[Moo] Fighter Wish List

[sigrune at aol.com]

-----Original Message - Edited for Brevity -----
From: William de Mont d'Or <mondor.winchester at gmail.com>

...you are a fighter who has just won a tournament ... what would you 
value as a prize?

...what would you reward fighters for?
Winning the tournament, most outrageous battle cry,
most courteous, longest weapon, are just examples, please do not limit
-------------------------------------------------------------------

#1
To me it would depend on the torunament, its "reason"
If one is holding a Pas and attempting a level of historical accuracy, 
then I would choose a prize based on what one would expect at such a 
tourney...
Items like Reproduction coinage, bolts of cloth (ok maybe not lavish 
silk brocade as in period, but a good linen for garb would be darn 
spiff!), A trophy-chest (we have good woodworkers in kingdom), Good 
feast gear (Excellent potters and glass-workers), etc.  In short items 
while not nessisarily costing high dollars, but would represent items 
that historically would.  Secondly, items of a personal nature go well 
for "most chivalrous" - items representitive of tokens of admiration. 
These would be appropriate for a tourney of peace.

A combat oriented toruney (bear-pit etc) that is designed to show 
prowess and skill at arms, should have items supporting the persiut of 
noble combat... rattan, sowrd hilts, a nice set or paired weapons, 
armor, good hidden sport equipment, fittings, belts, coupon for an 
armorer... these sort.

Tournaments of Fun, goofy tourneys should have either highly useful SCA 
gifts i.e. not historical, but realy valued things... (waterproof TP 
caddy, basic feast gear, a coupon for a tabbard, bulk duct-tape 5 pack, 
etc) This is where ones imagination can and should run riot, basically 
it is ok if it is a gag-gift, just make it a one that is useful as well 
as funny.

Bonus Question:
The basics are good, but it realy depends on the format fo the 
tourney... I personally feel all too often the humor rule gets applied 
too often, yes it is funny, but some of it can realy "snap ya out of 
the mindset"  Having seen fairly nice Pas, where people over-do it to 
get "best-death" kinda ruins the overall effect.
Unless the tourney is a goofball one (which are fun and very much have 
reason to be done) stick with the classics: Overall winner, Winners by 
category, Most Civalrous etc, however if a genuine and memorable 
occurance, well um occurs, reward it...  but anouncing beforehand that 
Most Dramatic Pose is a category to win (unless it is a fun toruney) is 
bound to make even ninja-pirates weep...

Anyhow, that is my two cents :)
-Takeda