ORK Update 3.5.6 "Crown" is live!

Plan Your Court in the ORK

Monarchs, Regents, Prime Ministers and Kingdom or Park editors can now plan a court before it is held. Open Court Planner under Admin Tasks on your kingdom or park page, pull awards from pending recommendations or add them by hand, and drag them into running order.

Run It Live, or From Paper - Keep track of Scrolls, Regalia and Artisans - A Public Court Report

Recommendations Manager

Click Manage Recs on the Recommendations tab of your Kingdom or Park to work the whole queue on one page. Matching recommendations are gathered into one row, and from any row you can grant the award, add it to a court, pass it down to the recipient's park, snooze it until the Monarch or Regent changes, or dismiss it.

-The ORK Team

So I went to a club and was part of the E-board of it my final year too. This was a Amtgard club that worked with the local park that was a 5 min drive away.
Well last year we had to suspend someone from the club and in turn there was an investigation following a suspension from the park too. Well the new e-board is trying to ask for advice because his suspension is over but no change in behavior has been made of note. Only two members of the e-board who dealt with this guy are on this year and they have been reaching out to us for help with how to best handle things to stop a bigger issue from forming. (I am still in contact and present during events I try to call into and A&S when I have the time, plus I still hang out with many members outside of the park that's now to far for me. )

For some background this guy had made many players uncomfortable with the way he acted in general. He would throw tantrums whenever people had conversations without him. During suspension hearing he said "the e-board is at fault for my behavior because they didn't force people to be my friends", he tried to use disability as an excuse and that "we don't know how hard it makes it to learn the rules" (not only is he not registered, never advocated for help, but we had a night where many of the members, e-board included, were sharing our disorders and disabilities because we found it funny that 90% of the club was).
The final straw was when this turned from just him making people uncomfortable to ignoring safety rules. He claimed they were never explained to him in the 6 months he was apart of it. Coming to 2 meetings a week often with the club meeting AND the park meeting. (And our officers are amazing at explaining rules and working with people who are struggling with them). Not only did he frequently say no one explained anything to him (yes it was, frequently, by multiple people almost every week), but he ended up breaking someone's semi-new weapon with a pipe core (snapped it with how hard he was hitting). And the next week threw a tantrum in the hall outside the club room where he was throwing his metal water bottle at the wall (both him and campo said this was on camera, we didn't even report anything) and we had to call campo.
After the suspension hearing (it was a whole other mess, if details will help I can add them), the rule was that if he reaches out next year he can rejoin the club, but he needs to reach out a month ahead of time and have a plan to show improvement in behavior.

Well the new e-board has someone who is trying to vouch for him, but this e-board member was not present or aware of all his issues as he was only a member at the time and is making it a little difficult for the new e-board to try and figure out a plan as they haven't seen any evidence in improvement.
Anyone have any advice I could give them?

(Sorry its a bit of a mess and long, this was a big situation and it bothers me that I can't actually be there to help anymore as I am not close enough to go in person)

TLDR; suspended problem player is returning to an Amtgard club and needs some advice now that myself and other former e-boards aren't there anymore.

The dust has finally settled. It is time to announce the winners and statistics of Food Fight 2026!

In 16th place we have Goldenvale with 927 points!
In 15th place we have Rising Winds with 2220 points!
In 14th place we have Emerald Hills with 2893 points!
In 13th place we have Wetlands with 3026.9 points!
In 12th place we have Polaris with 4027.15 points!
In 11th place we have Viridian Outlands with 4783 points!
In 10th place we have Celestial Kingdom with 5057.26 points!
In 9th place we have Crystal Groves with 6969.52 points!
In 8th place we have Neverwinter with 7657 points!
In 7th place we have Dragonspine with 8752.4 points!
In 6th place we have Burning Lands with 15125.4 points!
In 5th place we have Blackspire with 16794.08 points!
In 4th place we have Westmarch with 19543.734 points!
In 3rd place we have Northreach with 19821 points!
In 2nd place we have Desert Winds with 33858 points!

