What is Modern Agonistics? · · ·
Who is James Lafond?
A Fighter's View (weapons) · · · Inside The Ropes (boxing) · · · Harm City (violence)
Ancient Combat · · · Modern Combat · · · The Sunset Saga (fiction) · · · Network
A Fighter's View (weapons) · · · Inside The Ropes (boxing) · · · Harm City (violence)
Ancient Combat · · · Modern Combat · · · The Sunset Saga (fiction) · · · Network
Q: What is Modern Agonistics?
A: Modern Agonistics is not a style, art or system. It is simply a format for training, experimentation and competition with weapons. The goals of the participants range from cross-training, self-defense and thrill-seeking, to craftwork [like weapon and armor fabrication] and attempts to reconstruct extinct fighting arts. Practitioners of over two-dozen fighting arts have utilized this format since 1998 without sustaining serious injury. Participants have been both male and female and have ranged in age from 11 to 65; in size from 75 to 375 pounds, and in experience from novice to professional. Most participants have been males in their late teens and early twenties. We have no dues, rituals, traditions or barriers. This is simply a network for combat weaponry enthusiasts. We are just a curious group of fighters. If you want to participate you are welcome. Our motto is "as real as you want it".
Q: What does Agonistics mean?
A: Agonistics is an ancient Hellenic term that translates as "contest-preparation". The root is Agon meaning "contest". The English word agony was borrowed from the ancient Greek term for "contestant's suffering" referring to the trials of a combatant. This is admittedly a terrible term to use in modern America, as virtually everyone misreads agonistics as agnostics which is also from the ancient Greek and means "no knowledge" and is used as a self-descriptive term by people who are not sure about the existence of divinity. My favorite misreading of agonistics was when the Baltimore City Paper ran our ad for a seminar at Sifu Clark's in 2005 as Modern Antagonistics. Some guy called me and wanted to know if we were a network for hate groups.
-James Lafond, October 2011
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See section "A Fighter's View" for more content... | |
Q: Who is James LaFond? |
James is a Baltimore-based fighter, coach and writer. He was born in 1963, has been involved in sanctioned and unsanctioned boxing since 1976, and has fought 20 submission boxing bouts [gypsy, LPR & Greco-Roman] for a record of 7-4-9 [7 KOs]. In 1998 James co-founded Modern Agonistics with Chuck Goetz. Since then he has fought in over 600 stick fights and more than 200 machete duels, and is still able to tie his shoes. |  |
Lafond's Literature present=>past
- Inside The Ropes In Progress!
Currently being serialized on this website in the form of free downloads. - Pillagers Of Time Self-published, available here
The novel Beyond the Ember Star, the short novel Comes the Six Winter Night and the novel Thunder-Boy. Also includes the short stories: Inception, Under the Crooked Tree, Independence Day and Cave Boy. Time-hunters raid the deep past for genetic diversity. A 16th Century Native American boy steals a time-machine, explores 21st Century Baltimore and 29th Century Virginia, and returns to his own world. - Of The Sunset World Self-published, available here
A diverse cast of time-travelers and a handicapped Iroquois boy explore 16th Century North America and 21st Century Maryland, battling conquistadors and genetically engineered assassins. - The First Boxers
Currently being converted to digital format for online distribution. - The Gods Of Boxing
Currently being converted to digital format for online distribution. - All-power-fighting
Currently being converted to digital format for online distribution. - Even More Dangerously Fun Stuff 2010, Paladin, page 108-109
- Modern Agonistics 2011, self-published
I wrote this in ten days in February 2011 for the guys I have trained with at Adam Swinder's request. It is available as a free download here. - When You're Food 2011, unpublished
Paladin is holding off on contracting for this volume until they see how The Logic of Force sells. This is, according to David Carl and Adam Swinder, the best thing I have ever written. I can definitely say that this is the most politically incorrect thing I have written. - The Logic of Force 2010, Paladin Press, scheduled for publication in December 2011
I received my contract in November 2010, along with three rejection notices for the books below. This is a trimmed down re-write of Staying Alive. - The Broken Dance 2005, submitted to Paladin Press and contracted but postponed
One copy of this 350 page monster remains in my possession, which has become my primary research tool—a pointer to my notes. It has since been rewritten into three smaller volumes and shall form the basis for a fourth. - Anatomy of A Knockout 2007, Black Belt Magazine
A spruced up version of the study I did for Tom Petroski. I lost my copy. - Blade Against Blade 2006, Black Belt Magazine, September
An Agonistics based article. - November 2005, Black Belt Magazine, page 16, a letter to readers about researching western martial arts. It should have been an article. At least the point was made.
