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Bonzai for fun and games

By Arleen Spenceley, Times Staff Writer
In print: Friday, August 22, 2008

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ADVERTISEMENT [BRIAN CASSELLA | Times] Lindsey Adams climbs from the muck recently at Lowry Park while playing a game of Amtgard with several dozen others in the group Tetsu Bonzai. Loading Video...

LOWRY PARK — Twice a week, they swarm.

Restaurant managers. College kids. Theater geeks.

They tote foam weapons, make medieval threats and rain or shine at Lowry Park, they rush the field together.

They're a live action role play group called Tetsu Bonzai, and the game they play is Amtgard.

It's barbaric, but stress relieving. A respite from reality, and a fantastic adventure.

You might say it's what nerds do when they're tired of Dungeons and Dragons.

"Why play baseball?" Michael Frantz asks. "Why fly a kite?"

For the 27-year-old from Temple Terrace, there's no difference between other hobbies and his.

Live action role play is a little like living a video game. Players who are particularly into role play create a character, add a personality and wear the garb to match it. For players who aren't, focus is usually fixed on fighting.

There's a rule book, an honor system, different ways to die. There are kingdoms of connected parks and freehold groups, which operate outside kingdoms but gladly battle other groups. Tetsu Bonzai is one of them.

The goal, ultimately, is to keep your character from dying before the game ends. And the purpose is really pretty simple.

"Fun and exercise," Frantz said.

• • •

When he prepares to play, Frantz is chill and sure of himself, in black pants and a black karate gi, tied shut by a green belt.

"Who wants to warm me up?" he asks.

Anthony Lopez, 18, volunteers.

"All right, come on, Lopez."

The comrades hop the park shelter's wall to start a fight. They shout some war cries. They hurl some weapons.

"I work 40 to 50 hours a week and it's stressful," said Frantz, who is a manager at Gameworks in Ybor City. "It allows you to take your mind off the world as it is."

Even if you're a stick jockey, someone who just likes to fight and doesn't bother with a costume or character.

"I think I did come up with (a character) at one time," Frantz said. "Oh, Jiminy Christmas. I'm trying to remember it now."

It takes him awhile because he prefers the martial side of Amtgard.

Or, said Hillsborough Community College student Sarah Nieto, 18, "the whacking each other with sticks."

• • •

All the weapons players use for whacking are either made of foam or padded with it, and some players, depending on their characters' roles, lug around boogie board shields.

Frantz boasts an arsenal of some 30 foam weapons he made for himself. He's got a medieval mace, war hammers and Japanese weaponry, like naginatas and katanas. When he's not using them, he keeps them in the trunk of his car.

With some in hand, he faces weird looks and answers curious questions just to cross a parking lot. He and the rest of Tetsu Bonzai face weirder looks when they start to play.

"Watch out behind you!" a player shouts.

"Flank to your left!" another warns.

Once, a jogger mistook a battle for a bunch of hooligans beating each other with bats. After some explanation, the police were all right with their playing.

Sometimes, drivers honk as they pass the park. And participants, many of whom are loners or bookworms, say being part of live action role play tends to come with the stigma of nerd.

"We seem like a geeky crowd," said Kyle Hankins, 23, who runs Tetsu Bonzai. "(But) it's escapism. It's no different than reading a book, playing a video game, watching TV."

But it's better than that, Frantz said.

"It's a much more interesting way to spend my time than to sit in front of the TV watching re-runs of Friends," he said.

Hankins, a handyman from Clearwater, says live action role play is a good way to take a break, and a healthy way "of doing something 'fantasifical.'"

And Frantz says even adults need to takes breaks for fantasy.

"If you don't," he said, "you're going to grow old quick."

• • •

"To be 27 years old and be out here, you have to be somewhat of a kid at heart," Frantz said.

"I can understand why most people would not consider running around in the heat, play fighting with foam weapons as cool. I don't think running around hitting a ball with a stick is all that cool, (either)," he said. "But whatever floats your boat."

Arleen Spenceley can be reached at aspenceley@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5301.