The published rules do not entirely support that position, and I am unaware of any official rules amendment affecting this issue.

It is correct that anyone may wear armour that they do not have the appropriate CS for, but will not gain any IC benefit from doing so.
However, they explicitly do suffer the restrictions on spellcasting. See page 48:

As Rich Whitaker has said...


In version 2 of the rules (page 23), we used to allow head armour to be worn without any necessary skills, granting no protection, which did not interfere with casting. However, we made a conscious decision when writing version 3 to simplify the reffing of such situations by saying that the wearing of armour physreps restricts casting, irrespective of whether those physreps are providing any protection

An IC advantage is gained from wearing a helmet you do not have the skills for: you will get blasted in the head less often. Monsters (and, to a lesser extent, player characters) with spellcasting 2 will regularly target bare-headed characters as they are likely to have few hits on their unprotected noggin. I know I have done it on a regular basis.

Head shot's are just unpleasant to receive, even well pulled ones, especially if they suddenly restrict your vision. They are made even more dangerous by the fact that people move their head laterally to dodge, or quickly forward and down to go in for an attack.

As a quick tip from a reenactor, something we learn very quickly through verbal and physical teaching is to do with appropriate and safe head movement in combat; if you wish to minimise the chances of receiving a bad headshot and make sure that you are in no way responsible for any that do happen then:

Do not lower your head, either by looking downwards (with attending forward torso leaning) or moving vertically downwards in combat:

Moving your head vertically down causes chest shots to become face shots, and lungy chest shots to become face stabs.
Leaning forward and down causes you to be less aware of the situation around you and makes sure that any torso hits have a good chance of hitting your face as they are brought back from a strike. It also causes you to become off balance and imperils anyone in front of you; should you receive a blow to the back or the head, it is more likely you could topple onto the person in front.

Moving your head sideways causes downwards attacks to be redirected into the side of your head. The lungy slash that is so predominate at LT contains a stabbing and a tapping motion; if you move sideways, you can interfere with the so-called "safe" execution of this type of blow and ensure it becomes a stab.

Moving your head backwards is not so bad; it can turn a lungy slash into a stab, but it also has the benefit of taking all the force out of said stab. Tilting your head upwards as you do this is a big no-no; downwards shots end up hitting the face and, if you suddenly tilt your head involuntarily back up (for example when hit in the nose), you end up headbutting the end of a weapon.

A secondary cause of injury can be the result of a shot to the head; a headshot whilst the victim is attacking is likely to cause a flinch-like response and result in them not being able to pull their blow particularly well. On a couple of occasions I've had a blow coming toward my head that caused me to flinch from it (sometimes dodging it, sometimes not) and ruin my attempt to properly pull a strike I was attempting at the time.

Since light armour does not restrict casting, anyone who wishes to wear head protection can either make themselves a turban arrangement, wear an arming cap, or don a wide, stiff-brimmed hat (as crispin pointed out) to protect themselves from head blows.

Which weapon types do people think are responsible for most of the unsafe head blows? I have my suspicions but would like to see how overwhelming the opinion is.

I love you for this sentence!



That's interesting to know - I bet the first aid records have helped inform some of the rule changes in the past.
Do they already exist anywhere online?

Some "Arrow magnets" wear a cricket box, just in case
Some Shield wall veterans wear steel toe capped boots, Just in case.

One old larper (sadly quit for health reasons and not head shots ;o)) for a while had a huge floppy hat (visually no AV) which had an ice hockey helm underneath. (very well designed you wouldn't have known without smacking the hat around a bit).

So to all appearances his head was unarmored, and yet extremely well protected...

Not sure if this would be permissible in the LT, someone with more authority than I would need to clarify that.. but personally it's something I would like to see permitted, especially with the number of people on the field for whom a knock on the head might cause additional unrelated medical issues..