Two-year rotation?

[Æffe Michælesdohtor (Æffe Michælesdohtor)]

Hi - I'm in An Tir, Barony of Blatha an Oir. I'd love to see something like a two-year rotation where we can do heavy one Crown Tournament, then Rapier the next, then Archery/Thrown Weapons, then A&S. Or whatever order; that doesn't matter to me. But having the rotation would mean that some absolutely wonderful people who have zero interest in getting into armor could have a chance to serve their Kingdom as Crowns.

I don't know much about archery/thrown weapons, so if that would not work as a combined competition (comparing scores, maybe?), I can go with that and make it a 2.5-year rotation.

[nico (Nicodemus Novello)]

Assuming we find ourselves in a position with more than one way of choosing Crown, there is an important thing to consider in timing the rotation.

We want odd numbers.

What? I hear you say?  Well, let's assume we stick with six-month reigns.  And, to pick a simple example, let's say we find ourselves alternating a heavy tournament with a bean feast.  If we just went heavy/bean king/heavy/bean king, then the heavy crown would always reign in the same half of the year, bean king in the other half.  I'm sure some heavies would much rather reign while Festival and Canterbury Faire were on, while others would really want to visit Pennsic as Crown.  Someone would be disappointed.

So we would want to end up with a cycle that was either random, or based around an odd number to rotate which method was used at which time of year.  Not two years, but one-and-a-half or two-and-a-half.

[Alain Quartier (Alain Quartier)]

Agreed with Nico - the rotation would have to be odd so that whatever methods we end up going with have an opportunity to go to all the major events as crown. Becomes confusing the more we add, but it's doable.

[Gwen verch David (Gwen verch David)]

100% agree with the odd numbers. Whether it's one in three traditional, two in three, one in five, or more in five, it definitely would need to be odd. And I like the idea of a rotation as a way of allowing for multiple approaches.

[Ceara_Shionnach (Ceara Shionnach)]

I preface the following comments with:

1. I am in favour of alternative crown options
2. I am in favour of exploring non-combat options

One thing to keep in mind is that anything with physical prowess may be disadvantaged by long gaps between reigns. E.g. the physical conditioning and skill needed to win may be harder to maintain with 2.5+ years between tournaments. I hope that whatever solutions we explore keeps this in mind

I agree with consideration of not having a rotation that limits say heavy to only the first sixth months of the year forever.