Chapter
The nucleus of the game.
Definition
A group of Amtgardians that play in the same location at least twice per month, at a regularly scheduled day and time, and hold a Contract. Also referred to as a Park, land, or group.
Chapters are given designations based on attendance. Most kingdoms count the number of unique individuals that attend in a given month, while others average number of people who play each week. Chapters can go up and down in status every six months.
Each chapter has its own officers, who are responsible for running all aspects of Amtgard play.
How to start your own
Well, first you'll need a name. Avoid things like 'Crimson', 'Raven's', 'Mystic' and 'Blood'. they are very common and you might duplicate a chapter who is already in existence. For instance there were once two parks called 'Rogue's Haven' one in California and one in Texas. The same is true with 'Dark Water' they eventually had a Darkwater East and a Darkwater West
You'll need a contract. This is an agreement you make with the Burning Lands (BL) Board of Directors to follow amtgard's rules of play, etc. Follow this link] to the BL pages on the Contract.
You'll need to sign up with the ORK; the Online Record Keeper. It also doubles as the Amtgard Atlas. Once you have a chapter started, you sign in to the ORK here. This is the standard place to keep track of credits.
Once you have all that set up you should get your selves some heraldry, a symbol that represents your park. Find some examples here
Here is some advice for starting your own chapter from Kuma the Painted and GoldCrest.
Chapter designations
- Shire 0 - 5 players required, depending on kingdom
- Barony 15 - 20 players required, depending on kingdom
- Duchy 30 -40 players required, depending on kingdom
- Principality/Grand Duchy 60 - 75 players required, depending on kingdom, some require subgroups.
- Kingdom-75+ players required. As well as several other factors, see the 'Kingdom Page' for details.
DS requires smaller numbers for example, while IM wants "unique names per month". There's been some recent noise on E-sam to standardize chapter sizes to match the recent awards standardization.
Multiple chapters are joined together to form a Kingdom. 75 players.
If you would like to read up on how to start your own park check out this article on the in their own words pages, Starting your own Park.
