"Retrieving!"
Guidelines by Egil Njalsson of Dragonspine
(February 1994, revised October 1994)

The following is a brief guide for those who are relatively new with us, concerning how we handle "retrieving" items in Dragonspine. Some of how we handle it comes from the rulebook or corpora; other parts come from accepted practice in our lands. Based on my experience with other kingdoms, the following guidelines should be acceptable anywhere in Amtgard. In general: if you run out of arrows, throwing daggers, spell balls, or other objects, we allow you to retrieve enough to keep going, under certain conditions...

First of all, according to the corpora the person in charge of retrieving "spent equipment" is the reeve. If there is no reeve for that battle game, you're on your own; if there is a reeve, they decide whether you yourself are allowed to step outside the game in order to retrieve items. They have the option of telling you that you cannot remove yourself from play in order to retrieve, because that call is in keeping with our official rules.

The best way of retrieving equipment is simply to maneuver yourself near it during battle, and grab it on the way by. This causes no disruption to the game.

If you can't maneuver yourself next to your item: rather than going over next to the enemy (or even a teammate), you can always ask someone near your item to toss it to you. This is preferable to the disruption caused by you briefly taking yourself out of the game. The person you ask is under no obligation to help, but if they are not currently busy they will often do it as a favor to you, and it's a good idea to thank them. (Keep this in mind when you walk past a spent item on the ground: if you have a chance, toss it in the direction of its owner, calling "returning.") If they stand there with swords raised and a big grin on their face, and say "come and get it," that's their option, and your problem. They are basically sending the message that "I don't want you to have this, because you'd use it to hurt my team; you should have thought of that before you let it get over here." They have that right, and they have a justifiable reason to feel that way.

If personal retrieving is allowed, there is a preferred way to do it: put your weapons down, raise your hands, and call "retrieving." When you do so, you are temporarily removing yourself from play, but others are under no strict obligation to honor it. The fact that we almost always do honor it is a sign of our own courtesy to you. Once you have retrieved just enough equipment to keep going, return to where you put your weapons and re-enter the battle from there. It's a good idea to let people know when you're back in: if you suddenly "appear" and shoot them in the back, you are taking advantage of the fact that they were nice enough to ignore you while you picked up your stuff, and next time they'll be less likely to extend that courtesy.

Only start your retrieving from a position of safety, when you are not currently in danger from the enemy: if you are under threat of attack, you cannot use "retrieving" as a means of avoiding death or injury. Suddenly throwing your hands in the air and yelling "retrieving" will not stop the enemy barrelling down on you unless they're extremely nice and patient. (If they're charging you, and you have no means of defense, we do allow you, for safety's sake, to take a death rather than get hit: just say "I'm dead," and pick up your stuff on your way to Nirvana.) Suddenly disappearing in the face of a charging enemy is called "teleporting," and if you have teleport you are of course welcome to use it; but it's not cast by calling "retrieving."

Our rules also say that you cannot retrieve during a hold; but with the reeve's consent, we normally allow it in Dragonspine. You can also grab stuff on the way to Nirvana, but make sure to keep your hands in the air to let people know you're dead, and try to stay out of the line of fire.

Remember that, while you are retrieving, everyone who is ignoring you is doing so out of courtesy, not because they have to. If you get hit, you get hit; you're the one who walked over next to the enemy, so you have no-one to blame but yourself. People who over- use our courtesy, or people who never show courtesy to others, develop a bad reputation quickly, and you really don't want that.

The best solution is not to run out of stuff in the first place. Plan ahead, and remember what happens in mundane life when someone runs out of ammo...

Return to Egil's home page