Here's a lovely interview with an alumnus of the Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp, a residential D&D camp for 10-17 year olds held at Shippensburg College (now Shippensburg University) in Pennsylvania. Campers played a series of rotating adventures in aged-grouped parties, with the councillors comparing notes behind the scenes to keep all the groups in synch and to ensure maximum fun and mayhem for all the players. They unwound with improv games.
I attended a D&D day camp around this time, 1983 or so, at Harbourfront in Toronto. We painted lead miniatures (I still love doing this) and had guest-lectures from medieval weapons freaks, a ninjitsu master, and a science fiction writer named Edward Llewellyn, who was the first published sf writer I ever met. He signed a copy of one of his books for me and I obsessively sought out and read his entire oeuvre. And of course we played lots of D&D. I still remember that as one of the most fun summer activities I ever got to participate in.
Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp ran in the summers of 1981 through 1985. There were two one-week sessions, each Sunday evening through Friday afternoon. I found out about it because the teacher we had convinced to sponsor the school D&D group got a flier for it when it was first organized.One time at D&D camp... (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)Campers were divided into different gaming groups at the beginning of the week, with councilors doubling as DMs. There were morning lectures (seriously) with gaming in the afternoon. All the groups played through the same adventure, written specifically for the camp. It wasn't an actual tournament, but each group pretty much tried to get as far as possible before the end of the week -- a slightly rigged process as I found out once I became a councilor.
The same campers could come sign up for both weeks, but obviously that wasn't the intention because they'd be playing in the same adventure twice.
There were a lot of other summer camps going on at the Shippensburg campus at the same time: baseball, tennis, cheerleading, etc. Everybody stayed in the dorms, with different buildings for different camp groups, but lectures and afternoon gaming were in other campus buildings.
RSS Feed
Homer Simpson voice: "Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd!!"
Just kidding!
I am insanely jealous.
Brings new meaning to my friends calling larping weekends "nerd camp"
This is so cool. The picture reminds me of 8th grade. I went to Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos. In 1981 one of our science teachers, Mrs. Gilbert, was the sponsor of our Dungeons & Dragons club. The picture in our yearbook was nerd-tastic.
"Okay kids, say: geeeeeeeeeeeeek!"
I didn't hear of D&D until I was in psych juvie in 1985. There was guys there that played it. They looked exactly like this.
I was there the first two years, and was able to find myself in that picture at the top of the article. Good times. :)
...because, obviously, what the world really needs is a camp to help underachieving geeks become full-fledged geeks. Thank god for WoW, though- you don't even have to leave your house! Much easier if you're looking to limit your actual-human interfacing.
No effing way!?!? In 1983 D&D was banned at my Junior High School because of devil-worshiping hysteria. Our teacher who let us play in the classroom during lunch came up to us one day and said, "You can't bring those books to school any more or I'll have to take them."
Ha! I went to the same D&D camp as Cory!
I was in between grade 5 and 6, and went with my friend to the one at Toronto Harbourfront!
Being a substitute counsellor at Harbourfront D&D Camp in 1990 was my favourite job EVAR.
I lied about my age to get it and the punk kids stole my books, but I was making enough to cover the losses and then some.
(I may even have known Cory at Karin and Wally's Harbourfront D&D club. We're the same age, from the same town and from the same nerd-demographic...)
To this day I still tell people "I was a professional DM. I played D&D and got paid for it."
Of course since I was in college at the time, this post had me thinking: Counselor at a D&D camp? Possibly one of the awsomest summer jobs ever.
Wow! Wish I had known about such camps when I was a kid. D&D and other role playing games were my young obsession...and still a minor one these days as I start my 40th year on this planet.
72 virgins!
And to think I wasted my youth on Soccer and Basketball Summer Camp! Seriously, D&D Summer Camp would've been soooooo rad. ...stupid P.E.I.
D&D Camp? Don't you mean Satanic Worship Indoctrination Camp?
@Individual - Mine too. Except I was still young enough to worry--as I was warned by adults--that playing D&D could accidentally trigger the summoning of some netherworld imp, or compulsively drive me to slay my friends because I would be unable to distinguish the imaginary from the real. No joke.
