Ditching Sucks
[07/18/2002] [Sir Feral Lynn]I've traveled a lot in my Amtgard career. I've seen a lot, drank a lot and generally done a lot. In my travels I have noticed a rather startling trend. There are lands out there that strictly ditch battle. That bothers me. In fact, I'd go so far to say that lands that only ditch battle suck. It bothers me even more that I hear that Burning Lands is guilty of this quite often and, as such, many of their members come to Dragonspine for fun. Don't get me wrong. I'm a ditch monkey and enjoy fighting. I love to swing a stick and kill people. Who doesn't? But, there is far more to Amtgard than ditching and when you leave the rest behind you do yourself and Amtgard a disservice. Now, there will be those who will say that we are here to dress funny and hit people and that anything else is but window dressing on what is essentially a contact sport. To those people I can only have a bit of pity in my heart. For it is them that miss out on at least three quarters of what makes Amtgard great! I'm shocked and surprised that the 'founders' of the game have forgotten that. OK, so I'm not really all that shocked and surprised, and the fact that I'm NOT is actually more pathetic than my original statement. But what, you may ask, is there besides dressing in pajamas and swinging a stick? Tons. There are battlegames (which draw new players far more than the ditch field). There are quests, tournaments, and service, running for office, arts and sciences and on and on. There is a reason that there are four paths to knighthood. These are the four essential elements to a good land: Fighting, Service, Leadership, and A&S. Without any of these elements you are lacking something very necessary in your land, and in yourself. I suggest that anyone who doubts this check out the manuscript from Sir Theo's fourth belt. It was beautiful, and it espoused the four pillars upon which Amtgard is built. From memory, and this may be faulty, it said something like: The crown lead us to the mountain, the flame built the mountain up to its height, the sword defended the mountain and the serpent made the mountain beautiful. If Amtgard is merely about swinging a stick then lets get rid of the kinds of knighthood, get rid of the foam and all go to SCA. There we can swing a stick and mean it, and not be bothered by any of the other pansy stuff like battlegames (Classes? Can you hit that?) or garb (garb? what's that?) or anything else that makes Amtgard what it is. I'll stand by my original statement: LANDS THAT ONLY DITCH SUCK!
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