Crudgyns

## A Crudgyns Overview

Crudgyns is the foremost sport on the island of The Wolds. There are championships all year round, but no leagues to speak of. Any team can face against any team, assuming they are either cruel or foolish enough to step outside of their class.

A brief overview of useful terminology follows

### Terminology

* Pie: the arena in which the game is played
* Field: the individual team sections of the pie
* Crucible: the area where the 'roundlings' can be gathered by the team
* Roundlings: molten hot metal balls that must be passed by the team into their receptacle
* Receptacle: the area into which the team must deposit their roundlings to score points
* Moat: a moat that surrounds the pie, usually water filled, but can be anything depending on the team, region etc
* Warband: a Crudgyns team
* Medic's tower: a tower opposite their teams receptacle in which the 'medic' stands
* Medic: the team wizard, or sole magic user (occasionally an Immolator or Druid in later Era's etc)
* Era: a non-specific amount of time in which rules change/players die enough to warrant a recalibration period
* The Arbiter: The referee who stands atop the crucible, and eventually the Rhinotaur cage, mostly to keep account of the events that occur for the bookmakers
* Rhinotaur Cage: a large cage that holds the Rhinotaur, which is kept below the crucible until required
* Rhinotaur: a creature/or creatures released onto the Pie towards the end of the game, usually an actual Rhinotaur (giant Rhino-man hybrid)
* Chap: A chap is a general term for non-medic team members
* House husband: a chap who is not allowed to exit their receptacles area - defenders
* Upper: the chaps who are free to roam and responsible for capturing roundlings
* Toppling: Any interruption of spell casting caused by the crowd or opponent teams, often by thrown vegetable
* Trampling: When the Rhinotaur disables a player
* Disabled: When a player is knocked out or incapacitated by another player
* Steal: When a Roundling is taken from an opponent's receptacle and scored
* Muggin' off: When a Roundling is taken from an opponent and scored

### An overview of The Pie

   Crudgyns is a game played by 3 Warbands. As such a Warbands Field is a third of the playable Pie. The crowd and supporters sit behind their Warband in the stands. The teams Receptacle is back and centre of their field, against the Moat, and opposite the Crucible. The Warbands Medic sits opposite their teams Field, and as such is between the two opposing teams Fields and stands.

### Excerpts from "Crudgyns - A Retrospective"

For some detail and history of the sport we will refer to excerpts from the book "Crudgyns - A Retrospective" by Billikins Wylikyns Esq. Mr Wylikyns is still seen as the foremost Crudgyns historian of all 17 Crudgyns Era’s.

> "...The Crudgyns we know today still holds on to those same roots of farmers fighting for those final crops on shared lands, and is still very much a full contact skirmish, but of course with over 425 years of evolution not all elements have stayed the same.
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> We still see 3 Warbands enter the field, but historically there were just 7 ‘chaps who work the field’ - or ‘chaps’ as they’re known today - and back then there was no wizard at all if that can be believed.
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> Casualties were so high by the second Crudgyns Era that each team was permitted a healer to reduce risk, but as the sport evolved, wizards started hindering players and as such attacking each other to stop foul play, and healing became quite secondary. This soon became as much a permitted part of the sport as any other, in much the same way as how the crowd can interfere with the wizards should they feel brave enough (we all know the thrill of getting standing tickets for the ‘crematorium’).”
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Here we see elaboration on the evolution of the martial aspects:

> “...Evolved are the armaments too; pitchforks and sickles making way for more purpose built weaponry such as the chap-catcher, ***<insert other suggestions here>***”
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In a later section, Wylikyns expands on the changes to scoring:

> “...The turnips which were clambered for back in the fields are of course nowhere to be seen, now replaced with the eternally hot ‘Infernium Roundlings’ added in the Fifth Crudgyns Era, 14 of which smolder patiently in the crucible until play is called.
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> Being the first to deposit 7 of these Roundlings in your Receptacle, gathered either from the Crucible or an opponent teams’ Receptacle will of course win that warband the ‘Third’, and the first warband to win three Thirds in turn wins the Crudgyns - this is the well known foundation of the game.
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> However, the addition of the ‘match point Rhinotaur’ seems to have been lost to history though. We all know that it’s brought out and roams the field once a team nears victory, but at what point this became a rule...”
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Wylikyns also elaborates on the finer points, and later additions to the rules of the game:

> “...The much reviled ‘three at home’ rule - which as we know demands a warband keep 3 chaps in defence at all time - might seem like a rule that evolved with the sport for balance, but the history dates back to those foundational fields. Field workers would occasionally forfeit the opportunity for the turnips in the shared lands, opting to steal from their neighbours' hovels, so home defence was a swiftly adopted and logical tradition...”
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The loss of Billikins Wylikyns is still felt today, long after the famous Rhinotaur pen accident some 6 years ago. We hardly knew ye.