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We spent the weekend at an SCA event, Champions of Lough Devnaree. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
inannajones and silme have already given accounts of the weekend itself, so I'm not going to duplicate that, but just write about a few bits and pieces of the event.
First off, it was really really good. Fantastic. It's given me so many ideas for D&D and writing projects that I suspect they're coming out through my ears.
Most of my experience of large, non-mundane events is from science-fiction and gaming conventions. I like cons, but they lack something in the social area. SCA events appear not to, and I'm trying to work out why. The first, I think, is the fact that everything is so obviously different - people are wearing different clothes, carrying odd equipment, and doing things you may not recognise from mundane life. It's very easy to ask "What is that?" or "Where did you get that?" or "Did you make this?", and that gets things going very quickly.
The second thing is that the SCAdians are enthusiastic about their pursuits. If you ask "What's that?", you're going to be knee-deep in details of medieval halberd husbandry before the speaker even gets around to "Oh, by the way, I'm Robb of the Green". This is in pretty sharp contrast to the behaviour at conventions, where quite often you'll get a bemused look, and a short answer along the lines of "Warhammer 40K. It says on the cover", or the like.
The fact that there was pretty much always something to do, and something to see, helped too. I meant to keep up an account of things on the phoneblog, and genuinely did not have time from when we arrived late on Friday night to when we left on Sunday afternoon to as much as touch the phone. There was not a second where I was bored, and if it looked like you might conceivably not have something to do, there were people looking for help with this, that or the other, or offering lessons in archery, or wanting to ask you about something.
Things that stood out, and really need remarking on:
The accommodation. We got a bed. We were expecting to pitch a tent and sleep in sleeping bags. The bed was a really nice surprise.
The food. Lord Merlin provided food that was unbelievable, both in quantity and quality. The sheer amount of choice for breakfast, lunch, and Friday night's "snack" was staggering.
The getting to fight. I didn't get to take part in the heavy tournament, since there was no authorising marshall there - and indeed, I almost certainly wouldn't have authorised anyway, having not had enough practice in the armour. But I did get to take on Lord Robert in a practice session on Sunday, and after the calibration and some slow work, we fought a few bouts at full speed, each bout ending at a good hit. The first two bouts ended in me getting injury blows - arm and leg - but on the last, I got in a good blow to the head. It was great, and I spent the next several hours on a high, and some of it's coming back just writing about it.
I'm very much looking forward to the next event, whatever it may be.
inannajones and silme have already given accounts of the weekend itself, so I'm not going to duplicate that, but just write about a few bits and pieces of the event.First off, it was really really good. Fantastic. It's given me so many ideas for D&D and writing projects that I suspect they're coming out through my ears.
Most of my experience of large, non-mundane events is from science-fiction and gaming conventions. I like cons, but they lack something in the social area. SCA events appear not to, and I'm trying to work out why. The first, I think, is the fact that everything is so obviously different - people are wearing different clothes, carrying odd equipment, and doing things you may not recognise from mundane life. It's very easy to ask "What is that?" or "Where did you get that?" or "Did you make this?", and that gets things going very quickly.
The second thing is that the SCAdians are enthusiastic about their pursuits. If you ask "What's that?", you're going to be knee-deep in details of medieval halberd husbandry before the speaker even gets around to "Oh, by the way, I'm Robb of the Green". This is in pretty sharp contrast to the behaviour at conventions, where quite often you'll get a bemused look, and a short answer along the lines of "Warhammer 40K. It says on the cover", or the like.
The fact that there was pretty much always something to do, and something to see, helped too. I meant to keep up an account of things on the phoneblog, and genuinely did not have time from when we arrived late on Friday night to when we left on Sunday afternoon to as much as touch the phone. There was not a second where I was bored, and if it looked like you might conceivably not have something to do, there were people looking for help with this, that or the other, or offering lessons in archery, or wanting to ask you about something.
Things that stood out, and really need remarking on:
The accommodation. We got a bed. We were expecting to pitch a tent and sleep in sleeping bags. The bed was a really nice surprise.
The food. Lord Merlin provided food that was unbelievable, both in quantity and quality. The sheer amount of choice for breakfast, lunch, and Friday night's "snack" was staggering.
The getting to fight. I didn't get to take part in the heavy tournament, since there was no authorising marshall there - and indeed, I almost certainly wouldn't have authorised anyway, having not had enough practice in the armour. But I did get to take on Lord Robert in a practice session on Sunday, and after the calibration and some slow work, we fought a few bouts at full speed, each bout ending at a good hit. The first two bouts ended in me getting injury blows - arm and leg - but on the last, I got in a good blow to the head. It was great, and I spent the next several hours on a high, and some of it's coming back just writing about it.
I'm very much looking forward to the next event, whatever it may be.
