ANST - A&S "skill ranks"...

[John Ruble]

>Pug  said:
>  What are other people's opinions of what a master in a field of study
>  is or should be? Am I expecting too much from a master? Is my concept
>  more on the order of the "Great Chefs of the world" than simple mastery
>  of a field? I wouldn't be surprised if my ideals were unreasonably
>  higher than others since I seem to be repeatedly setting them too high.

A decent question, and everyone is ignoring it in favor of the
discussions on horseshoes and Kingdom Law... There's an analogy in there
somewhere...

I'm not a Laurel.  I'm more like a sprig of sage, oh sagely spriggin.
But I'll add what I was told when I joined years ago.  "A
Master/Mistress should be good enough in their craft to support
themselves with it," I was told.  I think this was supposed to mean that
if this person were dumped N-centuries back in time, they would quickly
rise to great recognition performing their craft, and they would achieve
a level of acceptance among the nobles equivalent to what we are
supposed to accord our Laurels.

I realise this is not very qualitative.  Let me make another stab at it.
 Let's take a Master, let's say, Brewer.  I feel this individual should
be able to make just about any major kind of potage (wine, beer, mead,
etc.) of passable quality, and should be recognized for several
exceptional brews in at least one of these varieties.  But there is more
to brewing than the booze.  The Master should know the grains and
yeasts, the glassware and woodware, which ones are good and _why_.  They
should be able to create new brews based on this knowledge. They should
have a firm knowledge of the work of other brewers so they can steal and
improve on their ideas. They should know the materials they use as well
as the journeyman who made them, or at least as well as a senior
apprentice.  They should be able to teach others to be competant
journeymen.  They don't have to know _everything_,  but they should know
more than the average brewer.  And they certainly should know more than
one would get from reading two books on the subject. That certainly does
not a Master make.

I know I've left out some things, but I think this list is fairly
general enough to be applied to any art or craft.  If I have offended
anyone, I am sorry. This is simply what goes through my mind when I hear
someone called a Master Horseman, or Bard, or Scribe.  There are a few
more things that go with this to be made a Peer of the Realm, but I'll
leave that definition to those more knowledgable than I.

-Ulf
>
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