re: personnas/games

[Kathleen M Hogan <kathleen.hogan@juno.com>]

Poster: Kathleen M Hogan <kathleen.hogan@juno.com>

On Fri, 26 Feb 1999 15:30:21 -0500 Brian Matthews
<login@monmouth.com>writes:
>
>here we go again ... Is this the Society for Creative Anachronisms or
>The Society for let see how many ways we can get D&D or Monty >Python
involved?


My pardon, milord, but where was D&D or Monty Python mentioned in the
game description?  I personally happen to think that this could be a fun
game to play at a moot or other gathering (not necessarily an event) to
help people develop their personnas.  I feel that developing a personna
helps those who wish to really play the game the way it's supposed to be
played (and yes, milord....this is a game or a hobby, whichever you want
to consider it). 

 I have two separate personnas, and usually wear garb that might have
been available to whichever one I am portraying at that particular event.

 I occasionally wear other garb, most often because of the pressure
others place on me because neither of my personnas is "wealthy"....one
being low merchant-class, the other being highland scot and not caring
what "english" fashion is.   In the last 18 years, I have been frequently
harassed because I didn't "dress for court, feast, whatever" or failed to
dress in the theme of the event.

 I take pride in the fact that I have tried to research the times and
lives of my personnas and think it a good idea for people to do that at
least as a base from which to start building a character on.   We cannot
re-create a time or society without some research into what people did. 
It is easier to do that with a starting point.  I have seen an awful lot
of people that don't even bother to put together a personna, picking a
name and device at random because  "it sounds cool" rather than trying to
fit it to any particular time or place in history, wearing whatever suits
them this week, with little or no consistancy in who/what they are.  But
hey, that's okay for them....after all, it's only a game, right?

 In case you have forgotten it, the SCA started as a costumed birthday
party and grew from that.  In it's earliest conceptions, it was very much
like a live-action role-playing game.  Each of us developed a personna
and tried to act out how that person would have acted/lived in period. 
Our tournaments are based on the same principals as a live-action
game....though we are a history-based game instead of a fantasy-based
game.  The big difference between us and the re-enactors is that we don't
simply act out something that HAS happened and try to act out what COULD
have happened.  

I don't mind striving to keep my character consistant or accurate, and I
think that we can have fun doing it.  But the whole point of the SCA is
to HAVE FUN!  Too many people have quit because of the many ways it has
stopped being fun...ie:  excessive politics, disintigration of common
courtesy, increase in authenticity nazi's (there is such a thing as going
too far, folks), death of  The Dream,  etc. (to quote "old-timers" who
HAVE quit).

This isn't a job....It's only a hobby.....it's only a hobby....it's only
a hobby..

Caitlin nicFhionghuin
House Oak & Thistle
Shire of Bordervale Keep


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