ES - Heal Thyself first

[Paul Mitchell]

Galen here...
Her Grace Willow wrote:
<snip>
> I have been in this kingdom for a long time and I can tell you that the
> "bad stuff" is pretty low right now. No one is behaving very badly. There
> are a lot of people running around trying to "Fix" the problem. All the
> functionaries are calling for more "red tape" and the personal leader are
> blaming each other and movers and shakers are sitting in heaps. No one
> has a cue to what is wrong. The problem isn't with the bad stuff, the
> problem is our events are boring.

In defense of the "Red Tape" events, their purpose is to move the
_most_ boring stuff, the officer meetings, out of our regular events
entirely in order to free up more time for just the sort of fun activities
Willow is advocating.  Not that there's been too many people taking
advantage of that yet.

> Everyone is being "real". There is almost no role-playing  and no
> entertainment. Our parties are dull. Even when they have booze people
> just sit around. People do not come to the SCA for a cocktail party in
> costume. People come to the SCA to live the dream!

Unfortunately, not enough of us quite know how to do this.
Even after all my years, I admit I've never quite gotten the hang
of the kind of role-playing Her Grace is discussing.  And today,
we have many people who've never or only rarely seen this sort
of thing.

> We need to start playing again. Not just at Gulf Wars but all the time.
> Everyone of us need to learn a song, story or poem. We need to play our
> personas. Our nobles need to set stagnations up so that we can play. We
> need to stage tavern fights and have people challenge each other. We need
> young lovers going on quests for their love. We need stupid boast by
> Norsemen and oath taken on peacocks. We need toastings and slap games. We
> need people to gamble behind the thrones. We need people to make bets and
> then have to do stupid things. We need to do stuff rather than sitting on
> our asses.

"Our nobles need to set stagnations up so that we can play."  By this do
you mean that we should have periods of the event with no scheduled
activities?  As I learned at ATYC, that's exceedingly hard at large events,
but at small ones like Guardian of the Tor, that's standard fare, and one
of the best things about the event.  But admittedly, we're not taking
enough advantage of it.

> We need  our events to be friendly to role players and doers.  Right now
> if you want to do something someone looks down their nose at you and ask
> " do you have permission" or "they don't know if it can be fit in", or
> replies that "if you were a national member you could look it up in your
> own news letter. "

Let me go back to ATYC for a moment.  My original thought for that
event was to have far fewer activities.  I wanted only one thing going on
at a time, so that every activity could have its "moment in the sun", so
that archers could get as much attention as heavy weapons fighters.
As it worked out, with such a crowded event schedule, no one, not
even fighters, got any time in the spot light.  Only the Coronation
ceremonies
themselves had any real audience.  Most people, I concluded, were less
interested in seeing others' activities than doing more of their own.  At
such
an event, someone wanting to do "one more thing" would certainly have been
hard-pressed to find time in the schedule for it, or an unused part of the
site
to do it in.

Also when you do try to do something everyone sits on
> their butts and look at you like you were a TV. They blandly tell you
> that they had a wonderful time but where is the fun of performing to such
> a boring audience. I know everyone doesn't want to perform or role play
> but without a certain amount of it the SCA is dull.

OK, I agree, but how can we help people learn better what to do,
and how to do it well?  I could use help in this regard, and I'm sure
many have been intrigued by your note, and are now wondering what
they're missing out on.

> I know this because I am a role player and I haven't been able to role
> play at event for over three years and I am thinking of dropping out.
<snip>

Well, please don't.  Whenever I've felt like dropping out, I've shifted
my focus from events to fighter practice; I go back to teaching the
basics I know best.  I hope you'll stay and teach this.


- Galen of Bristol

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