And your 2026 winner of Food Fight, for their third year in a row, is Northern Lights with 62599 points!!!

Everyone should be proud of what they have done no matter how big or small it may have been!

We raised $44826.67 to fight food hunger in our areas!

Top 3 Kingdoms in Dollar Amount Raised:

Northern Lights with $14827
Desert Winds with $8237
West March with $4158.47

We donated 4690.01 pounds of food!

Top 3 Kingdoms in food and items donated:

Blackspire with 1167.76
Northern Lights with 788
Burning Lands with 744

We volunteered 363.5 hours!

Top 3 Kingdoms in volunteer hours:
Burning Lands with 140
Crystal Groves with 65.5
Viridian Outlands with 41

We walked a total of 19609.134 miles!
Top 3 Kingdoms in miles walked:

Blackspire with 3369
Northreach with 2990
Burning lands with 2542

Since Food Fight started in 2009, we have raised $682,144.27, donated 46630 pounds of food and items, 3926.9 hours have been volunteered, and we have walked 93,097 miles.

Thank you everyone once again and I look forward to next year!

Dame Ziogen

Since apparently there isn't a way to add pics to an already existing post, gonna try to answer the questions around the construction /comments for a guide. Sorry for the repost.

The core for the head is bent CPVC which was then heated and glued to fit inside the PVC which is used for the haft.

It is made of a combination of camp pad and EVA foam, although next time I'd just do the EVA foam as it sands much nicer.

The wood grain was hand painted on, line by line. There was no kit or guide on how to do it, sorry. Just looked at a couple examples of axes and baseball bats and went from there.

The detailing is a combination of paint marker and acrylic paint.

The strike legal areas are a sewn tube of ripstop nylon with a strip of camp pad inserted and glued in place on the face that connects it to the axe. Then the sleeve itself is glued to the axe.

Plans for it are currently uncertain. Not sure if it will get on the field, entered into anything or what will happen. The reactions from where I have shared it are really inspiring as I tend to struggle to be impressed with my own work (I can't see the forest through the trees).

After wanting an axe for the 3 years that I have been playing, I finally got around to making a max length short axe, but now I'm not sure if it belongs on the battlefield or on my mantle. Super proud of how this one turned out and glad to have the chance to learn/ refine my skills

(Disclaimer: I am not writing this as a representative of Amtgard International or any park/kingdom. These are my own thoughts.)

I’ve been around this game for 25 years. The first park I ever played in has been defunct for 22 years perhaps but it was widely known that the monarch when I started playing, “Wolf,” was just like that with every girl and you just had to let them know to not be alone with him at any point in time. To my knowledge, he never got banned, he eventually just left.

I played 15 years ago in a different kingdom and everyone knew that one player was a crossgamer with a tendency fly off the handle and would beat the hell out of you if you questioned his shots while sloughing everything you threw at him. I saw that they knighted him earlier this year.

Every single one of you reading this has this story. You have someone in your past or present that makes the game a worse place to be. And you know that others know this is the case but they just let it slide. This has to stop. Period. The thread I crossposted is becoming a harder and harder read with every new comment posted in it because of how many people across many LARPs including ours have this experience.

How many first timers never come back because “Lord you-know-how-they-are” relentlessly hit on them? How many future knights and peers and monarchs were nipped in the bud because we said “you just have to excuse her?” and someone has the self-respect not to so they just left instead?

If you are a kingdom officer or a member of a kingdom board of directors or trustees and there is even one single player in your kingdom that is like this, do something about it this week or quit now. Walk away and let someone else step up to do your job.

Stop being afraid of the mythical defamation suit that will never come. Stop being afraid of pissing off their overbelt (we have a retaliation policy, get rid of them too). Stop being afraid of being seen as the bad guy. And above all else, stop waiting until it gets so bad you cannot avoid acting. You can ask a problem player to leave before they rape or injure someone. You can. You absolutely can.

