| Sport, hobby, Larp, excuse to Dress up Funny, you be the judge. |
| Amtgard |
| This is a battle on a not too typical Amtgard day. That's Mike in the center with the gold headband. I could go on and on about what Amtgard is and isn't. Ultimately, it's all the stuff above, depending on who's playing, where they're playing and what they dig. We've gone to a couple different states to play, we've sweated, bled and wept, all in all, it's been a great deal of fun. |
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| I was on-line on a talk group for goths that had real jobs. One gal mentions "amtgard." "What's that?" I ask. "It's like a Live-Action D&D. Like the SCA without all the fussiness, and without the authenticity nazis. It's great! Go to www.Amtgard.com," she says. A couple of hours later, I'm selling Mike and Jason on the idea. A couple of weeks later, we've got a group going. Now, 3 years later, Mike's been the Duke of our group for 9 months, and we're still doing it. |
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| So in Amtgard you can be anything - you can be historical or fantastical. We're Rokugani. I know, obsession overlap. But it's pretty cool. I also have a persona who is a fairy princess. I look for handsome men to take to Arcadia and canoodle with. The costuming in Amtgard is therefore whatever you want it to be. It's also got spells you can cast and yor weapons are soft so as not to hurt anyone. We have everything from dwarves over 6 feet to catpeople in our group. I personally think that's cool, but I'm pretty open-minded. |
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| Our kingdom - the Iron Mountains - has a big event where people from all over the country attend to play "storm the castle," "capture the dog skull (jugging)" and "try and get a hot chick to go back to your tent with you." We have gone 3 years in a row now. We play all the games, but we've only had success in the "storm the castle" one. This was the first year I fought in a castle battle, and I had a great time! I got to get shot in the eye with an arrow, and yell at the kids when they got on the field. |
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| One of the best parts of Amtgard is that the kids can be involved. At our home park, they get to play a good deal of the time. At bigger events, there are often quests and games hosted just for kids. The kids also quickly form alliances and keep themselves busy. Since the weapons are foam, you can tell your kids, "GO FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER." and not feel guilty. |
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| Xcylur really likes to fight, but like in most things with him, he's not totally dedicated yet. He's getting better, but he also really likes to go swimming or take pictures or just lounge on top of his mother's blowhole. |
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| Another great thing is that kids make excellent swarm monsters, like goblins and the like. Our kids have done a quest that they wrote themselves, planned themselves and even made most of the monster clothes for. What a great way to spend time with the kids! |
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| Dad's become a pretty good fighter. He really digs it, and he tends to win most fights. He's got a natural hand at fighting, and he gets a lot of his energy and agression processed through fighting. He's one of these first on, last off the field type of guys. But he's a lot happier since he got his sports goggles. He no longer has to wear his big ugly head protection. Of course now he gets hit in the head more often. Life is full of little ironies. |
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| Dad's been in charge of the group for awhile now. He's done a very good job of helping our group grow, and keeping us on track. I was the first Sheriff, then Kyle, then a gal named Hope, who moved away in the middle of her Reign, (we had become a Barony by then) so Kathy had to step into the position. Then Bryce did it for a reign, with me as his Regent. Then Mike got the gig, then we were upgraded to Duchy, so Mike got to stay in the job a little longer. Our leadership is an elected position, where a general guy in charge runs with a person in charge of Arts and Sciences. Mike's had two "regents" so far, the first one was Richie, or Kenyon, the current one is Jim or Khanar. Since Mike's persona does not speak, Richie and he were gonna do a "K and Silent Yoto" thing. For this reign, Mike's actual character is kidnapped, so he don't have to worry about the talking part. Of course now I need to make him clothes so he can be an NPC. (it's too bad cause he looks so good in his Samurai togs.) |
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| Jason doesn't usually play with weapons, he's a hard core spell-caster, like myself. Currently, he Jim and I are creating a secret society for spell casters, but I can't talk too much about it, cause then it wouldn't be secret. But it's cool! |
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| Spell users have more crap to carry - fiddly crap at that. Warriors can carry a weapon - maybe a couple extra if they do some thing really fancy, or thrown weapons if they're like a monk or a assassin or something. But spell casters have to have balls for their spells and wands or special magical dust or whatever. Bards - who are also spell casters - have to carry an instrument. At this last Rakis, a guy brought his guitar. That was pretty cool I thought. He ended up faced off against Mike with a shit-eating grin and that guitar slung across hisself. |
| We have feasts and give each other awards for doing cool stuff or making cool stuff or getting good at things. This was when Kathy was stepping down and Bryce was stepping up. This was also when Richie started getting really involved. Lately he's kinda stepped back, but he was really putting forth some good effort for awhile. That's the way it is with this stuff, though. Sometimes, your life interferes with your hobbies. |
| I could ramble about this forever. I probably will. But if you want to see more about our group and such, go here, or go to our yahoo group. |