There are two basic types of battles, field battles, and woods battles. Field battles consist of a series of fights with a short break in between each. These fights are not necessarily related, and useauly only last a short time. A woods battle on hand is a much larger undertaking. Woods battles are longer, lasting several hours. They also have a set plot, such as rescue the princess, or capture the flag. Some of the common fights in field battles are: If enough people end up intrested, we may even hold an archery tournament like the one that was held at Ragnarock. this year

There are virtuauly unlimited possibilities for Woods battles

A particularly intresting battle is The Great Hunt which was held at Ragnarock in 1996.
Ragnarock is the yearly "Battle at the end of the World." Last year it was being held in West Virginia during the month of June.

The following is a rather long narrative regarding two woods battles we held. 

Last weekend, was the first battle we have had in a while.  I am realizing
today just how out of shape I am.)  Unfortunately, only 5 people showed
up, but, not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, we decided to fight
anyhow.  One of the 5 was our new herald.  We had a few squares of death,
and an immortals battle.  I was trying to figure something to use for a
bridge battle, but I don't suppose it works too well with only 2 people on
a  team, and besides, I couldn't find anything. So, having only spent 45
minutes fighting, we were in need of something else, creative, to do.

Our herald honestly surprised me with his injunity.

He came up with the following two battles with little or no time to think
about them.  I suppose that they are technically woods battles, but they
were still fun to play out, even with 4 people.

One thing that I should mention is that our group is based on a college
campus.  Most of our fighting takes place in a small patch of trees known
as "Slater's Woods."  This has, on occasion, drawn interested people who
have participated in events.  And, since I name names in the forthcoming
writing, I should mention the participants.

Brent, is our Head Herald, his character is named Tallendar Wyrensbane.
Tracy, (who in RL is my girlfriend), has a character named Charissa.  I am
Vonkar of Aerostoren; Erik, fills the roll of king Elrick of Silverwood,
and Dan hails as Andar.  None of our characters have armor, and all except
for Andar fight with Two-handed long swords.  Andar was using a matched
pair of Florintene short swords.



1.  The Hunter

One person is the hunter, the rest are the hunted.  When we ran it there was
one hunter to three hunted.  It is concevable that you can have the ratio
a high as 1:6, but much more than that and it gets difficult.  The best
thing to do would be to add another hunter for every 5 hunted.
You also need to set reasonable boundries for this.  If the space is too
large, it makes it hard on the hunter, if the area is too small, it's
impossible to hide.
Anyhow, here is the story line.

(Told to the hunted)  
There is a powerful man hunting you.  You know each other, but you don't
trust one another.  He is only a few minuted behind you, so you better get
going.

(Told to the hunter)
You are a magically powerful hunter who was paid to bring the three of
them in, alive or dead.

The hunter has several special abilities.  He can take double the number
of hits, (from sheer strength, or perhaps some magic), and he can heal him
self.  (This healing is just from regeneration, it takes 1 minute of
concentrating to heal all of his wounds.)

Astetically, the hunter would be armed with a bow, a long knife, and a sword.


When we did this Erik was the hunter.  Andar and Charissa, the other two
hunted, ran off away from the hunter from the start, while I snuck around
behind him, intending to follow him till he fought the other two and was
worn down.  I lost track of the hunter and hid in a small, walled, garden. 
Somehow the hunter ended up behind me, but he ran past and engaged Andar. 
Well, Andar got thwaped, but he crippled the hunter in the process.  I ran
up to try to finish him off.  After the hunter threatened me with,  "One
step closer and you die!"   I, moronically, stood there watching him, and
mentioned to Brent, the herald, that it might have been a good idea to
have the hunter able to heal.  (Because we hadn't been told that he
could.)  I was quite surprised when, three seconds later, the hunter 
stood up and began chasing me.
	I did manage to severally injure the hunter before I was killed,
and my comrads tell me that Charissa ran out from the brush she was hiding
in, and finished him off.


2.  The Hero
One person is the Hero.  He has killed the Evil King and stolen something 
from the treasure room.  Unknown to him, this is an item of great power.  
The fanatical followers of the dead king want the item back because of the 
power.  They chase the hero and try to kill him.

In our senario, the item of power was the matching swords used by the
hero, Andar.   These swords, when held by one who knows of the power, will
summon a powerful spirit after one minutes concentration.  Who ever had the
swords after another minute was granted the power of the spirit and rule
the kingdom/island/whatever.   The hero has a magical item which grants
him double number of hits.  The fanatical followers, myself, Tracy, and
Erik, are just normal humans.  If the hero survives long enough, his
allies will arrive in a ship.   He can swim out to meet them and
escape, otherwise, the followers get to fight over control of the swords.

The spirit in the swords did not want to be posessed by the hero.  
It wanted to be posessed by an evil person.  As a result, the spirit did
several things to help.  It gave us a general idea where the swords were,
and, after several minutes, it yanks a dead follower's soul and stuffs it
back in the body, whole.  This makes for some interesting roll playing.
Actuauly, the whole scenario is great.  Tracy was quite surprised when I
took the liberty of hacking her leg off once I had one of the swords.

Most of our battle consisted of us chasing after the hero, who hid in the 
brush next to one of the lakes on campus.  He did a great job of hiding and
we passed him on several occasions.  Eventuauly, he was cornered, in the
brush, at the edge of the lake.  He was slain just before his ship arrived.
I had one of the swords, Tracy had the other.  She ran out to give it to
me, and that's when I hacked her leg off.  She promised to defend me while
I summoned the spirit.  She managed to hold Erik off long enough for the
summoning, but I was killed, and Erik gained supreme power.


Eh!  So I'm not the greatest sword's man who ever lived.  At least we had fun!

Vonkar of Aerostoren,
Kingdom of Anfalas.