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What is Dragon Crest?
Here's the
short answer: Dragon Crest is a Live Action Role Playing (LARP)
game set in a fantasy genre.
To a fair
portion of the population, we might as well have quoted
something from Alice in Wonderland, so here's the long answer.
Role playing
games are games in which the players basically develop a
character persona (much as an author develops characters for a
book or story) and act it out. This is facilitated by someone
who is in charge (often referred to as the game master or the
storyteller) developing the plot line and presenting the
players with situations where they can act out their roles. In
the classic form, this is done while sitting around a table,
using cards or dice to determine the results of random events.
Live action
takes it another step. People actually dress and physically
act out the characters they have created. Perhaps the
best-known version of this to the general public is the murder
mystery. People get together at a friend's house or a hotel or
something, and a person or group of persons lead them through
a twisted and crazy plotline, pushing the group to solve the
mystery and discover the alleged killer.
Well, murder
mystery is one genre. The next most common one would be
Vampires, quite popular with the teenage 'goth' crowd. We have
heard of a wild west motif, as well as science fiction. The
genre we have chosen for our LARP is fantasy, also known as
swords and sorcery, similar to that popularized by J.R.R.
Tolkein in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
trilogy.
Players can
choose from an assortment of character types for their
persona. We have elves, dwarves, ogres, trolls, lizard men,
fish men, half man/half beast, barbarians, gypsies, oh and
normal humans, too. They can choose to be anything from noble
warriors to weasely scoundrels, musicians and merchants, even
wise scholars. It all depends on the kind of role the person
wants to act out.
How exactly is the
game played?
Again, a
question with many answers.
We start
with people creating their characters and figuring out their
motivations. Then, a group who's job is to create the plot
lines and keep the action going (the plot committee) presents
the players with a problem of some sort. Save the damsel in
distress. Clear a road of brigands. Destroy the evil monsters.
Settle a peace negotiation. Figure out why all of the wildlife
is fleeing the area. That sort of thing.
From here,
things vary quite wildly, with as many varieties as we have
players. For the noble warrior, it will be all about honor and
glory. For the scoundrel, it will be what's in it for him. The
musician may write a story or song about everyone else's
adventures. The scholars may prod their companions to help
seek out the hidden answers. Everyone will react differently
and with different motivations. This is what makes it a game,
not quite knowing what to expect.
How do you win?
You don't --
not in the traditional sense, anyway. The game is ongoing. The
current Dragon Crest campaign has been going on for over
7 years now. Hundreds of
people play at various locations across the country. Many of
those people play, or have played, more than one character,
each with different goals. For some, simply acquiring wealth
is their goal, one that is never fully satisfied. For others,
they just want the exercise of mock combat. Many just want the
enjoyment of acting out the part of someone different from
themselves. If a person successfully fulfils all of their
goals, then they probably set too few of them. The best way
to “win” the DragonCrest game is to have fun and help others
have fun.
If you can't win, why
play?
Again, each
of us has different reasons. First and foremost would be the
social aspect. We get to interact with a group of people who
share similar interests. For some it's the exercise of running
around in the woods all weekend. For others, it's the mental
puzzles that the plot committee develops. For everyone it is
learning the colorful storyline that unfolds over the years of
play.
I've seen mock combat, martial arts, and contact sports. What
exactly are you doing?
While it is
by no means the only aspect of the game, the martial
arts/contact sport side of Dragon Crest is extremely popular.
We do our absolute best to accommodate those people who do not
choose to engage in combat and help them experience the rest
of the game to the highest degree possible. However, since
most of our players choose to participate, especially the
teenagers, we want to go into some detail here.
Just like
soccer, football, karate, and even baseball, this is a contact
sport. Also, like those other sports, we have safety
regulations and protective equipment. Some of the equipment is
optional, much of it is mandatory. We will cover them in
further detail throughout this section.
OK, we've
stated it's a contact sport, but what kind of contact is
there? We do mock medieval style combat. Because it is mock
combat, the terms we use are combat related, much as they
would be in karate, judo, or football. There are two forms of
contact attack allowed within the game. The first is melee, or
weapon delivered attacks. These weapons are essentially padded
sticks which we call boffer weapons. They are designed so that
it is very difficult to cause serious injury, even if someone
were to try. The primary padding is at least 5/8" thick closed
cell foam. We put this padding on the weapons so that an
unprotected opponent will still be protected from harm. On the
tips of the weapons, we require an additional layer of
open cell foam, as this part of the weapon is occasionally
used in thrusting attacks. This is the material used in solid
foam pillows and mattresses, typically found in large sheets
at cloth and camping stores. Open cell foam gives very easily,
and provides a really good cushion in the even that an
accidental head or groin shot occurs.
