Nov 15 2019

What is Amtgard?

This article is intended to help those who don’t know what Amtgard is to understand the game better. In it you’ll find topics on what kind of Live Action Role Play (LARP) game Amtgard is, conversations about the fighting, information about the classes and resources to help you get into the game.

What Kind of LARP is Amtgard

Amtgard is a LARP although it might be best to call it LARP Lite. There is role play in Amtgard but it’s best to temper your expectations. It’s less like Skyrim and more like League of Legends.

You will have the chance to take on the role of a Wizard, Warrior or Druid, just to name a few, but those roles will take place, more often than not, within the context of a player vs player game. On occasion you will be able to play in what we call a “Quest”.

As the name quest implies, you are questing and it’s more often than not player vs environment, so there will be non-player characters and monsters to fight. In some cases this will be a simple linear game, in other cases it could be more complex with a mix of combat and role-play.

Amtgard Foam Fighting

At the core of Amtgard is its foam fighting. The basic rule set is well designed and has produced some of the best foam fighters in all of the LARPs. We are not a lightest touch based LARP. What does this mean?

It means that we swing with force, but our weapons are designed to be safe. Some LARPs are lightest touch because their weapons are not safe to hit at full force and are often made with rubbers or latex. Our weapons are made with primarily foam and tape.

Foam Fighting is very sports like and that is definitely a theme in Amtgard. You’ll find many aspects of the game that are sports like. The games are often competitive, player vs player matches. You can take your foam fighting as seriously or not as seriously as you’d like, but it is the basis of the game that everything flows from.

You can see a few minutes of fighting in THIS video on my YouTube Channel to get an idea what it looks like. They are fighting with a short sword and a shield.

The Classes and Magic

This is probably what you’ve been waiting for, the classes. You’ve probably been asking “When can I play a Wizard?”. The answer is every weekend. There are ten classes that anyone can play, starting the first day they come out and two more once they gain level 6 in any class At the end of the class section I’ll talk a little bit about magic.

Classes

Archer is the primary ranged class, they focus on ranged combat with a bow.

Assassin is a hybrid class that focuses on stealth. They get both ranged and melee combat abilities. You can find an introductory video HERE.

Barbarian is a hybrid class. They are mainly a melee class. They get to wear some armor and get some protections from magic.

Monk is a melee focus class. They do get thrown weapons. Their primary role is to kill magic users as many of their abilities gives them protections from magic.

Scout is a hybrid class. They can use a bow, although at the expense of being able to use a shield. They also get abilities to help manipulate the flow of battle. You can find an introductory video HERE

Warrior is the main melee class. They get to wear the most amount of armor and their abilities allow them to overcome death and get back into the fight faster. You can find an introductory video HERE.

Bard is the first magic user in the rule book. They are focused on being able to cast spells while fighting.

Druid is the most versatile of the spell casters. They can do direct damage, enhance other players, crowd control and even enhance themselves so they can wade into melee combat. They can even take a bow.

Healer is focused on, well, healing. Healers can heal players and even bring them back from the dead. They also give out protections to other players and have crowd controlling abilities.

Wizard is focused on combat. They have a range of spells meant to kill people and destroy equipment. They are can melee but typically rely on range to do their damage.

Anti-Paladin is an armored melee class that has special protections, buffs and crowd control abilities. You must reach six level in another place before you can play it.

Paladin is also an armored melee class that has special protections and crowd control abilities, but rather than buffing themselves, they heal, bring people back to life and share their protections. You must reach six level in another place before you can play it.

Magic

Magic is a very potent force in Amtgard. By far some of the strongest classes are the magic classes. There are three basic types of magic, verbal, spellballs and enchantments.

Verbal spells require nothing but denoting a target and speaking an incantation loud enough. Most verbal spells are focused around either negating a player’s agency or outright killing them. To cast a verbal spell, or any spell or ability for that matter, you need to speak the proper incantation.

Spellball spells are physical objects that you throw at people for different affects. The wizard is by far the caster with the most varied amount of spellball spells. Different spellballs will be different colors to denote their effects. You’ll have to say the incantation before throwing the spellball.

Enchantments are spells that target other players (although on rare situations, yourself) which provide some kind of affect. Often this affect is protective in nature, the most common is giving armor or a protection against certain spells and abilities. Druid is well known for giving out enchantments.

Arts and Sciences

Amtgard also has a large Arts and Sciences scene. If combat isn’t really your thing then you might find you would like to craft. Most people who participate in the game also dabble in the Arts and Sciences.

There are any numerous things you can do, from creating historical or fantasy inspired clothing to building amazing looking weapons and shields and many things in between. Painting, drawing, photography, cooking and just about any art form, focused on historical of fantasy topics, are accepted in our community.

