I've learned about this through my college fencing club. For those who aren't familiar with this, it's a coporation of people who set up events where they dress, create items, cook and hold events that match some pointin the midevil times, I believe the cut off date for a time one has to match is 17th century at the latest, a lot of times matching centuries prior. It's most known for it's replicate duel tournements and battles, a lot of times using specific protection and rapiers, as well as protective throwing and fireing weapons. And in case your thinking it's larping, this is designed to be historically accurate with nothing over the top like elves or dwarves. Here's the website.

http://www.sca.org/

I'm debating joining. Is anyone else here a member, or atleast visit at event? If so, what's your thoughts on this?

My wife was a member for years. She started her business as a merchant at SCA events. A lot of her friends are still involved, and mostly they're good people. I was never into it.

Joining depends very much on where you are in the world. Some groups are pretty cool, some are not. There are groups that are very authoritarian, believe it or not. The people that are kings and barons and whatnot act like they actually are sometimes. Some groups are older, usually through consistent failure to attract new blood.

Many groups are oriented towards fighting. Some are merchants. Some of the most impressive artisans I have ever seen are in the SCA. Pottery, leatherwork, blacksmithing, anything you could want. Many members take their historical research seriously. They are medieval recreationists, not Renfair actors.

It can be fun thing, if you're into that. Their bigger events, such as the Pennsic War, have to be seen to be believed. And you can be a hanger-on forever if you want. You don't have to an official member.

I was a member for years (probably still am, technically), though I never really got very involved, and this^ is why I no longer go near the local SCA. It really does depend on the kind of attitude that people in a given group have to it.

When I joined, the group was pretty informal, and mostly just your average campus club (parties, food, fun, socialising) with interesting themes and discussions about history. Unfortunately, more and more tension arose between people who (like me, though I wasn't involved in conflict) were interested in history but didn't want to take things seriously to the point of addressing one another using titles and actually recreating a rigid feudal social hierarchy... Partly due to the influence of the other, more organised groups (the SCA is a global organisation, in case you've not found out yet, with a pretty intricate structure), the latter type of thing took hold, with the result that, these days, it's not even much of a student organisation anymore. Older members who live entirely inside the SCA world (to the point of making a living from supplying their re-enactment community with specialty items/services, marrying within their group and raising their children in that lifestyle... it gets almost cult-like) come in a couple of times a year to do demonstrations (fighting, mostly) and try and attract students to their off-campus activities. Doesn't work.

So, yeah, the lesson here is that what you get out of it really depends what you're into and what the group in your area is like. It may just be fun, or people may be taking things very, very seriously; of course, you may prefer the latter. From what I've seen, committed involvement can lead to lifelong friendships and even permanent communities. That type of thing horrifies me - honestly, I was only in it for the parties and the historical discussions - but it may be something that appeals to you. Nothing wrong with that.

One thing to keep in mind is that historical re-enactment is, believe it or not, a big scene globally, with millions of groups. The SCA is known for being a particularly, erm, involved group, one that emphasises, for example, the use of titles - people address each other using titles they earn, there are lots of social protocols. There are many other re-enactment groups out there that do things differently; if the SCA doesn't suit you but you're interested, there are other options, whether you'd like to explore other time periods (ancient re-enactment, for example) or other philosophies (there's something of a division between people who think that re-enactment demands intense attention to period accuracy in all facets, and those who think that there are limits to the authenticity that can or would need to be achieved nowadays). If you're into history, you can even incorporate your re-enactment activities into your studies; a friend of mine is using his experience as a fighting instructor in his research about ancient weaponry.

Sorry, SCA is LARP. Any of the many living history groups who take their work seriously think they are a bit of a joke. In the land downunder, there was always a big division and a lot of bad blood between the SCA and Steel-Weapons Living history groups. Being part of the latter, we used to mock the SCA as being glorified cosplayers with little to no understanding of the techniques of historical swordwork. You just cannot emulate what a real blade will do using a piece of Rattan. But then I guess it's a matter of taste - Steel weapons groups tend to be uber-macho guys that had already done several other martial arts and were not interested in the "social" elements of the SCA at all. We spent all our time going through historical manuscripts working out wrist-lock, disarm, parry etc techniques which only work with a fairly accurate recreation of a period blade. no dancing, no singing, no fairs, just constantly going through drills and reading the Talhoffer manuscript etc until you could effectively fight 3 guys with a sword and dagger.

Big nods of approval from our household with this statement. Am friends/been involved with (and married to one) a group up here who were/are into this thing, and were somewhat notorious (the Husquarls(?) later changed name I believe) boozers, fighters and made their own period accurate clothes, weapons, jewelry, shoes etc... mostly Viking based. However, they did attend fairs and the like for battles, and had one of the most popular taverns due to the excellent home brew. My missus is handy with a bow, pike and axes.

Bullshit, rattan techniques transfer fairly readily to steel. The USA team that went over to BotN this past year and did fantastic in the singles, and they ALL learned in the SCA. Anyways, a lot of guys are interested in dark ages/early medieval where there's no fechtbuchs to study. And we've got something on you: melee. You really can't do that with full contact steel on a large scale without people getting killed.

SCA isn't living history or LARP and doesn't try to be, it's just a different hobby.

Bollocks! We used to do 40 a side shieldwalls all with steel and nobody got hurt. It's just a case of making sure that nobody EVER handles a weapon they have not sat the grading for, having the marshalls check the gear carefully and exerting a lot of common sense, particularly re headblows.

40 on a side I'll grant you, if everybody's super careful. But hundreds, ala pennsic and gulf wars? SCA is the only game in town for that.

Erm, yeah, with Scorntyrant on this one - lots of fighting groups (including one run by my friends) stage melee situations, and it'll often be the SCA people who complain endlessly. People do get hurt sometimes, but nothing beyond a sprained joined so far.

From what I remember some of the bigger viking groups (Vikings UK and jomsvikings) could muster up numbers like that. Anglo saxon groups like Regia Anglorum as well. I believe in 2006 the Vikings and Regia Anglorum teamed up for a massive Hastings reenactment with live steel.