They're game. Are you?
Slaying dragons, smashing evil empires, saving the universe ...
all in a weekend's work
By Carol Band, Globe Correspondent, 12/07/2000
What are you going to do this weekend? Go to a movie? Have friends over
for dinner? That's nice. But look around. See your neighbor across the
street or the guy sitting one cubicle over? They might just have more
exciting plans - like slaying dragons, defeating evil empires, and
assuming the personas of elves, orcs, princesses, and aliens.
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 Medieval
role-players (clockwise from top-left): Charles Sumner, Jeff
Diewald, Katherine Journeay, Anne Cross, Jeffrey Ogorzalk, Mark
Waks.
In this report
 Standard
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Printable
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Related: Hasbro
owns D&D, Magic
What is the SCA?
For
gamers locked in medieval times, the initials SCA loom large.
The Society for Creative Anachronism, founded in 1966, is
dedicated to researching and recreating the Middle Ages. Local
chapters meet for dancing, calligraphy, archery, metalwork,
costume-making, and, of course, jousting. The SCA selectively
recreates the Middle Ages by including conveniences like indoor
plumbing and by eliminating the unseemly aspects of the period, like
death by plague.
Organized as feudal society, the SCA is divided into 16
kingdoms, each with a king and a queen. New England is part of The
Eastern Kingdom and Boston is dubbed Carolingia. The SCA hosts
events throughout each kingdom almost every weekend.
The Eastern Kingdom Yule Feast, in Springfield, welcomed the
season last weekend with wassail, a heavy weapons boar hunt, fencing
tournament, archery competition, and a feast.
Anyone can participate in an SCA event. The only requirement is
to wear some attempt at a pre-1600 costume. For more information
visit the SCA website at http://www.sca.org/ or call
800-789-7486.
 WarHammer
fantasy characters from Phoenix Hobbies in
Medford.
WarHammer by the
Numbers
Figures in an
army - 35 (at least)
Time it takes
to paint a wood elf - two hours
Cost of one
dwarf- $2.50
Length of a
game - two hours
How far an orc
can move - 4 inches a turn
Number of dice
rolled - 10
How many pages
in the rule book- 279
How many races
of armies - 13
Fantasy Dates
Dec. 8 ``Dungeons & Dragons'' - New Line Cinema and
Sweet Pea Entertainment release feature-length film based on fantasy
game; http://www.dndmovie.com/
Jan 26-28 Vericon - Harvard University Science Fiction and
Fantasy Conference. Harvard University, Cambridge. www.vericon.org/schedule.html
Jan 12-14 Arisia '01 Science Fiction and Fantasy
Convention, The Park Plaza, Boston; www.arisia.org/2001/
Feb. 16-18 Boskone Science Fiction, Fantasy, Art, Music,
Literature and Gaming Convention. Framingham Sheraton, Framingham.
508-879-7200
March 9-11
Intercon - The Semi-Annual Convention of the Live-Action
Role-Playing Association, Chelmsford. intercon-a.ldbw.com
 Alex Curlin (left)
and Joey Quigley play in a WarHammer tournament hosted by Hit and
Run in Lexington.
Where The Games
Are
These local stores carry everything you need to get
started with tabletop and role-playing games:
The
Compleat Gamester 350 Moody St., Waltham. 781-893-9505
The Compleat Strategist 201 Mass. Ave., Boston.
617-267-2451
The Games
People Play 1100 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 617-492-0711
Your Move Games 400 Highland Ave., Somerville.
617-666-5799
Hit and Run 32
Waltham St., Lexington. 781-863-2255
Outer Limits
463 Moody St., Waltham. 781-891-0444 Pandemonium Books & Games
36 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge. 617-547-3721
Phoenix
Hobbies 8 Salem St., Medford. 781-393-0755
Websites
Live Action Role-Playing
To
learn more about the world of fantasy games - from Larps to laptops,
check out these sites:
Live Action
Role-Players
Association -
http://www.larpa.org/ Assassins
Guild of MIT - http://www.mit.edu/assassin/
Atlas Agenda - www.larp.com/atlas/
Boston Gamers - http://www.bostongamers.com/
Dragon Crest - www.dragoncrest.com/
dcwebintro.html
or 617-773-4970
NERO (New
England Role-playing Association) http://www.nerolarp.com/
Realms - http://people.ne.mediaone.net/
alarpa/index.html
Collectible card
games
http://www.wizards.com/
Board games
boardgames.about.com
http://www.coolgames.com/
http://www.gamecabinet.com/
On-line Games
With the
advent of computer technology, you can role play even on your lunch
hour. Increasingly realistic online games such as Everquest attract
hundreds of thousands of players. You can log on 24/7 and join in
the fantasy. Try http://www.everquest.com/ or http://www.asheronscall.com/
What does it all
mean?