We have contests at least every six months where you can show off all the things that you’ve made. Often times you’ll find more frequent contests and some themed contests, depending on where you’re located.

The Community

Unlike some LARPs Amtgard is completely volunteer driven. You won’t find any paid staff here. Every person, from the person running a game up to the person running the organization, are all volunteers.

This structure gives people a lot of chances to learn in grow. People have come away from Amtgard with new organization and leadership skills. If you are into serving a community Amtgard is a good place to go. You can find leadership roles, such as helping run your local park and there is event planning such as helping run some of our yearly weekend long events.

If leadership is not your thing but you want to help, there are other avenues as well, You can design games for people to play, help clean up sites, referee games or any numerous support roles throughout the game.

Awards

Along with game, the Arts and Sciences and the community there is also an awards structure. We have awards for doing many different things, the five main themes are Service, Arts and Sciences, Leadership, battle gaming and Foam Fighting.

You can get an award for just about anything, there is even an award for good sportsmanship, the Griffin. Many of the award paths lead to a final award, Masterhood. These are Ladder Awards and they are detailed at the end of the rule book.

Once you achieve Masterhood in an Ladder Award path, you have the chance of becoming a Knight, which is an acknowledgment of your service to the game of Amtgard. It’s something along the lines of a lifetime Achievement award and will take several years to achieve.

On top of the Ladder Awards there are also titles such as Lord, Baron or Duke, just to name a few. Titles of nobility are often associated with running a park or a region of Amtgard. While a person is a leader of a park they have the temporary title of nobility associated with their park’s level. Once leaving office, they may be awarded a title of nobility of their own, separate from their park, if the officers of the region they belong to think they did a good job in their office. Lower level titles of nobility can also be given out as acknowledgment of a person’s service to the game.

Cost of Play

You might be wondering what it costs to play Amtgard. Our weekend practices are free! Sometimes we’ll have a weekend long event which will cost a fee to cover the cost of the event but our normal weekly events are free.

You don’t even need any gear to start either. Just come out to your local park and start playing. Most parks will have equipment to loan out to new players. You will eventually be expected to get medieval/fantasy clothing and your own weapons but people are usually pretty open to helping you obtain them.

There is a dues system that helps support the parks and regions, but dues are optional. You don’t need to pay them to participate in Amtgard. The amount varies it costs vary by region. Typical benefits to paying dues is to be able to vote in elections and to get print copy of the rule book.

Where to Play

Now that you know a little bit about Amtgard you might be asking where can you try out this game. Luckily we have groups throughout the USA and into Canada. Group sizes can run from a few people up to several dozen every weekend. For special events you might even see several hundred people! You can find the group closest to you by using this handy online tool we call the Amtgad Atlas.

Resources

In this section I’m going to list some good starting resources. For a more comprehensive list check out my Resource Page.

  • Rule Book: This is everything you’ll need to start playing, it details the combat rules, the classes, how armor works and the different weapons types and weapon construction rules.
  • How to Make a Short Sword: This is a basic video tutorial demonstration how to make a short sword. Even if you don’t know if you want to make your own equipment, it’s a good video to learn about our weapons.
  • Valid Weapon Shots: This video explains what a valid shot is in Amtgard. The video is very helpful in explaining the rules. It gives a demonstration of the various shots and their effects.
  • Main Amtgard Facebook Page: This is the main way we communicate as an organization. If you have any questions I didn’t cover you can send me a message or post in this group.

I’d like to thank my Patreon supporters. You can see the tier 2 and tier 3 supporters on my Patreon Supporters page.

Nov 12 2019

Weaponmaster and Twitch

This last weekend Blackspire had it’s Weaponmaster tournament. It was held at Dragon’s Forge (Oregon City, OR). Along with the tournament there were also two battle games, which, considering the tournament style, that’s not always a given.

I arrived shortly after noon and there was already a decent amount of people unpacking. Ceian was there, ready to have people sign-up for the tournament. The sign-ups closed promptly at 1pm.

In the meantime, while Ceian was writing up the brackets, Darb ran a battle game. The battle game was a variation of a timed capture the flag. There were two opposing teams, the goal was for one team to gather “treasure” and turn it into the treasure keeper to score a point. There were cones that were worth one point and larger objects, that were heavy objects, which were worth 5 points. The other team defended the treasure. Once the first team went, then the positions changed. The team that was able to gain the most points within in the time allowed was declared the winner.

The tournament was started shortly after the game ended. It was ran very efficiently ran. Ceian did an amazing job going through all 5 brackets in a reasonable time. The overall winner was Bigmac.

