The Sari Diaries- Tuesday 7/29/25

Dear Chippies, Parents, Family and Friends,

First of all, happy birthday to Schuyler C from Blackfoot Trail and Olivia R from Lakeview who turned nine and fifteen today! We are very lucky to have enjoyed two birthday celebrations and Realm all in one day!

As for Realm, where do I possibly begin?! I will start with a little excerpt from the 183 page Realm Season 9: Revenge Guidebook…

“The Realm is like a kingdom, and consists of the territory occupied by a team. At the start of the game the camp map is evenly split in half. A team’s side is determined by a coin toss done days prior to the start of the game. The Realm is where each team’s Citadel (Castle) is positioned. The center of the map is home to the Capital City of Chippindel. This is a neutral, demilitarized zone for shopping and doing other necessary business. Members from both teams can interact here without any fear of being attacked.”

As is evidenced by the blurb above, Realm is a very serious game in which Chippewa is transformed into an alternate universe. There is Realm music playing all day long, campers are seen doing things they would never otherwise do (such as using catapults, creating potions, raising chickens, etc), using language that only applies to this CRC specific game and reporting to a Castle that is mapping out a plan for their team’s victory. And this two-ish day game was a huge success…we are exhausted yet fulfilled by the events of Realm and I will now attempt to give you the full rundown of Realm Season 9: Revenge.

Selections on Sunday night brought a ton of excitement and anticipation. Campers learned what their role would be and how they would help their team. Here’s a brief explanation of what campers do during Realm:

Braves are split into houses- The Beekeeping House, The Fish Hatchery, The Tropical House, The Mining House, The Apothecary and The Chicken House. Each of these houses contributes to the economy and each industry plays an important role in other parts of the game. Houses level up throughout the game by becoming experts in their industries. At the highest levels, the Chicken House can create salmonella, The Fish Hatchery can create a Puffer Fish Cannon, the Beekeeping House can create the Stinger Cannon and the other houses can create cures and deadly weapons for their team. As they level up, they get different colored wristbands that they cover so that spies from the other teams don’t know how their house is progressing.

All Hunters are spies. Spies have a variety of roles during Realm. They spy on the other team to gather intel. They assist in army attacks. They search in the woods for clues, prizes and Realm tools. Throughout the game, spies find colored dragons worth points, Swap-A-Roo coupons where they got to have members of their team pose as the other team, Cathy’s Ice Cream credit and more. And they generally serve where needed for the greater good of their team.

Warriors and Chiefs are split into armies. Armies go out on house attacks and they are sent to defend their houses. They can only be sent out if their team has earned Energy Stones…they must deposit Energy Stones for each member of an army that is sent out. Within each army there are Long Bowers and Knights. Both of these jobs require intense training, but those who have worked towards these roles provide great value to their teams.

While most campers went to bed early on Sunday night in order to prepare for their busy and important days ahead, the Round Table from each team participated in the Realm Summit, which is a meeting with the Realm Development Team to confirm that each team fully understands the game. While much of Realm remains the same each summer, there are added elements in each season. This season, the season of the Ocelot brought fantastic additions including the Food Chain and Shadow Cannon elements.

Yesterday morning, when the game began, things started slowly…campers learned the specifics of their industries, learned the plans their round tables had created and loitered around Chippindel. Realm is a turn based game, so each team has fifteen minute turns to send armies to attack and/or send armies to defend houses. While this is happening, houses are working away and spies are doing their thing. Houses exchanged hands throughout the day yesterday and today, and in the end, there was never a point where one team was in possession of every house. When that does happen, the team with all of the houses has an opportunity to attack the other team’s castle. Stinger Cannons, Fire Cannons and eventually the Shadow Cannon were procured throughout the day yesterday. The most exciting of these was the lead-up to the Shadow Cannon. The Tans had the opportunity to make a sacrifice in order to rise to the Ocelot on the Food Chain and possess the Shadow Cannon. It was unknown just how much they needed to sacrifice, but they sacrificed a great deal including one of their Grand’s flags. The interesting part about the Shadow Cannon is that the output of using it is risky…a dice is rolled after it is thrown and the result may help or hurt the team that threw it…crazy, I know!

And today’s action was exciting…beyond what I was even expecting. The Radiation Cannon was created and used, which resulted in multiple people in the hospital (both the person hit as well as those in the radiation zone). They needed and received the radiation antidote created by the Apothecary House. When I visited each castle this afternoon, the scenes were amazing. At the Tan Castle, Stella G had just returned after having had rabies. Lucy W was sending an army out on their next attack with both the Shadow Cannon and salmonella…everybody was hyped to attack a house that had double reinforcements on their targets. Olivia R was the long bower going on the attack and she was feeling confident! Over at the White Castle, Charlie M had just delivered the Stinger Cannon and everybody was being very careful not to touch the two Fire Cannons that were waiting to be used. Sophie B was moving around game pieces on the Realm Map to plan and the team was excited to follow her direction!

At about 3pm the game play concluded and the Castle Attack Bubble began. For the Castle Attack Bubble, all campers are released from jail and the hospital so that they can participate. After a coin flip, it was decided that the Tans would attack the White’s Castle. Interestingly, the Whites chose to defend instead of attack. The Castle Attacks work in a way such that each and every member of the teams have a role and points are earned by both offensive and defensive moves. Teams had about thirty minutes to strategize at their respective castles before the entire Tan Team marched over to the south end of camp to begin the pinnacle moment of the game. The attack itself was intense and spirited…but in the end, the White Longbowers defended so well that the attack never moved past phase one, which is the catapult stage. Hayden R and Braelyn S were sending catapults toward the White Castle as Emma S and Sydney J were shooting arrows at the catapult’s targets. The entire camp was watching on the sideline and cheering their hearts out. The attack concluded when the second Catapult Target was hit…the Whites went wild! It was fun to watch and it took a great deal of energy, focus and determination by both sides.

Realm Season 9- Revenge officially concluded at 4:11pm…two-ish days full of fun, competition and weirdness. Once all of the points were added up and the Twills (Realm Currency) were counted, the White Team came out on top by a very thin margin. Lainey K was the highest individual scorer followed by a tie between Sydney J & Emma S, and Dylan K next.

A huge congratulations to every single camper and staff member at #TheRanch2025. Realm 2025 was one for the record books…campers played it well, staff ran it well (from Chippindel Shop Managers to House Neutrals and more), and the Dev & Productions teams just crushed it.

I barely scratched the surface in this very long summary of Realm. That said, I hope I provided you with a little bit of clarity and understanding of this Chippewa sub-culture…and at the very least a lot of entertainment. The bottom line is that the residents of 8258 County O just lived through a very special couple of days…a program that they will remember, that they definitely feel proud to be a part of, and that they LOVE. They bonded, they felt challenged, they gave immense amounts of effort and they had fun. Realm is just one of those camp experiences that has an impact that digs deep- it provides our campers both intentionally and naturally with unique opportunities to be amazing!

At this juncture, it is time to start planning for Realm Season Ten…a decade of Realm…wow!

That’s all I’ve got for now…goodnight, Chippies!

Happy Camping and Love,
Sari