The second
form of attack is packet delivered. Packets are small squares
of cloth loaded with birdseed. The finished size is about that
of a 35mm film canister. At this size, the packet weighs
enough to throw it accurately, out to 30 or 40 feet, but it is
difficult to cause any harm with. We use birdseed because
these items often get left lying
on the ground, and the birds and squirrels do an
excellent job of insuring that they get blended into the
environment. We try to use natural fiber cloth because it more
readily decays. We also see the occasional bird nest with our
colored material worked in. But our relatively small impact on
the environment concern us less than the safety of our
participants.
Additionally, players are encouraged, even rewarded, to wear
additional safety equipment. Since armor is a huge part of any
good medieval costuming, this is relatively easy and popular
to implement. Even a simple layer of leather or heavy canvas
provides excellent protection from scrapes and bruises caused
by the environment. Think similarly to other contact sports.
Soccer players wear shin guards because they get kicked a lot,
as well as elbow and knee pads because they fall down.
Baseball catchers wear facemasks and heavy chest and groin
protection, at least in league play. Football players wear
helmets and lots of pads.
Our typical
high combat players will wear: good boots, shin guards, and a
tunic made of padded leather, metal rings, or plastic or metal
plates which usually go down to the knees.
Do people get hurt?!
We've
touched on protective equipment, but just as in other sports,
no amount of protective gear or safety rules will prevent
every injury. While the numbers are far from scientific and
exact, we have been playing this game for several years and
can give you a fair idea of what kinds of injuries to expect
and how frequently among our gaming population. Among the
active chapters, we probably had over 5000 player days in
1999, from a player base of around 400 active players. Keep in
mind that in addition to the mock combat, we also are out in
the woods in a camping environment.
Nearly
everyone came home at least twice with minor bruises from
weapon or packet attacks, and a bunch more from tripping and
bumping into things. We had around a dozen heat exhaustion and
heat stroke cases around the country. About 40 serious asthma
attacks (among a very small group of people who warned us
ahead of time they were prone to them, and had appropriate
medication), at least one requiring a hospital trip. A couple
of emergency room visits for insect stings (bee, wasp, hornet,
etc). Half a dozen eye injuries that required bandaging and
care for more than an hour (wearing sports safety glasses
would have prevented all of those). A handful of twisted
ankles requiring medical attention, and a lot that didn't. One
broken leg. A half dozen dislocated joints (most of these on
one particular person). One mild concussion. 20 or so
epileptic seizures (all from two people who notified us ahead
of time of their condition). 20 or so popped fingers. Lots of
poison ivy/oak/sumac. Several spider and many mosquito, flee,
and chigger bites.
Do these
numbers seem high? They shouldn't. They are similar to or
lower than what you would see from your average school sports
team, scouting activity, etc. While our safety measures are in
place to reduce the quantity and severity of injuries, we are
realistic and realize that there is no way we can eliminate
them entirely. We wish we could. By playing this game, or by
consenting for your child to play it, you risk these kinds of
injuries, just as you would in any other sporting or camping
activity.
We don't
want to list out our entire list of safety rules here, but we
will state the most important one. It is what we call the HOLD
RULE. It's very simple. When someone yells, "HOLD!" all action
stops. Period. Any player can, at any time, and for any
reason, call a HOLD. It's almost like the old red light, green
light game we played as kids, when red light was called
everyone froze like statues. This rule is pounded into our
players' heads. We often use holds to stop the action so that
a marshal can make a rules call or describe things to the
players. However, whenever a safety issue is seen, a HOLD is
called to resolve it. Some key examples of how we have used it
in safety:
·
A
weapon breaks or the safety padding comes off
·
Someone is about to back over a log or into a tree
·
A
player falls and we check to make sure they are ok
·
Calming someone down who is getting an adrenaline rush and
losing a little self control
·
Any
sports injury requiring attention, no matter how minor
If you are a
parent reading this and you want to see how well this works,
here's an experiment to try after your child has played a few
times. Next time they are fighting with a sibling or throwing
a fit or whatever, yell, "HOLD!" and see what happens…
What benefit is there to playing or to allowing my child to
play?
