Hopefully they will serve us all well.
Now go, have fun, and fight people!
I remain in service,
Simon Morcar,
Northshield Kingdom Rapier Marshal