Girl Gamers: How does your character dress?

[LordFluffy]

As I know a lot of RPG art tends to run towards the "adolescent male fantasy", I'm curious about how women dress their characters. I've known some who have fully (and usually ironically) embraced the "chain mail bikini" thing (a female friend of mine once played a paladin whose primary weapon was "gazongas", complete with a break-away breast plate in her armor). I've known some people who have gone hard in the other direction, either making their characters either butch or asexual.

So, I'm curious: How do you dress your character? What game and what settings?

[Ravens_cry]

RPG art is one thing, but not everyone, male or female, dresses their characters like that.
Personally ,I like to research arms and armour online with the help of google, and cobble something together that looks the way I want.
My only real concession to fantasy tends to be breastplate.
I never use things like cleavage windows in chain mail or midriff exposure that basically says "Insert sword here."
Less martial characters will dress differently, but I try to keep within the bounds of taste and sanity.

[Ajadea]

My characters tend to dress in a very practical manner, when I describe their clothing at all. In a typical pseudoEuropean fantasy setting, this means a lot of dusty brown or grass-stain green, because then they can get away with not doing the laundry. The heavily armored girls probably look like really short boys until they speak, on account of everyone in full plate looking like a fat guy in a skirt.

I focus on the expressions and actions of the character. Clothes are tertiary concerns at best.

[Righteous Doggy]

I've seen and imagined alot of different outfits. It depends heavily on the person. I don't think everyone sees it as an uber serious life, or as a sulty adventure in seduction. just like people in real life theres a variety! Personally I like it when its in between, not too realistic so we can have our fantasy but still not a bikini made of metal. Attractive with class!

[Fallbot]

For the most part it depends on the character, although I tend towards the drab and practical, and if they're going to wear armour, then they're probably going to expect it to fulfill it's function. So no cleavage windows.

[gbprime]

I've got 3 female gamers in my group right now. The youngest tends to play asexual or very-non-human characters and just steer clear of the issue. The other two (her mother and her aunt) are concerned mainly with practicality. Their tendency is to wear things that prevent sunburn and chafing, but if their character is pulling a con and they have an option to use the "hey pal, eyes up here" effect as a tool, they will. Just not at the expense of armor class.

There's a time and a place for every outfit. And your average adventurer should be far more concerned with thorn bushes, splinters, windburn and sunburn then their miniature would otherwise indicate.

[Strawberries]

I focus on the expressions and actions of the character. Clothes are tertiary concerns at best.

Same here, but when I do, I generally go for long skirts and blouses for the non-melee types, and pants, blouse and armor for the melee characters. Proper armor, which means it probably looks bulky and ugly, but hey. I'm not a fan of female fantasy armor at all....and if I'm wearing armor, it means I'm expecting to go to battle, not looking for the man of my dreams

Also, my female characters with long hair tend to wear it tied back. As a woman with long-ish hair myself, I know how uncomfortable it is when it keeps getting in your face, especially with the wind. I shudder to think having to cast a fireball with hair flowing all around you…

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm playing a rogue in a PbP right now, and this is what I put on her character sheet:

She's wearing a goldenrod shirt and blue pants with gray boots; the coat is her leather armor. I was experimenting with designs and wanted something that looked good while still seeming functional. I hope I did well...

[Ashtagon]

In a modern (20 minutes into the future) campaign, my character (an actress with unlocked psychic potential) tends to dress in long coats with jeans and a tee shirt underneath.

[joe]

I have three girls in my gaming group. The first is my wife, whose character was dressed in a full suit of leather armor with blue fur trim.

The second is her sister, who dresses in regular clothes, but is completely about the cleavage plate in battle. (With a holy symbol tattooed below her neckline)

The third is her friend, who usually makes scantily clad spellcasters, and would definitely be in the chainmail bikini crowd.

