Recreation Amtgard

I play a sport called amtgard.
Basically, you make a practice weapon, go out with anywhere between 8 and 1000 people, and fight.
archery is allowed and most sides prefer to have at least one bow, there is magic and RPing elements, there are feasts, armor, fighitng companies, armies, wars, and my world, duels. i've had assassination attempts at feasts on myself and others.... i've defeated 20 people with only 2 allies in a blizzard, i've fought barbarians who could pick me up and throw me one handed in pouring thunderstorms, i've swept through the forest with my company to defeat rival groups, and i've made and sold armor and weapons.
(im not bragging, i've had all these done to me more than i can count.. just demonstrating the feel of the game)

it's great... and if theres any Amtgarders on this forum, this is Japan.

 

that's a video game....right?

 

no it's a sport lol

 

So in other words you're LARPing but refusing to admit it.

 

never refused. noone asked lol yeah it's a larp

 

LARPing is to sports as high school couples are to dedicated, mature loving couples.

 

all right here we go lol. it's all gonna come down to the definition of sport so here, my definition is "a game that requires a considerable level of physical movement and skill" what's yours?

 

LARPing is not what I would call a sport at all. A game? Sure; but just because it's a game with physical activity doesn't mean it's a sport. Would anyone consider lasertag, paintball or capture the flag sports?

A sport where you can win by standing in the back shouting "FIREBALL! FIREBALL!" and waving your hand is no sport at all. (Edit: Lets not forget how the "swords" are foam-rubber)

This isn't meant to rip on LARPing, but LARPing is just not a sport. Fun recreational activity? Yes. Could you enter LARPing in the Olympics? No. Fencing is different in that you actually learn technique in your swordplay. I doubt most LARPers have studied swordsmanship beyond a few movie clips.

Secondary Edit: Even the Amtgard website calls it a game.

 

well youre right but there are exceptions..... look at me... Currently practicing Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and about a week or so from returning to the dojo (lack of funds) and i play. i cant stand the "magic" myself nad never use it, but it does attract more players and make things more interesting. and fencing(with foils) is really nothing more than duel only LARPing

but then theres the people with a blackbelt in "bushido" and who study ninjutsu but cant seem to come up with a school name.

meh.. it isnt a school type sport, but i just dont really see what stops it from being called "sport"

 

Fencing takes practice, actual learning of swordplay, and isn't covering everything with at least 2 inches of foam. There's no dialogue. There are points involved. If you took the average LARPer and had them fight against a real fencer, the LARPer would not win.

When not even the games website will call it a sport and continually refers to it as a game, I think you're on shaky ground to call it a sport. My friends and I made a game called Juggernaught where we taped pillows to one guy. That guy would run to a couch, and we would all try to stop him. That's a game; it's not a sport at all.

 

Fencing takes practice, actual learning of swordplay, and isn't covering everything with at least 2 inches of foam. There's no dialogue. There are points involved. If you took the average LARPer and had them fight against a real fencer, the LARPer would not win.


my point there is youre using unrealistically light weapons to strike weakly in a safe way. if you had the average larper FIGHT a real fencer, (olympic i mean, not the traditional ones who actually train with swords) i'd say it would be even, since the larper would be more versatile... if he fenced him, the larper would die horribly. if you had an actual swordsman fight either of them they'd both be done quickly. oh yeah and theres points involved in amtgard.... armor works much the same way as points if used in duels.... and most amtgard shires have more fightng than questing by far.
anyway, in amtgard youre "fighting" under a set of rules to prevent injury. same as fencing. anything like that requires practice. you can train just as long in amtgard as you can in fencing, you'll just look dumb lol.



and on the sport thing... screw it. we both know exactly what it is. we just have differerent names for it.

 

Er... you know real foils weren't exactly heavy either, right? And it's not entirely safe either? And there are three different types of swords in fencing? And you have to actually work out for fencing? On top of that, even modern fencing swords can wound and even kill people (though admittedly the whole death thing is exceptionally rare with one death in the USA).

Based on what? All the fantasy films he's watched? There's more to swordsmanship than swinging a sword left and right, and if you watch LARPing videos, that's exactly what they do.

You can train for a long time in anything; fencing however is much deeper than LARPing.

A game, just like its own creators say it is.

 

maybe, but if you actually do it, it isnt. youre probably right. i dunno about other LARPs but Amtgard has been around long enough to have some depth of skill in it, adapted to fit the rules, mostly from fencing in fact, since the rules tend to favor fencing type strikes
based on the fact that theres every type of edged weapon represented

heh heh wanna try and count the number of weapons i've seen and fought?

and err.. there kinda isnt a "real" foil. a foil is one of those wiry whiplike practice weapons. and yeah, i know that an epee or rapier are exceptionally light weapons, but for any sword to stand up to half a strike it has to be far heavier than any foil. larpswords, mine in particular, tend to be weighted more realistically, although i admit we're still not striking like in a real fight.



and how excactly is fencing "deeper" than amtgard, since you can get a weapon weighted exactly like a foil, and fence with exactly the same style, and then pick up a spear, broadsword, dagger, polearm, throwing weapon, bow, axe, shield, etc., while also throwing in many people all in amtgard?

also, while i admit most dont do it, you could just as easily work out for amtgard.

kay.

