[Society of Medieval Foam Combat.] Not an RPG but close

[SteveCooper]

This has been on the back of my mind all weekend. I found these nylon training swords which might be of interest. Search the web for 'nylon wasters' if you are interested.

[Hereward The Wake]

The problem with the nylons is that you need to up the protection to a point where, well it becomes something else.
Each approach. Game, sport or actual martial art are all valid and can cross over in skills etc. However they all have different reqjuirements.
It sounds to me like the original idea here is actually closer to martial sport than rpg. If you want more rpg then work on the story telling to get the goals and less on the competition between opposed "players"