Costume Guide

Kit ideas for specific races and classes

Players are encouraged to break free of costume stereotyping when designing kit for their characters. However, you might find the following stereotypes useful. Also bear in mind that some types of character really *have* to wear a certain type of costume - for example soldiers and members of the City Militia have defined uniforms, and priests "on duty" will often wear a tabard showing the symbol of their religion.

Elemental Elves - Elves do not have to wear clothing of their elemental colour, but many do (if only because it flatters their skin-tone). They are also fairly likely to avoid wearing their opposing elemental colour. Elves will not wear metal armour or even excessively studded leather because of the bad effects they get from metal. If they have a weapon it may well be staff or a bow because those do not involve metal, although it is not unheard of to see an elf with a magical sword, particularly if they are a Warlock.

Kender - Kender usually dress themselves without any regard to whether the clothes they are wearing suit them or go with each other. Thus they tend to favour bright, garish clothes and are easy to dress from the "hideous" rack in the charity shop - if you can find two or three garish items that don't go together, wear them all at once and you'll fit in perfectly. If your hair is long enough (or you buy fake hair from somewhere like Claires Accessories) you can tie it up on top of your head in a high ponytail/topknot with lots of coloured bands and bits hanging off it. Kender are the one race where almost anything goes costume-wise (except white trainers and blue jeans) - even items such as tinsel and cat bells can be worked in successfully if you try hard enough.

Mages - Mages also tend to wear clothing in the colour of magic that they represent, although there is no need to do so. They also do not wear metal armour, as if they do they then won't be able to cast (They may however be quite keen on leather armour, because mages are not known for their physical strength and anything that helps in a fight is good). For the same reason they may prefer to carry a wooden staff or a dagger rather than a large sword. Mages often like to look impressive, so velvet and gold braid are good, as are brightly coloured clothes and large cloaks. There is no need for a mage to wear a hat but they often do. Every Mage carries a "focus" which is a small object that allows them to channel their power from their elemental plane. A focus is usually worn around the neck on a string or carried in a belt-pouch and can be any small robust object such as a large glass bead, a brooch or even a couple of sticks tied together with string if you get really desperate.

Scouts - Scouts rely on camouflage to do their job, so they will wear neutral, natural colours such as browns and greens. Blue is a no-no as it never occurs in Nature (and red is almost as bad). A clever scout will wear white and dark brown in the snow, for example - the woods are not the same colour all year round. A large cloak, (especially if patterned in woodland colours) can be a bonus for hiding under.

Warriors - Warriors will wear armour of some sort, usually over a simple tunic or shirt. They will almost always carry a sword or other weapon. "Full" armour could include gauntlets, greaves (shin-guards) vambraces (forearm guards) and a helmet as well as leather or metal armour on the torso. Adding a cloak to that will look very impressive but you might find it hard enough to fight as it is with that lot tied on.

Priests - This will depend on which religion they follow, but many priests tend to dress down, with a plain shirt or tunic and possibly vambraces/cloak. Many priests also wear a tabard showing the symbol of their religion- while this is by no means compulsory, in order to cast miracles, a priest must be able to see or touch a holy symbol even if it is concealed. Some churches tend to have stereotypical colours worn by their members- for example, Johnites often wear white, and Humacti and Azraelites black. Crafter is mostly worshipped by farmers and villagers, so his followers may well wear typical "peasant" costume.