Activity guidelines

Single combat

Single combat recreates various dueling scenarios throughout history. There were prize fights sponsored by London's "Company of Maisters of the Science of Defence", a guild of sword-fighting instructors and students in Elizabethan England. In Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Mercutio and Tybalt duel with rapiers and daggers. In many cultures, sword contests were used as a means to settle interpersonal conflicts or decide judicial rulings. In some cases, the goal was not to kill one's opponent but to cause a superficial injury in order to win or score a point.
It involves two combatants within a list field or other designated area.
Tournament single combat doesn't have to include an actual tournament or competition, and covers all one-on-one fighting that is not part of a melee or battle.

"Melee combat" includes all fighting with more than two combatants at the same time.
Melee combat is a recreation of group conflict throughout history, from a tavern brawl of unruly patrons to an alley skirmish between rival gangs.
Large-scale melee combat is a recreation of military and civilian conflicts using steel weapons, which occurred throughout the SCA time period.
Melee scenarios may include rubber-band guns and combat archery. These battles recreate later period conflicts where rapiers were carried as close-combat weapons to use once the artillery was expended.