Being an SCA member would definitely benefit you in hand to hand combat with medieval type weapons.
Anybody can pick up a sword but very few people know how to use them properly. An SCA member who really knows how to use a sword, in close in combat against people who have similar weapons, is going to very likely be the one that is still standing.
And obviously being an archer with either the bow or the crossbow gives a huge advantage in being able to actually hit someone with either as opposed to the guy who picks up a bow and thinks he is Robin Hood with no training.
In my campaign my GM took those skills into account - the member we had who was an Apache Indian in real life was very skilled with a thrown hand axe and the bow - so his player was also given those bonuses. And the ability to kill silently with a bow saved our butts several times, let alone save ammo when we went hunting.
My character was basically me - and in the SCA I was damn good with a sword and a quarterstaff - so that carried over into the game, where eventually in Poland I picked up a decent longsword. My GM allowed my character to have the same expertise I had in the longsword - and as a result in several hand to hand encounters (and we had them for sure) that expertise paid off.
The idea of a RenFair kind of community where an SCA group has banded together to use their skills to survive would be a terrific idea for a campaign. Especially considering such a village most likely would have a blacksmith and a bower/fletcher as well.
As for those who think medieval type weapons or training wouldnt be useful - read the High Crusade sometime to get an idea of how a modern armed force could be engaged using such weapons if they can get in close.
As for Civil War and other re-enactors - in Challenge magazine there was an article that mentioned how in NJ a cavalry unit of Civil War re-enactors who are using period weapons and uniforms are part of the State National Guard forces under the Governor in 2001.
And WWII re-enactors would be in the best shape of all - like I mentioned in another post imagine the marauding gang of bikers who come into town to get their butts kicked by the old codger who takes them on with his lovingly maintained and fully armed WWII Stuart tank. Be fun to see the look on a bunch of players when the troops they run into arent equipped with M-16's but instead with German SMG and uniforms from WWII.
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