Cry “Havoc” and Let Loose the Hounds of War!

Arriving On Site
- Checking In
- Finding Your Campsite
- Unloading Your Gear
- Parking
- Setting Up Camp

Getting Your Bearings
- Points of Interest

Things to Do at Pennsic

Pennsic 23 site token (1994)
(click to see enlarged view)

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Congratulations! You’ve arrived at Pennsic! I’ll bet you just can’t wait to dash around, see everything, yell at the top of your lungs, “I’M HERE!!!”…

Well, let’s take care of a few more steps first, shall we?

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Arriving On Site

Checking In

The first thing you’ll see when you arrive at Pennsic is a nice person in a bright orange safety vest. This nice person will tell you where to park your car while you check in with Troll. Do what the nice person tells you.

Grab your identification, pre-registration confirmation card, membership card and money and go into the Troll Booth. The check-in process is pretty simple and self-explanatory (besides which, the nice Troll people will spell it out for you step-by-step—they’re used to dealing with sleep-deprived drivers at three in the morning). In general, you can expect the following:

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Finding Your Campsite

Once you’ve checked in, it’s time to find your campsite.

There’s a big map of Pennsic encampments in a tent near Troll marked (appropriately enough) “Map Tent.” There are often nice, helpful people there who can help pinpoint the location of your encampment, but more often you’ll have to do it all on your own. Here are some tips to finding your camp:

• Look up where your group will be camping before you go! The Pennsic Web site (www.pennsicwar.org) usually has a list of who’s camping where well before the event. Print off the site map and mark where your group will be staying.

• Know the name that your group is using to register their encampment. Some groups register under a different name than you might expect.

• Find out beforehand what general area your group will be staying in. Pennsic is divided into sections like “N-11.” Most groups know what section they’ll be in well before the actual event, so it’s a good idea to ask for it before you go.

• The Pennsic booklet you received at Troll contains a site map—write down your group’s location on it before leaving the Map Tent.

• Once you’ve found your group encampment (or at least the area they’re in) on the map, orient yourself on the map and figure out how to drive there from Troll.

Now you’re ready to get back in your car and drive to your site. Drive slowly and carefully—the roads will be clogged with pedestrians. Your first goal is to get to the general area of your encampment. If your group isn’t readily visible on your first or second pass around the block in the car, pull off to the side of the road and hoof it. If you still can’t find your group, start asking people if they know where it is.

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Unloading Your Gear

Once you reach your site, let others in your encampment know that you’ve arrived. Find out who’s in charge of encampment layout and setup and ask where you can set up your tent. Ask if you can drive your car into the site to unload. Unload your gear as close to your assigned or chosen spot as possible.

Once you’ve emptied your vehicle, you should go park it before you begin to set up camp. This is a courtesy on two counts: it removes a large modern item from the encampment, and it makes room for the next vehicle coming in to unload.

It’s really nice to find a friend who will “baby-sit” your stuff while you go park your car. Even better is for someone to start sorting through it and maybe even setting up camp for you!

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Parking

All vehicles must be moved to the parking area within two hours of registering at Troll. As of Wednesday of the first week of Pennsic, any car parked in camp longer than two hours from the time of Troll check-in will be marked for towing. However, if you arrive during quiet hours, you may park your car in the camping area for the night. Your car must be completely off the road and close to you until 8:00am, at which time the standard policies go into effect.

If a vehicle cannot be moved into a camping site, it must be pulled completely off the road. Vehicles found blocking and/or parked in the road will be subject to immediate tow. Vehicles that block access to the portable toilets will be immediately towed.

Vehicle owners are responsible for all towing charges and must pay them in order to get his or her car back. They’re not kidding about this, kids!

If your car breaks down in camp, you can request that it be towed to the parking area. You still have to pay for the tow, but at least you don’t have to go to town to get it back!

Trying to hide your car behind cloth perimeter walls or other obscuring materials doesn’t cut it. If they find it, they will tow it. Be cool—just go park your car!

There are more rules than this. Visit the Pennsic Web site (www.pennsicwar.org) to make sure you’re familiar with the current parking rules. Ignorance is not an excuse.

Unless your encampment is close to the parking area (and Northshield’s is generally smack next to it), expect a loooong walk from the car back to your campsite. The parking area also happens to be situated on a very brutal hill, so I don’t recommend planning to carry anything back from the car to the site with you, and definitely don’t leave anything in the car that you’re going to want during the event. In fact, plan on never seeing your car again for the rest of the War!

Fortunately for those with physical difficulties, Pennsic offers a bus service to and from the parking lot. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to run frequently enough for convenience (or impatient people, like me).

When you first park your car, it’s worth it to hoof it to the side of the hill facing the rest of the camp before busing or walking back down. As you turn your face toward the camp from the hill, you’ll see Pennsic spread out before you—or at least about half of it. Take a moment to drink it all in. Remember that you’re only seeing about half of the campsite! Descriptions don’t really do it justice… you’ll understand when you see it.

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Setting Up Camp

When you return from parking the car, make setting up camp your first priority. Spend some time getting everything squared away and comfortable. There’s plenty of time to take in the sights later! The last thing you want to do is throw all your stuff in your tent and forget about it ‘til nightfall. That makes for a very unpleasant first night!

After camp is all set up, go off and find all your friends.

