From the Introduction: The thrust of Amtgard is both recreational and educational, with major group efforts devoted to reconstructions of medieval combat. Amtgard weapons are safe, foam-padded replicas of the real things, and unlike many other live action role playing systems, Amtgard has comprehensive rules for the use of magic classes in the battlegames and quests. The Beginner's Guide is based on (and released after) Amtgard v6 and was released eight years before Amtgard v7