Rules
Heavy combat within the SCA uses a body part target location system. If a limb is hit with what the recipient determines to be a blow with significant force, it cannot be used thereafter. If the torso or head are hit with significant force, the combatant is deemed dead. If a leg is hit with significant force to disable it, the combatant must fight on his or her knee thereafter. Different weapons can have different effects, simulating the effect of the period weapon (e.g. a mace hit upon the shoulder has a more severe effect than a sword, to simulate the effect of the mace as a mass weapon).
Several of the rules make it clearly abstracted from real historical combat. For instance, one must not strike an opponent from behind, tripping and wrestling are not allowed, and one must not strike from one inch before the wrist to the end of the hand nor from one inch above the knee to the end of the leg. The winning shot of the bout is acknowledged by the defeated participant, who will generally call the shot good (or die a dramatic death for good showmanship).
For the purposes of calling blows, all combatants are considered to be armoured in a mail hauberk, wearing an open-faced helmet with a nasal (nose protection) even if they are, in reality, wearing more or less armour than that listed. For that reason, a draw cut or glancing blow would have no effect, while a solid blow is considered to have defeated or penetrated the armour. Good strikes to the torso and head are treated as a 'killing blow'.
There are slight variations between regional SCA branches (known as Kingdoms) concerning combat rules.
Read more about this topic: SCA Heavy Combat
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“Neither Aristotelian nor Russellian rules give the exact logic of any expression of ordinary language; for ordinary language has no exact logic.”
—Sir Peter Frederick Strawson (b. 1919)
“One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.”
—Paul Feyerabend (1924–1994)
“Critics are more committed to the rules of art than artists are.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)