Amtgard

An organization similar to the Society for Creative Anachronism, except that they don't belive in letting the messy details of reality bog them down. They call themselves a Live Action Role Playing Game (LARP for short) but really they are more of a live action wargame.

The basics are as follows:
They have a class systems (Warrior, Wizard, Healer, Assassin, etc) that you progress through via weeks of attendance. Twelve weeks equals about a level, and there are six levels in each class. Meaning that people who have been around longer have more power on the field.
Battlegames are fought by teams picked in the usual high school gym fashion and then they go out and fight, usually with some objective (last man on the hill, capture the flag, kill the leader, etc)
There are also extravagant feasts and courts where people dress up in quasi medival garb and pretend they are more important than they are in real life.

Amtgard is truly a place for people who are too geeky for the SCA.

Amtgard is a system of combat rules that are designed to give people a place to have fun. Though they try to put some slight historical accuracy and realism into play things of this nature are usually not regarded as primary objective. The system promotes fun in the following ways: it attempts to create a enviornment in which people can role play fantasy and midieval personas. It creates a fighting enviornment which is designed to promote speed and technique over strength and numbers (though numbers do help :P)

What I see as amtgards major flaw is that while roleplaying is desireable it is not necesary and is not rewarded if done well, now I only say this about a few "sections" of amtgard. As a whole amtgard has a fairly good record of RPing.

A person who says that amtgard is for uncreative wusses must take into account that not all people are socially outgoing enough to appear creative and not all people see brute strength as the soul of combat.

If you are interested in using a original style of spells and magic with a speed and accuracy oriented form of combat then check out the amtgard web site at www.amtgard.com for a chapter near you.