Twice a year, scenic Governor Dodge State Park transforms into the Shire, Rivendell, Mount Doom and other imaginative locales, the setting for a live-action strategy and adventure game inspired by the epic fantasy tale "The Lord of the Rings."
Ring Game has been going on at the park in one form or another since it was conceived at La Follette High School in 1977. The game attracts dozens, sometime hundreds, of players from across southern Wisconsin and the greater Midwest, ranging in age from pre-teens to near-retirement age.
Ring Game pits teams representing the forces of Good and Evil against each other in a daylong quest to destroy (or recover, respectively) the "One Ring." Players dressed in armor and fantasy garb roam the park, collecting tokens and "battling" each other (with points and calculators, not swords-this is a nonviolent game) on the way to a climactic battle atop " Mount Doom."
Winning the game requires a combination of stamina, map-reading skills, stealth and, ideally, a bit of good old-fashioned luck.
"Ring Game is an adventure to some, strategy to others; to some it’s just a good time outdoors (or an evil time, as the case may be), finding new friends, or for renewing old friendships," said Jack Barker of Madison, one of Ring Game's current organizers.
The next Game is scheduled for Saturday, October 10, 2026, with a pre-game meeting in Madison on Sunday, September 27 on the UW Madison campus two weeks before the game on Sunday, September 27 (to give players time to get their costumes assembled and to prepare team strategies). Then players meet at Governor Dodge Park the morning of the game. They open judging for costumes and weapons at 9:00 a.m. and have character introductions at 11:00 a.m., after which players go to their starting locations in time for the game to start at noon.
The 50th Anniversary game will be played on Saturday, April 24, 2027.
For more information, contact: Jack A. Barker +1 (608) 234-0291 (phone/text) jackbarker@ringgame.net (email)