Joshua writes: >I don't have any, though I have played SCA. (and have studied >historical and classsical fencing from a master at both). >>I have and use two types of blades - a 32 inch Schlager blade (guess >>that's a smallsword) >Close enough, in dimensions. The Schlagers we use are oval, with no taper whatsoever. They tend to measure 32 to 36 inches. >>and a 43 inch Deltin (rapier - but we call them all rapiers >>regardless of length), >Sure...but the Del Tins tend to match (to some extent; they don't >taper enough) the historical weapons much closer than the little short >things [not to meanion the single-wide epees and foils used by [SCA] >Easterners [1]]. Kingdom of the West here (An Tir - Vancouver BC, Oregon, N. California)) - we also use these new double-wides (not epees - they are about 1 1/2 times the width of a Deltin at the forte and have much less taper - I dunno why they call them double-wides) and are starting to use some other experimentals in an effort to get closer to the historical blades. They tend to be a bit stiff though. We do not allow any modern fencing weapons. I'm not so much an aficionado of historical accuracy - more so the application of the blade, if you know what I mean... I use whatever works for me, and I do well in the tournaments. Of course, I move like the wind = ) >In any case, SCA fencing is a lot of fun...but it's not really very >historical, and doesn't have the reality of "kill or be killed" in the >way that techniques developed when weapons were used for real, and Definitely true - the number of double kills I see is point in fact. >only the masters whose techniques worked survived to teach them did. >Thus, invented techniques are rather suspect and I have significant >doubt that fencing, in the East[2] or Dragaera, is closer to any invented >artificial style than it is to any of the ones that actually existed >in history. Well I guess in this we are in agreement. Sean Penney Associate Producer Phone: 604-456-3001 Fax: 604-456-5018 Electronics Arts Canada Main: 604-456-3600 Email: seanp at ea.com