A Glossary to the
Games
AD&D: Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons
CCGs: Collectible Card
Games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon
D&D: Dungeons &
Dragons
GGA Internet term. Good
Game All. Used when playing online games.
GM: Game Master
g.p.: An acronym for gold
pieces, the currency of most RPG's, including D&D.
GURPS: Generic Universal
Role Players
LARP: Live-Action Role
Playing
MUD: Internet term. Multi
user Dungeon
MUSH: Multi-user
NERO: New England
Roleplaying Organization
NPC: Non-playing
character. A supporting character who is not part of the ongoing
role_play. Monsters, elves, trolls who lend a sense of atmosphere to
the campaign.
PC: Playing Character
RPG: role-Playing Game
SCA: Society for Creative
Anachronism
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The college kids who dabbled in fantasy and role-playing games 20 years
ago have grown up. Not only are they still playing games, like Dungeons
& Dragons, but they have introduced role-playing and fantasy to a new
generation.
Friday Night: A wintry wind whips the rustic cabins of Camp
Hayward, a Boy Scout camp in Sandwich that is closed for the season but
far from deserted. Tonight it has been transformed into the medieval
village of Dupree. Nearly 100 characters are arriving to take up residence
for the weekend; among them are evil knights, mischievous elves, and
animal-human hybrids endowed with magical powers. The characters have
converged as part of the live-action role-playing (LARP) game called
Dragon Crest.
One weekend a month, players come to do battle with foam weapons,
engage in theatrical banter, and act out a storyline loosely constructed
by one of the game's founders, 30-year-old William Flippin of Quincy.
The Dragon Crest weekends draw men, women, and children from all
backgrounds and professions. David Lord, a 36-year-old professional with a
local software company, comes with his 15-year-old son, Tim. The real-life
father and son play dwarf brothers Thunder and Storm during the Dragon
Crest events.
David Easa, a 33-year-old resort manager from Sandwich, is also a
frequent Dragon Crest player. For his character - "a wizard named Mika who
is a wolf-human hybrid" - Easa dons a latex wolf mask, leather armor, and
a hooded maroon and gray cloak that he made himself. Easa explains that
the main task for the villagers on a recent weekend was to restore balance
of the elements earth, air, water, and fire.
"There is no time during the weekend where you are not in character or
ready for action," Easa says. "At 2 a.m., your cabin can be raided, or
someone may come asking for your help because trolls have overrun their
farm."
Like other live-action role-playing games, the battles in Dragon Crest
are acted out with boffers - weapons made of foam-wrapped PVC tubing.
Spells and lightning bolts are harmlessly delivered by throwing a small
cloth packet of birdseed at the target. Membership dues cover insurance
costs, and a ban on alcohol, drugs, and open flames is strictly enforced.
"In the rare instances when someone does have an injury, it's from
tripping over a branch, or running into a tree in the dark," Flippin says.
This weekend and on the last weekend in January, Dragon Crest will host
Winter Revels Weekends at Camp Burgess in Sandwich. Players register in
advance so that their characters can be incorporated into the plot.
"There'll be 100 players," Flippin predicts with a smile. "The cabins are
heated."
The six-year-old Boston chapter of Dragon Crest, one of four
nationwide, now has 150-200 members. It isn't the only live-action
role-playing game in the Boston area. There are dozens - like the ones
sponsored by the largest fantasy role-playing group in New England, NERO
(New England Role-playing Organization). The Massachusetts chapter has 400
active players, according to chapter owner Rachel Morris, and is run like
a business, selling not only the rights to characters, but chapter
franchises as well. And it's a growing enterprise.
"We have people in their mid-60s playing alongside of teenagers, and
fathers and sons who sign up for weekend events together," says Morris.
"The organization's motto `Be All That You Can't Be' appeals to both men
and women whether they are brain surgeons or bricklayers."
Morris, however, admits that she was a skeptic when she first heard
about NERO from a friend.
