The Armour Archive

This message was inspired by Drachus thread.

Question: What is the acceptable ratio of time you spend in preparation tio actual play time in your chosen game, be it LH or SCA stick fighting.

For my two first years in the SCA I played with something of a stickjock mentality. I like fighting and put most of my available time and effort to actually practising and fighting. Until recently that is.

When having two fighter practises a week I felt that upgrading my gear was taking time reserved for the family and could happen only occasionally, say two serious sessions in two months. I always felt I should spend more time with my kit, but that was subordinate to actually practising. And maintainance after heavy practise would precede any upgrades.(Small fighter practise.)

Now, when I practise maybe once a month or two I feel I must at least look the part. And spend maybe one evening in two weeks with actively thinking or working my gear (the Archive doesn´t count) So what is your balance of preparation vs. actual play. And is your balance in you opinion representative of the average Joe of your game.

Mikael

P.S. I know the question is not fair. I wrote it while gluing canvas to my new buckler, anticipating painting it. Both preaparation and play, while polishing my helmet is merely preparation.

P.S. 2 Happy New Year and the drunken spelling will not be edited.

Well, I don't have full soft kit yet but I do have something that more or less fits the bill for mid 14th c armor. CoP, splinted arms and legs. My helm is, well my name for it anyway, a great spangenhelm. Not historical in any sense but looks good. Think 4 panel spangen top with greathelm face and back.

I'm in a small shire (typically only 2 or 3 fighters show regular like) and so lack of soft kit is not frowned on but I do at least wear my "medieval shirt" when I go. Your basic "generi-celt" loose sleeve, slit neck type thing. the rest is jeans and work boots.

When I do finally have some semblance of soft kit together I'm not sure I'll want to wear it to every fighter practice. Maybe now and then but only if i don't feel like fighting.

On the other hand, If I had a lot of soft kit stuff I might have the luxury of some of it being "work" gear and not care about having to wash and maintain and/or replace it. That'll have to wait until I win the lottery or create the better mousetrap.

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Angus of the White Mountain Shire

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There's a difference?
::confused look::

-I go to Estrella Every Year
-I go to Lilies every Year.
-Until last year I attended Armorgeddon every year, now I have decided to attend Diamond War every year instead.
-I go to at least one event a month (2 if there is a close event and a desireable far away event)
-I go to fighter practice once a week
-I have aloted on day a week to armour but have started to slack off on these days in favor of spending most evenings with my 6yr old. I also sometimes substitute this night to attend a practice in a neigboring group but thats become rare also.
-I also spend several hours a week working on LH stuff.

I would do more but my wife hates the SCA, it used to be with a passion but she has gotten to know some of my close friends, so now she jsut isnt interested in 'playing'.

Early on in our marriage, to save our marriage, I committed to the above 'schedule'.

This away they (my wife and daughter) get equal (actually more, which is good) family time compared to my SCA time.

While others cant understand the agreement/arrangement, I am mostly fine with it. And my wife is at times flexible, like when my knight won Crown, she understood it was important to me to be on his retinue, so for that reign she was ok with me adding attending 2 or three events a month to my 'normal' schedule.


Halvgrimr

[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 01-02-2004).]

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I spend about three times as much time on maintaining our "SCA stuff" as I do actually at events. Maintenance includes repair and replacement of gear/clothing, polishing armor, seam sealing tent, packing, shopping, sending in event reservations, etc. For every weekend event, at least one week of preparation is required. For a bigger/longer event like Gulf Wars, most of a month's preparation is needed.

As to the question of research, I spend much more time on research than I do on actually making anything. I would say it is about a three to one ratio for the first project of any kind and about a one to one ratio for each similar project after the first. That's for historically based projects, of course - if I'm doing something for pure SCA usage, I don't bother doing anything but the basic "can I find at least one reference to this sometime before 1650" research. If I am making something for my own pleasure and not for anything other than fantasy or costume use, I don't research at all.

Gwyneth

Before i became a cop and then a daddy
i hit an event almost every weekend went to several Pensics and every Gulf wars since i started. Fighter practice ever time we had one during the week i polished stuff repaired stuff ordered/made new stuff. thats when i wasn't working out or doing MA classes.

So it was pretty much all the time.

Research to me is mainly ongoing proces of constantly soaking in all information I can get my hands on...
Before attempting to do something I usually spend rather long weighing different options of what and how to do stuff.
But it is well nigh impossible to say how many hours for a certain project.
Bottleneck to me is the lack of manual dexterity and skill to realise my vison as coming from the research. More training, more projects...

Mikael