In the early 80's in eastern Kansas, a few friends and I started a D&D club in Middle school. It really took off with 11 or 12 members. A traveling evangelist set up a tent outside of town and proceeded to lecture about the evils of D&D and all the kids but about 4 of us had their books and papers taken from them and burned by their parents. Our Art teacher who had agreed to sponsor us to become an official school club was told she would be fired if she continued to support us. A few of the kids who had their books burned still joined us at lunch to play, but it was never the same.
I've always had a suspicion that my parents were getting some flack from other adults too about my club. Around this time, we had to remove a large ceramic sun from the side of our house because people were talking about sun worshiping. And not too much later we moved to Pennsylvania.
Hahaha- "stupid PEI"
Me, too, although it's 'Stupid Saskatchewan.'
Unfortunately, I never had a chance to go to a D and D camp - my first D and D experience was at Westercon 30 in Vancouver in 1977. Pretty much ditched most of the programming at the rest of the convention after I found the D and D room - it was like SPEED to a 16 year old boy from the Prairies.
Wish I would have kept a diary.
You forgot to mention how each camp at Harbourfront had different coloured t-shirts. I think the D&D campers were issued black, if I remember correctly, because... Well quite frankly, we were badass.
Cory, you are the coolest geek I know of.
Okay, we need a bigger scan of that picture so we can try to find Cory.
Nevermind above comment...I thought that was a picture from when he went to the camp.
I think I see one girl in that picture.
Bet she was popular.
Cool.
My first D&D adventure was in college in 1979. I had a 4th level magic user who later got bit by a werewolf and was turned into a lyncanthrope! It still pains me to this day.
Later rolled up a "Brownie" character. 30-plus years later the Dungeon Master still runs the same game. A bunch of us still connect and play once or twice a year.
The hair is grayer, the dice a bit more rounded and the books a bit dog-eared but still lots of fun.
BTW, I still haven't killed anybody in the "real world" yet or practice Satanism.
Roll the percentiles to save!
It was 1983. EVERYONE looked like this.
Dammit, how come nobody told teenaged-me that D&D camp existed!
Granted, in 1981, I was going to a high school for nerds, so we used to play D&D (and Champions, and The Fantasy Trip) all the time. And at the sleepaway camp I did attend, in 1980, we spent many a lazy afternoon playing Ogre, the old micro-wargame. But still.
I went to camp Watonka a few times.
http://www.watonka.com/
It was primarily a science camp, but they had all sorts of good stuffs. Not only did I play plenty of D&D and Magic: The Gathering there. I also played Battletech, learned HTML, learned C, threw sodium in water, played capture the flag for an entire day in the woods, learned to ride a motorbike with a manual transmission, and more. Great place to send a geeky kid for the summer.
The really awesome part of this is that it happened right in the middle of the "d&d is satanic!" moral panic.
D&D taught me how to become an atheist. It prepared me to think of the world as probabilistic.
In 1982, I was nine years old and *just* discovering the wonder that is D&D. I would've literally given a kidney to have been here.
I need to finish my damn time-machine already....
Camp Abe Lincoln no longer exists but it was a summer camp attended by me and all my friends.
Oh man! That sounds like the best summer camp EVAR!
Just a week ago a friend asked our group to play again a 1989 campaign for basic D&d! BASIC! I nearly expected to play with crayons and photocopied handbooks!
I attended 2 years with my older brother around the same time. As embarrassed as I am to say it now - it was a lot of fun. I remember Dr. Kraus tried to get us to "exercise" by having scavenger hunts across the campus to win D+D books and modules. Nothing like 50 nerds sprinting around a college campus. I would say it was a great experience just for having a real sleep-over camp experience with like minded kids (we were all cool by comparison to each other.)
Good lord, what I wouldn't have given to get in on that back in the day.
@ hail_diskordia
Ironically enough, I recently got into playing D&D after I finally kicked my WoW addiction (one which consumed three years of my young adult life). It really is a fun game and such a good mental exercise; unlike video games, D&D actually forces you to exercise your imagination and creative writing skills.
Looking at that photo, I wonder how many of those kids went onto become science fiction/fantasy writers.
