Ёжик — Who is who

Grey banal reality is boring for them. So, they make wooden swords and cardboard armor and go to battle against dark evil powers. Their games are called Role Playing Games (RPG). First huge RGP happened in 1972 in famous Sherwood Forest. Almost 300 people thundered with the armor, waved with the swords and rushed along the locality. They terrified local cows and trampled farmers’ fields. Local people even called the police, but they couldn’t claim these strange people for anything and went away. And the idea of outdoor games, took the roots.

But RGPers undergo great split. People who barracked from fantasist-writer totally moved into elfs’ and magicians’ word. And other have chosen historical events and started to call themselves historical reconstructors.

Role players

In the early 90’s people from fantastic lovers club decided to organize outdoor games. Some people call them Talkienists, but it’s unfair to other fantasists-writers, because plots for these games are taken from different books. The most famous books are: Dzh.R.R.Talkien “Lords of the Rings”, “Silmalirion”, R.Zhelyazny “Ambers Chronics”, “N.Vasilieva “Ard’s black book”, T.Williams “Dragon bones throne” and U. Le Guinn, M. Fry and Strugatski brother’s master pieces.

To organize RGP people write scenery or choose appointed episode from the book players make costumes and work their style of conduct off, learn how to fight. When players come to selected playing territory, they build fortifications and castles, pitch the camps. Masters of the games and organisators make arrangements about the rules of a game. They lay the magic laws down.

Wizards should know what and how should they do and what language to use to make sorceries, Masters margin kinds of weapon, observe the course of events and decide the arguments.

Then they start to play, you can die and born again several times, become a rule, a slave and a magician and even get hitched, RGP includes politics, “international” intrigues and war events and even economic life with appointed monetary unit. Genuine Role players are impulsive dreamers. The most important for them is to feel themselves in a fairy-tale world. Fighting and exact answering the role which is so important to reconstructors, aren’t their main aim.

Reconstructors

Never get them muddled with role players, or they will be very angry. Historical reconstructors suppose that their hobby takes its roots from professional cinema studios. Usually they are interested in some historical period and start to look for facts about it in different sources. The most popular periods are V-VI centuries, king Arthur’s knights, VII-IX centuries, Skandinavian Vikings, IX-XII centuries Russian bogatyrs and European knights of XIII-XV centuries.

Reconstructors find out everything about costumes, everyday life, weapons and even dishes, which are striking for selected period. They make real historical researches and pretend on historical exactness. Reconstructors are keen on detailed reproduction of their favorite period. They organize outdoor festivals, reviews, feasts and battles. And it is very difficult to come in their company. You must suit to very strict rules. Your costume, weapon and armor are to answer to selected historical period. They are to be hand made and to include only natural materials. You can’t use any plastic. And if you will be noticed while using things that don’t answer to the historical period, for example cameras or biros, you’ll have problems. You even must conceal the food.

Eglador

Talkienists is one brunch of the RGP fans. The most common place for their meetings is Eglador. They call Moscow’s Zaryzyno Park or No boring garden with this mysterious name. It means “hidden kingdom” or “The kingdom of forgotten”. Englander sprang up nearly in 1991. People started to come there and become elfs, hobbits, orks and gnomes. They took their names from the “Lord of the rings” trilogy. “Lord of the Ring” history is a history of good and evil battle. It happens in Middle Earth which is fairy-tale kingdom and according to historicist and fantasist-writers accounts it existed seven thousand years ago. People, elfs, gnomes, trolls and hobbits lived there. Dark and light rulers rule this kingdom, there were also kind and evil magicians. This wonderful land should be taken from evil hands by the good once…

Earlier Eglador was famous by his fights, but now everything changed and Eglador is divided in four big groups. “Tusyatnic” is the biggest one. It includes people, who come there to meet like-minded people, to play guitar and sing songs and just have a rest. “Pioner-fightering” or “Maniachik” is smaller than the first one, but it looks very effective. Players try to copy costumes from Takien’s heroes and fight group against another group. “Elfyathik” is much smaller than other groups. Even Talkienists speak about strange elfs from this group, who think that they are wizards, wear light clothes in the winter and tell that they can see future and read people’s thoughts. And the “Fighteryatnik” is the elite of Eglador. It is very difficult to come in this company of professional fencers and connoisseurs of ancient martial arts.

Talkienists movement is attractive because it is opened for everyone who needs it. And let it be so forever.

Where to go

Some people in Russia have a tradition to play Borodinsky fighting every 4th of September. And other people prefer to play RGPs according to computer strategies. In 1994 “Masters” (like they, call themselves) organized “Zilantcon” conferencing in Kazan. There are presented all new RGPs.