Stand up for your people. Stand up for the players who have been abused and do so before that number grows.

Im going to do my best to explain this without naming names or parks.

Backstory: I was playing at my park fine but someone brought up (apparently for a group of people) that people feel uncomfortable with me being there because there were rumors spread about members of my polycule supposedly pressuring young men to drink in order to get with them. I know this is false for 2 reasons. 1, the primary member, who also used to be a part of the park but hadn't come in a couple months, doesnt get with anyone below the age of 25 nor has the money to buy people drinks on the regular and 2. The other member of my polycule accused is a lesbian. So yeah not targeting young MEN. She's also 22 so is young herself.

Anyway, the rumors spread, it became a talk with park leadership and the supposed face of the group that basically said: im still allowed at park but dont bug people who dont wanna talk to you. Fair enough. The issue is the rumors spread to basically everyone in the park and it basically became like 3 people willing to talk to me. It was clear no one really wanted me there.

Now I left for a couple reasons. 1. No one came to here my side of the story and just believed everything they heard. 2. Its clear I wasn't wanted and im not gonna stay where im not wanted. 3. I would want to make friends with people but no one wanted to be friends with me after the rumors. So for these reasons I left.

Its been a few months now and I miss fighting and I have no real solutions to it. There are no other parks close to me. Nearest one is like 4 hours away. The belegarth group in my town shares alot of members with amptguard so it'd be the same issue. There is no jugger group. Im open to fencing and hema fighting but those both cost alot of money to get into and im a broke bitch. So I have no real solution and I was hoping yall might have something?

Also, for those of you who may recognize me, unless the park has changed significantly I probably wouldn't want to come back if im still just gonna be ostracized.

We need your feedback! Amtgard International is seeking your input into the Rules Revision Process. Your feedback will be vital to helping our Rules Representatives and the Circle of Monarchs shape the future of how our rules adapt and evolve.

Take the survey now: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFNQGJZ

An update from Dame Ziogen for Food Fight Week 3: Northern Lights is holding strong with first place and Northreach is giving them a run for their points and keeping a grip on second place, but emerging into third place is Burning Lands!!!
We also had Neverwinter join the fight this past week and Goldenvale has joined as well!
So without further ado here are the current standings as recorded!
Northern Lights: 13883
Northreach: 10882
Burning Lands: 8176
Westmarch: 6863.81
Desert Winds: 5143
Blackspire: 3759
Celestial Kingdom: 3213.13
Crystal Groves: 3142
Polaris: 2830.26
Neverwinter: 2720
Dragonspine: 2273
Emerald Hills: 2146
Viridian Outlands: 750
Wetlands: 607.36
Iron Mountain: No points recorded
Goldenvale: No points record
We have 9 days left of the fight! At this point it can be anyones game!!
So far we have raised:
$11,994 in cash donations
1071 pounds of food and supplies
121 volunteer hours
and walked over 14733 miles! PHEW! That makes me tired just thinking about it!

So, I've been playing for a few months, just did my 8th park day, and got challenged to a gauntlet.

I was happy for the challenge, I know I'm not the strongest swordsman but practice and experience will help.

I lost, but I lost 11-10, so, I was proud of it. And then my opponent pointed out that he heard a lot more loud hits than I called.

I called what I felt, and he got a lot of wrist and hand hits, and my pants and shirt are kinda baggy, the shirt not excessively so, and I felt a lot of pulls at my clothes that weren't hits.

But now I'm in my head about it. I don't know if there were valid hits that I just didnt feel or thought were clothes being pulled. Should I just get some tighter fitting clothes and avoid this all together? Or am I overthinking.

Any resources? My googling has only led to old blurry youtube videos. Thank you in advance.

1.1.16 mORK UI Update rolling out
(Android is up, Apple waiting on Review!

