Please read!: Broadening our horizons.

This obviously only affects people in Rolla, but all the same, I thought I'd put it here since it's definitely of a "discussion" nature. Non-Rolla people are welcome to contribute ideas as well; the more the better.

We have a serious issue on campus. This issue is easily summed up by the phrase "stick jock mentality". As much as each of us loves fighting (because lets face it, we all do) there are many of us who would like to get involved in something off the field as well.
Let me put it to you this way: I can't tell you how many times everyone is on the field while I'm taking attendance and someone walks up to me and asks what we're doing. I give them a general rundown, and they then ask, "Well yeah, but is there anything you can do besides the fighting?" And, regrettably, I always have to answer that no, there really isn't much.

With your help, I'd like to develop a variety of things that a person can do in the club as a non-combatant and still feel included in Boffer Club (and, hopefully, in Dagorhir as a whole as well).
My current plan for implementing this kind of thing is to host things other than just practices. Feasts, garb making nights, camp out day-events for us on the weekends, etc. I've already scheduled two of these things (which I'll announce in another thread on the forums and go into detail with).

However, my real goal in doing these outside-practice activities is to give people an opportunity to showcase other hobbies they have that relate to the sport in some way. People who want to use us for photography; people who want to help make other people (and themselves) excellent garb; people who want to talk about their character (historic or fantasy); people who want to cook period foods; people who want to get into medieval history or Tolkien lore more; people who want to paint plastidip weapons and shields as an art; people who want to make armor; people who want to build siege weapons (this was a great idea Iohn had, actually); people who are good at writing and would like to participate in bardic activities.
As you can see, this is kind of a wide market we're not really hitting at the moment. And to be honest, if we did this, more girls would probably join the club. I'm pretty sure that's something we'd all like to see happen for a variety of reasons.

More than anything, I wanted to let you guys know that I'm trying to get this off the ground and see how you feel about it. Do you have any suggestions? Anything you'd like to add to what I've said? I've come up with some pretty specific battle plans (pardon the pun) for a lot of what I previously mentioned, but if you have any ideas at all, I'd love to hear them and discuss them with you.

PS: Iohn, you should really elaborate on your siege team idea. It was awesome and is very relevant to this post.

I like all of the ideas you presented. Why don't we try starting with something easy we can get together this fall, like a realm feast where we can include a bardic performance, weapon showcasing, and characterization. It wouldn't need to be anything big at first. I imagine all we'd have to do is find a quiet rural area where we can build a fire and - hopefully- put up a table and chairs.

As for the siege team, I don't see why we haven't thought of this before. We're an engineering school here in Rolla and lots of people would love to build 1/2 or 3/4 scale siege engines. The cool part is we could actually use them at events as long as we fired legal ammo.

I think setting up non-com gatherings is an excellent idea. One of the things I really like about Dag is that it lets people be role-players or stick jocks as much as they want. I happen to lean toward stick jock, but attending some other kind of event that isn't combat-only would be fun. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to make it to your feasts :[ At least during the school year. Over the summer I probably could because I finally have a car now

Oh wow, I didn't know that! It would be great to be able to see you again, since we haven't in some time now. We'll definitely have to schedule something. (:

Again, might I suggest looking at Amtgard/SCA stuff? You could hold and arts and sciences tourny which includes anything from weapon/armor making, to cooking, to bardics, or even write ups for DIY's and battlegames. I love your idea for feats/camping, you should combine them if you can.

I am a proud stick jock. I wear minimum garb because all I care about is the fighting. That being said I am all for doing stuff that brings us a bigger fanbase, so to speak. I really think this siege thing is a must do for us, so many people like to build stuff (at an engineering school, go figure) that I'm sure that alone would bring a ton of interest if word got out we were building one.

Here are some suggestions of things/competitions that I (and possibly other stick-jocks unwilling to do more than fight) might be interested in:

Weapon making competition, to be judged by our field marshal for regulation/specs as well as a few other judges for looks, over all quality, realism etc.

Battle Write ups, i stole this from crux cause i like it! But yeah, different new battle games, the winner gets something special, or we could just play the top 3 ideas next practice or something.

Awards
Don't have to be expensive, but i think we should have some incentive for participating, it could be a free weapon, trophy, or 1pt stoneskin in every battle for a certain period of time.

Odin, I really like your weapons making competition idea. I think that would be an excellent way to include everyone, because half the stick-jocks on our field love having the coolest weapons anyhow, so I think it'd be one competition that could potentially interest just about everyone.

I too was thinking over the idea of awards, and so far I haven't come up with any really solid ideas yet. I'm thinking of giving away something like a sash with a badge(s) representing what competition someone has won in some way. That's about the best I've come up with so far, though.

For the winner of the weapon making competition, gift card to home depot/some hardware store

i like that idea...

angle grinder?