Because the tournament was ran so quickly they were able to run a second game. This second game was ran by Ceian. It was a basic capture the flag game, the catch was that it was a three team game. To score a point a team had to have all three cones at their base.

While they were playing the game I de-garbed and packed up. It was getting dark and I was going to pick up Uriel from work. The plan was to hangout at their place for the night. I said my goodbyes and headed out, Leaving the park at 4:30.

Twitch and Things

The poll about whether I should stream an AMA ends today and unless something dramatic happens, it looks like I will be streaming an AMA on twitch. I do not know when that will be, but I hope to do it within the next 30 days. I’ll have a poll up today about what game people would like me to play.

I have some reservations though. I’m worried that I won’t notice questions in chat in a timely matter. I’ve had some problems with that in the past when streaming. Having a second person to read the chat would be helpful but I don’t see that being very viable.

I’ve actually streamed regularly for a few months straight before, when I was trying to get my Apathetic Gamer Twitch channel going. I had no real success. I’m re-branding that channel rather than making a new channel. The channel banner still says The Apathetic Gamer, but my banner guy and good friend Co-oach, is working on a Baelnorn banner for the page. If you want to pre-follow me before the AMA, you are welcome to.

Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/therealapatheticgamer

I’m also adding Twitter and Instagram to my repertoire. I’ve already set them up. I started a new Twitter and repurpose my old Instagram. Please consider following me on both. Twitter has no real content, yet, but Instagram has several pictures, including several from when I went to Europe.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Baelnorn1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baelnorn1/

Keep an eye out for the Twitch Game Poll for later today on my Facebook Page!

Check out my Supporters Page! We now have two tier two supporters.

Nov 07 2019

What I’m Up To

I figured I’d make a second blog post this week and talk about what I’ve been up to. There is a lot going on and a lot planned over the next year, both in and out of Amtgard. Well, mostly in Amtgard. I’m first going to talk about what’s been going on with the blog.

The Blog and Platform Content

I’ve been expanding the scope of the blog, first through adding a YouTube Channel, then through adding a Patreon. Both are doing well. I’ve been uploading videos weekly on the YouTube Channel and I’m sitting at 46 subscribers. For Patreon I currently have 4 contributors. I got my first payment this week and I’m excited. A few more people and I won’t be in the negative from paying for the site each month!

I still plan on doing a pins. My artist has been having some troubles lately so she hasn’t been able to work on them, but we both want to do this, so it will happen someday. They will be gnome themed! We’ll have to do a kickstarter to get the funding to have them made though.

Some of you may have noticed that I put up a poll concerning doing a Twitch Ask Me Anything or AMA. So far it has been pretty positive. The poll ends in five days, so I urge you to vote, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to give it a try. I don’t know when the first one will be, but I’m pretty sure it will happen at this point.

I’m also considering putting up an edited intro video for my YouTube Channel, just to give it some more credibility. I’m not sure how the script would go, but I think it might be a good idea.

You might also see some content changes over the next few months as I start merging my various platfofrms. Right now I have four main things I do, Amtgard, write, play video games and photography. A lot of this will play out on my Patreon, but some of the content will find it’s way to this blog.

You’ve already seen me talk about my writing and you’re likely to see more of that, although most of that will be on my Patreon. I am also probably adding video games via twitch and the AMA. The goal is to stream video games and talk about Amtgard. The third thing, photography will probably just take the form of more photos. A lot of the nicer ones will be shared on my Patreon.

My goal is to add as much content to the Patreon as possible to make it worth people paying for. I will continue to add Amtgard stuff as well, I’m not replacing Amtgard content, I’m adding to it. Please check out my Patreon and subscribe. I do add weekly content, aside from this blog. As soon as there is a larger community I intend to add more community features.

Become a Patron!

In Amtgard

Next year (2020) I’m running, or helping run not one, not two, but three Amtgard campouts! The first one is Winterbash in January. I was originally only running the tournaments, but I got promoted to a co-runner position to help out Uriel, who is the lead event runner. When promoted I made the crazy decision to keep my tournament running position!

I’m currently planning out the tournaments, We are having an early bird tournament on Thursday, a team tournament on Friday and a normal tournament on Saturday. The early bird is going to be a basic bearpit tournament. I’m going back and forth on the main tournament format for Saturday. I’m deciding between the Warlords Style and the Olympiad Style. I’m leaning towards the Warlords Style just because it’s something I’m familiar with. I’ll need to decide soon.

The one I’m having the most trouble planning is the team tournament. I want to do something different. My goal is to have a a series of mini games rather than just the same game each round. Each round would be a different game, leading into a final timed game. I’m having trouble balancing simplicity with balance. D’gar sent me some feedback and I plan on discussing it with him. I hope to have the games set by the start of December.

