Steppes Demo at Lazy Dragon Con in McKinney, TX

 

This is in NO WAY an official site of any sort for the SCA, or the Barony of the Steppes, or any other Barony, Shire, Canton, Person, Ghost, Animal or Entity. It’s just for information.

 

Who: The Barony of the Steppes, with friends from the Barony of Elfsea.

When: August 3-5, 2007

Where: Holiday Inn

            McKinney, TX

           http://tinyurl.com/3b62pn

Site Fee: What’s that? Never heard of it . . .

Con Fee: See below

Sucker in Charge: Lord Faelan Caimbeul. Since this is not an “event”, we have no steward.

Muscle Wrangler: Sir Morgan Buchanan

 Planned Chaos:

There are many fighting events planned, and several non-fighting events planned. All this depends on YOU, the participant, to come and help out. This is as much a mini-event for us as it is a demo for the public. We want to recruit as many people as possible by showing them the SCA is intriguing, entertaining and FUN. Let’s face it, if our hobby wasn’t fun, we wouldn’t do it either. That’s why people play games, they’re fun.

Rules of the List:

Several games are planned for this con. I call them game, and not fight demos because we’re basically just playing around to commentary. There will be a brief introduction before each event to explain to the crowd what’s going on, then the killing begins.

Event 1: Blood of Heroes

Teams:

4 or 5 juggers per team. One can have 4 and the other 5. There is no penalty to the bigger team, the smaller one just better fight better.

Teams consist of one runner, one blocker, and 2 or 3 forwards. The runner’s job is to take the dog skull to his own goal to score. The blocker’s job is to protect the runner. Obviously, the forwards job is to kill the runner.

Weapons:

            Heavy Runner: Dagger. No other armament is allowed.

            Heavy Blocker: Single handed weapon and a shield.

            Heavy Forwards: One or two single handed weapons, or halbeards.

            Light Runner: Dagger

Light Blocker: Single weapon and cloak (a long cloak would be good, and twirling it to create a shield for the both of you is highly encouraged.

Light Forwards: Single sword

Field:

            The field consists of the playing area, a 10 ft diameter circle in the middle, and goals on each end.

            At the beginning of each round, the dog skull is placed in the middle of the circle. The Runners start in the circle.

            All other players start outside the circle on their side of the field. They can start anywhere, as long as they don’t cross midfield, or the circle.

            Once one Runner breaks the circle by stepping out of it, the circle no longer counts and players can move about freely. 

Scoring:

            Each round lasts for 5 minutes. There are no breaks unless a hold is called for safety reasons, or after a point is scored. The field will then be reset and play continues. The team with the most points at the end of the round, takes the round. If there is a tie, the round goes into sudden death. The field is reset, and the first team to score takes the round.

            The team with the most rounds at the end of the day, wins. If there is a tie, one full round is played with the normal sudden death rules. Any number of teams can be included in this round, so it’s possible to have a three or four way game to decide the winner.

Rules:

1.      Normal heavy or light combat rules as appropriate.

2.      The Runner is the ONLY player allowed to touch the dog skull.

3.      Once a player is killed, he falls down, counts to 10, then is resurrected and continues.

4.      Players may not be attacked until they have regained their feet.

5.      Pinning:

a.      A dead player may be pinned by another player by placing the blade of their weapon on his body. The dead player is then pinned and cannot move until his 10 seconds are up, or the weapon is removed, whichever comes last.

b.      Only one person can be pinned by any one player at any given time.

 

Event 2: Save the Damsel

This game is for light fighters only, due to safety issues. All fighters will be divided up into even teams. There may be more than two teams if there’s so many fighters that the field is too crowded. A lady volunteer is placed in the middle of the field. The object of the game is to rescue her from the other team by escorting her to your own side of the field.

 Rules:

1.      All normal Rapier combat rules apply.

2.      The Damsel WILL be armored, but not armed.

3.      No one can harm the Damsel. The team that lands an injurious blow on her, immediately looses the point, and gives it to the other team. No killing the Damsel to deny the other team.

4.      The Damsel must be escorted, as is befitting a Lady, to the team’s goal. You may not carry her, drag her, toss her, etc.

5.      The Damsel may not move unless she is escorted.

6.      It is perfectly permissible to kill the Damsel’s chaperone, just don’t kill her in the process. Once the chaperone is engaged in combat the Damsel must stop moving, since he obviously can’t properly escort her while fighting.

7.      Style counts. Vote by cheer from the crowd each round for a bonus two points to the team with the most style.

8.      Rounds last five minutes, with breaks only for holds and resets after scoring.

 

Event 3: Sunday Tournament of the Sword

             A beautiful sword has been donated by the con organizers as a tournament prize. Check it out here: http://www.lazydragon.com/con/sca_combat.htm . This will be a normal, two out of three per bout, double elimination tournament, or single elimination if we have too many fighters and time is too restrictive. If the fighter pool is shallow enough, we’ll do a bear pit style where everyone fights everyone else and the most kills wins.

 Saturday Party Room

            We’ll be taking donations for our party room on Saturday night. The con runs 24 hours, and many a party room will be open all night. We will be sponsoring our own room, and everyone is invited. For the record,

THE STEPPES IS NOT SPONSORING THIS PARTY

I’ll say it again, since it bears repeating,

THE STEPPES IS NOT SPONSORING THIS PARTY

It is a completely private things that some of us are putting together and is in NO WAY official, funded by SCA money of any flavor or color, or endorsed by the any SCA entity. Again, this is NOT AN OFFICIAL FUNCTION, just a bunch of us chipping in to have a party.

 

Arts and Sciences

            We’re looking for A&S to display, artists to talk to people about their work, but most especially artists that can bring something they can work on while at the con. This is far more interesting and attention grabbing to a great many people than static displays. Bards, dancers and heralds are also most welcome, especially for the party. Heralds will be needed throughout the day on the field and to help the crowd understand what’s going on and how much fun they too can have in the SCA.

We’ll be displaying things outside in the baronial pavilion, we should also have a space on artist alley inside. I’m confirming that, as well as exactly how much space we’ll have. This has been up in the air with the con.

 

Con Admission

            Con admission is $25 at the door in garb. This gets you into the con, and all the events therein. The con has told us they don’t want daytripping fighters and what not, everyone should pay for admission.