My Love/Hate Relationship with Amtgard

Pardon my rant

The more I am involved with Amtgard the more I hate it.

There are some good things about. Personally, I feel their battle rules are vastly superior to any other system out there. Why do I say that? Here are some reasons:

• No shield bashing or grappling - I feel that this is safer and also focuses on weapons skill rather than just overpowering someone
• Head shots are always illegal -  again, I think this is safer
• Tiered armor system - heavier armor gets more armor points
• No "laser" damage - an arrow that hits a weapon destroys the weapon rather than assuming it would hit the next target in line. This is far simpler to adjudicate.
• Shields last longer - they take 3 blows rather than 2

Other than that, however, the Amtgard structure just fills me with revulsion. Let me count the ways:

• Class System - I am increasingly of the opinion that the class system is broken. Spell casters are far too powerful. I'd like to dampen down the magic, which would encourage more swordplay.
• Crown Qualifications - candidates for officer positions are required to enter an Arts & Science tournament. Essentially, they need to prove their fitness to organize and lead by making stuff. Stupid.
• Centralization - I've griped about this before. Amtgard is built on a centralized model. Local park autonomy is severely limited. Local parks are essentially blackmailed into joining the local kingdom; if they don't they are denied access to higher level awards.
• Politics - I think this is a byproduct of centralization, but there seems to be a lot of political BS. And this is primarily at the kingdom level rather than within our local park.
• Awards Standardization - Sounds good in theory, but this severely limits the ability of local parks (especially isolated ones) to reward their players as they see fit. To me, this is like Wizards of the Coast telling a DM how to run his/her campaign.
• Knighthoods - I've ranted about this before; the system of knighthood is skewed. Historically, a knight should be lower than a lord, but Amtgard has this backwards. Sadly, this does recreate history in one way - it creates an arrogant, entitled aristocracy. By the way, I much prefer the system used by the Adrian Empire.

Anyway, feeling very frustrated by Amtgard recently. I'd like to drop Amtgard altogether, but then I would not have anywhere to play that's near me.

The Wight Stuff

Second Adventure of the Arcadia Campaign

A couple of months after their first adventure, Norha the foxling druid and Gabe the priest of Daeus were called before Hothgar, the chief druid of the Gleamwood. Aenghar was off scouting, but another ranger was with Hothgar.

Hothgar explained that he had studied the remains of the orb that was polluting the Briarwood and remained puzzled. He wanted the party to take the rocky remnant to the elves of Faewood. Their seer might be able to identify it. He then introduced them to Akelyos, a celestialborn ranger, who would accompany them.

As our heroes entered the Briarwood, they came across a polluted stream, much like one they had encountered earlier. However, this one was too wide to jump. How would they get across?

Akelyos noticed a pile of rocks next to the stream. Engraved on each rock was a letter. The party reasoned that they would have to spell out the correct password to get across.

"There's a P, then an E-N-I . . ." noted Norha, "Is there an S?". Her companions were skeptical that she had the correct word. They tried different combinations, but each time the rocks would sink into the corrupted stream, burning their feet.

Finally, Gabe discerned a word that looked promising - "S-A-F-E." They tried it and were able to cross safely.

They proceeded deeper into the forest, but were accosted by a woods shepherd, a large tree person. They noticed that he was covered in greenish ichor - corruption! He cursed them for destroying the forest and then attacked. The party prevailed and the shepherd was felled.

As they approached Faehome, they were assaulted by the smell of burning wood and the stench of death. They rushed to the elven village, only to find it burnt to the ground. Elven corpses lay scattered across the ground.

The heroes were approached by an ursinid, a bear-man. At first he was wary, and ready to attack the party at the slightest provocation. But the party established a dialog, and soon learned that Faehome had been attacked by marauding orcs. Teo the ursinid was simply a scout for his village who had discovered the devastation. He invited the party to rest at the Den, the ursinid village. There they learned that a new source of corruption was polluting the forest.

After a good night's rest, the party set out on a new quest - overcome the corruption. They began following a polluted stream. On the way they were ambushed by an orc warband but soon drove it off.

The trail ultimately led to a barrow mound, an ancient grave site. They entered the barrow, but were attacked by stirges. The bloodsucking bat-like creatures stuck Norha and Akelyos before Norha drove them off with a Calm spell.

Then the party was attacked by the resident of the barrow, a wight. They ganged up on the undead monstrosity and hacked it to bits.

In the barrow our heroes found another orb, oozing polluted ichor. Akelyos picked it up. As the orb burned his hands, he called out for help. Gabe cast a Heal on the orb. Like the other, it shriveled to a dull gray rock. Once again, they had ended the corruption.

As they exited the barrow, a wall of fire suddenly surrounded them. Then a cloaked figure appeared before them. Gabe recognized him - the necromancer of Vykaard's crypt! But they had killed him!

"Yes, I'm back. You should know that you can't kill a necromancer that easily," he laughed haughtily. "I am here to warn you. You have interfered with my plans too many times. Cross my path again and you will rue the day!"

Norha launched a dart at him, but the missile passed right through him.

The necromancer laughed again. "Fools! Do you think I would not take precautions. Trust me, when we do meet face-to-face you won't be able to get to me so easily. So stay away!"

The party began mocking the necromancer for being afraid to face them. He angrily disappeared, muttering curses. With that, the heroes returned victoriously to the Den, where they were feted. Finally, they returned to Gleamwood and Hothgar, informing him of the disaster of Faehome.