I started this with: >> I'd love to see marshalls escort poorly garbed fighters off >> the field!! (Manfred! You opened a can of worms with that statement!!) Moriel followed up with : >This has two sides to it as do all stories. Would it be fare to have a >new, inexperinced fighter taken off the feild because his armour is not >up to "snuff". What if he/she doesn't sew well and is too new/timid to >ask for help in making a tabbard? (SNIP!) To which I reply with: I can appreciate your concerns of a new fighter with a less-than-average kit. But when a new fighter makes the decision to begin fighting, he usually speaks with his friends/acquaintances and finds out what he needs. What a joy it would be if, in addition to helm, leg armor, baskethilt, elbow cops, groin protection, gorget, etc... a historic surcoat, or tabbard was part of that list!! If it was understood from the very start, that appearance was as important as protection, I think our tourneys would be much more colorful!! Sure, our knights and squires can lead by good examples... but a poor example, coupled with human nature, makes for an easy excuse to put lil or no effort into a fighter's appearance. I recall the words of Graf Galen during his reign as monarch. At the Warlord Tourney, he gathered all the fighters and charged that the winner of the Tourney, the Kingdom Warlord, was to be responsible for fielding a prepared army at Gulf War. He stressed appearance in addition to skill at arms! Would that more of us took this aspect as seriously!! Lord Manfred Wolf (Hey! When you fight as poorly as I do... all you can do is LOOK good!) Barony of the StarGate, Ansteorra ============================================================================ Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.