If you are a regular View reader, you’ve probably noticed the recent influx of new staff members. The truth is I learned in June that Dave Dolph, the individual who started the online View back in July of 2011 was going to cease to serve as a staff person in the near future. While I immediately agreed to stay on, I strongly believe in striving to be self-aware and realistic about your weaknesses, and one of my weaknesses is consistency. I knew there was no way I could do as much as Dave has done for the past 3 years on a regular/consistent basis, without there being gaps in content, on my own. So I started recruiting for both contributors and for staff, and I was fortunate to also have people step up and express interest during the same period. With that said, welcome once again to Alex, Kelly, and Jennifer, our new staff for the View from Valehaven online edition.
With new staff members, come new ideas, as well as the rebirth of some older ones. One of Jennifer DeNardis-Rosa’s initial comments to me on the View was that reviving the “Letters from the Editor’s Desk” column that Doug Fisher used to write for the View would, “give a more "human" aspect to the View”. This is my attempt at providing that human element. You can look forward to hearing from other staff members in the future.
We are currently running a series of posts on Queen of Hearts 21. I had the honor of staffing that event this year, and I would like to share some of my experiences. First I want to emphasis the word I chose to use previously, honor.
Rhiassa allowed me to design and run the mages tournament. The plan for the future, is to have a member of the Order of the Magi run the tournament each year. I feel honored to be entrusted with such a significant portion of the event. I was surprised that Aeston had enough faith in me where he didn’t ask for many details of the tournament prior to the event, in fact he seemed surprised when I kept trying to share them and he repeatedly reinforced that he trusted me and how I chose to run it was completely up to me.
I ended up feeling very positive about how the tournament went. We had sections devoted to combat, combat casting, questing, information gathering, runes, research, spell system knowledge, and spell design. The competitors were involved in related activities for approximately 15 hours over the course of two days. The Mages all had amazing attitudes and were a pleasure to work with.
I need to point out what I feel was the smartest thing I did while planning this tournament. It was to recruit Andrew Bancroft/Rorin to assist me. This is the first time I’ve run a tournament this extensive with so many subjective components. His assistance with judging, helped me to develop confidence (our assessments were never far off and in fact almost always matched), and he helped to ensure that the judging was unbiased. More than that, he was a pleasure to work with and made the experience fun. I highly recommend drafting an excellent partner like him if you are ever in the position of running such a tournament. Thank you, Andrew.
The other reason I felt running the tournament was an honor, is that I’m sure I grew as a tournament designer, marshal, and magus, because of my experience running this tournament. When they say you learn by teaching they are right. I learned that you can also learn a lot by judging. Stepping back and observing some quality casters while consciously assessing their performance led to me seeing many things I too can improve upon in my own casting, and I will strive to work on going forward.
The awesome thing is you don’t have to be running or marshalling a tournament to observe in this way, so I highly suggest everyone do it. Spend some time picking out someone you know is strong, in things you want to learn, and watch what they do and don’t do. I can almost guarantee you’ll consider it worthwhile and be better for doing so.
Some other moments that stood out for me was listening to the bardics. There have been quite a few moments in my Realms career where while I’m listening to our performers, I’m overcome with gratitude for experiencing the gift of my fellow Realms members amazing talents being shared in such an intimate setting. This year was one of the times that occurred.
I also appreciate witnessing the evolution of our community and people earning new titles and establishing new ties. Kyro succeeded Kyntela who has been the Champion of Rhiassa for the past four years after winning the honor via combat. He also was squired to Dame Areni in their national Knighthood. In addition, Imari joined the Lion Militia.
I also loved watching Saka, apprentice to Borjid and myself, play the sax and be such a pretty, pretty proxy queen.
In closing, remember magic penetrates.
Angie/Phoenix