Costuming questions!

Lemmonaid

Newbie
Hello! I have a few questions about costuming, specifically prosthetics and such.
First of all: are there restrictions on what colors MWE horns can be? Obviously no wildly bright things, but what about grey, or slightly shimmery horns, things like that.
And 2: if you have to buy new prosthetics (like ears) and you can't get exactly the same kind that you had before, will there have to be a plot explanation? or should we just not mention that our ears are slightly bigger, or slightly different shape.
 
I can't speak to horns but on ears I can chime in.

I don't think anyone pays that much attention to ears unless the chapter has a shape requirement in a culture packet for a type of Elf. Some times manufacturers change and/or ears change slightly. I don't think a slight change will be a big deal. I have been through 3 sets of ears since I started. All were just slightly diffrent in shape and size with none the wiser.

As long as you stick with the same type of ears you should be fine. By type I mean tips or points. You should try to stick with the type you started with for continuity.

There is a ritual that covers cosmetic changes if you choose to go from tips to point and plot might also be able to help you out if need be.

P.s. As a way ease yor worries and if you can swing it, buy a couple sets when you buy. Some times they get lost if you glue unsticks. It is always good to have spares. Plus if you don't lose any then you have a second set when the first set get all mucked up and need replacing.
 
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Hello! I have a few questions about costuming, specifically prosthetics and such.
First of all: are there restrictions on what colors MWE horns can be? Obviously no wildly bright things, but what about grey, or slightly shimmery horns, things like that.
This I would check with your New Player Rep or Plot team for the Chapter you'll be playing in. There may be requirements for horn color for the LCO (local chapter only) culture packet. In my chapter there is if you're playing from our culture packets.
If there's no restrictions, then wooo! I've seen all kinds of horns from different chapters. Currently mine are bright purple because of a plot related incident. My old ones were a natural bone/antler color to match my kinfolk's horns.

And 2: if you have to buy new prosthetics (like ears) and you can't get exactly the same kind that you had before, will there have to be a plot explanation? or should we just not mention that our ears are slightly bigger, or slightly different shape.

I personally haven't worried too much about this as I wear a wig, though I'm going to ditch it I think. But I play a rather young Sylvanborn so if anyone called me out on an ear change I could pass it off on aging. But I do tend to stick to smaller and similarly shaped ears if I replace mine (usually I replace them because they don't fit well -- I've got wee ears).
 
This I would check with your New Player Rep or Plot team for the Chapter you'll be playing in. There may be requirements for horn color for the LCO (local chapter only) culture packet. In my chapter there is if you're playing from our culture packets.
If there's no restrictions, then wooo! I've seen all kinds of horns from different chapters. Currently mine are bright purple because of a plot related incident. My old ones were a natural bone/antler color to match my kinfolk's horns.

Thank you! Where can i find those packets? Also, if I don't use the packets, do I not have to follow the rules?
 
Thank you! Where can i find those packets? Also, if I don't use the packets, do I not have to follow the rules?

This is the link to the National Race/Culture Packets. But what chapter are you going to be playing in? If you haven't gotten in contact with anyone there, I can help you get a hold of some one there to get your LCO packets! Each chapter has their own and don't publicly distribute them.

https://alliancelarp.com/forum/threads/national-race-packets.16480/
 
Thank you Kristina! I don't think I'll need the local packets, since my concept doesn't come from the area where my local game (HQ) takes place. I do have another question, if you don't mind. A lot of the costuming shown in the packet is fairly... revealing. Is that considered the usual for MWE's? I'm.. not going to be wearing a glitzy bikini to an event, and I would like to know if my character would be 'out of the ordinary' because of it.
 
Thank you Kristina! I don't think I'll need the local packets, since my concept doesn't come from the area where my local game (HQ) takes place. I do have another question, if you don't mind. A lot of the costuming shown in the packet is fairly... revealing. Is that considered the usual for MWE's? I'm.. not going to be wearing a glitzy bikini to an event, and I would like to know if my character would be 'out of the ordinary' because of it.
Oh no, not at all. In fact, if you look at the last sentence of the racial basics of the National packet, it states "Individual [Sylvanborn] may vary from prim to promiscuous, based upon their character concept."

My profile image is my Sylvanborn character. I'm fully covered. I live in the PNW. Our events are Fall through Spring so it's rain rain rain rain rain. Plus I'm not one to wear a skimpy outfit, that's not my jam. While many of us may be hedonistic, not all of us are, in fact my character is quite the opposite. She may talk a good game, but she never acts upon it. It's not how I want my character to be. So, you're able to wear whatever makes you feel comfortable in game for your garb. Don't bare more than you want, or cover up more that you think you should. Do what makes you feel comfortable and safe and what feels appropriate for the image of the character you have in your head.
 
I don't think I'll need the local packets, since my concept doesn't come from the area where my local game (HQ) takes place.

Chapters may have restrictions on what kind of backgrounds are and aren't allowed. "I don't match the packet because I'm the exception" often doesn't fly, because then everyone would try to play the exception. Talk to your local race marshall and/or plot team about your intentions here, they'll tell you if you need to use the packet.
 
