Dagorhir Battle Games was a live action role-playing game (Battle game) local to the Washington, D.C., U.S.A. metropolitan area with full-contact melee fighting and ranged combat as its primary focus. Fighters typically use foam weapons such as swords, flails, spears, bows and arrows, javelins, axes, and other medieval weapons. Participants wear period costume and are expected to stay in-character during events, although the amount of seriousness the role-playing aspect receives varies greatly by unit and chapter. Founded in 1977, the Dagorhir brand has been licensed to groups in a few other locations, with hundreds of members spread throughout the U.S., Canada, Britain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Germany, Australia, and Japan. Unlike some other battle games or LARPs, there is no use of magic. Description Dagorhir is a full-contact, live-action combat game, and combatants engage each other in battle with foam-padded boffer weaponry and equipment. In order to keep battles organized, realistic, and safe, the three main tenets of The Dagorhir Manual of Arms - safety, playability, and realism - are enforced by heralds (referees) during battles. The rules of the manual of arms, as well as those pertaining to combat, are upheld by an effective honor system which applies to all players. Dagorhir is a battle gaming group which is more akin to a wargame than a live-action roleplaying game (LARP). Dagorhir members have stated that they find the phrase "live-action roleplaying game" to be unfitting. Though many members of the community would disagree with this assertion. All weapons and equipment used during combat are inspected for safety prior to each battle, to ensure that they comply with safety rules. Although early Dagorhir weapons were typically constructed from crude materials such as couch foam and broomsticks when the organization was in its infancy, modern-day weapons are usually made from combinations of both open and closed-cell foam bonded to a fiberglass or PVC pipe core. Participants may also elect to wear protective armor, which gives users an advantage in battle. Fighters are organized into units of various sizes, organized along social lines and that generally fight and socialize together and are a club or fraternity of sorts. Units typically adopt a particular historical or fantastical race or nationality and dress, act, and fight according to interpretation of the group. Due to this melding of both Medieval history and Tolkienesque high fantasy, it is not uncommon for a Dagorhir battle to involve both