"I grilled her for about a week before I went to watch a game," she
says. "To an outsider, it looks like a bunch of idiots running through
plastic sheeting with plumbing supplies. Once you're involved, though,
your imagination takes over and it really takes shape. It's like acting in
the theater, only everyone in the audience is an actor as well."
Many of the fantasy role-plays, like NERO, Dragon Crest, and the darker
vampire games, are set in the medieval period; others take place in less
familiar settings.
The Atlas Agenda, a game run by husband-and-wife team Ben Becker and
Kara Becker Minotti of Waltham, centers on a cyberpunk civilization where
players battle with foam balls launched from paint guns. Another LARP
game, Madrigal, calls on players to use their knowledge of the arts to
unravel mysteries and defeat evil in a high fantasy world.
The success of these events has not been lost on their creators. The
New England Role-Playing Organization is developing plans for corporate
retreats and management training seminars based on its role-playing
scenarios. Imagine bopping your boss with a foam-covered PVC pipe, while
learning management techniques (and finding out which of your collegues
looks good in tights!).
As ogres and elves are populating the woods of the Upper Cape,
adolescent boys are invading historic Lexington Center. A small parade of
minivans and Volvo wagons pulls up unceremoniously to the door of Hit
& Run on Waltham Street.
Teenage boys, laden with suitcases, boxes, and Tupperware containers,
slide out of the cars. One by one, they dash through the front door as
their mothers call out instructions: "Have fun." "Don't forget your
jacket." Inside, however, the kids are masters of the universe - albeit
one confined to a tabletop.
They've come to play WarHammer, a strategic fantasy game involving
armies of hand-painted miniature figures that move according to an
elaborate system of rules and the roll of dice.
Carol and Dan Ferullo, owners of Hit and Run, have been hosting games
for eight years. After school, the tables are filled with kids trading and
playing with Pokemon cards.
Tonight is a WarHammer 40K tournament, and by 6 p.m, 14 boys are
setting up armies of Space Marines, Imperial Guardsmen, and futuristic
elves called Eldar. Carol Ferullo pulls numbers out of a paper bag to
determine teams.
The Ferullos don't seem to mind having their business overrun with
adolescents. "They're good kids," Dan Ferullo says. "I think that most of
the kids who play this tend to be - can I say this? - the smarter kids."
They would have to be, it seems. The rulebook for WarHammer 40K is
hundreds of pages thick - and the game involves more strategy than chess.
Standing a head taller than all the other players is Bryan Thombs, a
31-year-old military veteran from Texas.
"My wife and I have an agreement that I will only play WarHammer every
other week, but she's working late," Thombs confesses, a tad sheepishly.
Tonight, his painstakingly detailed army of Imperial Guardsmen is
already facing the forces of 14-year-old Lexington high school freshman
Nathan Buckley. Thombs has been playing WarHammer since before most of his
fellow players in the store were born. Over the years, he has amassed more
than 200 of the tiny metal figures and spent hundreds of hours painting
them.
His expertise and boyish affability make him the unofficial den leader
of this young troop of fantasy gamers. Throughout the evening, he is
peppered with questions regarding the rules and fine points of the game.
"Hey Bryan, do your guys die when they fall off the table?" "Yes," Thombs
replies with authority.
Saturday - noon: Eighteen men descend into the cavernous
basement of Phoenix Hobbies on Salem Street in Medford for a WarHammer
tournament.
Today, Jim Wilson, a 32-year-old Web designer from Wilmington, will
wage war with his army of Beastmen as they come up against ranks of
Skavens, Wood Elves, and LizardMen.
"It's an expensive hobby," Wilson admits, as he aligns his troops. "The
guys here all have pretty good jobs and some disposable income." They'd
better. Scott Kimball, a computer games designer from Waltham, reports
that he has spent at least $5,000 on his figures and estimates that
purchasing and painting a basic WarHammer army runs $200 to $500. "It's
addicting," he says.
Chuck Davis, 37, has been playing war games every week for 24 years. He
traveled from a horse farm in Hartland, Vt., with his army of giant rats,
called Skaven. Among his oppponents are David Foster, a 42-year-old
jewelry manufacturer from Waltham, and Charles Garland of Tyngsboro, the
53-year-old owner of a fiberglass company.
"I started collecting the figures because I enjoyed painting," Foster
recalls. "Before I knew it, I had an entire army."
The tournament will last for three or four hours. The eventual winner
will take home a piece of foam gaming scenery donated by the store's
owner, Jim Parcella. "It's not a high stakes game," Wilson says. "We're
here because it's fun."
