Leifr?

["David H Ritterskamp" <dhritter@dpcmail.dukepower.com>]

     Leifr wrote:
     
     Greetings to the Merry Rose,
     
     First of all, I would like to inform his Highness, and any one else 
     who is distressed by this conversation, that in fact I tend to support 
     the current system for chosing our Crown the way it is.
     
     That does not, however, prevent me from having fun thinking about 
     alternatives.
     
     Both Alfredo and Jonathan have wondered about the notion of having 
     more viscounts kicking around.  They both seem to think that this 
     might not be a good thing.  
     
     (I don't know where you got this idea about me.  Check your posts...
     
     To insert a chunk of an earlier post,
     
     However, if the Princes were territorial, even if they didn't get to 
     be King, they would get retirement titles.  That is, they would become 
     Viscounts.
     
     (We're not talking about ACTUALLY, Contractually, and legally 
     splitting the kingdom into principalities, are we?  People tend to 
     think of the kingdom in terms of thirds anyway - Northern, Central, 
     and Southern - and yet they're not legally separate critters.)
     (Oh, BTW, so what if they become Viscounts?  The world needs more 
     Viscounts. ;>)
     -snip-
     [I can see [sort of] where you'd get the idea that I wasn't in favor 
     of it, [primarily from the ";>", but rest assured the concept doesn't 
     bother me.  If anything, I think there aren't ENOUGH titles in the 
     SCA.  What about Margrave (Margravine), or any one of a couple dozen 
     names I could think of?  I like the concept...it adds flavor. [plus, 
     the 'viscount' title provides a rough sort of sobriety test! ;> ]
     
     -snip-
     Frankly, considering how much I've come to respect both Viscount 
     Wolfbrandr and Viscountess Leia, I can't imagine any reason not to 
     have more of them around.
     
     Jonathan seems to think having a bunch of intra-kingdom wars on the 
     schedule would be a good idea.  Considering the fact that for the last 
     few years we have not been allowed (by the Crown) to have 
     Inter-baronial wars, just because of the bad blood they engender, the 
     idea of inter-regional wars does not wash well.  Wars, including 
     Pennsic, start to get stall and nasty if repeated to often.  I don't 
     object to the idea of an occasional war, especially if the groups form 
     different alliances 
     at each one.  Annual, and semi-annual wars are just not that great an 
     idea.
     (I'm quoting various Royal peers about that one ;-)
     -snip-
     [OK-I can accept the concept that wars that continually divide the 
     groups the same way over and over (witness Pennsic & Atlantia having 
     fought w/the East for ...how long?  I don't know) tend to turn the 
     situation unpleasant at best, and downright bad at worst.  So have a 
     COIN FLIP @ THE BEGINNING OR Whatever...of course, then we'll just get 
     into the standard "His coin cheats!" or something...
     
     Anyway-  Properly moderated, wars are quite a lot of fun.  I remember 
     going to Boat Wars last year - it was supposed to be the Normans and 
     the Saxons, or was it the Vikings?  Whoever...I don't remember who was 
     supposed to be on what side, because we ended up shifting quite a few 
     people around to even the sides up numbers-wise, and after that we 
     reassigned some more as people got tired and dropped out.  I 
     personally was in on at least two side changes.  
     
     Folx, if the war just isn't fun any more, declare victory for one side 
     (which side should be fairly obvious at the time) and let everybody go 
     fight where they want.  You'll meet a lot more people and make a lot 
     more friends that way [again, properly handled.  Not to toot my 
     knight's horn (at least, not in public...;>) but Kane can usually 
     manage to split things up so that one side isn't kicking the crap out 
     of the other repeatedly.  Note that I said repeatedly...
     
     -snip-
     I think Atlantia SHOULD have principalities.  I think there should be 
     more then one, maybe as many as four.  I think they should be drawn in 
     such a way as to encourage cross border movement and to discourage 
     ideas of going Kingdom.
     
     As for the idea of having three Crown tourneys, and letting anyone go 
     to any of the tourneys, have you considered the ways to game this.  
     Three knights of the same household decide to go to different 
     tourneys, rather then meet in their local one?
     
     [then if they're hot sticks, it's a better idea than concentrating 
     them in one area, where they're likely to run people over; and if 
     they're not, so what?]
     
     Will you allow losers from the earlier tourneys to travel to other 
     tourneys?  Lots of opportunity for gaming in that scenario.
     [Not that I'm arguing about the opportunities, but again, why not?]
     
     Will you all the winner of an earlier tourney to fight in a later one? 
      LOTS of opportunity for gaming in THAT scenario.
     
     [Why would we allow it?  Why would the victor want to?  To reduce his 
     competition?  I don't think that any honorable knight would want to 
     win that way.  Besides, a three-way war is more fun!]
     
     As for having the winners of the Crown tourneys who do not become 
     Crown Prince get no title at all, well, heck, whats the point of 
     fighting then?
     
     Leifr:  Is the point of fighting to *win*, or to do your best?  
     Because if the point of fighting is to win, then you're going to start 
     having a lot of really depressed people running around thinking dark 
     thoughts.
     
     I recently figured out (mirabile visu!) that the point of fighting 
     isn't to beat the other guy, it's to come out of the practice (or 
     tournament) a better fighter than when you went in.  In that respect, 
     I haven't been fighting very well for a while; I hadn't figured that 
     little trick out yet.  I was getting quite annoyed at myself and 
     couldn't remember the last time I had had fun at a fighter practice.  
     The reason I hadn't had fun in awhile was because I quit putting 
     emphasis on learning and more on winning, and that just doesn't work 
     unless you're the God of Death.
     
     Fortunately, I have quite a few friends that (in their shrewd and 
     subtle ways) pointed out that fighting to win is garbage.  Fight your 
     best, and if it's good enough, you'll win.  
     
     Rebuttals welcomed,
     
     J. Blackbow

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