[Steppes] Combining Artisan with ... well, almost anything.

[Faelan Caimbeul]

For the unenlighted among us, myself included, what's the difference between
local, regional and Kingdom events?

Faelan

On 4/23/07, Jay Rudin <rudin at ev1.net> wrote:
>
> Steppes Artisan is by far the smallest of our events, and the impulse to
> try to combine it with something else is very strong.  As baron, I tried it,
> too.  It just never works.
>
> The second one was combined with Laurel Prize Tourney.  The third one was
> combined with the Steppes Eisteddfod.  A few later ones were combined with
> Steppes Champion.
>
> The problem is this.  For all that it looks like a simple, small
> competition if you're not involved, it requires the *complete* attention of
> the Artisans and the baron/ess for several hours.
>
> Tourneys don't -- the baron/ess can start it with court, and then
> disappear, coming back occasionally to watch some fights.  Neither the
> fighters nor the marshalls have to stay at the field at all times.
>
> But Steppes Artisan is the only "body of work" competition left in the
> kingdom, and the judges (the baron/ess and every Artisan who has ever won it
> in the past) need to spend serious time looking at every item on every
> table.
>
> For me it's a laid-back event.  I'm a mere Laurel.  I need to look at each
> display and talk to each artisan, and that's not too hard.  But Mistress
> Serena is a Steppes Artisan.  For her, it's an all-day event.
>
> And she's working on something or other throughout each day at Warlord, as
> well.
>
> If Artisan were held at Warlord, there's a fairly large amount of the
> Steppes workers out of commission for an entire day at Warlord.  Most
> importantly, the baroness would not be able to watch any other activity *at
> all* for hours at a time.  It's not fair to do that to Warlord, and it's not
> fair to do that to the baroness.
>
> I'm not guessing -- I've been baron at Warlord, and I've been baron at
> Artisan.  Both are full-time jobs.  When we combined Artisan and Eisteddfod,
> we very quickly realized that the baroness would have to ignore one, and I
> would have to ignore the other.  But that was an inferior solution, because
> both the bards and the artisans deserve the full attention of any Steppes
> ruler.  Furthermore, Katheryn just can't do it.
>
> One more point -- Artisan has a long court, an hour or more, as each judge
> singles out a specific entrant for praise.  Do you really want to add
> another hour of court to either Warlord or Twelfth Night?
>
> Artisan is a small event put on by a large barony.  Combining it with
> another event is an idea that keeps coming around.  But everyone who has
> actually taken part in the judging is clear that it cannot be made to work.
>
> That's why I keep coming back to the only solution that increases, rather
> than decreases, the strength of our events and traditions -- turning Twelfth
> Night into a regional event.
>
> Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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