Join us for our quarterly in house fencing tournament!
Join Hilt and Helm for our quarterly in-house tournament: “Pillowfecht 12: M@g!c the G@th3r!ng St3p!” In this un-ranked in-house tournament, fencers will split into two teams: each choosing a commander to wield their M@g!c cards with their likeness in a mish mash of fencing and children’s card games that’s is sure to be as fun as it will be insane.
Those interested in competing will be asked to submit a picture and flavor text for their card which we will create. We will assign power cost based on your HEMA rating or how well we know your abilities. Toughness and power are deliberately omitted as you’re gonna determine that by fighting.
Here’s a sample card of Tony!
The two commanders will draw from a pile of cards with each fighter in them to determine teams. Once all fighters have been distributed, both commanders will get extra copies of each fighters cards and can put together a deck from the cards we’ve made for the event.
Deck: 50 cards of your choosing.
Commander: The team captain’s card. It is always on the field.
Fighters: These cards either attack your opponent or defend you from attacks.
Lands: These give you power to summon fighters, equip weapons, and cast instants and sorceries
Counter: This is how many life points you have
Grave Yard: This is where vanquished fighters and spent equipment/instant/sorcery cards go.
Hand: Where your not-in-play cards reside. You start off with 5 initially and draw a new one at the beginning of each turn.
Here are the card types:
Land cards when tapped (turned sideways) give you mana to summon fighters, use instants or sorceries. These count for all mana types.
Fighter cards: These allow your team to either attack the opposing team or defend your team from their attackers. They cost a number of mana indicated at the top right of the card to summon from your hand. If they attack, they remain tapped until your next turn (meaning they can’t defend during your opponent’s turn). If they lose a fight, that copy of the card is sent to the graveyard.
Equipment: If fighters don’t have an equipment card applied to them, they can choose whatever weapon they want. If an equipment card IS applied to them, they have to fight with that weapon. In cases where two fighters have two different equipment cards, we default to the one with the lighter gear requirements.
Sorcery Cards effects that are played from your hand on your turn.
Instant Cards are played from your hand on either your turn or your opponent’s turn.
Turn Structure
Beginning Phase - This is when you untap your lands and fighters and draw a card.
Main Phase - You can play one land per turn, summon as many fighters and cast as many sorceries or instants as you can afford.
Combat Phase - tap (turn 90 degrees) any fighters you wish to commit to attacking your opponent. Once finished, they can cast any instants they can afford, then select as many fighters as they wish to defend their life points. Fights are resolved one at a time. If the attacker wins, the difference between their score and the defender’s is taken out of the team’s life points and the defender card goes to the grave yard. If the defender wins, the attacker’s card goes to the grave yard. This continues until the defending team is out of defenders or the attacking team is out of attackers. If the attacking team attacks and no one is left to defend, the defending commander can step in to face the attackers themselves. Losing this match will cost the defending team the game, but choosing not to fight loses them only 10 life points per uncontested attacker.
Can I see the cards first?
Sure! Here’s a gallery of the ones we’ve made so far. If you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to send them to us via email at hiltandhelm@gmail.com.
Ok, this sounds like fun. How do I sign up?
Admission is the usual registration fee of $20 (+$10 for equipment rental). Pillowfecht 12 will be limited to the following weapons: longsword, rapier, rapier + dagger, rapier + cape, saber, arming sword, and sword + buckler.
See “Da Rules” section of this page for details on the rules of the tournament.
Spectators can attend for free, competitors must pay a $20 registration fee + $10 if they need to borrow equipment .
Light refreshments will be served. The first two winning commanders will get a box of custom Hilt and Helm card Sleeves from Dragon Shield!
Please Register!
If you intend to compete, please reserve your spot on PushPress under “Pillowfecht 12: M@g!c Th3 G@th3r@ng St3p!”. This will allow us to figure out how many people to expect ahead of time. If you’d like to simply spectate, please check in under “Pillowfecht 12: (Spectator)”. Again, if you intend to fight in the tournament, please reserve your spot on PushPress. Once you have registered, please email me a picture and flavor text to hiltandhelm@gmail.com and I’ll make your card for the event.
How to Register!
EXAMPLE: Click on “Calendar” on our Website.
Navigate the Calendar to “April 4th” and select the left one if you are competing or the right one if you are just spectating.
Equipment
This section explains the equipment required for each weapon set. All fighters will be examined prior to start of the pools to ensure they are in compliance. We have spare equipment people may borrow for an additional $10.00. Borrowing weapons is no additional charge.
