SCA: Kinda like an RPG - the Newcomer Experience

 Greetings,

The SCA is sort of like a role-playing game (RPG) in many respects, especially for those who are newcomers... 

Consider that the newcomer arrives, they have some idea about what they are getting into if they have turned up to their first event, after coming to a practice or some other thing. Or maybe after having seen one of our websites. In the same way as the new player has some idea about a new gaming system.

Consider that first time you played "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" it opens with you in a cart, bound as a prisoner, for a reason you don't know, travelling along with a group of people you don't know. [Spoiler alert] Even after the dragon has passed, and you have made a choice between following either the soldier or the prisoner, you know there are two factions fighting for Skyrim, but you really don't know what either of them are about. More, they expect you to pick your name and your species based on some pretty flimsy evidence, and then you have to stick with both (mostly) for the rest of the game.

If we expect our newcomers to come up with a name and device within the first weeks of them joining we are pretty much expecting the same thing of them that occurs in the first moments of Skyrim. We are expecting them to name themselves for the rest of "the Game" without having any background, unless they have already done some research beforehand. Also most certainly do not know the details about the different Kingdoms of the Knowne World, or even the different local groups within the Kingdom, let alone local households, so it is much the same in that respect as well...

Getting to know a social system takes time. Getting to know which part of history you're comfortable with takes time. I went through at least three different centuries before I found what I was comfortable with and they spanned the period between late Roman to the 16th-century. My device changed about seven times in this period. How can we expect a newcomer to go through these changes in a couple of weeks? Give them some time to explore, let them experiment with names, with personas, see what fits them best. I believe this is the best way to let them enculturate themselves properly within the Society.

In some ways, we need to treat our newcomers like children, let them explore and find themselves, not be rushed or even sheep-dogged into a particular area of interest or century. I believe this is the best way to build new members who will stay with us for the long-term.

Cheers,

Henry.

Of SCA Personas

Greetings,

The SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms, the "Society")has been associated in one part with medieval and Renaissance recreation, and in another part with LARP. On the one hand the SCA does recreate various arts and crafts, and social elements from the period; on the other we do take on another name and "play the game" as that individual with titles and so forth given for achievement and so forth. I would claim that we can take the persona, while a created character and claim that they are as real as any individual living or dead, because we made them so.

Within the Society, I am known as Henry Fox, an Elizabethan gentleman who is widely travelled thanks to well-off parents, of reasonable stature. I have travelled enough to experience different cultures and take on some of their sword arts. I have learnt the skills of the bow and the sword, the sword taking my preference. I have also learnt some skill with the pen, the pair working together more recently to produce works about the art of the sword. This is his story, and the story that I have taken on as my persona.

Henry Fox is real because I have made him real. His origins are artificial, though he could have existed, being that both his names have been documented to the Elizabethan period. All the history that I have created for him is based on some of my experiences and interests within the Society as I have travelled through it learning and writing as I went. I used the bow in my earlier period because it was a skill that I previously possessed, then took up the sword, both for armoured and civilian combat. Civilian took precedence over the armoured and here I stand. I have written about the civilian combat, as two books and my blog on the subject show.

Henry Fox is a non de plume a pen name, in writers terms. In legal terms, because I have used it in my writing and activities and am known by quite a few people by that name, it is an alias that would be recorded. Henry Walker, alias Henry Fox, is what a legal document would read. Henry Fox is real because I live his life every time I interact within the Society. Henry Fox is real because I interact as him in matters concerning the Society and positions I hold within the Society. Henry Fox is me, and I am him. He is not a fake person, not a fake name plastered on a document somewhere, he is a real person. 

Do not disregard SCA personas, or personas taken within other situations so casually. They should be considered as real as the person who adopts them. For the person who wears the clothes of the one is the other; the person who earns the awards of the one, is the other; the person who stands and learns as one, stands and learns as the other. They are no different, just because a person changes their clothes, does not mean that the learning or the experiences go away; those experiences and learning remain, and enhance them both. They are an advantage not something at which to be scoffed. A different perspective on life can only enhance a person's experience of life.

"when your talk is about mankind, view earthly things as if looking down on them from some point high above -" Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 

Cheers, 

Henry Walker
alias Henry Fox