[Terraoblivion]

Quite varied and depending heavily on characters. Look at my current ones and the two I'm using to apply for in a pbp game at the moment they dress as follows:

One is a Prussian officer in the middle of a desperate war and dresses in a Prussian military uniform pretty much all the time. The one time she had to go to a fancy ball she wore a big, poofy, expensive dress that was deliberately intended to be attractive.

The second one is a working class mercenary who dresses purely practically as she has a rough job and is perpetually short on money. She probably does go for a kinda butch style.

The third one is mostly practical, but that's largely for ideological reasons and she still tries to go for practical clothes that are clearly aimed at women.

A fourth one is a royal concubine in fantasy China, she almost always dress in expensive, flattering and completely impractical silk dresses. However, since it's a wuxia story they don't impair her in any way and she still kicks ass while being quite girly about clothes.

The fifth and sixth are Touhou characters and thus generally quite girly looking. Specifically Alice Margatroid and Keine Kamishirasawa.

The final character I currently play is a somewhat tomboyish female samurai who still does dress in floral pattern kimonos and such when not actively serving on the frontlines.

One of the two I'm currently working on dress in the cuter, girlier Japanese style of punk.

The other is most connected with what is essentially a female cut of an 18th century'ish military uniform intentionally meant to flatter her figure. Otherwise she dresses as she pleases which means everything from expensive suits tailored to fit the shape of her body to expensive dresses to subcultural fashion. She's very definitely rather butch, but also quite sexual and very interested in and good at looking her best, which just happens to often be kinda masculine or androgynous.

So, really, all over the damn place, but I do tend to go for things I personally find attractive. There is definitely an element of both wish fulfillment in getting to play characters who dress in ways I don't dare and sheer author appeal in thinking about them being hot. I don't let that stop me if something else fits the character better, though.

[lotusblossom13]

Well, my first character was a cleric of Pelor. She dressed in full plate armor and was very strict, so I could not imagine her wearing something revealing even on her downtime.

My second character is male, so probably excluded from this thead, but he wears full military uniform.

I have to say that though I have not played characters who wear revealing clothes, I would not be adverse to playing one.

The major determining factor which would affect my character's dress would be whether or not my character would wear it. So, palladin or cleric of a very strict religion, probably not, but a bard or a flirty wizard whom armor would not help anyway, probably yes.

Really I think the most important thing is having an outfit that matches the character's personality.

[Knaight]

Speaking as a male*, the absurd costumes in many of the books don't seem to see much use by anybody, male, female, or other. Speaking as a GM who has and has had several female players, I've seen a few trends. Characters sometimes have multiple sets of clothing, anything intended for combat is usually practical or near practical, and outside of it clothes tend to fit with settings. Occasionally someone will choose to go with a skin tight suit in a sci-fi game, or something low cut or midriff baring when not in combat in any number of games, but compared to, say, what people actually wear on highschool and college campuses there was nothing exceptional.

The closest I've seen to the "chainmail bikini" was a woman who insisted on specifying her character's cup size, and never dropped below a DD.

*More or less, but there's no reason to get into that.

[lady_arrogance]

I tend to play lots of male characters in RPG's, but I guess that point was discuss female character's dressing styles.

For female character's dresscode: it depends quite lot of setting (but so it does with male characters, too), and the personality/social class of the character.

I played Star Wars Saga edition with female Kaminoan, and her clothing were influenced with islamic dresses - lots of robes and scarves, sometimes burgha-like all-hiding -dress.

And now I'm playing Pathfinder with Pristess of Sarenrae, and she wear armor. Practical and not so different from male fighter's one. On occasion she's wearing the official robes of priest(ess) too, but it's not overtly sexy either.

Oh, for sexy/revealing outfits, I had once half-drow monk (in D&D3.5). She dressed up like harem-girl/exotic dancer, and was really prone to dash off without wearing anything at all.

And other females I've played with have had their characters dress from full-armor to scantily clad - formal wear to gang-rags. But mostly adventuring female characters tend to either wear men's clothing/armor (to hide their true gender or fit better in) or something sensible/practical. Pin-up cover art -girls are quite rare. On my gaming group at least.

