Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Pennsic Land Allocation
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 20:55:40 -0500

eadengle@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca (Ed "Cynwrig" Dengler) writeth:

 ED>         area = area1 + n * area2
 ED>             area1 = minimum amount of land to allow a cooking area
 ED>             n = number of gentles in encampment
 ED>             area2 = area of land per gentle

 ED> I believe this is somewhat a fair scheme in that it does allow a cooking
 ED> area for the smallest encampments, and also gives each gentle a section
 ED> of land for their pavillion.

However, the larger the encampment, the larger area1 needs to be, especially if
we consider it to be not only cooking space, but courtyard/otherfire space and
so on.  At first one might think "so drop it and incorporate it into area2", but
the increase tapers off, more like a log or root function than linear.  Maybe
something along the general lines of:

        area = area1 * f(n) + area2 * n

could be used, where f(n) is some reasonable tapering function, such as (as
mentioned above) a log or root.  (Don't worry about some poor hassled troll
having to do the calculations on the fly; a chart can EASILY be produced for all
reasonable numbers of gentles, so we can get as complex as we like - so long as
it depends on only ONE variable, no different numbers for children and so on.) 
Using some SWAGs like area1 = 50, area2 = 200, and f(n) = sqrt(n), we get a
chart like this (where "spp" means "space per person"):

  n  ft^2 spp    n  ft^2 spp    n  ft^2 spp    n  ft^2 spp    n  ft^2 spp
  1   259 259   11  2396 218   21  4470 213   31  6528 211   41  8578 209
  2   483 242   12  2604 217   22  4677 213   32  6734 210   42  8782 209
  3   702 234   13  2813 216   23  4883 212   33  6939 210   43  8987 209
  4   918 230   14  3021 216   24  5089 212   34  7144 210   44  9191 209
  5  1132 226   15  3229 215   25  5295 212   35  7349 210   45  9396 209
  6  1345 224   16  3436 215   26  5501 212   36  7554 210   46  9600 209
  7  1556 222   17  3643 214   27  5707 211   37  7759 210   47  9804 209
  8  1767 221   18  3850 214   28  5912 211   38  7964 210   48 10009 209
  9  1977 220   19  4057 214   29  6118 211   39  8168 209   49 10213 208
 10  2187 219   20  4264 213   30  6323 211   40  8373 209   50 10417 208

Anybody got any idea how large was the largest single encampment ever?  (At
Pennsic, I mean!)

Other thoughts:

1)  Rather than either being limited to the calculated size or having to
explicitly buy all the land you occupy, maybe you could get some reasonable
amount of space for the "price fixe", but could "buy" more.  (For duration; if
you won't be there the whole time you can make "rental" arrangements with
someone else, and the landocrat need not be involved.)  This would need some
limit (maybe double whatever you would normally get, however that winds up being
determined), so we don't wind up with some rich @$$#0!&$ buying up all the space
and leaving nothing for the poor.  This still has the danger of enough people
buying up enough extra land to leave nothing for some later arrivals, so maybe
it would have to be done way in advance - long enough that we can trim the
excessive requests.  And if there's enough after that stage then maybe we can
extend the deadline - but the closer to Pennsic, the tighter the limit.

2)  If an encampment winds up with fewer people than it claimed during the
lottery, maybe those who show could be a) made to give up the extra space, b)
made to take in extra campers, or c) fined the amount that would be needed to
"buy" the extra land (as above).  This would be tough to track and verify, at
least without a computer.  (A notebook PC at Troll could work wonders, both for
this and other applications!  I *heard* that one WAS used at XXI but I didn't
see it; anybody know for sure, and if so, what for?)

3)  If a camp winds up with MORE people than it claimed, they would NOT get a
refund on land "bought", but if the space next to them is available, let them
expand, up to the amount that they would now be entitled to (both "free" land
and "bought" land).  (I have no idea what current expansion policy is.)