You paint figures Cory? Dang it,I should have asked you that in Waterloo.Great speech by the way.My question was going to be on 3-d printing and making your own figures to use in games.Thanks for signing my book. Dan
@dccarles I almost certainly did meet you then!
@ahmacrom Never tried that, but for a while I was really excited about my vintage lead soldier foundry!
I actually finished up the last cred I needed towards my BA at Shippensburg. I can imagine there'd have been some great LARPing on that campus if such a thing had existed back when.
I was at those D&D camps at the Harbourfont in Toronto back in 1982 and 1983. GEEK POWER!
@27 - I went to Watonka too, probably 83 84. Great place. TRS-80s, model rockets, little 50cc dirtbikes, even a rifle range (from which I was wisely banned for inattention).
I'm sure those calling those in the pic NERDS or GEEKS or virgins are being sarcastic since, well, look what website you are commenting on to begin with.
NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!
It made myself and my parents laugh back in the early 80's about the big D&D scare, turning your kids into drug using Satanists. Funny thing though, all my friends I play D&D with now are drug using Satanists. Hmmmm.
Cripes. When I started gaming it had so low a profile that even the Moral Majority types hadn't had a chance to panic over it. The thought of grownups being aware of it, much less encouraging it, is astounding.
Lesse. In 1982 I was at the height of my RPG writing career, churning out stuff for many magazines and publishers so I could buy a computer.
I was way too old to go to camp, but If I'd known about D&D camp I might have tried to get a counselor job. That would have rocked.
Aren't single-sex camps kind of normal, particularly 27 years ago?
We had this. But we called it Boy Scouts ;)
I wish I'd been aware of these camps!
But I do remember the D&D satanism scare very well. I was running AD&D with my friends as much as possible at the time. My aunt and uncle had called my parents and warned them about the serious dangers of this game that I was involved with, and so a FAMILY MEETING was scheduled.
I calmly explained that, in spite of the growing sword and staff collection in my room, I was in no danger of roaming the sewers and/or hacking people up. Or of summoning demons. Then we all had a nice laugh at my paranoid relatives' expense and I continued playing every lunchtime and all weekend.
The part of me that always wanted to know what it was like to sit at the cool table in highschool is snickering in his palm, and the part of me that rolls dice like lives depend on it (and, ummm... they totally do...) is green with envy.
What I find hilarious about this concept is that this camp was for teenagers. There are no teenage summer camps on Earth where rampant hormones don't take center stage once the sun sets (or before); the untold LARPing stories here have got to be priceless.
I was there all four years. (I'm in the photo near the top.) It was spectacular and literally life-changing. (More on that later.)
Ben's recollection and research are spot on. He brought a lot of it back that I had forgotten. Can't wait to post more of my own POV and photos.
@16 Right there with you. I wasn't allowed to play D&D because I was assured that the advanced players summoned demons on a regular basis as part of their rituals.
I also wasn't allowed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because shows with anthropomorphic humans were just there to get people to let their guards down for the End Times when all kinds of freaky stuff will go down.
My 42 year old nerd heart breaks as I never got to attend D&D camp. **sigh**
@ilovechocolatemilk: oh yeah, I've got no problem really with either- I surreptitiously played when I was younger (because I too lived in Kansas at the time, jasongnc; it was Satanic Panic at its most hilarious), and I credit that with alot of my initial interest in fantasy and scifi, as well as my early interest in illustration.
I dunno if WoW really serves the same imagination-sparking purpose D&D did when it came out. And I know waaay more people now willing to spend 4 unwashed, sleepless, Dorito-fueled days locked in their rooms with WoW than I ever did while playing D&D.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UIO2dAGjgE
This is the coolest! I would've given an eye-tooth to have gone to this camp.
I can't *really* complain though, as we had a Parent-Teacher Supply store that supported (and organized!) a gaming club. The owner even built onto the place and gave us our own seperate gaming area (with keyed entry for evening sessions) and DM's supplied by Rice University! best. times. ever.
thanks for the post, Cory!
^m^
I am so fucking insanely jealous that this existed and I didn't get to go :( That would have been the most fun of my entire young life. O_O