- The Truth About Street Fighters 2005, Black Belt Magazine, August
This is a good article. This guy is a cynical smartass with a gift for a neat phrase. He should have been a boxing writer. - The Violence Project 2004, Black Belt Magazine, June
This was basically my own review of my study, and I blew it. I don't like it as an article. - Reality of the Mass Attack 2003, Black Belt Magazine, November
I explore mass attack in a Q & A format. This is not really even writing. - August 2003, Black Belt Magazine, letter on page 18
- March 2003, Black Belt Magazine, A letter from a South African knife enthusiast expands on the Reality of the Stab article.
- Reality of the Stab 2002, Black Belt Magazine, September
This piece was nice and nasty and featured my oldest son Jerad in the photos. I must say we make a likely pair of white-trash knife-jockeys. I love this piece. I got away with nick-naming a knife stoke "the Baby Bates”! The Black Belt people were definitely tolerant. - The Advantage Knifer 2002, TaeKwonDo Times, January
This was basically an excerpt from The Logic of Steel run in exchange for an ad. - Reality of the Club 2002, Black Belt Magazine, January
The question and answer format is now used for beatings. Magazines really like Q & A formats so I was just being a little whore, getting my $250 per an article. - Incapacitation Study August 2001, for Supervisory Agent Tom Petroski, FBI, Quantico, VA
Tom was a really cool dude. He was in charge of teaching legal force applications and was horrified by the DOJs ruling that they could no longer teach the choke since the death of some overweight crack-head in Pittsburgh. Tom served in the Marines with a distant cousin of mine from Fall River, MA. I hope the study I sent him helped his case. In any event, once the 9/11 attacks hit he became too busy to keep in touch with. Hope it went well Tom. - The Logic of Steel 2001, Paladin Press, June
This was actually accepted for publication in September of 2000. I never got press-run numbers from Paladin and as an author not all sales and certainly not promotional copies are credited to your account. So I do not even know how many copies are out there. Some guy on the internet is selling them for $249.00! It's a good book, but I'd feel guilty if you paid that much for it. Besides, I won't see any of the dough. I was paid about .90 per sale. I also do not know how many times they reprinted this. They asked me twice. In September 2010 Paladin asked me if they could release it as an E-book. - April 2001, Black Belt Magazine, a letter from a PA bouncer about the Reality of the Blade article appears on page 14.
- Wrestling with the Truth 2001, Black Belt Magazine, May This is a one page article in which I actually admitted to millions that I had been a psychopathic teenage predator who got his rocks off hunting down isolated jocks in a small town. It was kind of my ode to wrestlers. As with everything from this period my use of statistics—excuse me, percentages—was meat-fisted. Only the author's embarrassing admission makes it worth reading.
- When You're Food February 2001, unpublished
This 320 page monster oral history of violence was rejected by Paladin as too literary and not ‘how-to' enough. I had gotten really wrapped up in the oral history aspect and went overboard. - Staying Alive February 2001, unpublished
Paladin expressed interest in the manuscript but held back on a contract pending changes to the texts and statistical presentation. - Reality of the Blade 2001, Black Belt Magazine, January
This is done in a question and answer format, and is based on the same information as the then upcoming Logic of Steel book. It looks a lot like shameless self-promotion from here. - Self Defense & The Knockout 2000, TaeKwonDo Times, November
This was a very detailed and not very readable piece. I just jammed too much information down the reader's throat. - The Violence Project May 2000, unpublished
This survey of 1675 acts of violence was completed, compiled, and used to form the basis for much of the following. It has been pointed out, accurately so, that I am no statistician. But you know what, when only 9 out of every 100 knifers use an ice-pick grip, that is 9%, in my damaged brain and in your nice spiffy new one. - The Fighting Edge 2000, Paladin Press
This book enjoyed moderate sales and fair reviews. I really don't like it that much. The first 5 pages sold it: the author getting his ass kicked in a supermarket by two coworkers. It was intended as a self-help book for teenage boys who had the desire to learn self-defense, but not the means to access commercial programs. - Boxing & Martial Arts 2000, TaeKwonDo Times, March
I did not get paid for the TaeKwonDo Times pieces. They ran my book ads instead. Carol Davis Hart, the Managing Editor, was a doll-baby and I would have written for her without any compensation. I just reread this piece and it is actually good. The about-the-author blurb announces my upcoming book. - Bad Intentions 1998, Black Belt Magazine
I do not have a copy of this issue and can only guess at the content based on the title which I know was mine.