[Dust]

As others have said, it depends heavily on both the setting and the character. While I've played the scantily-clad ex-slave, I usually gravitate heavily toward well-armored types that dress logically for the situation. I'd much rather play a devout paladin who believes that her beauty can be observed in the work she does lessening the suffering of others, than a 'Tee hee don't hit on me silly boyz' type.

[dsmiles]

I am a male, and I've never figured out what the big deal about clothing/armor choices is.

Of course, I use a kind-of-specialized-houserule that I first read in BESM: The Slayers d20. It states that armor can look however you want it to look, and it still has the same stats as regular armor. Example: Full Plate (AC +8/MD +1/50lb/x g.p.) is the same as a plate bikini that you write on your character sheet as "Full Plate" (Still AC +8/MD +1/50lb/x g.p.)

Does it really matter how it looks? It's a matter of personal choice, IMO, not something that should be wholly "one way or the other," with one way clearly being "wrong."
[/rant]

This having been said, my friend's wife games with us, and she goes about 50/50 between choosing a chainmail bikini or a full-on suit of chainmail, to use the most common example.

[Gnomish Wanderer]

I tend to dress my characters as I dress myself, so like many others have said in the thread it depends on the occasion. I tend for more thick trousers, so pretty much medieval-esque jeans, and a cotton (read: t-)shirt. Armour, in the few instances I've ever had characters that wear it, was worn realistically, so no different than a male character would.

[Shadowknight12]

I hate stereotypes, so practically all my male characters are attractive and dress in implausible, skimpy outfits while my female characters are average-looking or homely and dressed practically and according to their profession, culture, current weather and personal preference.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Practically and decently pretty much. Some have had tighter outfits than others, but if they're any type of melee character practicality comes first. And even if that's not an issue they're still not going to be showing of a lot of skin simply because that's not a practical way to travel. If it's cold it's harder to stay warm, if it's warm and sunny you're gonna have a very uncomfortable tan and so on.

During downtime some of them have had less practical outfits obviously, but not all of them.

And yes, my male characters do get the same treatment, it's simply a question of what makes sense. (Yes even for the half-dragons... even if they get out of the boots thing... XD)

[Serpentine]

Well...
My current character, a female dwarven Knight, currently wears a chitinous breastplate. I think it was loot... But it's definitely all practical. Looks like treated bug carapace, I guess. Underneath her armour, according to my character sheet, she wearsa leather dress with an underdress and nice boots (though they're probably pretty worn out by now).

My other current character, a male aasimar Sorcerer/Swordsage wears... Wait, I'll find the description.
He wears something like a Keikogi* of very fine silk the colour of the roof of the sky in late afternoon, delicately embroidered in intricate floral patterns the colour of forget-me-nots (as seen here, more or less).
Over this he wears a plain grey cloak.

My last one was a completely non-gendered warforged archer. He wore nothing that I recall.

Another recent character from a game which sadly didn't go anywhere, but which was explicitly inspired by the Dungeons and Dreamboats thread and included the Chainmail Bikini rules, was a female elven Paladin of Freedom. She wore armour that looked something like this:

Spoiler

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Or, if you prefer, like this:

Spoiler

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Then there was a character I haven't played for quite a long time, a female succubus/elf Ranger. She wore a set of leafweave armour set with a demon skull and horns and stuff she inherited from her grandfather - big, tough, scary and elven and very practical. On the other hand, another character - male elf Rogue - convinced her to go shopping for a fancy ball, so she also has a luxurious outfit including a dark red bosomy dress, red leather boots and lots of jewellery.

*like this:

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[Heliomance]

My current character wears a long and very elegant dress. Of course, she IS an illusionist...

[Heliomance]

My current character wears a long and very elegant dress. Of course, she IS an illusionist...

