You are a dedicated member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). You’ve spent $5,000 having a historically accurate suit of 14th-century plate armor custom-forged. During a massive weekend battle, you are engaged in heavy combat with a friend. You swing your rattan mace a little too hard, bypassing their shield, and smash them directly in the faceplate.
Your friend suffers a severe concussion, a broken jaw, and requires reconstructive surgery. To make matters worse, during the fall, your custom $5,000 armor is badly crushed and ruined. You figure your homeowners insurance will cover the medical bills under personal liability, and your personal property coverage will replace your armor. You are wrong on both counts.
The Brutal Truth: Why Standard Policies Deny This Claim
Let’s start with the $5,000 armor. Your HO-3 Homeowners Policy views that custom armor as standard sporting equipment. Because it was damaged during its intended use (combat), it falls under the Wear and Tear / Inherent Vice Exclusion. Even if it was stolen, standard policies pay Actual Cash Value (ACV). They will depreciate the metal and offer you pennies.
The liability for the broken jaw is even worse. Standard policies contain an Organized Sports / Athletic Event Exclusion, and more importantly, the Intentional Acts Exclusion. Even though you didn’t mean to break his jaw, you intentionally swung a weapon at his head. Homeowners liability covers sudden, accidental negligence (like a slip and fall), not injuries sustained during simulated combat in an organized league.
The Platform Promise vs. Reality
Event organizers (like the SCA or local LARP groups) require participants to sign liability waivers.
These waivers protect the organizers from being sued by the injured party. They do not protect you. If you injure someone, that waiver does not stop their health insurance company from subrogating against you personally to recover the surgical costs. The event’s commercial insurance will not pay for your legal defense if the injured party names you individually in the lawsuit.
How to Actually Protect Yourself (The Fix)
Simulated combat requires very real insurance protections. You cannot rely on standard residential policies.
- Schedule the Armor as Fine Art: Contact your broker and schedule your custom plate armor on a Personal Articles Floater (Inland Marine) at Agreed Value. This protects the $5,000 investment against theft or transit damage without depreciation.
- Verify Group Participant Liability: Ensure the national organization you fight with carries a master participant liability policy that specifically extends coverage to individual members who accidentally injure each other during sanctioned combat.
- Secure a Personal Umbrella Policy: If the group’s policy is weak, buy a $1 Million Personal Umbrella Policy (PUP). Have your broker explicitly confirm that amateur athletic events and historical reenactments are not excluded from the umbrella’s liability drop-down coverage.
The Claims Adjuster’s Secret
If an injury claim does reach my desk, I will immediately request the event’s weapon inspection logs. Organizations have strict rules regarding weapon padding, weight, and armor requirements. If I find out your mace was not inspected, or that you modified it after inspection to hit harder, I will deny the liability claim based on gross negligence and violation of safety protocols.
The Verdict (TL;DR)
The Risk Level: High (Intentional combat sports practically guarantee bodily injury claims). The Solution: Schedule expensive armor on a floater and verify the event has member-to-member liability coverage. Estimated Cost: $40/year for the armor floater; group liability is usually included in membership dues.
When you dress up for war, prepare your finances for battle; standard insurance hates intentional combat.