The next event I’m working on is Shattered Kingdoms. It’s by far the one I’m the most worried about. Planning on the event is not nearly as far along as I would like. Part of this is my fault, I could be doing more. The other concern is that most of the core team is having life troubles, making it difficult to focus on the event. There is still more than enough time to finish the event, but I don’t like pushing it to the last 6 months. We do have a site, so that isn’t an issue.

So far the premise of this year’s Shattered Kingdoms is kingdom building. Well, not kingdoms exactly, but holdings. Players get to build up a keep and a town in an ancient forest. This is still the land of Onseuk, they are building holdings in the name of the king. The forest is cursed. Unbeknownst to the players last year, they had a chance to break this curse, which would have changed how this next year played out, but they failed to break it.

Even if players aren’t aware of how their actions effect the story of Shattered Kingdoms, they do. I’m not exactly sure how to make it obvious though. I don’t really like the idea of flat out telling them because it can kind of ruin the mystery but maybe I should so people don’t feel like they are just playing in a one track world. I’m not really sure, I’d be open to suggestions.

The third event of the year is Pacific War, also known as Pacwar. This year we are also hosting the national event Olympiad. I’m co-running the event with Ceian. We have a pretty good team so I’m sure we’ll do great.

For people who are unfamiliar with what Olympiad is, it’s a national Arts and Sciences and Warskill event. The goal of the event is to pit the best of the best through out all of Amtgard against all each other. The Northwest hasn’t hosted this event since the early 2000s. It’s a great opportunity for us to shine. I’m looking forward to becoming more well know at the national level.

I’ll be entering Olympiad but I know I won’t win. Still, I hope to do well. I’d really like to know where I rank nationally, I’ll just be entering the Arts and Sciences Competition, not the Warskill contest. I’d also like to be known for running a well run event. It’s also a chance to spread my blog to new people. I’ll probably even have business cards!

In addition to the events I’m working on, there is House Gravy. We have a lot coming up and I’m excited! The next thing we are doing is Winterbash. We are not running it as a House Hold, but several of the lead people are part of House Gravy and it’s a House Gravy Targeted Event. What does that mean? It means that the members of the House are encouraged to volunteer at least 4 hours at the event which counts towards their attendance within the House.

We are also contemplating running a demo at a local anime con in Portland. I’m pretty sure we are going to do it but the poll I created doesn’t end till Monday. Then there is Northern Lights Mid-Reign. We are donating breakfast for the event. The week after that is another House Gravy Targeted Event, Shattered Kingdoms.

That’s a pretty full half of a year, we aren’t sure what, if anything we’ll be doing for the second half but I I hope we find something. We’ve also been growing and are sitting at 16 members, with another two prospective members. I love that we are growing and adding quality people to the House.

Writing and Such

If you’re a loyal reader then you probably already know that I released an issue of Failed Schemes Magazine on Halloween. That was my major focus over the moth of October and I’m excited to have released it. Sales have been somewhat slow but I’m glad some people bought it. I hope you will consider purchasing it. I plan on releasing an issue once a year, more if I can find authors to contribute to it.

I’ve also recently went back to an old piece of writing I did. At one point is was the longest start to a novel I’ve done, sitting around 11k words. Right now I’m just rereading it and editing it along the way. If I think I can write an outline for the rest of the novel then I’ll start adding to it. Rereading it has me excited though so I hope I get inspired to start writing more.

I also finally found a beta reader for a novel I wrote, a person I think will actually finish it, Heldris. I’m excited to get their feedback. We talked and I already believe I’ll get a more favorable review than I thought I would. I’m sure there will be lots of criticisms, but when we had a discussion about the quality of peoples writing she was rather positive when talking about mine. I have so many self doubts about my writing that it was nice to hear.

It would be neat to finally finish my novel. Having someone read it is the next step before a third edit. I still have some scenes I’d like to add but to be honest I haven’t felt the creativity over the last few years to add them. This might be the motivation I needed to do it.

Final Thoughts

I’d really like to thank all my readers. Over the last month I’ve heard a lot of people at the parks I’ve travel to talk to me about my blog and tell me they enjoy reading it. I love hearing that. I don’t get told that very often and it’s hard to tell what people think about my work. Very few people comment when I post so some weeks I feel disheartened.

Since I’ve moved to the website I’ve been able to better judge if my content is being read. I usually get between 20-30 readers a week, which is nice to know. Articles get a larger draw, the most has been 160 in a week. That was for the rticle Is Amtgard a LARP?

I’d love to increase my viewership, but I’m not sure how to do that other than buy ads. If you like my content I’d really like to have some help spreading it around the internet. I’d also love to hear input from my readers about what they would like to see.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading about what I have going on in my life!