Cross Gaming. Let's do this.

Bel -> Amt

This is my first lazy attempt to lay out the differences between the different sports. I'll probably re-tinker it later. For the time being though a quick guide to the differences in amtgard for belegarth fighters. I'll post other ones later and try to do reverse translations at a time when it's not 1am :-P.

Terminology

In ampgaard you do not have heralds. The closest equivalent is a reeve but in addition to doing things like make the battles go they're also responsible for the general rules adjudication in the case of any of the special rules that may exist. As in Belegarth make sure you listen to the reeves. In belegarth we have a full set of colors for various types of weapons; blue, green, red, yellow, black, etc. In amtgard you do not have any kind of color classification. The main reason for this being that all weapons do one point of damage to a target location, slash or stab. This also means that being stabbed twice, regardless of target location, will kill you, in much the same way that two slashed limbs will. In some scenarios they do distinguish between type of weapon relative to the class that's using it. In this case weapons are split up into daggers, short, long, great and projectile, based on the length or type of the weapon.

Culture

If a player cannot place their dead knee in contact with the ground, the foot of the wounded leg must remain stationary, and must immediately notify the opponent by stating “posting” in order to avoid dropping to his/her knees. Rules related to dead legs still apply as they do in Bel. Shields must be wielded in order for it to block a shot. Shots to an unwielded shield would count as if the shield was not there. Amtgard is NOT a full contact sport in the same way that bel is and as such body to body contact is prohibited. Shield bashing is also out so no shield to body contact from ANY direction. Shield manipulation is still allowed so long as you are ONLY manipulating your opponents shield and not knocking them around. Forcing a player’s weapons against them with your body or shield is prohibited. Weapons cannot be trapped or grabbed by body contact. That means that if a person stabs past you and misses you cannot bind their weapon. Also note that swatting a person's weapon aside in a deliberate attempt to manipulate it is at the very least discouraged if not illegal. To that end the usual trick of parrying a red weapon to the side and pinning it to the ground with one hand is also out.

That's all for now

I'll write up the other direction another time, as well as start adding primers for other sports as we run into them. For now I hope to see some of you at Saturday (today/tomorrow's) tournament.