YOU’D THINK THE GUY BALLSY ENOUGH TO WEAR A DRAGON ON HIS CHEST WOULD BE DOING BETTER. Amtgard battle rule: one leg hit means you fight on your knees.

Three of ‘em close in. “Hey! I need some people over here!” shouts the one separated from his group. His allies are busy slaying other adversaries. “Guys!” he calls again.

“Goodbye Karl!” laughs a compatriot.

On both sides of the clash, all are parrying strikes, making the killing blow, casting spells, or sailing arrows at each other smack dab in the middle of Eau Claire’s Owen Park on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

The game is Amtgard, a live-action role-playing (LARP) game. Two chapters (called realms) of this social and recreational fantasy game have cropped up in the Chippewa Valley, with Eau Claire being its newest addition. Imagine it like a pen and paper RPG, such as Dungeons & Dragons, but there is no basement table to gather around – you’re outdoors trying to swing a sword at someone hiding behind a forearm-braced shield. The role playing is good fun and exercise, and it hasn’t gotten to the local players’ heads.

“It’s nerdy, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Karl Jakober, who leads the Menomonie players. “It’s basically D&D without the dice and (with) foam weapons.” The Eau Claire Amtgard realm started a month ago, hungry for new members to join.

I took the chance to engage in a duel and experience Amtgard first-hand, taking a seasoned player on with foam swords. The rules are: No head shots allowed. One hit on the arm means you have lost its use, and one hit on a leg means you fight on your knees for the rest of the match. Your opponent meets his end when you deal one strike to the torso, two strikes to the same arm, or one strike to each arm or to each leg. I “lost a leg” early on, but while vulnerable on the ground I managed to keep him away until I inadvertently nicked his offhand. After another minute of back and forth fighting, he came in for a high blow, which I deflected and impulsively used the inertia to jab the sword against his torso, winning the match. Hey, I was surprised, too.

    “Everyone’s fantasized about beating people up with a sword at some point,” jokes Joe Loeffler, another Menomonie player. A lot of “ditching” takes place during a typical practice, which is two-sided freestyle melee fighting. Class battles, however, include each class’ unique abilities, including spells, armor, archery, and healing abilities. These fights require a fidelity to Amtgard’s exhaustive official rulebook. Although necessary, it runs the risk of slowing down the action if everyone hasn’t memorized it (e.g., “How many teleports does an assassin get per life?”). Although most of the LARPers I met were melee classes, from paladin to assassin to wizard to druid, there are 13 unique classes to select from. Joe, for example, is a level two Monk. Just the thought of it ought to make gamers crave a controller.

But there are no controllers here, just an assortment of weaponry. Melee weapons are typically made of PVC pipe and a hunk of pool noodle, then wrapped with packaging tape and stylized. Shields are trash can lids, saucer sleds, or made from plywood draped in pleather or cloth. Safety is always a concern, so a weapon’s core cannot be felt in a strike.

Amtgard is divided into kingdoms (united collections of realms) on actual Earth geography. Eau Claire’s realm is Ice Haven and Menomonie’s realm is the Mithril Forest. After a quick search from an official online atlas, I found other realms in Wisconsin, including Green Bay (Crimson Circle), La Crosse (Dark Shores), and Oshkosh (Frost Lands).

If you want to join Amtgard, just show up. Realms are always accepting new members and often have extra weapons to use. Eau Claire’s Amtgard group meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at Owen Park from 4pm to sundown, and Menomonie’s group meets at Riverside Park Tuesdays and Thursdays in the summer from 1-5pm, and during the school year at 3pm.

To join the ranks, contact Eau Claire realm leader Drew Pope (559-9110) or Menomonie leader Karl Jakober (828-3145).