Registration

This is a big and important step. Screw it up, and your war is over (well, that’s what single camping can feel like anyway). Luckily, it’s also pretty easy.

 

You can either mail in a registration or you can go online and do it. The best spot to check on such things is to go to www.pennsicwar.org. There, you can register yourself, your family, and any ghosts you might need. Most SCA events you’ll go to, you pay a local chapter of the SCA. In this case, you don’t, you pay the Coopers Lake Campground (the Coopers). They will pay the SCA back based on the number of people that come to war. Don’t worry, it’s OK, the Coopers aren’t going to abscond with your money and screw the SCA.

 

Ghosts: sometimes, you have enough stuff that you just can’t get by with the 250 square feet per person allotted to you. In such times, you’ll need to register a ghost. Please, be courteous, and do not register a ghost child. Children registrations cost less, and thus, you are ripping off the Coopers by doing this. Please make sure your camp steward knows how much land you are planning to register for and claim – some groups have very tight land allowances and growth could mean kicking them off their ancestral land (one reason to figure out who to camp with before you register). Also, if you are only a few feet over your allotment, look into sharing space with others. Most camp stewards will accommodate this, as again, it makes it more likely that camp will stay in its proper location.

 

Pay attention to the deadlines. If you do not register and pay before the deadline, you will not be able to give your land to a group, and will be placed in singles camping (unless your group takes much pity on you). For my barony, we just don’t let you camp with us if you don’t get registered in time – it’s just not fair to everyone else who did. Also, try to register a couple days before the deadline, as the servers can be a little overloaded on that last day. Be sure to register with the name that appears on your ID, or you’ll have to pay again at the gate. 

 

If you mail in your registration, be sure to copy the group name exactly (“Barony of Someplace” and “Someplace, Barony of” are two different camps; “Dragon Keep” and “Dragonkeep” and “Dragoon Keep” are 3 different camps). If you do online registration, just make sure you pick the right one out of the drop down box.

 

Next, contact your camp steward and see what they need from you. Most of the time these days, there’s some sort of pre-war organization via a web site, forum, or email list. Usually, they want to know the type and size of the tent you are bringing, the day and time of your arrival, and who to contact in an emergency.

 

Don’t register to stay with a camp if you don’t know the people in it. Just because you registered to camp there doesn’t mean they have to let you camp there. If they are nice, they will contact the Coopers and have you moved out of their camp (yes, they can do that). If they are not nice, they will just take your land and tell you to go screw (I’m not sure they can do that, but they might try it). Just because it was a cool looking camp last year, or because it has a cool name, doesn’t mean you have the right to camp there.

 

Another part that I consider to be part of “registering” is making sure your real life and home obligations are taken care of. So, put in for the time off work, find a pet sitter or kennel, find out if the grand parents can take the kids for a week (if they aren’t going), find someone to water your plants, make sure all the bills for that time period are paid, and generally dot the I’s and cross the T’s. It’s an extended time away from home and work, just like any other vacation, as far as the entire outside world is concerned.