ES - Re: response to role playing

[Mordock von Rugen]

I guess a lot depends on what you consider role-playing.  The hand-kissing, 
helping people carry stuff, holding open doors - all these and other 
associated behaviors I don't see as role-playing.  They are real, normal 
things that I've included in my life  - though some things are only done in 
context (like the hand-kissing).

Now, "getting into persona" and arguing about the relative merits of kite 
shields, or making scurrilous comments about the love lives of Charlemagne's 
troops, can be a lot of fun.  This is role playing.

To me, though, this is just icing on the cake.  The cake is composed of 
living ideals gleaned from history - honor, courage, chivalry, courtesy, 
integrity, and the continuing heroic quest.  These things don't depend on 
getting into persona - the depend on letting your persona get into you.

The problem for me of "getting into persona" is that my persona doesn't fit 
very well with many of the personae around me.  I sort of pretend that 
everyone around me are Saxon nobles, regardless of what their persona really 
is, and treat them accordingly.  That's my version of role playing.  And 
since I don't speak Old Saxon well enough to be conversational, and nobody 
would understand me anyway, I just use modern equivalents.

This keeps me from doing a number of things that might be considered 
socially unacceptable in a modern setting, like calling a lot of the men 
around me "girls", or deriding the "little pigstickers" of the fencers.  It 
would get very old, very fast, and would be fun neither for me or for those 
I was talking to.

<shrug> As I say, it depends on what your definition of role-playing is.

Dux


>From: "Christine Fink" <maria_elfsea at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: elfsea at ansteorra.org
>To: elfsea at ansteorra.org
>Subject: RE: ES - Re: response to role playing
>Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 09:26:08 CDT
>
>Buenos Dias!
>
>I agree.
>
>I have been reading romance novels for years now that cover the Middle Ages 
>and always wanted to be a real living part of that romance. In the SCA, I 
>can. For example, I just really love it when a lord is introduced to me and 
>he lightly kisses the back of my hand or when he comes out of nowhere to 
>help me carry something (whether it's heavy or not). It just really sweeps 
>me off my feet.
>
>Though I really suck at foriegn languages, I have been making an effort to 
>learn some basic Spanish for my persona. It just drive me nuts when others 
>greet each other in a mundane way (though I admit I do it myself 
>occasionally, so I can be a guilty party myself at times).
>
>At Queen's a few weeks ago Phelippe and I were standing in line to speak to 
>the Queen and so Phelippe could recieve her favor. The gentleman in front 
>of us was Elias of Stargate(?) whom Phelippe had just fought. I was 
>mistaken of his country and asked if he was from Spain, as well. He got a 
>very offended look on his face and said he soemthing about Spaniards being 
>a bunch of filthy dogs and that he would never belong to the court of King 
>Philip. He said he was English. Well, my personna is Spanish (late 1400's 
>to early 1500's). In proper fashion, I acted insulted (I should have had 
>Phelippe challenge him to a duel to protect my honor, but didn't think 
>about it at the time) and we got into an exchange of words. This was just 
>too much fun! I would love to see more of this portrayed at events.
>
>Maria
>(the talker)  :)
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>Wesaþ ge hal!
>
>   My take on role playing is it helps the educational experience.  When I 
>see, for example, two personas interact I like to see a realistic, to the 
>best of our ability, exchange between the personalities.  Seeing them walk 
>up to one another and go, "Wassssupppp!!!" does nothing more than annoy me. 
>  I would prefer something more cultural evn if in a different language.  
>It just feels better.
>    On an internal level, I personally learn something.  The more I get 
>into being Cyniric, the better I understand what I research.  Some of that 
>is helped by Cyniric being a fifth century version of me with better looks, 
>luck and money. :)  In a book called "The English Settlements", the author 
>walked the length of Hadrian's Wall and other areas during his holidays in 
>England to see why the Angle, Saxons, or German federati settled where they 
>did.  I see the SCA as the very same experience.  Why just dig up a village 
>when you can become part of one?
>   For myself I hope to, within a year, be seen strictly as Cyniric would 
>have been in the 450's.  I am trying to even develop man fighting as to 
>eventually fight only using period weapons for me (while still taking into 
>account my persona did travel and trade).  If  my hopes come to ful 
>fruition, I hope to even be composing in Old Anglian for bardic and such in 
>addition to providing a "culture camp" everytime I am at a site to the best 
>of my ability.  I wholly expect at some high persona event to have Airaklee 
>in my camp and we can talk about our mutual distrust of Saxons of the time 
>and why, about our differences in religion as our personas might have done 
>if they were friendly towards one another, and just see each other as we 
>would have.
>   This is not to say people cannot just be in the SCA without a well 
>played persona, but I personally see it as intergral to the learning 
>experience which is my primary reason for being here.  The Sca has renewed 
>my interest in pursuing a Masters in Germanic Philology after I finish at 
>UNT.
>
>Rich Culver
>"Cyniric"
>
>
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