Resources

Nobody arrives fully equipped, and nobody is expected to. This page is a starting point for what you'll eventually want, not a checklist to complete before you're welcome.

Garb

Garb — clothing appropriate to a pre-17th-century impression — ranges from a simple belted tunic sewn in an afternoon to a researched, hand-stitched recreation of a specific decade and place. Start simple. A first set of garb is meant to be worn, not preserved, and the fastest way to learn what you actually want from your next set is to spend a few events in your first one.

Armor and weapons

Armored combat, rapier, archery, and thrown weapons each have their own equipment and their own safety inspection before you fight — an inspection that exists to protect you, not to gatekeep. Loaner armor and loaner weapons are typically available at practice for exactly this reason: to let you try a form before spending anything on it. Ask at practice what is available to borrow and what the inspection process looks like before your first bout.

Arts and sciences

Most A&S pursuits need little more than what you likely already own — needle and thread, a kitchen, paper and ink. What differs period from modern is technique and material more than tools, and that is precisely what makes A&S research interesting: figuring out how a thing was actually done, with what was actually available.

Where to ask

Equipment questions are welcome at any practice or meeting, and the Minister of Arts and Sciences and the marshals are the people most likely to know exactly what a beginner needs and where to find it secondhand before buying anything new.