I'm new to this and was wondering:
Are you allowed to ignore the effect of your own armor?
I know most people are more interested in winning than anything else, but if you were trying to train a specific skill, or you were trying to create a handicap, or maybe by some crazy circumstance the only "garb" you had was a gambeson, would you be allowed to count one hit as "death"?
Kind of along the same lines, if you wore armor-quality boots, would you be able to kick a weapon without taking damage?