today i want a sword
but i have no sword
this is rather sad
especially since i practiced swordplay a long time ago with a replica and it was rather satisfying though the group who owned the things had no idea how anything operated besides the utter basics (not like it wasn't more about fun than historical accuracy though) plus i had my own round shield and other nice things which are gone now but i still have fond memories of smacking blade against blade while jumping around like a frog on a dozen different illegal substances also shield usage
even if i had a sword i would have nowhere to use it legally because said group has probably disbanded by now and i'd have to join these reenactors who would end up with me beheaded over my ahistorical use of parrying technique or other such bullshit
* LordSlowpoke shudders.
i guess it's sticking to wizardry for me...
You may want to try LARPing, it's nothing like what most folk imagine. Depends on the event, but most of the time it's basically camping + light roleplay if you are into that + totally ahistorical over the top fights with ugly foam weapons. If you go with friends even the cheesiest LARP event can be fun, if only to poke fun at the ridiculous shit going on.
Yeah, there's a pretty large variety in LARPing. Plenty of games, such as White Wolf stuff, are completely roleplay with something like paper/scissors/rock taking the place of dice.
On the other hand, I played once with a group that gathered in a park and were super intense. Around 20 people. Very physical. Several of them dressed up in full armor, and one of them was infamous for carrying a person who was in-character unconscious several miles in 85F weather while wearing genuine head-to-toe double chainmail. They went to great lengths to set up fully acted out adventures for the characters, and they would rotate each session who would get to play their characters and who would play monsters and otherwise facilitate.
My favorite part was when like 7 of us simulated an orc horde. They positioned us at the top of a hill and around a corner out of sight from the main party with a big cache of weapons. It was a good 20 seconds full sprint away. Our job was to grab a random weapon, run screaming at the party and put up a good fight for several seconds before dying, then
crawl away from the scene, run back up the hill, grab a different weapon, and run back into the fight. Over and over again for like 15 minutes, while doing our best to keep the entire party constantly occupied with fighting. Did a similar, but less intense, sort of thing for the big boss fight at the end of the adventure.