[Sith_Happens]

Well...
My current character, a female dwarven Knight, currently wears a chitinous breastplate. I think it was loot... But it's definitely all practical. Looks like treated bug carapace, I guess. Underneath her armour, according to my character sheet, she wearsa leather dress with an underdress and nice boots (though they're probably pretty worn out by now).

My other current character, a male aasimar Sorcerer/Swordsage wears... Wait, I'll find the description.
He wears something like a Keikogi* of very fine silk the colour of the roof of the sky in late afternoon, delicately embroidered in intricate floral patterns the colour of forget-me-nots (as seen here, more or less).
Over this he wears a plain grey cloak.

My last one was a completely non-gendered warforged archer. He wore nothing that I recall.

Another recent character from a game which sadly didn't go anywhere, but which was explicitly inspired by the Dungeons and Dreamboats thread and included the Chainmail Bikini rules, was a female elven Paladin of Freedom. She wore armour that looked something like this:

Spoiler

Show

Or, if you prefer, like this:

Spoiler

Show

Then there was a character I haven't played for quite a long time, a female succubus/elf Ranger. She wore a set of leafweave armour set with a demon skull and horns and stuff she inherited from her grandfather - big, tough, scary and elven and very practical. On the other hand, another character - male elf Rogue - convinced her to go shopping for a fancy ball, so she also has a luxurious outfit including a dark red bosomy dress, red leather boots and lots of jewellery.

*like this:

Spoiler

Show

All of your links and image links except the keikogi are broken.

[Serpentine]

Hm. They all work for me, and I don't think any of them are anywhere that would restrict viewing. Try refreshing?

[VeliciaL]

Hm. They all work for me, and I don't think any of them are anywhere that would restrict viewing. Try refreshing?

That's because they're probably still in your cache. They're broken for me too.

[Strawberries]

That's because they're probably still in your cache. They're broken for me too.

Yup, same here. Can't see any of them.

[denthor]

I am a man when I ran Holly a school trained fighter that picked up theif and mage in the end.

Her clothing change depending upon where she was.

In Italy she wore her school colors and was looking for a duel.

In Germany where she grew up she wore light chain shirt and was looking for a beer. Ok she was looking for a beer in Italy as well.

In the underdark she was long sleeves and chain shirt too cold. Still looking for a beer all she could find was case of 200 year old wine!!?? No wonder Dark elves were banned from the surface no decent drinks. She would have been Evil to if not for beer.

[PersonMan]

Going to the images gives me a 404.

[Tamer Leon]

Afraid I don't much care for the idea of wearing 'skimpy' clothing or armor.
I have a tendency to choose clothing that looks alright and distinguishes the character, but at the same time is practical, except in the case of characters who genuinely defined themselves by the impression they made on others. A red leather jumpsuit was appropriate for the Bard who lived and died by his reputation and how memorable he was to other people, but for a pragmatic sorcerer who'd grown sick of his robes catching on things, a simple shirt and pants served just fine.

In the case of female characters, which I play less often, things are similar. Some characters care about style, some don't. A blind monk has zero reason to care what she looks like, and so wears what's comfortable and practical. A warrior priestess knows what to wear at high-society events, but can most commonly be found in a simple, but practical, suit of armor, with a tabard worn over it to show her allegiance. Even when playing characters who 'should' be attractive and seductive, I tend for characters who wear clothing that leaves most to the imagination; a succubus NPC will dress less like a centerfold and more like Inara from Firefly.

[Serpentine]

Yup, same here. Can't see any of them.

That's because they're probably still in your cache. They're broken for me too.

Going to the images gives me a 404.

I get that I could see them because they're in my cache, but I don't understand why I'd be able to see them at all if you can't I just got the URLs from the last place I posted them, and put them in the right coding.
No, wait, it's doing it for me now. But I still don't understand why I'll try going to the original and stuff...
edit: Okay, I think I've figured it out. The internet I'm using randomly changes pictures to jpgs. Hopefully it's fixed now.