Let him dabble. I've got one dot in all kinds of skills that I picked up and put back down later. Sometimes, years later, I pick them back up again long enough to make some minor something or other. Use loaner armor or insist that he help build his own. You know from the way ZEM started up that making good enough armor is not difficult and he can improve his ugly start-up stuff one piece at a time like we did. And the construction is a way to learn a new skill in itself. Maybe he's just not a fighter. Let him dabble a bit with the Arts as well. Apprentice him out (of course you can't actually call it apprenticing - wouldn't want to confuse people with actual definitions here) to various people who make things. Teach him the heraldry of your local group's members and use him as a page (again, not using the SCA definition here). There's lots to the SCA that isn't fighting, and not all of it even involves sweating. Making cool stuff is rewarding too.
It's a pity there's no such thing as youth siege engineering. Make a Big Cool Thing, position it on the field, and generally stay put and shoot people. A lazy fighter's dream. But if you've got some would-be catapulters with no engine, perhaps he could help build one. That's geeky and fighty! Perhaps some pavases. Does he have any interest in field heraldry? If Biff and James are going to be fighting, they'll need somebody to carry their flags and shout about how cool they are in pas d'arms.
He paints miniatures, is there anybody doing enameling down there? I wouldn't mind learning that skill myself. Possibly sandcasting. Possibly period gaming? A hnaftafl board can be a square of canvas and some glass counters when you're learning, then you can get into tooled leather or carved and painted wooden boards with cast pieces... And most of the skills and tools you need for those should be available in a barony-sized group.
I guess my point is, I'm a lazy dabbler myself, and I know it took a while to find something that held my attention. Just work on a wide variety of small projects that lead to other small projects, and don't expect him to declare a major already just because the other kids seem to be doing it.
It's a pity there's no such thing as youth siege engineering. Make a Big Cool Thing, position it on the field, and generally stay put and shoot people. A lazy fighter's dream. But if you've got some would-be catapulters with no engine, perhaps he could help build one. That's geeky and fighty! Perhaps some pavases. Does he have any interest in field heraldry? If Biff and James are going to be fighting, they'll need somebody to carry their flags and shout about how cool they are in pas d'arms.
He paints miniatures, is there anybody doing enameling down there? I wouldn't mind learning that skill myself. Possibly sandcasting. Possibly period gaming? A hnaftafl board can be a square of canvas and some glass counters when you're learning, then you can get into tooled leather or carved and painted wooden boards with cast pieces... And most of the skills and tools you need for those should be available in a barony-sized group.
I guess my point is, I'm a lazy dabbler myself, and I know it took a while to find something that held my attention. Just work on a wide variety of small projects that lead to other small projects, and don't expect him to declare a major already just because the other kids seem to be doing it.
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