Lafond's Games past=>present
I originally became interested in gaming by accident. In 1975 I was a boy who loved tanks. When I saw a box with actual German tank silhouettes on the cover at the toy store I bought it for $9. It was Panzer Blitz, a platoon and company level simulation of combat on the Russian Front. It wasn't until 1976 that I finally learned how to play the thing. Then a friend informed me that there were also games that permitted players to play adventurers. I took one look at my Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard collections of $1.95 paperbacks and said "I'm in!”
For what's it is worth I'm a mediocre gamer, unless we're playing Empires in Arms or you actually let me play the Confederacy in The Civil War by Victory Games. As far as game design I'm good on concepts and maps and weak on development and mechanics. What follows is my meager contribution to the hobby that I have not been able to enjoy nearly as much as I would have liked. If I get old though, I'll be rolling some dice…
From 1980 through 1996 I designed various table top war games: including Shield Wall 1066, Priest Kings and Daimyo. I believe I lacked the development skills [and perhaps the raw intellect] to bring these efforts to fruition. They were interesting designs and I made some really nice maps. But the designs were ambitious and I lacked the development skills to pull off these projects so I scratched them mid way.
I suppose my pursuit of science-fiction, history and hand-to-hand combat arts are actually reflected in my odd impulse to attempt to create simulations for these subjects. My youngest son has recently suggested that I rewrite some of the things that I produced and/or published in the 1980s and 1990s. What follows is an outline of the games I managed to design for publication and the role-playing material I produced in this period. To a large extent this is how I learned to write for publication, and I owe Stewart Wieck , Steve Sechi, Lou Zocchi and Daniel Kipp a great deal for their creative, editorial and marketing advice.
James LaFond, October, 10th 2011
I originally became interested in gaming by accident. In 1975 I was a boy who loved tanks. When I saw a box with actual German tank silhouettes on the cover at the toy store I bought it for $9. It was Panzer Blitz, a platoon and company level simulation of combat on the Russian Front. It wasn't until 1976 that I finally learned how to play the thing. Then a friend informed me that there were also games that permitted players to play adventurers. I took one look at my Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard collections of $1.95 paperbacks and said "I'm in!”
For what's it is worth I'm a mediocre gamer, unless we're playing Empires in Arms or you actually let me play the Confederacy in The Civil War by Victory Games. As far as game design I'm good on concepts and maps and weak on development and mechanics. What follows is my meager contribution to the hobby that I have not been able to enjoy nearly as much as I would have liked. If I get old though, I'll be rolling some dice…
From 1980 through 1996 I designed various table top war games: including Shield Wall 1066, Priest Kings and Daimyo. I believe I lacked the development skills [and perhaps the raw intellect] to bring these efforts to fruition. They were interesting designs and I made some really nice maps. But the designs were ambitious and I lacked the development skills to pull off these projects so I scratched them mid way.
I suppose my pursuit of science-fiction, history and hand-to-hand combat arts are actually reflected in my odd impulse to attempt to create simulations for these subjects. My youngest son has recently suggested that I rewrite some of the things that I produced and/or published in the 1980s and 1990s. What follows is an outline of the games I managed to design for publication and the role-playing material I produced in this period. To a large extent this is how I learned to write for publication, and I owe Stewart Wieck , Steve Sechi, Lou Zocchi and Daniel Kipp a great deal for their creative, editorial and marketing advice.
- Tyrants of Yitar 1988, self-published, 35 copies produced by photocopier [30 sold]
This was a one-play fantasy game designed to be purchased and played at game conventions. The players each take the role of a petty tyrant of a warring valley. The objective is to become Pontiff of Yitar before the barbarian hordes arrive and exterminate everyone. The Pontiff will at least be assured his place in Paradise. The losers simply become barbarian resources of either the portable, flammable or decorative variety.
8-1/2 by 11 map, 8-page rule and event booklet, 25 cutout counters, $2.45 - Pizza Wars 1988, self-published, 1,750 copies printed [1,700 sold]
This is a board game played with a pizza, using slices as territories to be fought over and toppings as armies to be maneuvered around the pizza with toothpicks. This began as a joke and I could not believe it when it took off as a game that people really played. After play-testing the thing I didn't eat Pizza for years.
