A Paladin Helmet

As I mentioned, I want an open-faced helmet. There are a few reasons:

• It's easier to see
• It's easier to breathe
• It's easier to wear glasses.

Unfortunately, my Red Dragon sallet does not fit. Otherwise, it would work fine.

I missed out on a nice conical helmet from Norton. I posted this back in 2019. It would be perfect, but Norton no longer sells to the general public.

Wyrmwick has a nut helmet that would also be perfect. But it is large and it ships from England. I'm not sure that I want to shell out the money for something that may not fit.

I thought about the Nordic helmet from Medieval Collectibles/Dark Knight Armory. But it looks more Dark Ages.

Now I’m thinking I could modify this barbarian helmet. I could remove the cheek pieces, sand down the sides so they look less rough, and then repaint it. It is out of stock now

I'm still pondering. Feel free to chime in.

Paladin Kit 2026

 I’ve been down this road before. Once again, I find myself looking into a paladin kit.

Why?

I started ruminating about it after I played the villainous Ser Guy during an event. I kind of like the look. Also, I think the tabard over a shirt is actually cooler than my Legion tunic.

Inspiration

My immediate inspiration for a LARP paladin is a crusader. But this can cover a lot of ground. Let’s look into specifics.

• I’d like an open-faced helmet
• I’d rather not wear metal armor – either chainmail of plate. Plastic or leather is fine.

I used AI to concoct a basic model.

This model wears chainmail, but I’ll discuss substitutes.

I am going to create separate posts to evaluate each component.

• Helmet
• Body Armor
• Arms
• Legs

New Shoes!

I finally picked up some shoes that look better for LARP.

They are chukka boots from Amazon.

They're not authentic but they'll look good enough from several feet away. And they were on sale for $26!

More Enhanced Kits

Following up on the previous post, here are the last few enhanced kits.

Scymatia

Teikoku

Tortuga

Enhanced Kits

Following up on my post about kits for recruits, I am generating Chat GPT images of upgraded kits - basically something to strive towards.

These are the ones I've done so far.

Aridia

Chevalia - knight and ranger options

The Empire

The Isles

Nevora - with and without armor

Palmyra

Rhuunheim

Kits for the Recruit

Back in October, I mentioned a silly project that started with some basic garb using common clothing items. I then went into an armor black hole.

I have returned to the concept of basic garb. I figure with a few modifications someone could fairly easily model the different cultures my LARP. I generated some images in Chat GPT to illustrate the concept.

Basic Kit

Here is a player in a basic kit - t-shirt tunic, sweatpants, belt, and hiking boots.

Regional Variations

Here is how we can take the basic kit and modify it to represent the different cultures.

Aridia - based on the tales of the Arabian Nights. Add a turban, vest, sash, and leg wraps.

Chevalia- based on the tales of the knights of Arthur and Charlemagne. Add a tabard. T-shirt color change is optional.

Aurelia - heartland of our Empire, inspired by Rome. Change the t-shirt color and wear shorter pants. I don't recommend going pants-less.

The Isles - akin to the Scottish Highlands. Swap pants for a kilt.

Nevora - Renaissance and Tudor fashion. A vest, flat cap, and leg wraps convey the image.

Palmyra - based on ancient Egypt. Change the t-shirt color, cut off the sleeves, and wear a white kilt instead of pants.

Rhuunheim - barbarians like the Vikings and ancient Germans. Add a faux fur mantle, leg wraps, and maybe bracers.

Scymatia - inspired by the Slavs of Eastern Europe, especially the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Here we use a bathrobe to represent a zupan. Add a faux fur hat and leg wraps.

Teikoku - akin to feudal Japan. Again we use a robe, this time as a kimono like top. Wide legged sweatpants complete the look.

Tortuga - a pirate haven. A bandana and sash give the pirate look.

I should mention that I purposely did not change the shoes. This is from a practical standpoint - we want to protect our toes during battle. Otherwise, I would have suggested sandals for the Aurelians, Teikokuans, and Tortugans.

Next Steps

I am in the process of compiling these guidelines as well as some basic campaign history, cultural information, and suggestions on acquiring a kit into a guidebook for new recruits.

Leveling Up in Valiant LARP

I would like the officers of the Chimera Legion to consider possible improvements to the current requirements for leveling up. Please send me any suggestions. We can also discuss during practice.

Current Requirements

Here are the current requirements by level. I include the generic level titles with the Chimera Legion equivalents in parentheses.

1. Recruit (Rudis). No requirements. All players start at level 1.
2. Apprentice (Tiro). 3 lore battles. Own a tabard or tunic. Demonstrate proper game etiquette.
3. Regular (Miles). 1 full season of lore battles. Own basic garb and a weapon. Demonstrate prowess and proper game etiquette.
4. Veteran (Emeritus). 2 full seasons of lore battles. Own full garb and a complete weapon set. Demonstrate prowess and proper game etiquette.
5. Exemplar (Principale). 3 full seasons of lore battles. Own full garb, loaner garb, a complete weapon set, and a loaner weapon set. Demonstrate prowess and proper game etiquette.
6. The Best (Optimates). 4 full seasons of lore battles. Own full garb, loaner garb, and monster garb. Own three complete weapon sets. Demonstrate prowess and proper game etiquette.

Notes:

• Basic garb includes tunic, pants, appropriate shoes and belt.
• Full garb is better quality basic garb with accessories, like headgear.
• Monster garb is for when the player is an NPC. It helps the game if people have their own monster garb.
• Weapon sets include sword and board, great sword, bow and 6 arrows, javelin and buckler, etc,
• In the past, I used an Order of the Eagle in a season as a mark of prowess. Now that we have more players we will need another benchmark. The officers can discuss candidates.
• For level 6, I would like to have a quest as the test of prowess.
• Proper game etiquette means the player obeys the rules, does not sluff, treats other players with respect, and makes the game better.

Guiding Principles

When we developed these guidelines initially, these are some principles I kept in mind.

• Reward the character not the player. That is why there are no requirements to build stuff.
• No stupid trials. In Bel and WotS these tend to be of the fight everyone until you drop variety. Thus, they tend to be endurance trials, etc. Waste of time. I want to reward people for what they do during the actual game, specifically lore battles.
• No pay to play. People should acquire the basics, garb and weapons. But they don't need armor or other really expensive gear to level up.
• For higher levels, I want to reward characters who show leadership by helping the Legion. Loaner garb and weapons are great helps.
• Level 6 should be our equivalent of knighthood. These characters will get an in-game ennobling ceremony (details TBD).

Questions

I have some questions for the officers.

• What do you think of the requirements? Anything to add or change?
• Does it take too long to reach level 6?
• Is requiring 3 weapon sets for level 6 too much? The idea is that the character can outfit him or herself plus two others. Kind of like a knight and two squires.
• Should I drop the requirement for monster garb? It is technically out of character. Originally, the requirement called for feast garb. I dropped that because we don't really do fancy feasts.

You can respond in our Discord or in the comments section of this post.