Shield Skills

Bucklers and shields are used to defend against incoming attacks completely blocking certain attacks. A blocked attack does not count as a legal hit. Shields may not ever be used as weapons. Intentionally making physical contact with another player or their shield with your shield is not allowed.

A player may only carry one shield at a time, and you may not curl yourself up such that a shield completely prevents you from being attacked from one direction.

Spell calls (delivered by tag bag or arrows) may not be blocked by a shield. If a tag bag (or arrow) delivering a spell hits your shield it counts as hitting the arm holding the shield. Each call specifies if it can be blocked by a shield.

All melee attacks can always be blocked (bear in mind 'Acid!' damage will break the shield though). 'Acid!', 'Blight!', 'Disease!', 'Poison!', and untyped ('1!') tag bags and projectiles can always be blocked by shields. All other calls delivered by tag bag may not be blocked by a shield. 'Elven Steel!', 'Nature!', 'Primal!', and 'Silver!' calls (plus the ones listed above) may be blocked when they come from projectiles. Any other call from a projectile may not be blocked by a shield.

Mundane shields and bucklers may be brought into play at any time after they have been inspected by a member of player outreach & education for safety.

If a character has a shield or a buckler in one of their hands their might is capped at 2.

To create a shield with special abilities require crafting using the ornamenting skill. Shields are rigid defensive items held in one hand. They must be padded on all edges to prevent wear to weapons and minimize accidental real injury to players.

Shields require a distinct, rigid core. Possible materials to craft a core out of include, but are not limited to steel, aluminum, plywood or rigid plastics. Plastic, foam and other modern materials must be covered with paint, cloth or leather. Exposed modern metals are acceptable. A shield may not have any exposed non-rounded metal hardware such as bolts or screws. The minimum padding on all edges of a shield is five-eighths of an inch of closed-cell foam. With rubber, vinyl, or similar flexible tubing or hose underneath the padding, the minimum padding may be three-eighths of an inch of closed cell foam.

Just like weapons, a shield will also be tested to make sure it is not too bendable or flexible. Shields that exhibit more than minor (approximately 10 degrees of) flex are not allowed.

A rectangular shield's surface area is it's total height multiplied by its total width with no allowances made for irregularities, cut-outs, or curves. Any shield that is not round or a regular polyhedral shape will be considered rectangular.

A rectangular shield may not be more than 40 inches in any one dimension and may not have more than 720 square inches of total surface area.

A round shield may not exceed a 36 inch diameter. Regular polyhedral shapes that fit inside a 36 diameter circle are also permitted.

The minimum dimension of a shield is 12 inches.

Curved shields are measured across the face of the shield (across the arc, not the chord).

All shields (that are not bucklers) must be hand held.

Bucklers are a sub-type of shield, and follow all prop rules for shields except where called out here.

Bucklers may be strapped to a character's arm in which case it is referred to as a passive buckler. Passive bucklers do not count as being in a player's hand, leaving them free to use that hand to cast spells, and the character is not subject to the cap for having an weapon in one hand and a shield in the other. A rectangular buckler may not exceed 24 inches in any one dimension and may not have more than 324 square inches of surface area.

A round buckler may not exceed a 24 inch diameter.

Bucklers may be built to be used hand-held, strapped to the arm, or both.

If a shield takes 4 or more cumulative points of damage from 'Acid!' it gains this equipment condition. Broken shields do not block/stop anything. In fact, should the shield be hit by any attack (even ones that are normally shield blockable), you automatically treat that attack as hitting the arm holding the shield.

Other items may gain this condition through other means. Anything that would give this condition to another item will explicitly say so.

To remove this condition the Broken item must be placed flat on the ground (or some other stable surface) and the player must role-play repairing it while casting the Mend Armor spell.

This repairs all damage to either physical or natural armor. Repairing both takes a second application. Alternately this will remove the Broken condition from a shield.