PAX Panel – Points about swords: Sword Fighters Discuss Game Combat

September 19, 2023 Leave a comment

At this year’s PAX in Melbourn a few sword fighters will get together for a panel discussing sword combat in games. The Panel will take place Saturday, October 8th at 3:30pm in Kookaburra Theatre and you should definitely join us.

Our panel of sword fighting experts as we thrust deep into the relationship between sword fighting in games and as real world skill. Panellists include a historian, an expert in interactive narrative, an armoured combat champion, and game designer, all of whom have real world sword fighting experience as practitioners of historical fencing, LARP, iaido or metal weapons re-enactment. Join us for a cutting edge discussion on game combat.

Panellists Are:

Tim (they/them), who facilitates classes at The Old Sword Club in Sydney. Tim is a HEMA practitioner of Victoriana Era fencing, focussing on sabre fencing, knife fighting and duelling sword. They also dabble in recreating Viking Age fighting, and have a background in metal weapons re-enactment, along with having trained Muay Thai, boxing, submission wrestling and modern knife combatives. Tim is also a trained historian specialising in Victorian Britain and the Viking Age, and even wrote their thesis on the works of fencer Alfred Hutton. Game wise Tim is is super into tabletop role playing games, and especially loves any with realistic, or interesting, combat mechanics.

Mosh (he/him), has a full blown neurotic obsession with Historical Fencing, where he even forgot that literature other than fencing manuals existed for a four year period. He is the Head Coach and Master of Arms at the Fitzroy College of Arms and primarily teaches 17th century Rapier, and actively trains many weapons as a Historical Fencer who has won and placed highly in many HEMA/ Historical fencing competitions. Mosh is also a veteran LARPer and has fought Knightly duels to battles with over 2000 people. Unsurprisingly, this journey started with his first fighting game – Tekken Tag tournament on the PS2, which helped spur him into his first martial arts classes, subsequently cascading into a deep love of all examples of people attempting to out play each other and learn and develop high tier metas to overcome and stack the odds in their favour, no matter how insane.

Lois (she/they), who has nearly twenty years of experience as a HEMA practitioner with a current focus on 16th-17th century Iberian fencing styles. She currently teaches rapier, both with and without companion weapons as a provost and instructor at the Brisbane School of Iberian Swordsmanship. Lois has also trained in Japanese sword arts and is a Nidan in Muso Shinden Ryu. They also translate manuals for fun and have done academic research into interactive narrative. Lois is also a die-hard Bushido Blade fan and regretful backer of the ill-fated KLANG! project headed by Neal Stephenson.

Kye (he/him), is a fencer at Fitzroy College of Arms studying longsword, broadsword and Rapier. As well as an amateur game designer with a special interest in tabletop roleplaying games and years of experience facilitating community events. In general Kye enjoys most genres of games for what they are, but has a particular interest in strategy games.

Molly (she/her), is Women’s Captain of the Western Wolves for Ballarat Medieval Combat, a member of the current Team Australia for Buhurt and currently ranked #4 worldwide in armoured combat longsword duels. She also Specialises in wrestling in the styles of Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and frequently analyses how that relates to historical wrestling techniques. Molly is an Avid gamer, most enjoying JRPG’s, classic platformers and rhythm games!

How to get into sword fighting:

Part of the goal of this panel may have been to inspire you to get into real world sword fighting. We hope it did. Here’s a handy guide for where to find a friendly sword club in whichever type of sword fighting you most appeals to you (though practising multiple approaches to sword fighting is super fun as well, so don’t feel limited to one).

Where the panellists sword:

Lois (Brisbane)

HEMA: Brisbane School of Iberian Swordsmanship

Tim (Sydney)

HEMA: The Old Sword Club

Mosh and Kye (Melbourne)

HEMA: Fitzroy College of Arms

LARP: Swordcraft

Molly (Ballarat)

Buhurt & HEMA: Western Wolves – Ballarat Medieval Combat

Other places you can do sword fighting:

For a list of Australian based HEMA clubs go to: https://www.aushistoricalfencing.com/schools

For a list of LARP groups and events check out: https://ofscienceandswords.com.au/australian-larp-directory

For a list of metal weapons re-enactment groups check out: https://www.alhf.org.au/mem_grps.html

For a list of places that do Buhurt/HMB go to https://www.australianmedievalcombat.com/affiliated-clubs/all-clubs

Panel notes:

Key Terms:

HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts)

The practice of reconstructing historical martial arts, mostly swordplay, from Europe and its colonies through interpretation of sources designed to tell you how to fight.

LARP (Live Action Role Play)

Acting out rpg stories in real life, often using simulated combat for fight scenes.

Buhurt/HMB (Historical Medieval Battle)

A modern combat sport recreating medieval armoured tournaments, mostly focused on group combat, known for its brutality.

Metal weapons re-enactment

Historical re-enactment involving mock combat wearing historical armour and using blunt versions of historical weapons while placing limitations on technique to render that safe.

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