[Ansteorra] The Journey

[C. L. Ward]

>I was (in my mind, anyway) all dolled up
>in a bodice, skirt and chemise. I even had a British
>accent I picked up from high school theatre. I was
>attempting to talk to a gentle (I don't remember who)
>about the schism King Henry VIII had caused with his
>divorces. The gentle looked at me and point blank
>said, "This is not a role-playing game. This is the
>SCA." Well, needless to say, I dumped the accent and
>stopped talking about period stuff for a while.

It's really not the clothes that make good persona play - they're like props
in a play, they make it easier for those playing with you to do the willing
suspension of disbelief.  Good clothes just make it easier.

I think the gentle was wrong.  *For some people* the SCA *is* a role-playing
game -- and that aspect is one that we, as a kingdom must value highly, or
why else would the Lion of Ansteorra be such a prestigious award, despite
the fact that it carries no precedence?

My lady, the trick with playing persona is to find people who will do it
with you.  If you find this type of mind-stretching enjoyable, there are
plenty of us who would be most pleased to do it with you.  If you're having
trouble finding folks to play persona with, ask some of the Lions to guide
you to like-minded folks.

I think Gunnora or Pendaran or Mari and many others might love to have this
particular persona discussion with you.  Gunnora and Mari, being none too
sure about what Christianity is about, might be rather quixotic to do it
with, of course.

What the gentle *should* have said to you was that *he/she* did not find
persona play enjoyable.  There are plenty of others who do.  Some of our
most fun persona stuff has come out of experiences such as the one Mari
recounted, where she took a moderately mundane "feast" and looked at it
through her persona, and showed that same image to folks around her who also
were willing to play the game.  Other memorable moments have come in persona
discussions between two people of very different time/culture personas,
discussing "the way we do things back home" and laying off the differences
and expectations of each culture (a discussion with Inman about "moral
fiber", sheep, and chain mail seems to come to mind...)

::GUNNORA::