MDA Camp 2017 - "Battle Royale: The Summoning"

by Hawke Robinson — published Jun 20, 2015 05:05 PM, last modified Feb 05, 2023 12:22 PM

"The Summoning". Using drums, and forming a drum circle, with drum circle facilitation techniques. At the July 18th, 2017, Muscular Dystrophy Association Summer Camp, at Twinlow Retreat near Rathdrum Idaho. We introduced participants to drumming, shield decorating, boffer LARP, and parallel tabletop RPG.

MDA Camp 2017 - "Battle Royale: The Summoning"

"The Summoning". Using drums, and forming a drum circle, with drum circle facilitation techniques.

We use this approach to gather participants for the boffer LARP event "Battle Royale". July 18th, 2017.

Helps as "ice breaker", them begin to work as a group to build group cohesion, some fundamental group problem solving and coordination by following facilitator instructions, work on personal coordination, interactive collaboration, and get them energized for the upcoming main events with live-action and tabletop role-playing..

This was at MDA Summer Camp in Idaho. After the drumming, we then covered the LARP rules, then had them randomly assigned to teams, and then they get to pick their shields of choice.

They then would get to individually decorate their shields with paint, markers, etc. And then finally meet out on the field of battle to pick their boffers, and get more information on the storyline.

Defending the village. The defenders against hordes of orcs are buying time for the civilians to escape over the mountain passes to safety.

First phase in the field of battle.
Second phase at the bridge (20' wide space).
Third phase at the gates (10' wide space).
Fourth phase in the village (house to house fighting).

For those that either did not feel up to the physicality of the LARP, or that later were needed a physical break, but still wanted to participate in the same storyline, we offered a parallel tabletop version of the adventure/battle, inside the Wheelchair Friendly RPG Trailer (prototype), using Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and Adventures in Middle-earth.

For accessibility considerations, we included a wide number of adaptive percussion instruments and adapters.

These varies from various striker handle shapes and sizes, to velcro attacking striker holders, to velcro and elastic attaching instruments such as foot and write bells. Some photos coming shortly (below):

Participants included ages 6 through 17 with Muscular dystrophy, their individual helpers, and up to a dozen counselors, plus our team of 5 facilitators.

Participants impairment on WHO ICF/ICD scale 0 through 4, where 0 = no impairment, and 4 = complete impairment, most participants were around 1-2, with several at level 3.