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The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

Amtgard community is represented well on campus

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(provided courtesy of edhellen.com)

   The afternoon sun filters down through the trees, illuminating the battlefield and it’s three occupants. I stand at the ready, my eyes darting between the two opponents before me. In my left hand, a stout war hammer. In my right, a hefty mace. Each weapon pointed warily at an enemy. 

   In a flash, the one on my left dashes forward. His twin blades are blurred as he spins them around his hands. I bring the hammer up to block one sword as it comes down, and just barely manage to dodge the other sword coming up. 

   I swing my mace in retaliation, but my opponent breaks away before it could make contact. I back away from him, refocusing my attention to the warrior on my right. He holds his hand-and-a-half sword at the ready, as he sees what I am capable of and has prepared himself to defend. 

   I step forward to face him, he readies his blade and makes a defensive thrust. I parry his blade with my mace and make a swing with my hammer, the head connecting with his arm. It drops to his side…useless

   “Not my good arm,” said sophomore Nathan Kuhns. As he put his out-of-play limb behind his back, junior Adam Bertling charges him with two swords constructed of PVC pipe and foam rubber.

   This is the game of Amtgard, a battle system made for Live Action Role Playing that originated in Texas in 1983 and has since spread throughout the world.

   Its creator, James H. Haren II, built the system by borrowing from several other systems that were popular at the time. Haren originally was a member of a Washington, D.C. based group called Dagorhir, and used their rulebook as the basis for his own.

   The rules of melee in Amtgard are fairly simple. Hits to the body and limbs count, hits to the head don’t.

   From there, however, things get a little complicated. There are rules for ranged weapons, spells, even rules for siege weapons. Beyond the combat, there are obviously the rules for the role-playing side of the game, including specific classes and how to play as monsters.

   The groups that play Amtgard are spread out across the states as kingdoms, and each kingdom is divided into chapters that are spread out to the point that the various kingdoms all overlap to a degree.

   These chapters regularly hold events such as quests, ceremonies, and the all important battlegames. In a battlegame, two groups made up mainly of fighters, some archers and a small number of magic-users, compete in a large-scale dramatic battle with a limited number of lives.

   Here on campus, however, the game is very pared down. The focus has been taken away from the roleplaying and put on the combat, called “ditching” or “trenching” by the Amtgard community. 

   Players don’t worry about staying in any sort of character. They just have to worry about dodging the foam swords about to hit them.

   Returning to the battlefield, the fight is still going. Bertling is now wielding a massive weapon known as “the cheating spear” which is nearly twice his height.

   I am fighting him solo with the mace from earlier and a very small spear. I dance around him, staying just outside the massive reach of the cheating spear. I wait patiently for an opening, and my patience is rewarded. 

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    Marc NathanMay 8, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    I know it’s a longshot, but I am trying to contact James H. Haren II – True story: I found something that belongs to him, and for 17 years it’s been in a box I just opened. LOL. Can you help?

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