Thorne the mercenary wrote:Kyrian I can see your point about using the term non-com to refer to non-combatants. In my case it is just a bit of laziness not wanting to write out the whole word. There are all kinds of different people that count themselves as Belegarth. I don't expect our sport to become a Ren faire, I don't want partying to stop altogether. I'd just like the sport to expand a little to include everyone, and the partying to be done responsibly.
I believe the responsibility for creating activities for people who are not interested in fighting for the most part is on people who do not wish to fight.
I think you missed Kyrian's point entirely. As I understand it, it's not really the word "non-com" that's the issue so much as the assumption that there is a specific group of people of any sort who are distinctly different than fighters. Furthermore, it's the underlying assumption that fighters are there to fight and that's it.
Your goal here should not be to entertain "non-coms" or convince them to entertain themselves. Your goal be broader: to increase the range of activities for any Belegrim at your event to participate in. Participation in a bardic contest isn't related to one's fighting status. Participation in a cooking or sewing class isn't related to one's fighting status. Sitting around a fire and telling stories isn't related to one's fighting status.
Stop talking about entertaining and retaining non-fighters. Start talking about increasing non-fighting activities (that Belegrim can participate in whether they also fight or not).
Continuing to make a distinction between fighters and non-fighters (rather than simply fighting activities and non-fighting activities that anyone can participate in) is alienating.
I've been fighting for 11 years (5 Bel, and more recently 6 Dag). I fight at practices, but at a typical weekend event, at this point, I only fight for an hour or two. I'm still fully engaged with Dag/Bel the whole time, but I spend a lot of it building a camp, trading at trading post, wandering about as a bard, etc. Redefine "belegrim" to capture all that in the back of your heads, then start doing more of those other things, then you may start seeing more retention. Don't just give me awards for service though (even though I herald, water herald, garb herald, take photos, etc). I'm not your servant.
(Or at least, that's my interpretation.)