Because I love to fight I try to find as many venues as possible to do so. I first started fighting in the Adrian Empire and thusly I developed an affinity for live steel combat. I digress for a moment; the term live steel seems to be thrown around a lot. I can't truly say what the exact definition for live steel is but I do know that there is a big difference between what I consider live steel and what others consider live steel. I consider live steel to be fighting in completely protective period armor with dull steel swords, axes, mace's and pole arms. Weather you fight half speed or full speed is up to the venue and who you are fighting. For the sake of this blog this will be the definition of live steel.
The Adrian empire fights using live steel and with this comes some obvious advantages and some disadvantages. Because the weapons are much heavier and more narrow they transfer more energy over a smaller surface creating more potential for injury. This requires a stringent safety regiment be followed to the point of almost zealously. Wars fought in the Adrian Empire are often a continual start and stop affair because of safety and thus can be tiring and frustrating. The advantage to this is that we are very historically accurate. We fight with actual representations of historic weapons. Standing in the tower of London is a great sword used by King Henry the 8th during armored foot combat, this sword is almost identical to a great sword that I fight with. Fighting with steel swords teaches you to strike with the edge of a weapon and how to conserve energy and how each weapon is vastly different from another. Also swinging a 5 pound sword becomes very tiring very fast and if you don't maintain a proper stance and defense you will just become exhausted and lose from not being able to move. The armor worn for live steel tends to be the heaviest of armor worn in all the disciplines. My live steel suit weighs about 100 lbs and my helmet alone weighs about 20 lbs. This of course makes you very slow and tired fast but it is very accurate to period armor.
The SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism) is slightly different than the Adrian Empire but no less extreme or enthralling. The SCA fights using less armor requirements and rattan weapons. The advantage of this is you don't have to be as careful while fighting allowing you to hit people as hard as possible, as a good friend of mine would say "Hit em like they kicked your mother!" and thus not needed to stop every five minutes to pull someone off the field. The SCA also has a lot more people so the wars are much more intense. At Estella war more than 7,000 people show up and the battle field scenarios are epic. Nothing makes you feel smaller than looking across a field at 3,000 guys running at you to kick your ass. The armor is lighter so you can fight longer and the wars start faster because it does not take as long to put the stuff on. You can shield bash in the SCA so all tactics used historically can apply. The disadvantage is the fighting tends to be sloppy and favors the large and strong. You can literally ignore being hit by several people at once. Hence the need to hit someone like they kicked you mother. Also a stick is a stick is a stick. The balance is off and the size and weight changes very little. The historic accuracy of the armor is laughable at best. Some chose to wear very period rigs but others seem to use the trash can for all it's worth.
Reenactment uses very period costume and weapons and armor. All aspects of a person or camp must appear as if from the era reenacted. This can be very fun and educational. You really don't know anything about history until you have not washed for a few days (if not pagan) and eat nothing but bread and meat (if European) and drink mead (doesn't matter). The disadvantage is proper period costume is expensive (if not borrowed) Hot (if European) and heavy (if Royal). Also a lot of rules must be followed to maintain the appearance of the period. You have to give up all your modern convinces and behave as period as possible. Also the combat is choreographed (planned out like a dance) you know what your opponent is going to do and he knows what you are going to do and the winner has been determined long before. You also don't hit each other with any force. Now that may seem like a good point to some but remember this is form the view point of an Ogre. I like to squish people!
LARP (Live Action Role Playing) is very different from the above groups and disciplines. Many seem to think that their form of enjoyment is the only and best form. I feel that anything that gets you out of the house having fun with friends and makes you happy is never a bad thing. LARP as far as I have experienced is a live adaptation of table top role playing games. As opposed to SCA Live Steel or Reenactment you don't have to have any thing to participate. This is the most attractive part of the LARP you don't have to have money or time you just show up at a predetermined spot and engage in play. Also your physical prowess does not determine your success; everything is based off of statistics and chance. The disadvantage is you don't actually hit each other. Remember I like to squish!
Each discipline has its advantages and disadvantages I don't really like one more than the other. I don't actually recommend only joining just one group. Each has something to teach and contribute to your life. Also the more friends you have the harder it is to be lonely and depressed. I find that I have very little stress because of the groups I belong to. I also have a lot of confidence because I know I can positively contribute to almost any conversation and if that fails I know I can smash almost anyone. Also it's very healthy for families. Parents and children spend a lot of time together interacting with others and most of the kids I know are very well rounded because of the amount of social interaction and time spent with family.

Sunday is the worst day of faire week. Some say Monday but I petition for Sunday. My reasoning is this.

Friday:

Ok you have to work, so sure the first part of the day sucks but you know that tonight you are going to see all your friends and start the weekend with a blast.

Saturday:

Depending on how much of a blast you had on Friday can be awesome. You eat, you carouse, fight, whatever you do at faire to have fun. Saturday night is the best if Friday didn't kill you Saturday will.

Sunday! Bum bum bum bum!

Then you have "Oh #$&@# it's morning already! What day is it? Where am I? Stop kicking me or I'll eat your foot! What do you mean get out of the middle of the battle field! Why does my mouth taste like dirt and grass?" It's Sunday. This day starts bad and ends worse. The whole day you question the reason for your existence. Then because the day was not hard enough time enters this crazy old time movie fast for ward thing where you check your time piece and its 10:00 then sneeze and look back and it's %#&@ing 11:30! Now my friends some of you know and some of you don't. Armor is a funny thing or rather heavy full plate live steel armor is a funny thing. Fighting in armor is what I live for. It falls just below my amazing wife. When you're standing swaying like a tuft of grass buffeted by the slightest breeze head feeling like a battered bucket of nails, it's not so fun. You stand their asking yourself over and over do I really want to do this. How much do I want to beat the crap out of someone? Is that even possible when I feel as I do? That moment in time now turns into slow motion horror scene. To a normal passer by you just appear to be crazy, shaking your head at your suit of armor as if it keeps asking you the same terrible question over and over. However to an armor combatant we know that debate well and wince at the sight of it.

Sunday Night (it get's its own section just because it seems to take a whole day in length)

Truly the worst part of Sunday is faire close Sunday. You can barley walk because you are dead from the fighting and the previous night's blast and now because it's time to go home (and by now you want to go home) you have to pack up everything. This time is the longest time in creation not necessarily because the sun stays up, no as a mater of fact if the sun was supposed to go down around 7:30 that day it will go down around 5:00, just so you have to pack in the dark. Now all your muscles are cold and soar and your feet wonder why you hate them and you have to wiz so bad it seems your life depended on it and the rest rooms are all the way across faire. I won't go on for fear of sounding overly negative. But you know the drill.

This my friends is why Sunday is the worst day of the faire week. What's even worse is next time Faire weekend Friday come around we are raring to go. If that isn't masochistic I don't know what is.