Foreward 7.5

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Foreword

It’s been a decade, more or less, since the last release of the rules of play. This release is representative of many lessons learned and experience gained over that ten-year period. In that time, Amtgard has become geared towards a faster, more engaging and interesting system of play, and was in dire need of rules to match. The original goal was to clear up gray areas and loopholes in the rules, and those clarifications brought with them many significant changes, as well as further attempts to balance the game.

It was not an easy task - and to be certain, some things were missed; still, we think this represents the best that all the kingdoms could contribute and reflects the general consensus of how things should work. This is the first rulebook that is a truly inter-kingdom effort, and it shows. It was a long, hard road to produce the work you are about to read and in the end, it came down to the blood, sweat, and tears of a very few people. Given that this is probably the only set of words all Amtgardians will read, we feel we should take this chance to remind everybody what we believe this game really is.

The game isn’t about fighting, or arts and sciences, or role-playing (though of course those all exist and flourish within the game). The game is about the people. It is the people, all of the people, who have made this game work for over 20 years. It is the people, past and present, which make Amtgard the great organization it is today. Every day you step out into the park, try to remember it is the people who surround you that make the game. No matter what our differences may be, at our heart we all share a common bond, and a common Dream.

We hope you enjoy the new rulebook and find it an improvement over the previous one. Happy gaming!

In Service, The Rulebook Committee
March 2005

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The next section is Getting Started

Player Notes

Matthias, about the Rulebook

And the rules are seldom written with every possible whacked-out interpretation accounted for...

You try to phrase a rule carefully enough that 90 out of 100 people will read it exactly the way you meant. In practice, 50 people out of a 100 will interpret it pretty close to how you meant it, another 25 people will read it somewhat the way you meant it but won't quite get it right, 15 more will accidentally misread what you wrote and interpret it as something completely different from what you meant, 5 will try to twist your words around to come up with something completely off the wall or self-serving for them, 4 will just give up trying because of all the other people shouting, and 1 person will understand perfectly what you were trying to say.