Dragonmaster
1. N. A tournament for competition in the Arts & Sciences usually held once per reign. Also the title held by the winner of that tournament.
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Dragon master is the arts equivalent to a Weaponmaster. The tourney is usually held at the same time, just before the Mid-reign of the group. This tourney is usually run by the hosting Regent but can be farmed to a separate party if the regent or monarch so wishes. High level orders of the Dragon, Owl and Garber can be given for placing well in the tourney at the Kingdom level. Winning a dragonmaster might not qualify you for a Serpent Belt as a Weaponmaster win would for a Sword Belt but it is an excellent thing to have on your resume, and is something that the Circle of Knights would consider when discussing you.
There is no set number or type of categories that must be present at all dragonmasters, although some groups out line this in their corpora.
Some category examples:
- Accessory Entries; Court Accessories, Field (Or Fighting) Accessories.
- Armoring Entries; Bracers, Greaves, breats plates, Chain mail, Leather, Laminar,
- Artwork Entries; 2-D and 3-D.
- Banner Entires; Can be combined with Sewing, 2-D art, Passive construction, or Accessory.
- Bardic Performances; Singing, Oratory, Instrumental, Dance.
- Brewing Entries; Sometimes combined with cooking; Mead, Wines, beers. These do not have to be Alcoholic.
- Cooking Entries; Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert, Vintner, and Writing.
- Construction Entries; Passive, Active.
- Garbing Entries; Fighting, Court, Other Outfits, Monster, Accessory, Favors, and Jewelry.
- Photography Entries; Usually combined with 2-D Art.
- Sewing Entries often combined with garbing entries, but can include Quilts, Banners, Tents, and Bags.
- Rose Entries Anything that is made specifically for donation to the club.
- Weapon Smithing; Sword, Shield, Polearms.
- Writing Entries; Factual, Fictional, Poetry, Publications
What you should do
As an Arbiter, or the person who runs a tournament it is your job to advertise in advance, as much as reasonably possible. Most experienced entrants will plan their entries around the method on which the tourney will be judged. You must advertise the following; The date, the time sign ins will start, the time sign ins will end, what style of tourney you plan to have, a listing of the categories, and what is permissible to enter (for instance, the things you can enter in a quals cannot have received an award in a lower tourney and must have been finished in the last six months), any limits on number of entries or number per category, And how the entries will be scored.
Choose judges a head of time, and nail them down again two weeks prior to the tourney to make sure they are still available, or if you need to find replacements. Make sure that your judges understand that telling you that they can't make it is fine, but that they need to tell you.
Make sure to have a covered area available for the items, in case of inclement weather.
Bring to the tourney extra paper, sign ins, tags, tables, a camera, and lots and lots of pens.
See the Arts and Sciences article for further information.
The difference
Qualifications and Dragon master function in the same way. The major differences; the times of year that they are held, and the rewards of each. Entering certain successful items in Quals may qualify you for Office. Meeting the victory conditions of a Dragonmaster may qualify for that title.
Sample announcement
Hello good people of the Duchy of Olympus.
The time is drawing near for another competition to determine our new Dragonmaster. The competition will be held on January 30th at the Coralville Recreation center. To qualify for Dragonmaster, you must enter at least 7 items in 7 different categories for judging from the list of A & S categories listed in the Iron Mountains corpora. If you wish to enter more categories or more than one item in a category that is awesome. If you do enter more than 7 categories only your top 7 category scores will be used to determine if you are the winner. As well, if you enter more than one item in a category only your top scoring item will be used. Your top 7 scores in your top 7 categories will then be averaged to determine the final winner. I would also encourage people who do not have 7 items to go ahead and enter. I love seeing everyone's work in the fields of A & S.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
How do they do it elsewhere?
By Kingdom
Emerald Hills (by Forest Evergreen)
No more than 3 entries per category (i.e. court garb, fighting garb, poetry, weapon construction, etc.) and only your top 2 entries can count towards your score. The item is scored by the judges (3-5 depending on availibility). Then, 3.5 is subtracted from the items score. The remainder (if it is positive) is added to your DM total. (i.e. if an item scores an average of 3.97, then you take 3.97-3.5 = .47, if the item averages a 3.2 then 3.2-3.5 = less than zero, score is ignored).
The person with the highest score wins. This allows both players with a narrow focus but exceptional skill and those with a wider focuse but perhaps not as much specific expertise to have a chance to win. "Flooding" is of limited value because the entry mus tscore Better than Average (We call it the BTA system) and you are limited to the number of entries so you can't turn in 12 items in the 1 category you excell at.