Heavy Weapons
Fencing Helmet with back of the head protection
Gorget
Padded Fencing Jacket
Heavy Fencing Gloves
Forearm/Elbow Protection
Groin Protection (we won’t look but for your sake it better be there)
Knee/Shin Protection
Light Weapons
Fencing Helmet with back of the head protection
Gorget
Padded Fencing Jacket
Light Fencing Gloves
Forearm/Elbow Protection
Groin Protection (we won’t look but for your sake it better be there)
Knee/Shin Protection
Structure of a Match
At the start of each match, one fighter must stay behind the blue line in area of the alley until the director calls “Fight!”
The match will continue except if
The director pauses the clock to discuss a score.
A safety halt is called.
When a judge sees a quality hit land, they will call “Point!”
When the director sees a quality hit land, they will call “Halt!”
Judges will lower their heads.
Fighters will stop fighting and return to their sides.
The director will say “Judges!” and the judges will show their scores.
If a judge sees a strike to the arm/leg, they will raise the hand of the team who scored the point to the side.
If a judge sees a strike to the head/torso, they will raise the hand of the team who scored the point above their head.
The director will adjudicate points as they and the judges can agree.
If all judges and the director agree, points are allotted as the collective sees it.
If the director and at least 1 judge agree, points are allotted as they see it.
If neither the director nor any of the judges can agree, the match is reinitiated.
Scoring
Matches end when 3 minutes have elapsed or one/both fighters have reached 0 hit points. Hits are scored as follows:
Head/Torso = 3 Points
Arms/Legs = 2 Point
If there is a double, all scores are reduced by 1 point.
Who ever has the most points at the end of 3 minutes or whose hit points haven’t been reduced to 0 wins. In the event of a tie during pools, both fighters lose. Once we get to eliminations if both fighters tie, sudden death will occur. The winner will be the first to perform the next highest scoring action.
During the Fighting
Only a “Quality Hit” (defined further in “Da Rules”) will be considered viable means of pausing a match. While paused the time will continue but we’ll try to keep the adjudication as brief as possible.
During the match, fighters may not pass the outside of the blue line closest to the edge of the ring or past the blue lines on either side of the alley.
Doing so once will be counted as a “ring out “and will reset the match.
Doing so twice will be counted as a yellow card and a warning.
Doing so three times will result in the offending fighter losing the match.
Excessive use of force will result in a yellow card. Points can not be scored in the same action that yields a yellow card.
Hitting the back of the head will result in a red card and lose the match for whomever made the blow.
2 yellow cards for the same offense will result in a red card which will cause the fighter to lose that match.
2 red cards for the same offense will cause the offending fighter to be barred from the rest of the tournament.
Quality Hits
A quality hit is performed with the weak of the blade to a valid target by either
a thrust with sufficient force that it would penetrate an unprotected body part if the blade were sharp
or a cut that rotates at least 30 degrees with intention to inflict bodily harm
or a slice that travels at least 1/3rd of the blade’s length
Pommel Strikes are also considered quality hits ifand only if they meet the following criteria
The fighter presents the clear capability to perform a pommel strike by raising their pommel in the air above the opponent’s mask.
Does not actually make hard contact with the opponent’s mask. If the director feels the strike was done too hard, the point will be thrown out and the offender given a red card for excessive force. Is this subjective? Yes. So err on the side of caution if you don’t want to be yelled at.
Shouts one of following words to demonstrate their intention:
Bonk!
Pow!
Bam!
Boop!
Other equally humorous words will be considered on a case by case basis.
In-Tempo Hits and Doubles
Instead of using tempo to determine who hit first, once hit a competitor has one step and one swing of their sword to land their blow for it to count as a double. This means that if you go in for an attack, you better guard as you retreat or else your point will turn into a double. If the hit lands, this counts as a double and both scores will be deducted from the appropriate health bar. So if blue fighter thrusts the chest and gets hit on the hands, blue fighter loses one health point but orange loses two.
Valid Targets
Any quality thrust or cut to a target above the knee will be considered valid. Shins will not count as valid targets only because if people target the shin and accidentally hit the ankle, it could result in serious damage. Targeting the knee but accidentally hitting the shin is unfortunate, but at least everyone will walk away unscathed. No strikes to the back of the head will be considered valid and any such strikes will result in a yellow card.
Grappling
Grappling will be allowed; however, both fighters have approximately 5 seconds to resolve the grapple in a quality hit.
Take Downs
Take downs (neither their set up nor their execution) are not permitted. We have hard floors and they are not conducive to having people get thrown on them.
Pocket Sand
Expressly forbidden.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding “Da Rules” please feel free to message us at hiltandhelmfencing@gmail.com.