HERALD-THREE

Another spontaneous production: the Herald Stand.

Following up from the previous post on the reviewing stand, this will be a more abbreviated post reporting on another fabrication in the big knight jousting game. In this case, what began purely as a bit of embellishment wound up providing that and a utilitarian function. As usual, in this post you may clix pix for BIG PIX.

Originally, I picked up a couple of the herald figures with the intent of having a pair of them flanking the royal stand. I was experimenting with the idea of having each stand on a block or some sort of simple raised platform (above). Somewhere along the line, I wound up with a third herald, which gave me other ideas. I was also kicking around the idea of adding flags to the reviewing stand.  I realized that I could combine the three heralds and the flags in a single platform that would add a bit of eye candy and also provide a game function (a sort of score board tracking the rounds and jousts/courses).   

The complete project, with all flags flying and all three heralds in place. The game can have up to five rounds, each represented by a flag. Each round consists of  matches between paired players, with each match consisting of three "courses" (ie jousts), represented by the three heralds. 

This provides a paperless tracking system to help run the game and a visual means to help players see where we are in the tournament. The above illustrates how the tracking system works. The two flags means that it is the second round. The two heralds mean that it is the second course/joust within the match/round. 

The platform sits to the side of the reviewing stand and is tall enough to be seen from the far end of the table. Before the game starts, I have all the heralds posted and all flags flying. When the game starts, I pull the heralds and announce the first match and first course, putting up the first flag and spotting the first herald--to much fanfare.  

The flags are simple pennants (triangular affairs) that I put on dowels that fit into holes on the back of the stand. 

Like the royal stand, the herald stand looked a bit too austere once done. So I added a dowel to the front and fashioned a set of hanging banners. I designed them using a medieval clip art set that I picked up years ago. Using my standard approach for flags, I cut these out and folded them over with a coating of white glue on the reverse to hold the two halves together. I then gave them a bit of a bend and a flutter with the handle of a paint brush while the glue was still wet. Upon drying, the white glue stiffens nicely and the flags hold their shape.  The three banners also provide an additional visual to help track the progress of each match: there is one for each herald, so the number of heralds tells which course it is, and the number of banners without heralds informs the players of how many courses there are left to run in the match. 

The view from the far end of the table during the recent Mayhem convention game. It is the second course of the fourth round (two heralds and four flags): there is one more course to be run in the current match (1 banner without herald).  The thing that I still need to add is some sort of score board to show a running total of the scores through the various rounds (an excellent suggestion from the players).  I'm thinking of some sort of mini white board set up on the other side of the royal stand, opposite the heralds.   

Excelsior!