The creation story behind this one is pretty fun. I was asked to come up with a boffer to make for one of the junior-league players as a birthday present, but since we weren’t sure of an exact design, I asked a set of questions about the player’s combat style and aesthetic preferences that were bounced off the league’s GM and then back to me. Having conducted this roundabout cooperative intel-gathering mission, I set to work and created this:

At first glance, this appears to be merely a very cool set of a light-limned shield and, astoundingly, a glowing throwing knife, which requires some very fine-tuned engineering to do while also making it fully LARP-combat-ready and safe. But lo, there’s more:

The back of the shield, facing toward the user, is a utility-kit of holding these pieces of artistically-crafted ammunition, with snug bands that hold them against the shield, ready to be drawn and thrown at a moment’s notice.

This solves the usual problem with wielding many throwing knives, which is how to carry them while still having your hands able to be fully useful in battle. They’re too bulky to just go in most people’s pockets, but it’s very awkward to quickly draw from any sort of scabbard at the belt. Having them in immediate reach is a significant tactical upgrade.

But lo, there’s more (and I made this little user manual for them):

In the back of the shield is also a hidden compartment holding the controls that enable the lights along the rim of the front of the shield to change through any of the many color options. And, at the request of the parent who commissioned the set, there’s also a hidden compartment for an AirTag so it’s always readily findable.

The knives themselves have a streamlined design, and just enough of a core and mass to enable reliable and accurate aiming while still being light and foam-crafted so they can be thrown around without concern. The shield is more than sturdy enough to block with while being entirely made of low-density foam, with no hard shell or plastic core.

On to my personal favorite part, the behind-the-scenes crafting images. Here’s some progression of the shield:

And here’s the luminescent knife (note the extra open-cell foam at the tip – there are many steps involved that aren’t in these photos):

I took a quick video of the stage of the knife-building in which it looks like the lights are floating like orbs within the 3D space of the foam:

And that’s it! This is one of many things that can happen when you set the crafters loose to design something with which to delight a LARP player.