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, Spaulders and Pauldrons, Greaves, Breast plates, Chain mail, Leather, Lamillar,
- 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.
Desert Winds (by Sindari)
In an attempt to reduce flooding, I modified the method of scoring used in the IM at the time (2006) for use in the Desert Winds, then a principality of IM, for overall dragonmaster scoring. It was ratified and placed in the DW corpora as a requirement (along with what Alona listed) when we made kingdom and we have used it for calculating overall dragonmaster (and overall for CQ's) pretty much since that time. I've had a lot of folks who have requested it because it encourages quality over quantity, while still encouraging inter-category diversity. It also uses a type of BTA system, but uses only the TOP scoring entry per category entered as placement points that are better than average and then counts ALL of your items to average as a total average quality. In effect, you can enter whatever you like for other judging/award consideration-but if you want to win overall, they better be good in each category you enter or you will drag your scores down:
For calculating the winner of the title of Dragonmaster and Overall A & S Crown Tourney: 1. The 1st placement points for determining overall winner is calculated by giving bonus points to each individual’s TOP scoring item per category entered by the individual that is above a 3.00. For example, if your TOP score in field garb was 3.80 (even if you entered 20 items into field garb), then your bonus would be .80. This is the case for each top score per category entered. I think it is important to repeat this: The top scoring ENTRY PER CATEGORY, PER PERSON, for calculating OVERALL winner placement is used. 2. The 2nd factor used to determine overall winner is your overall quality average. Adding up all your top scores per category entered and dividing it by the number of categories entered determine the overall quality average. If your top-scoring item in a category does not get above a 3.00, that category score is still used to determine your overall quality average. For example, you entered 6 items in 5 different categories, your top judge score in each category is added up and divided by 5 even if one of the categories you received no extra bonus for being over a 3.00. 3. Placement points earned in #1 is added to the overall quality average placement points earned in #2 to get the final score.
What the overall calclulation of Dragonmaster is NOT: It is NOT a head to head competition in any one category. It does not award excellence or diversity within any one category. Rather it is a recognition of “the best” overall competitor in the most areas using item quality and inter-category diversity as factors. This does not affect a person’s ability to get rewarded for Best in Show, best intra-category head to head competition or other awards based upon where they are in their awards level.