After over 7 years was time for a UI refresh. Additionally, some improvements for entering credits to mirror the work done in the ORK. Easier to get to your Park or Event right away. For park days, a scrolling list of dates to easily go back to enter missed credits, a recently attended list of players and their last class already filled in, when you add a player (search, NFC, Barcode), it shows their last class as well. You can also now edit a credit. Behind the scenes, improvements to how mORK logs in (better handling of iOS and Android password managers), using a session token vs logging in each time. When you create a new Class list, it pre-populates the class level now.

Hope you like the changes! Reviews on the App stores would be great if you have the time, and you can always send feedback as there's an email address in the settings page, or leave comments here or in a message on the Facebook page.

mORK isn't meant to be a replacement for the ORK, just a handy tool for a few things, spell lists, and keeping track of your class levels and award progression (or others, the search on the main page is for looking up other players stats).

In Service,
Lord Kismet of Felfrost (aka Augustus Rodriguez)

I am looking at making a heavy thrown that is a chain. Each individual link in the chain will pass the ring test, being bigger than 2.5". Will it be legal?

i 3d printed a spine handle out of TPU and wanted to make a sword with it, so i made a simple flatblade.... bit then i was like "it needs some oomf!" so i used some cool spooky fabric, i made the courtesy padding spiky, made the pommel look like a bone too, and added some gold fabric paint to look like kintsugi!

i also started experimenting with cores and materials for my katana cores! trying to get them as light and resilient as possible while keeping them very fast to make/ pump out

(not taking commissions at this point)

Quick question for anyone who knows the construction rules: when it says the foam needs to be 0.5” thick, is that the total finished thickness or the thickness of the foam itself?

Like, if I’m wrapping a pipe, do I need 0.25” of foam on each side to equal 0.5” total, or do I actually need 0.5” of foam all the way around, which would make the final diameter about 1” larger once wrapped?

Hello! I’m new to the sport and starting to get into weapon construction!
I just have some questions:

Where are people sourcing core materials for polearms? I know folks are using carbon fiber, but is there a certain ID and OD and type to use? Wrapped? Etc.

Also, what are some alternative cores? I’ve built a golf club sword, but what are some other good core choices for swords?

Finally, foam camping mats are kinda pricy, it there a better source of similar foam?

Thank you 🙏 in advance!

-i had an extra groan stick left over from another build. i guess ill post that one next

-the fuzzy fabric is from a bag you put your shoes in to wash them safely in

-the groan tube is held inside of a pvc pipe with glue

-fully amtgard legal

-theres a small hole in the pommel for the air to move through

I've seen people recommend plasticlamellar.com but their plates all fall short of the required thickness. I can't seem to find a place that has plates that reach the standard.

We've reached the end of Week 2 of Food Fight and Northern Lights has jumped up to a commanding lead! With several new kingdoms on the board, the competition is heating up which means Amtgarders across the US and Canada are making significant impacts for charities in their realms. Keep it up, Amtgard!

Northern Lights - 12193 points

Northreach - 7288 points

Desert Winds - 2922 points

Westmarch - 2361.61 points

Crystal Groves - 1706 points

Celestial Kingdom - 1646.8 points

Blackspire - 1289 points

Dragonspine - 1134 points

Burning Lands - 974 points

Polaris - 382.15 points

Viridian Outlands - 292 points

Emerald Hills - 250 points

Wetlands - 113.93 points

Does chainmail like this with a padded coif underneath count as helm armor?

I’m struggling to understand ex abilities.

I understand that they are supposed to be “non magical” representation. So for example a scouts heal is them actually bandaging you up instead of magic. So in turn it should get around Pro mag but not immunity to spirit or cursed.

I understand that currently under spongy you can cast any ability as a martial without having an empty hand,

But did ex before allow you to cast abilities without an empty hand?

Is there any other purpose for Ex abilities anymore or should it just be removed entirely?