The Art of Boffering
Boffering is a sport that is known by many geeks. The sport involves attempting to hit your opponent with a padded foam weapon. It can range from individuals sparring with each other to large groups fighting in massive battles. Either in groups or as individuals, boffering can be a huge amount of fun. On the web, there numerous resources for boffering. I’ve included a few of the best ones here.
Weapons:
Boffer weapons are usually made with a core of PVC with foam padding glued around it. The foam is covered with tape to protect it from tear. Weapons can take a variety of forms, from swords to daggers to clubs to spears. It is possible to create a boffer weapon modeled on almost any realistic weapon. Here is a great, simple guide for creating boffer weapons. This guide uses pool noodles as the padding which I thought was an interesting use. I found another guide here. This guide had videos, tips on where to get equipment and several different designs of weapons. The weapons shown in the second guide looked more realistic than traditional boffer weapons.
Rules:
Exact rules very from group to group, but most of the time, the rules are pretty simple. The goal is to ‘kill’ your opponent. This is achieved by striking them in the body. A hit to the leg forces them to lose that leg for the rest of that combat. A hit to the arm forces them to lose that arm for the rest of the combat. Generally, most groups do not count hits to the head or to the groin. This is for safety reasons. Even with padded weapons, boffering can be dangerous, and groups want to prevent injuries. Many times, if players swing to hard, they will be asked to stop fighting so that they won’t hurt their opponents. More rules can be found here.
Games:
While fights between two people can be fun, fights between large groups can be even better. When large groups are fighting, they can play in a wide variety of different games:
Free-for-All: A free-for-all is a game where every player is out for him or herself. There are no formal teams, although alliances can often form in the field. The winner is the last player left alive.
Pair or Team Free-For-All: This style of game is similar to the free-for-all except that players work in teams or pairs to eliminate all the other teams or pairs. The last team with any players left alive wins the game.
Zombies: In this game, one player starts out as a zombie. Zombies have infinite lives. When they are killed, the must return to their base to ‘respawn.’ All the other players start as humans. Humans only have one life. When they are killed, they turn into zombies. Eventually, the zombies will kill all the humans. The last human left is the winner.
Captains: In Captains, the players are divided into two, even teams. Each team selects a captain. The goal of the game is to kill the opposing teams captain. Often, each captain is given multiple lives, requiring that the opposing team kill the captain multiple times to win. Non-captain players usually have infinite lives and can ‘respawn’ by returning to their captain.
There are various other games, and the games played and the names they are called can very from group to group.
Boffering is a great deal of fun, and anyone interested should give it a try. It’s fairly easy to get started making weapons and it should be pretty easy to find people interested in playing. If you already are into boffering, what games do you like? What rules are different in your group?
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