 

Oh, I'm sure you're a practical encyclopedia of weaponry, particularly in actual combat use of said weaponry without foam. Regardless, my point was is that it's NOT all the same. Compare an epee to a saber.

You know not all swords utilize the same combat style, right, and hence don't need to be built a specific way every time, right? And as far as foils go, you know they used to be built to kill, right?

Real foils was in reference to classic foils from the era when fencing was more... well, real.

You have fiberglass wrapped in foam. Don't talk about realism on any level. Weight is more than a simple number;there's also the question of material density.

Because in fencing you have to learn how to actually fight to participate. In Amtgard you don't. In Amtgard you can screech fireball and still win. Fencing has thrusts, parries and so forth. Amtgard has ridiculously tight rules which take away nearly every advantage a weapon has if its a finesse weapon.

See that part right there, the part I bolded? That's the important part. You can't judge a whole based on a few exceptions.

 

in amtgard, i've never seen anyone participate without learning to fight. although you do have the "magic" stuff, the battlegames where it is allowed are only about a third of the game in my area. that and the fact that those who DO stand and screech fireball always get run down and foamed to death lol. well... would you call a 7 foot nodachi a finesse weapon? they tend to do pretty damn well. that and my 9 foot Naginata...

oh yeah of course, but they still need to be capable of blocking or being blocked without shattering... just like amtgard lol.. if i see a weapon that's too long to be as fast as it is, regardless of style, it's clear that it's built weakly. i put up an extra solid block and snap it. my nagamaki has about 9 breaks in 7 months. i know bamboo and steel are 2 different things, but again if someone came at me with a weapon that's made too weakly, it wont matter how fast it is.

no it's rattan! lol. theres the total poundage of the weapon. then theres where the weight is distributed. then theres flexibility. many weapons in Amtgard "whip", but mine dont, and mine have similar poundage and weight distribution to the real thing... of course they do kinda squish when they hit.

true, but they all are similar length and weight weapons... youve got the same things to worry about in amtgard, plus poles, flails, arrows, blah blah blah.



anyway... youre looking mainly at the "flurby" side of it, as we call it. basically, overdramatic, cant fight, use magic to even out their lack of skill, and generally refuse to duel anyone without being able to use their "cape of invisibility"

i'm bringing up the "stickjock" part of it. those of us who go out to fight. we have well-made weapons, developed techniques, and some actually have real life experience. there are shires that require workouts, but theyre generally small and boring due to lack of flurby cannon-fodder.

and of course there's those who do both.

 

Ok, thanks for proving/ignoring my point, which is that finesse weapons get screwed over, which in turn detracts from realism. (Edit: I admit I did screw up the grammar a bit; the point I intended to make is that finesse weapons get screwed. My apologies if this wasn't apparent [/Edit])

...So you further prove my point about poor weapon realism...

Which is what I said...

Nothing quite like geek-on-geek discrimination. Your "well developed weapons" have all the damage capability of an orange in a sock, your technique as you mentioned earlier is NOT the reality for the majority of the players. On top of that "flurby cannon fodder" isn't cannon fodder, with a 1 existing for every 5 melee fighters (from your own games website, I found this!).

LARPing is not a sport no matter what you say. I may as well claim Freespace 2 as a realistic space simulation if you think LARPing is a sport.

I invite people to go watch this video and tell me if LARP is a sport or a game: http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/9271/


Edit: I'd like to ask that a mod remove this from sports and put it in games where it belongs, thanks. Even the OP has conceded it's just a game.

Secondary Edit: Thanks for tossing this into Recreation, Ciel. That having been said, I am done with this mess of a thread.

 

huh? poorly made REAL weapons dont break?

heh i saw that edit lol. i never said finesse weapons get screwed over.
my point in saying that big freakin sticks do "pretty well" is that they keep up. in the hands of someone who's good with it, any weapon will do well.

no... what you said is that amtgard weapons cant have that. and i said mine do.

heh certain rules are overlooked at certain shires. my place allows pretty much whoever wants to sling foam in that particular game.

again, what i said about picking out the "flurby" crap.

heres what i tend to see at amtgard... http://www.amtgard-eh.com/library/amtpromo.avi

 

yup. i agree lol. just straightening some misconseptions on amtgard lol.

anyway on fencing, im talking about the ones who train for competition alone and rarely if ever pick up a bladed instrument... theyre just as far from being a swordsman as a larper or kendouka who do the same. although most fencing schools do, as far as i can tell, practice with actual blades instead of foils alone.

ehh. all those kinda apply to amtgard as well... except we do it for fun rather than to learn to kill, and I so it as a supplement to my MA.

anyway, youre right, i dont know a lot about fencing, but i wasnt attacking it either, and anyway, if i said anythig untrue about it, i'd like to know.