The Project:
The Owners of LARP Box and B3 Imagination Studio are teaming up to create a toy foam launching LARP Musket. We want to produce a safe, immersive, and fun option for LARPers wanting to play games set in a “black powder” era.
About 20 years ago Ben Becker (owner of B3 Imagination Studio) created the “Actionball guns” a pre-nerf rival ball shooting series that launched a custom made foam ball. But because of the scarcity of the ammo they were a limited option for LARPers and hobbyists. But now that small foam ball shaped projectiles are easy to come by thanks to Nerf, its the perfect time for a LARP Musket.
About the LARP Muskets:
The Musket and pistol are both designed to shoot foam balls the size of Nerf Rival Balls and foam darts the size of Nerf Mega Darts.
The basic musket and pistol each come with:
- Musket/pistol,
- Stained and polyurethaned wooden stock,
- Plastic barrel and trigger assembly,
- decorative rubber flintlock
- basic spring
- wooden ramrod
- instructions.
The Specs:
Musket
- Musket Length: 47.5in / 120.65cm
- Weight: 2.15lbs / 0.972kg
- Trigger pull: 4lb / 1.81 kg
- Velocity*: ~ 65fps
- Impact force (with nerf rival ball): ~0.032J
- Finish: Brown Stain, Clear Polyurethane (not shown)
Pistol
- Pistol Length: 13.25in / 33.66cm
- Weight: 0.52lbs / 0.236kg
- Trigger pull: 4lb / 1.81 kg
- Velocity*: ~ 65fps
- Impact force (with nerf rival ball): ~0.032J
- Finish: Brown Stain, Clear Polyurethane (not shown)
*With standard spring, measured with Nerf Rival Ball. Upgraded spring kits will be available later.
Accessories (available with deluxe packages)
- Leather Holster
- Leather strap
- Foam bayonet with holder
About the Creators
Ben Becker has been making professional larp weapons for over 20 years. He has a background in engineering and foam fabrication. His company, B3 Imagination Studio, has been serving as the largest retailer of larp weapons in New England. Players in the Accelerant Larp community are very familiar with the quality and craftsmanship of the weapons he makes.
Bart Brizee is the owner of LARP Box, and started his business in 2016 with a very successful Kickstarter. After a year of business he has shipped thousands of boxes of awesome larp gear to over 20 countries. Bart specializes in product design and marketing.
Ben and Bart have collaborated in the past on projects for LARP Box and for Bicolline (the larp they both attend). Ben's engineering skills and Bart's design work come together to create some awesome larp gear!
Stretch Goal - $25,000 - Goal Reached!
LARP Blunderbus
Functionally very similar to the LARP Musket, but with a shorter barrel, and a decorative bell shaped muzzle.
Risks and challenges
We're always working to improve our design. We'll put it though some rigorous testing before we ship the final product, but please know that some elements of the design might change slightly if we find a better way to make something. We want a durable, safe, easy to use product that can be shipped anywhere.
Because of it's perceived similarity to a real musket, some countries might not allow these to be easily shipped there (like Australia) and this might be challenging for folks in those countries. We've included a blaze orange tip on our final design, and we use a spring to launch the balls/darts rather than compressed air to help with this. In some cases, you might need to speak to customs and give them a detailed description of the item before importing it.
Production:
Most of what we require for production is already available to us, but we need to purchase some specialized molds for the spring caps, and we need to be able to purchase supplies in large quantities to get the best price to make the items and offer them at an affordable price.
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support
Funding period
- (35 days)