'Reasoning' - Re: [MR] RE: Proposed armor change (SCA wide)

[Siegfried Sebastian Faust]

At 05:17 PM 4/29/2003 -0400, William of Faleston wrote:
>Out of curiousity, what is driving this change? Is it safety issue in the
>vein of preventing lightly armored people from being accidentally hit? It is
>a move towards making everyone on the field a valid target for melee
>weapons? Will white diamonds disappear from the field?
>This seems like an awful lot of armor to be upgraded so I would assume there
>is a pretty strong reason for it.

Well, I will step in here and give the reasons.  As there isn't necessarily
any ONE reason, and the main reasons, are hard to directly see.  Also note
that all this information is: "As I best know it."  I may be off on a few
points, and there may be some I don't know.

This ruling comes from the Society Earl Marshal's office, where there was a
committee formed to look at the rules across the SCA, and to try to
standardize them somewhat.  It has been seen in more recent years, with
bigger interkingdom events, and more people just crossing kingdom lines
anyway, that problems occur when the rules keep being changed on people
just because they crossed an imaginary line on the map.

So, a committee was formed, to look at all the differences in Kingdom
Rules, to see where standardization could best be had, and serve the best
purpose.

The first recommendation (I don't know if there have been others or not),
was to deal with the disparity of archer/scout/siege rules.  In particular,
the problem of armor standards and kill conventions.

The actual recommendation, was to go to Heavy Archers only, all
around.  Which many kingdoms have already done for a while now - Atlantia
is one of the few that still has 'light' archers ... and we are the only
Kingdom with 'light' archers, that are touch-kill.

Much discussion amongst the Kingdom level Combat Archery Marshals ensued
from this, and it was brought down to a 'lesser' statement, of simply
requiring full heavy minimums, except the lesser hand requirement.  This at
least got everyone on the field to the (basically) same armor
standard.  Just in case something happened.  Plus, much more consistant.

Now, to speak about the 'in case something happened', is no.  We aren't
talking about a fighter in Atlantia not being able to touch an archer
instead of clubbing him/her.  Fighters can handle that just fine.  The
problem, is when someone from another Kingdom, a full contact kingdom,
comes here, and by 'accident', because noone told them the rules were
different, clubs the archer.  Fill in all various permutations of the '10ft
dead', 'touch kill', 'full contact', and you can see all the potential
problems that can occur.

Then add into the mix, that interkingdom wars tend to make up their own
rules, that are 'in the middle'.  Pennsic, for the last few years, has
required archers in heavy armor, but made them touch-kill.  So, in sense,
any archer in Atlantia who shot in Pennsic recently, has already met these
needs.

But anyway, these confusion problems have occurred in recent times, to the
point of some serious injuries (one that happened at Crusades last
year).  And yes, while the fighters are supposed to know the rules, with
them changing from kingdom to kingdom and event to event, it was very hard
to do so.

Now, also, on that point, there will be a clarification ruling coming soon
about helm markings for 'non-contact', 'touch-kill', and others.  Realize
also that Atlantia's use of the White Diamond, is officially against SCA
policy, which reserves the White Diamond for non-contact folks, and a Red
Pheon for archers, who are non-contact, but open to missile fire.  The SCA
rules say nothing of touch-kill.  And we open our White Diamonds to missile
fire.  We have had an exception to this rule allowing us to use it, because
Red Pheons wouldn't go over well at Pennsic. (Unless you are fighting for
the Middle).

So, from kingdom to kingdom, wearing a White Diamond means different things.

So there will be a clarification ruling coming out in the near future about
helm markings as well.  To make a standard across the SCA to denote a
'non-contact distance kill' as some kingdoms (not Atlantia) use for
scouts/etc.  And a different marking for 'touch kill' archers ...

At least, these discussions are happening ... some consensus will hopefully
occur on that point soon.

If you have any more questions, ask away ...

In Service,
Siegfried
Deputy to the Society Combat Archery Marshal


_________________________________________________________________________
THL Siegfried Sebastian Faust     Baronial Web Minister & Archery Marshal
Barony of Highland Foorde        http://highland-foorde.atlantia.sca.org/