This is going to be unrelated to most people, but over the summer I became an authorized SCA armored fighter in two styles and fought in the SCA's largest battles at pennsic as well as the novice tourney...I'm proud of it.
The short of it is, an SCA armored fighter wears hardened leather or metal armor in key places for protection, they battle with weapons made out of rattan, the fights are not scripted, its real. And the blows hurt, they leave bruises at times. In fact a strike has to be hard enough that if you wear weapon and armor were of that era that it would actually cause damage, otherwise its a light hit.
Its not LARPing, and its not reenactments. Its the real deal and its amazing.