Saturday - 3 p.m.: Walter Hunt, a 43-year-old from Bellingham, is
another self-proclaimed game addict. As president of the Merrimack Valley
Gamers Association, a post he has held since 1983, he plays just about
every type - from German board games like Druiden Walzer and Krieg und
Frieden, to collectible cards like Magic: The Gathering, to elaborate
fantasy role-playing games. Most any day of the week you can find a
Merrimack group at play.
"Today, some folks gathered at my house and we played the new Lord of
the Rings game. Twice," Hunt says. "It's a good game, based on the J.R.R.
Tolkien series. We got pretty far but weren't able to get the ring into
Mount Doom."
Next week, Hunt and his group, the Green Team, will continue a
role-playing game of Hunt's creation that has lasted for 13 years.
"Believe it or not," Hunt says, "we have word-for-word transcripts of
every minute of the 13 years of the game's dialogue."
The game is set in 13th-century Eurasia, and during the course of
events, the players have interacted with such historical characters as
Thomas Aquinas and Alexander III. "We're all middle-aged adults," Hunt
comments. "We could be doing something else, but we want to be here,
playing games."
Saturday - 7 p.m.: In the living room of their Colonial home,
Daniel Salas, an Arlington High School freshman and his 45-year
old-father, Pito, exchange curses and spells. They're playing Magic: The
Gathering, the most popular of the collectible card games.
"When Daniel introduced me to Magic, I thought it looked interesting
enough for me to learn too," says Pito, the chief technology officer for
the Internet start-up e-Room. "I like intricate rules and I thought that
this would be a nice way to share something with my son."
Pito says that Daniel is forever coming up with new games. "He is
always light years ahead of me as far as knowing the game rules, so I'm
probably not his ideal partner," Pito adds. "But, with a bowl of chips, a
fire in the fireplace, and the chance to be together, it's not a bad way
to spend a Saturday night."
Sunday - noon: At Fire and Ice in Harvard Square, 25 members of
BostonGamers are meeting for brunch. This is one of the group's first
social events since Johannah Hubal founded it last year.
When Hubal, a 25-year-old with fairy-princess hair, moved to Boston
from South Carolina, she wanted to recreate the thriving community of
role-playing gamesters that she knew in college.
"The people I knew in Boston had never even heard about the kinds of
games that I had played," she says. "But with so many colleges here, I
thought there might be a population of adults who wanted to continue the
types of games they had enjoyed as students."
Sure enough, BostonGamers now has over 100 subscribers on their e-mail
list. The diverse group of young professionals play a wide range of games,
from Dungeons & Dragons to those inspired by soap operas and science
fiction novels.
Vivian Abraham, 29, a legal assistant and law school student, recalled
the New Year's Eve Party that she and her husband, Daniel, hosted at their
Somerville apartment last year. "We based the story on Jules Verne's
`20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,' " she says. "Our apartment became the
submarine, everyone came in Victorian dress and was prepared to play a
character. Naturally, there was a murder."
While miniature fantasy war games seem to attract mostly men, women
make up half of the BostonGamers. In fact several of the couples at the
Fire and Ice brunch met through role-playing games.
After the brunch, several gamers head over to the Abrahams' place to
continue a Dungeons & Dragons game written by Daniel that they've been
playing weekly since last July. Inside their cozy apartment, bookcases
line the walls: "The Dictionary of Imaginary Places" and "The Dungeon
Master's Guide" share shelves with "The Torah" and Vivian's law texts.
The group gathers around a coffee table and Vivian pulls out the new
Dungeons & Dragons book and a handful of dice. The story unfolds with
Daniel acting as the Dungeon Master, or storyteller. Soon the players are
deep into the story and their characters are gesturing and arguing as the
plot takes an unexpected twist.
"A game has to be really good in order to entertain a bunch of
grown-ups this well," Vivian says. Daniel predicts that this game will
last until next July.
Monday Morning: Jim Wilson has packed up his LizardMen and Bryan
Thombs's Imperial Guards are back in their foam-padded briefcase. Vivian
Abraham has closed the Dungeon Master's Guide and opened her legal briefs.
David Easa has peeled off his latex wolf mask and thrown his muddy
cloak into the wash. "I love to go back to work on Monday and have people
ask what I did over the weekend because I can say `I stormed the castle,
killed the bad guys, and restored balance to the universe.' "
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