I strongly recommend spending your first morning at Pennsic reading through the site booklet you received at Troll. You’ll find site rules, fighting rules, health and safety tips, a site map, a schedule of classes and other events, a list of merchants and booth layout maps and advertisements for a lot of said merchants. There’s always something happening somewhere! Use the book to plan your schedule of things you want to do each day.

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Getting Your Bearings

Now it’s time to see the sights!

Relax!
Slow down!
It’s easier than you think to get lost, and you’ve got plenty of time to take it all in!

The best course of action is to collar an experienced Pennsic-goer and ask for the grand tour. They’ll probably be more than happy to show the place off (and to get in a little extra shopping on the side). The best way to navigate Pennsic is to carefully note some of the major road names and memorize a few landmarks in relation to where you want to be. Take the opportunity to study your site map. Jot down helpful notes. It’s especially helpful to visit the Map Tent again and note down the locations of other groups in which you may have friends so you can pay them a visit. You could also ride the Pennsic transport wagon around once or twice.

Some notable landmarks within the camping area proper are the barn, the camp store and Troll. There are plenty of others, but these three are hubs of activity that you will probably wind up visiting more than once. Again, find some good landmarks, take careful note of relevant road names, and you should be OK. Once you learn how to get around Pennsic, you’ll wonder how you could ever have been confused!

A word of caution: The site map can be hard to read and people will talk about places that have absolutely nothing to do with what’s on your map. So here’s a very general description of the lay of the land:

Points of Interest

• The Serengeti is an area of the campground so called because it’s flat, treeless and usually extremely dusty. For the most part, this area is populated by East Kingdom groups, although Midrealm groups and other Kingdoms are scattered throughout (such as Northshield).

• The Bog and The Swamp are, again, areas of the campground named for the terrain. Primarily populated by Midrealm groups (although, again, other Kingdoms and their affiliated groups can be found here and there), these areas are nicely wooded, although the slope itself is a little steeper than is pleasant to go walking up. Also, the roads can get pretty confusing down by the lake because of the way they twist and turn. I think these areas offer some of the most beautiful scenery at night.

• Herald’s Point is an entire pavilion devoted to heralds! This is a great place to go to consult on—or submit—your name and device.

• Chirurgeon’s Point is set up to accommodate on-site Chirurgeons, who can provide first aid care from Band-Aids™ to splints, and who are there for your benefit. Don’t hesitate to avail yourself of their tender mercies if you have any medical problems! Serious injuries and illnesses are taken to the town hospital. Naturally, it goes without saying that you should clear the way for any ambulances or security cars you see.

• Post Office and bank branches are open on site for regular hours each day for your convenience. A small trailer near the Post Office offers postcards and photos of battles and encampments—taken during the current and previous Wars—as well as magnets and car decals. It’s a lot of fun to send a “Wish You Were Here” Pennsic postcard to your folks and friends back home!

• Public pay phones are located near Troll and the camp store.

• Fancy encampments abound! I recommend checking out any and all Kingdom encampments, the several Horde encampments and, of course, the East Kingdom and Midrealm Royal Encampments.

• Classic Swimming Hole (also called Traditional) is a clothing optional swimming hole. It’s mostly about chest-deep and had a nice rope swing at one time. If you have a problem with being nude around strangers, wear a swimsuit. Nobody cares. If you’re bothered by having nude strangers around you, don’t go to the Classic swimming hole.

• Family Swimming Hole is clothing mandatory and is located fairly far away from Classic. It’s shallower, too. Obviously, you have to wear a swimsuit (or other suitable clothing) to this swimming hole.

Announcement boards are located at various intersections throughout Pennsic. These are used for posting general announcements, party invitations by groups and personal messages—although you’ll need to check with Herald’s Point before posting anything yourself. Read these boards to find interesting places to go and things to do. Heralds spend a lot of time walking around the site making announcements every few intersections, too. Listen to them—they may say something of great import to you. And, of course, if you don't want to listen, be quiet so others around you may hear.

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Things to Do at Pennsic

Here’s a relatively short list in alphabetical order:

• A&S activities
• Archery activities (authorizations, bouts, practice sessions)
• Bardic activities
• Heavy weapons activities (authorizations, battles, bouts, practice sessions)
• Classes on just about anything you can think of
• Courts
• Dancing
• Heraldic consultations
• Parties
• Rapier activities (authorizations, bouts, practice sessions)
• Shopping
• Volunteer opportunities

I won’t go into a lot of detail here. A lot of information about specific Pennsic activities is available at www.pennsicwar.org, or you can ask around. Also, you will receive a full schedule of classes and other activities in the Pennsic booklet you receive at Troll. Read it carefully as soon as possible and start building your personal schedule of “things to do” so you don’t miss out on something.

Despite the vast smorgasbord of things to do, it is possible to become bored at War, particularly in the blistering heat of the day when you don’t want to move. I strongly recommend that you bring some small hobbies with you. You can also consider volunteering some time and energy in a variety of ways—at Troll, on the field (as water-bearer or general helpful person—but remember to seek guidance and direction first!), or within your own encampment.

In addition, there’s always something that needs doing in a group’s encampment—trash patrol, filling and lighting oil lamps, preparing firewood, and so on. Or, if your group has a full complement of volunteers already, consider volunteering at your area’s royal encampment. There’s always a need for more gate guards!

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