4-page illustrated pamphlet, $1.95 - Pizza Wars Imperium self-published, 1,750 copies printed [1,720 sold]
This was an elaborate version of Pizza Wars with special ability rules for the various toppings, and optional rules for terrain and genocide. Richard Thomas did such a nice job illustrating the various topping-inspired races of combatants for this brutal pizza-top world that some role-players even wrote the author claiming that they used the Imperium as a setting for their campaigns.
22-page illustrated booklet, $3.95 - Keepers of the Law 1988, White Wolf Magazine #12, pages 40-42
This offered a system of law and a monastic order to act as a judiciary, loosely based on the Inquisition and Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer novel. It is pretty dry reading but there were only 2 typos and the structure was not bad. I only yawned twice in three pages. - Tribes Volume One, 1989, 40 copies produced by photocopier [34 sold]
Upon deciding to create a hypothetical future Earth I employed the following mental exercise: instead of asking James-whoever-that-guy-is-from-Baltimore what Earth might look like after 250,000,000 years how about if I asked Edgar Allen Poe and Sigmund Freud…but not before sitting them down in a poorly lit room with enough booze for Edgar and enough cocaine for Sigmund.
This resulted in a fairly dark world which it would be the author's task to illuminate. Tribes was serialized through ads in a couple of small publications. Richard Thomas and Joseph Bellofatto did a wonderful job illustrating the series. But I could not afford a proper production or marketing effort so it was doomed. Fortunately it received some good reviews in magazines and at conventions and Steve Sechi of Bard Games offered me a book deal.
Five 14-19 page 8-1/2 by 11 booklets, $3 each or $13 per the set. - Tribes Thunder Seed, 1990, unpublished
I wrote this setting for the FRP magazine market. It was rejected. It had some interesting elements, but upon rereading it I would have rejected it too. No, you can't read it, it sucks.
15-page double-spaced manuscript - Terra Australis Incognito 1990, unpublished
After spending a few months researching the early modern European beliefs in a great unknown southern landmass—then thought necessary to balance the northern landmasses—named Terra Australis Incognito I decided to design a role-playing setting set in 1861 based on the premise that this had been the case. Stewart and I both thought it was a fun idea but agreed that younger role-players would really not be into it. I might write it as a novel some day. All that remains is a map. The notes and synopsis are missing. - Gods of Hur 1991, unpublished
This was another science-fiction setting written for a proposed series of campaign books to be published by White Wolf. Stewart sent me a nice rejection letter. I just reread it and I don't like it [the article I mean—the rejection letter was very nicely done] though the premise was good; another example of not having the development talent to pull off a good design.
8-page double-spaced manuscript - Pizza Wars 101 1991, self-published, 100 promotional copies
This was a placemat design intended to promote the upcoming Pizza Wars Apocalypse. This is really all you need [besides dice, toothpicks and antacid] to play with your pizza. I have to admit, that this was a lot of lowbrow fun. - Pizza Wars Apocalypse 1991, unpublished
I think this is when I found out that my wife was pregnant. By 1994 I was working six [yes that's 6] jobs. I still have the illustrations by Richard Thomas and may one day rewrite it for publication.
18-page double-spaced illustrated manuscript - Pizza Krieg 1991, 200 copies
A Belgian guy living in Germany [I lost our correspondence] bought the German language rights to Pizza Wars and actually sent me a copy of the game, in a painted pizza box with dice and toothpicks, and even a pamphlet describing what a pizza was and how to make one if you did not live near a pizza shop! - What's In A Name? 1992, unpublished
Barring a few composition flaws this is the best piece I had written to date. For four pages I discussed the usefulness of developing parallel naming traditions for a role-playing setting. I thought it was pretty good stuff, and then I turned to page five and that was it, a list [with no explanations] of seven generic naming templates. Are you kidding me LaFond!?! I don't even know if I submitted it to anyone.
5-page double-spaced manuscript - Tribes 1993, unpublished
Having finally produced the Tribes sourcebook for Bard Games, Steve informed me that he was selling off his business. He did write a nice foreword for the book and put me in touch with the company who bought him out, but this stuff was too gory for them. Besides, I was still using a typewriter.
