Well met, fellow warriors. It's Pat. Just thought I'd finally drop by. It's been a busy week and all.

Just got back from a weapon-making session. I think I'm almost starting to like the smell of DAP. :S

Anyway, for those that don't know me, I'm Pat. I hail from the Blue Springs area, going to UCM in Warrensburg currently. I'm not in Haven, I only know the people there. As far as affiliation I'm doing my best to start a chapter here in Warrensburg (Not Centrawoven, which is the local chapter already present here). Figured I'd drop in and say "hi", I'm going to try and pick up some advanced techniques here for foamsmithing. Nice to meet you all.

A. Are we going to see you at gates.
B. Why are we not going to see you at gates (feel free to ignore if it does not apply)
C. Why are you not in Haven (this might be best left unanswered, I don't know)
D. completely unrelated to all your answers to these questions, Hello, and welcome! It's Svipdag, aka Sam.

A. Possibly. It all depends on when we can get things running. At the moment, no.

B. We're not fully formed yet. To explain that cryptic phrase, we don't have very many members, we just finished Chapter (read loaner) weapon construction, and we don't have an official name. Just more things that need to be done, that's all.

C. I was affiliated with Haven back when they were with Alterra. I left for personal reasons and because of time constraints. I never really thought to rejoin, as I didn't think Haven had an outlet down here in Warrensburg.

D. Thanks! Good to be here. Friendly lot. ^^

Aloha. Welcome to the Haven forum :] I hope you go to Gates, because it's been a long time since we last sparred. I look forward to fighting everyone at Gates. I hope everyone in Haven is ready to duel, haha.

Nice of you to finally drop in. I hope you find what you're looking for as far as foamsmithing goes. We've got some talented people who frequent these boards as far as weapon making goes, so I imagine you will. (:

Hail! I am Crux from the land of the great gateway.

I'm probably the only one on this forum not from blue splrings or going to Rolla. It'd be cool to see more people at gates, but it's very understandable if people can't come. Welcome to the boards!

Why didn't you just join Centrwoven? DBGA doesn't like 2 realms in one town unless there is good cause(City with huge population like Pittsburgh is the only reason I've actually seen them allow two realms in one town). Ideological diffrences usually don't allow for a person to start another realm in such a small town, besides, the more people you fight with the better!

I didn't know that, kairi. learn something new every day.

@Constantine, Yes, I agree. We do need to spar again soon.

@Kairi, thanks. Weapon-making was a blast. 7PM to midnight was a bit lengthy for me though. I'm tired today. Was dozing in Ecology this morning. ><

@Crux, Hail! Thanks for the welcoming, I hope to go to Gates, but yeah, understandable.

@Eldrin, Ideological differences, mostly. I'm not sure what we're going to do about being an official realm yet, we may never get that status. I don't, however, mind being unofficial.

Unofficial isn't bad. that's how we do it at truman

Haha. Here in Rolla, we did a foamsmithing seminar that lasted like six or seven hours. The only thing that really bothered me about it was the headache I got from all the dap. XD

hehe its look its that one whose fault im here
good to see ya bro

Oh yeah. Foamsmithing and DAP with no ventilation. Fun times. Hooray for headaches. We're going to try and pull a day-long session (roughly nine or ten hours, depending on how much materials we have). I was like "One of the requirements is good weather so we can do it outside." Ugh, fumes.

Welcome!!
Yeah...weapons making...not my forte. I enjoy it....in small amounts.
When warm.

I've taken to it very much now that I have a good reason to do it. I like it a lot. Lets me work with my hands a lot, which I enjoy.

You might check on this, but I don't know if centrawoven is officially recognized. They may be, they may not be. If they're not though, it's because they're in the 660 area code, which is basically all of rural MO, and there's already a 660 chapter. (There can only be one chapter per area code, or something along those lines.)
Also, consider this: there only so many people who are really interested in the whole "boffering" thing. Your campus already has an active SCA chapter, AND an active Dagorhir chapter. that's stiff competition for a relatively small group of people. I've fought with centrawoven, and my girlfriend Kat goes to UCM, and used to fight with them on a regular basis. I can certainly understand why you would want to distance yourself. Among other things, they can be particularly unfriendly to girls, and in a sport that is already unbalanced, that's the last thing you need. Personally, I'd rather see someone step in and straighten them out, rather than start a new realm. The best thing for you to do might be to join centrawoven, and just start guiding them toward a better ideology. the problems I observed were mostly a matter of attitude. If two or three of the more experienced members have the wrong attitude, the whole realm can turn into a-holes pretty fast. All it takes though is someone strong to stand up to them and put them in their place. If you've ever fought with Martiss, he does a good job of that when he's there.
Just my humble opinion.
Also,
rule #1 I give really terrible advice
rule #3 I don't know when to stop talking
oh, yeah
Hail! and Welcome to the boards!

Centrawoven as far as I understand is NOT official. And for the official record the "area code rule" is, to put it kindly, a really dirty trick other realms use to keep upstart groups from taking over nearby areas. I'm not going to name names, but Haven has experienced some flak from this "imaginary" rule, and I looked into it and nowhere does any official dagorhir document mention an area code rule. Although it is considered bad form to start a chapter when there is already and established group, there is nothing from stopping you legally. Just be prepared to answer to Centrawoven...

On a side note, I don't really understand why Centrawoven has such a bad rap. Why do I keep hearing bad things about them???

@ Iohn: Of late, there have been a couple people in charge of Centrawoven that have sort of adopted the "more pain is better" attitude. In other words, they take out their aggression on each other, and if you don't like to get beat up at practice, then you're a pussy, and dag isn't for you. I think this attitude is going to hurt them in the long run, since it's not very inviting to new people. Any good realm needs a healthy balance of RPers and Stickjocks. Centrawoven has swung itself pretty far to the stickjock extreme over the last year or two, and they've made it so that RPers and less aggressive fighters would rather not join at all than put up with them. I'd really like to see this change, I hate to see people show interest in Dag only to get turned away for not being "macho" enough.
On this same note, I think our realm leans to the RP side, so over time we will need to make sure we don't fall too far to the other extreme, and turn away the people who just want to fight.

Sounds like somebody needs to go to Centrawoven and slip in a headshot here and there. Give 'em a beat down that puts 'em in their place. It's a shame I can't be there to unleash a little righteous fury on them. Although that probably wouldn't be the most honorable thing to do, haha.