Does fashion matter?

I’m just jumping right in this time!

Yes, it can.  Take for example where your pants are worn and where your belt is.  We think of belts being around the waist, but what if you wear lederhosen?  OK, any “overalls” or pants held up by suspenders?  You don’t have a belt.  Sure, you can add a belt, but is it practical?  OK, going off to war, you are not going to wear lederhosen, so where your sword swings from probably doesn’t matter.  But ...

What if your belt is around your middle (your tummy), and not your waist?  At different periods of time / fashion, the belts were worn much higher than they are today.  This was actually a thing as to where pistol holsters are worn - right or left.  If your belt is higher, you must cross draw your weapons; you can’t effectively draw them from a same side sheathe.  Does this matter?  Sure.  Is a cross draw as fast as a same side draw?  Arguable, but I don’t think so.  I base that on some study of Wild West shooters and the means they went to in hopes of being faster draws.  So if all you care about is combat and not fashion, it would be important to know if fashion slowed down your combat initiatives.

I’m sure you think this is very silly and has no aspect in your fantasy game, but you’re wrong.  This is one tiny example.  Boots vs. sandals vs. moccasins.  Pants vs. breeches.  Socks vs. nothing.  Weapon belt vs. bandoleer, especially when you are considering firing a bow.  These things are actually important.  Let’s go farther:  cotton vs. wool - imagine how much faster a travelling army gets overheated when there is no cotton gin and they are all wearing wool uniforms in the heat.  Other ideas abound:  wool is warm, even when wet, but it is also godawful heavy when wet.  Cotton is cool in the heat and breathes, but is ineffective against the cold when wet.  Leather can be stiflingly hot.  I have always assumed that the steel used in fantasy games can rust - is steel the fashion or is bronze?  Are there any issues with wearing brass buttons when being attacked by lightning bolts, as opposed to possibly wearing wood toggles?  In the Central Plains, the well-dressed man does not use buttons at all, but instead steel or silver cufflinks and studs.  That just might draw a lightning bolt right into his chest.

Sometimes there are valid things that work well in some cases and poor in others.  A low ranking officer may have an extra high plume or ridge on his helmet (think of the centurions).  This is great for identifying where the officer is, but does it put him at a disadvantage in combat - if someone grabs it.  Here fashion probably dictates that that fancy thing break off very easily or else put these guys at a disadvantage.  Do you know that police officers always wear clip on ties?  Yeah, for this exact reason - no need to give a criminal an easy noose by which to attack the officer.

Let’s get back into some of the silly:  Despite watching Scarlet Johansson do incredible fights in stiletto heels, I have to assume that female adventurers don’t go for that kind of thing, but would they be wearing them at a nightclub if they were caught off guard?  Are the men wearing those goofy looking long toed shoes that could severely affect their fighting abilities if caught off guard.  Now sure, the gold farmers say, my character doesn’t wear those things even if they are fashionable.  Fine - then everyone in the bar is making jokes about the fact that you’ve got no “length”.  Yep, they are calling you “small penis” because you made a fashion faux pas.  You sure you’re OK with that?

Look, I’m less interested in coming up with goofy encounters where it might actually make a difference, and more interested in making things make sense and sometimes be important.  If you show up in Rhum wearing a great coat of indigo dyed wool, they know you’re from Scaret, or at least they assume you are.  If you show up in Scaret wearing a coat of beaver, they are going to guess you’re from Rhum.  If you are from Scaret, chances are your coin purse is hanging from the middle of your belt or around your neck.  If you’re from Rhum there is a good chance you have a pocket on the front of your lederhosen.  From Garnock?  belt pouch on the right side.  Does it matter?  It does if the GM wants someone to try and pick your pocket!

Fashion does matter, more often to differentiate people, but sometimes in battle conditions.  Knowing things like this can make it vastly easier on GMs.  If the GM says, you look down and your coin purse is gone - does the player immediately start arguing saying, he can’t get my coin purse - I keep it in my underwear?  OK, maybe I went too far there, but in any case, the GM can say - dude - you’re wearing a kilt, so you have no underwear.  Your coin purse was that fur thing hanging in the front.  If the GM actually knows, it solves the argument. 

For when the player still wants to argue, the GM needs to say, “All those times you walked into the bar and paid for drinks - Did you really stick your hands down your pants and into your underwear, because I wasn’t reducing you carousing chances with a -150% as I should have.  Again, a little harsh, but you can say - you agreed that you did not stick out, which means you followed normal fashion rules, which means you had the central hanging purse.  At least I hope that works for you.  Sometimes it works because it should, and sometimes it works because BSing with authority works.

Running your players through something like our Forsbury After Hours encounters is the perfect time to force fashion on them.  Adventurers wind up in bars and bar patrons often wind up flirting with other bar patrons or the bar staff.  Just like in the real world, if you are walking around the bar dressed either for a night of camping in the snow or for a military encounter, you are going to be pointed at and probably mocked.  Does that matter?  Maybe not.  Maybe all of these player characters are truly humble people who simply cannot be bothered with how their peers and hopeful romantic encounters perceive them.  Yeah -That’s a lie.

Reminding your players how ridiculous their characters look sitting in a bar in full plate armor should be easy.  “Hey Lancelot - worried about getting poked with a toothpick?”  “Armor?  In a tavern?  How chicken $#!+ are you?”  “Is that your sword or are compensating for other short items around your belt?”  Chances are, your players just might start to think through what is socially allowable and what is just plain silly.