201-page double-spaced illustrated hardcopy - Galactic Gluttons 1994, Strategic Castle Publications [by Daniel Kipp and Anthony Bainer]
I just came up with the title. The guys that owned the Strategic Castle game store on Tollgate Road in Belair Maryland wrote and published this. I don't know how many they sold but I still have my free copy. 6-page pamphlet
Note: in 1994, according to my surviving letters, I was negotiating licensing deals for Pizza Wars with an Italian game designer who wrote on plush cotton-base letterhead and Lou Zocchi of Gamscience, a genius who designed a many sided dice and once won an award for a game he designed in the 1970s. If I recall correctly he woke me up with a phone call about making sure I put rules for pineapple in the next Pizza Wars game. I still have both copies of the contract he sent me so it appears we didn't agree on a deal.
I was working 113 hours a week basically lifting stuff and had given up writing by this point. Fortune—for the starving writer within—soon struck, in the form of a catastrophic back injury that eventually cost me my house, two cars, one girlfriend and a wife. Yeah, I think that's the correct order. - Tribes 1995, unpublished
This combined Steve's foreword, the book, and the five serials into one package. I submitted it to three publishers and got the following responses: ‘nice-but-too-nasty'; ‘we don't do this stuff anymore'; and ‘who are you again, and do you know what a computer is'.
Dan Kipp began helping develop this as a role-playing game and then we both got really busy. I still have seven pages of his correspondence concerning the project.
This is really too much material for me to read right now. I know the illustrations are very good. My guess is that the gaming material needs to be discarded and the source material rewritten. When I finally rewrite it expect it to be published as a PDF download. - Peopling a Fantasy World 1995, unpublished
This is big chunky article rejected by White Wolf.
8-page double-spaced manuscript with tables - A Way With Names 1995, accepted for publication by White Wolf Magazine, 2/6/95
It was nice to find an acceptance letter among all of those rejected articles. I heard in the late 1990s that someone had read this article online and it was attributed to me. I do not, however, remember getting my nickel a word or the free copy. I actually think White Wolf Magazine went out of publication before this article got into print. In any case, I have the manuscript.
Essentially this is the second half of What's In A Name written in 1992. It has some of the same structural problems. Honestly, I don't see it standing well on its own without the one I wrote earlier as an introduction. It is obvious that I have internalized the advice put forward in these pieces in writing the Sunset Saga. This might be worth a re-write.
5-page double-spaced manuscript - Fights: Gritty Scraps & Epic Brawls unpublished
This was written with the intention of self-publishing. I ran into development problems and scrapped it. It was basically a table-top paper and dice fight simulation similar to what is being done on Spike's Deadliest Warrior show. If I can get some help with development I might rework the scraps into a combat-oriented role-playing game. It was at this point that my mind became more interested in researching combat arts and contemporary violence. Looked at from a 2011 vantage point this half-hearted design attempt looks almost like a departure point for a mind gradually becoming seduced by violence into the non-fiction work that would obsess me from January 1996 until June of 2000.
29-page single-spaced indexed manuscript
James LaFond, October, 10th 2011
A FIGHTER'S VIEW
The heritage of Modern Agonistics is documented and preserved through a catalog of multimedia and now finally by way of the Modern Agonistics hand-book...
The heritage of Modern Agonistics is documented and preserved through a catalog of multimedia and now finally by way of the Modern Agonistics hand-book...
Download A Fighter's View (The Modern Agonistics Handbook)
85 pages · 50+ photos · 12.3 MB · PDF Format · FREE!
85 pages · 50+ photos · 12.3 MB · PDF Format · FREE!
Some videos from Youtube...
Some photos... (click to zoom)
As seen on the streets of Baltimore . . .
HARM CITY
Urban Survival In The Postmodern World
© James LaFond 2011
From 1996 thru 2010 I devoted much of my life to interviewing the perpetrators of, witnesses to and targets of violence. I have written four thematic books based on this work: The Fighting Edge; The Logic of Steel; The Logic of Force; and When You're Food.
The book market has slowed and it takes a long time to get this stuff to the public in hardcopy form. Paladin is currently considering their option on When You're Food. Since I believe this is important information and would like to disseminate it in a more timely fashion, I have scrapped the plans for a second series of violence books: Harm City; In Her Faint Shadow; and Crooked Timber. There is also the fact that The Fighting Edge is now out of print and portions need to be rewritten and updated.
This online magazine has been conceived as a means to present all of this material. I live in, study and write about what H. L. Mencken once described as "the ruins of a once great medieval city". A friend from New York, upon coming to Baltimore for a visit in 2001, described it as a "frightening brownstone ghetto." I have always just called it "a dump". However, a far more immersed literary mind has put its own stamp on Baltimore... (click to continue)
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