I love Wing Chun. I think out of all the Chinese martial arts it's probably got the most applications an average person could use. I like that it was geared towards the poor to learn self-defense and to train it all you need is a small space and a dummy. Even people out of shape can do it, I believe Sammo Hung trained in it and he's a big dude.
Second love is Mantis Kung Fu, it's just so goofy and it's my favorite animal style.
Yeah HEMA guys are really sensitive to the fragility of the human finger. Lots of stories of people breaking fingers in simple sparring matches with what they thought was ample protective gear, and lots of debate about the pros and cons of more protective gauntlets.
Other than that yeah from what I've seen most people show up with stuff that's mostly the same as Olympic style fencing gear