Chapters may have restrictions on what kind of backgrounds are and aren't allowed. "I don't match the packet because I'm the exception" often doesn't fly, because then everyone would try to play the exception. Talk to your local race marshall and/or plot team about your intentions here, they'll tell you if you need to use the packet.

That seems like a strange restriction to have, considering that I could just have my character housed in someone else’s database and “visit” the place I’m actually playing in.
 
That seems like a strange restriction to have, considering that I could just have my character housed in someone else’s database and “visit” the place I’m actually playing in.

shrug it's a thing that can exist and one might want to be aware of if it exists in your neck of the woods. I'm not judging the thing, nor would I judge people who get around the thing by being from elsewhere. But, for example: https://alliancelarp.com/forum/thre...-and-character-history-tips-guidelines.29203/
 
Not to mention, you’ll probably have a better experience as a new character if you have some hooks into the setting.
 
I'm running under the assumption that Lemmonaid is a brand new player, and all I'm seeing here is people raining on her parade and excitement of joining our LARP. As a New Player Rep, this is extremely disheartening. We are supposed to a broad and welcoming group of people from all backgrounds and be helpful and supportive to new and interested players.
Having a background that is directly tied to the Chapter's World may or may not be a requirement. That would be up to the Chapter to let her know when she goes to finalize her character, and any good Player Rep or Plot team should be able to work with what she already has created and find a way to make it work within the confines of their existing realms. My plot team and I literally just spent the evening last night doing just that very same thing. Besides there could be something within that Chapter's culture packet that could be triggering to a player, everyone is different, and we have no right to assume their personal out of game background. We are not here to quash creativity, we are here to have fun, stretch the imagination and have role play, not force someone into a box.

There are many long standing players that play characters that exist from culture packets from lands that no longer exist. Chapters change campaigns, and lands disappear. Mists exist. Plot teams can approve player created culture packets - I play a character from one of those packets.

Having a hook into a setting doesn't mean you'll have a better experience, it's the people you're playing with, in my opinion that make you have a better experience. It's the role play, Oh, you're from somewhere new? Tell me about it, I want to learn. It's a give and take. Also it's the player's natural curiosity about the land they are in and how involved they want to be in the stories around them that make a good experience. What a player gives to plot during down times and what plot gives back to that player that gets them excited for the next game. That is sooo much more than a culture packet. And a lot of time a character's personal background may never even come up in game, so how much importance should we really, really put on that?

None of us are from HQ are we? We shouldn't tell a potential new player you can't do this, you shouldn't do this. This isn't how we do this in my chapter.

Please just think about how your words may negatively impact a new player coming into game for the first time, especially if this is something they have never done before. You may have literally turned them away from LARP forever because a chapter that's not yours is different.
 
Thank you Krystina. That is said exceedingly well.
 
Thank you Kristina! I don't think I'll need the local packets, since my concept doesn't come from the area where my local game (HQ) takes place. I do have another question, if you don't mind. A lot of the costuming shown in the packet is fairly... revealing. Is that considered the usual for MWE's? I'm.. not going to be wearing a glitzy bikini to an event, and I would like to know if my character would be 'out of the ordinary' because of it.

Its been years since I played my MWE at HQ, but when I did I wore plate armor and had probably as little skin showing as was possible. Here is a picture of our MWE's - probably at Caldaria, but we also played HQ.

tellossi_and_mori.jpg
 
Lemmonaid, my intention was not at all to be discouraging, and I truly hope I didn’t do so.

Krystina, thank you for pointing out how what I meant as helpful advice could be taken otherwise.
 
We are not here to quash creativity, we are here to have fun, stretch the imagination and have role play, not force someone into a box.

I agree. My comment was not intended to be negative or pessimistic, though I can totally see it being interpreted that way. I just think that if you have an unusual idea for your background, talking to plot about it rather than submitting it and seeing what happens might be productive. But I'm definitely not an authority on how HQ plot handles background submissions.
 
Aw geez this really blew up!! To be honest one of the reasons I didn't have my character be native to the HQ area is because I didn't have any Idea what the HQ setting was like!! My character was meant to be from the southern portion of the continent, chased up from her home by the floods. I'm hoping that would work? If anyone from HQ (or anyone, really) wants to bounce off ideas, I'm open to it!
 
I'm in SF, not HQ, but if you were in my chapter I'd advise you to reach out to your plot team for setting info. In addition to the LCO race packets that Krystina mentioned, there's often a lot of setting details that would be time-prohibitive to formally write down but can easily be conveyed in a more targeted conversation.

Having that setting connection is definitely something I've had positive experiences with, so I recommend it if it works for you and your plot team!
 
@Lemmonaid I did some poking around and it looks like if you email: characterhistory.ashbury@gmail.com they should be able to direct you in the right way in terms of the LCO culture packets and more detailed information about the world for HQ. They should also be able to work with you to take the ideas you already have and see if they can work within their current settings.

Unfortunately, since none of us in this thread are from HQ, our ideas while they may be fun and helpful for a random character development, may or may not work within HQ's world. We've all had different experiences with having our character's background be linked to the world or not. So definitely work with the HQ team to find the best fit for you! Plus there could be something super awesome in those packets that grab at you that you want to work into your background!
 
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