Stepping Through the Looking Glass

The world of historical recreation has always been big enough to satisfy a wide variety of interest. Some folks are only interested in playing an authentic recreation down to the most minute detail of a particular year. Others enjoy a looser interpretation of the past, and they sample from a whole millennium of history.

Since 1981, members of the International Fantasy Gaming Society, Inc. have been stepping beyond the bounds of history into the realm of fantasy and improvisational theater to create their own style of fun. Borrowing liberally from the works of Larry Nivens and Stevie Barnes, authors of the Dream Park novels, the works of J.R.R. Tolkein, and role-playing games, Mark Mattews-Simmons, the founder of IFGS, began running live action role-play games in the woodlands around Boulder, Colorado. From that small beginning they have grown to 10 or more chapters in the USA.

A new player's first experience with IFGS will probably be a short tavern scenario which precedes a full adventure by a week or more. In the tavern, novice and experienced players role-play forming adventure parties, trading treasure acquired in previous adventures and telling war stories Sometimes they even have mysteries to solve or barroom brawls. But the real adventure begins when the team actually starts their quest.

The players can choose to be from any of 8 character classes--fighters, rangers, knights, magic users, clerics, druids, monks and thieves; and three alignments--lawful, neutral, and chaotic.

After developing a personal history and reason for adventuring the player needs to put together a costume. The theme of the game is Medieval but not strictly historical. A cleric may have priestly vestments but must avoid using symbols of currently practiced religions to avoid offending anyone's true beliefs. The only other rule is that the overall costume must have a dominant color theme, and different from the other players on his team. Gamemasters call your hits by referring to your color. For instance, "Green, you're been hit by an arrow for one point."

The swords used in combat are foam covered bamboo, commonly called boffer weapons. There are strict rules for constructing these weapons that keep the games safe. Players are on their honor to acknowledge their blows to add to the realism of the adventure, but gamemasters, and scorekeepers accompany each party to reveal the storyline and call the accuracy of the weapon strikes. Missile weapons are projectiles or thrown weapons of any kind, including spells. An archer must carry a bow but real arrows are not allowed. Instead, the intended shot is announced by the player and the scorekeeper tells whether or not it was good and how many points of damage the victim took. Spells are represented by colored bean bags which are tossed at the opponent.

But live action role play is not just a series of combats. It also requires a lot of acting, detective work, and teamwork. A good knowledge of role-play mythos, Celtic, Norse, and Classical mythology is helpful, too.

All of the participants in the IFGS games are not players. To put on a big adventure it can take 25 or more actors and game staff as well. The NPCs, as they are called are volunteers who may have played the adventure before. NPCs play monsters, undead creatures, evil wizards, prophets, townspeople, even deities and demigods. You never know what you'll run into.

Of course there is a cost for participation that pays for the use of the site, comfort facilities, props, special NPC costumes, and sometimes, feast food. A 24 hour adventure usually runs from evening to evening and costs about $35. Some games last a whole weekend with game play halted for rest periods at night. But often, adventurers are too excited to sleep.

The writers of the adventures are also volunteers and spend many months developing a storyline and scripts for all of the NPCs. The adventures must be approved by a sanctioning committee that evaluates the story for safety, playability, and challenge.

The games fall into two categories--line course, where the players follow an adventure from station to station in proscribed order with the NPCs repeating their script with each new party; and world games, where the stations can be visited in real time in all places at once.

After the games are over the players PCs and NPCs receive experience points that are tracked in the membership office. Also the gold and treasure found, won or stolen in the game tallied, credited to the characters and the props are returned to the game bank. At the start of the next game the characters will begin with the same amounts of gold and treasure.

Afterwards, the players step back through the looking glass and return home knowing that they have had an adventure that others can only dream about.

To Reach IFGS

IFGS products for sale in the Chivalry Sports Catalog.

Go to previous page: Profile of Joust-trainer, James Zoppe

Go to next page: Profile of a Renaissance Fair Blacksmith, Frank Garland

Return to: Articles Index

This page was last updated Tuesday, 27-May-2003 13:20:58 EDT