Here comes the fun stuff.
For the
average adult, it's all about entertainment and stress
release, with some good exercise thrown in.
For the
kids, we get some more important things.
First of
all, we run what we refer to as a good guy campaign. The
players are rewarded for being good guys. It's a game, and we
certainly allow them to play bad guys, we just don't encourage
it. In fact, we sit the player down and make sure that they
are aware that we won't even play fair. We will make it very
difficult for them to succeed at anything shady and
underhanded. Mainly, we have found that the player base as a
whole has more fun when we, as the people running the game,
are the bad guys.
We promote
honor. Even our worst bad guys are some of the most honorable
villains you could ever meet, and deal most harshly with
dishonorable characters. Honesty and keeping one's word are
constantly being promoted.
Problem
solving skills. Being a game, players are presented with
problems, puzzles, conundrums -- all kinds of difficulties to
get their brains working. Just like muscles, the brain works
best when exercised.
We push
leadership skills as well. Groups are constantly forming and
reforming within the game. This gives lots of opportunity for
individuals to stand out and take charge. If we see someone
who is intentionally avoiding such things, we artfully craft a
situation where they don't necessarily have a choice. Many of
us spent years in scouts or in the military or as teachers of
one form or another, and we have learned how to help people
develop.
We give them
a place to escape, at least for a while, from the rigors of
everyday life. While so many portions of society are turning
to some form of chemical abuse or another, we would gladly put
our game population up as a shining example of how those
numbers can be drastically reduced.
Academics.
Yes, academics. We want to work with you as a parent. Do you
want you child's grades to improve? Set limits with us on what
they need to achieve to play. We have had several parents do
this with amazing results. One parent simply wanted her child
to maintain his average, but acceptable grades. One parent
keeps upping the ante for her daughter - in order to play for
the next grading period, she must have a higher-class average
than she did in the prior grading period. You would be totally
shocked at how well this works.
Mentoring.
These kids are surrounded by adults all weekend long. For the
most part, successful adults. We teach by example.
What kinds of
adults play this game?
Chapter
heads include computer support engineers, an airline pilot,
and a college student. Among our player base we have, or have
had at times, military personnel, police officers, teachers,
book store clerks, travel agents, computer programmers,
technicians of every sort, accountants, secretaries, mothers,
fathers, grandfathers, whole families in fact, musicians,
managers of all kinds of different businesses, shipping
company drivers, builders, mechanics, vets…. Just to name a
few.
Is this a religion?
No. Dragon
Crest does not deal with religion, nor are there any
intentional religious references made within the game. This is
a very difficult challenge for those of us writing story line,
as religion in one form or another is so ingrained in our
histories. However, this is something very important to us, as
we do not want to influence a person's choice of religion in
any manner. While we do not promote religion within the game,
we also do not discourage our players from being religious,
only from displaying such within the structure of the game. We
go out of our way to keep from hindering people from
worshiping as they see fit.
What is
your stance on drugs and alcohol?
There is no
tolerance of alcohol or drugs of any type at a Dragon Crest
event. None. Period. If we had to list a single compelling
reason, it would be safety. We don't want a bunch of out of
control drunks getting into combat and swinging (even
relatively safe boffer) weapons at each other.
Again, this
is a zero tolerance issue. If a player is caught using or
under the influence of drugs or alcohol at a Dragon Crest
event, they are gone, never to return.
Smoking will
not be allowed by anyone under legal age at any events. Even
the adults will be under severe restrictions.
Smoking
Restrictions:
·
Must
be of legal age to smoke
·
Must
smoke only in an explicitly approved location
·
There will be no smoking in any camp building or on any camp
trail. None.
Great, but I would like to talk to another parent or player.
Can I contact someone else's parent or another player to ask
questions?
Absolutely. We have several parents who are more than willing
to talk about Dragon Crest and it's impact on their children.
We don't know of any player who won't rattle on about the game
for as long as you are willing to listen. We would post a
bunch of names here, but we all know that posting names and
numbers on the internet is not always the best thing in the
world. Please
Contact Us and we will put you in contact with as many
people as you would like. |
