Quote from: Votan;844053First, it is quite possible to walk around in armor.  Let's ignore full plate for a moment -- Roman legionnaires marched all day in either lorica segmentata (banded?) or mail (chainmail suit?) followed by putting up a camp (that involved digging and tree cutting.  

Even in relatively comfortable lorica hamata (mail), which is basically an armoured tunic, not the full-body suit of a medieval soldier, it's still hot and smelly. Legionaries might labour in armour if they were in hostile country under the expectation of being attacked, but there's no way they'd choose to wear armour if there was no cause to.

Furthermore, if any of those legionaries were natives of the capital and went home, they wouldn't be allowed to wear that armour in the city. The only person allowed within the boundaries of the ancient city walls (the pomerium) was the Master of Horse, a temporary title granted to a senator in emergency.

That ban on armour and weapons in the city is why much of the political violence of the Republic's later years involved bands of thugs and men keeping their clients around them, not soldiers or mercenaries fighting in the streets.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;844133And depending on period, there's a difference between "armed" and "carrying a weapon."  In medieval England a person not wearing armor was "unarmed" no matter how many weapons they had.

A knight in medieval London was allowed to carry a sword, but they didn't traipse around in full armor.  And everyone carried a dagger and nobody said boo.

Exactly. Armour is a big deal, you don't wear armour in a settlement unless you've got good reason to. Same as wandering around in body armour in any modern city is going to get the police called out pretty rapidly unless you're already in uniform.

I wasn't aware it was an issue so much as I don't tend to run a lot of fantasy. This thread was very enlightening on a subject I wasn't informed on.

Of course, I think it also depends on your setting as well. Golarion for example, being a high fantasy Dungeons and Dragons setting...well wearing Armor in town probably doesn't cause anyone to bat an eye...

In the Adventure I'm currently running for LtFP "Better than any Man" there are refugee's and an army coming, and sacked cities..so people in villages and towns at the moment, aren't to surprised seeing people wearing armor who might be passing through...

For my more down to earth fantasy games now, however, I think I'll enforce this cultural custom.

Quote from: Sommerjon;844125Soon as you admit that wearing armor in town has as much logic and consistency as not wearing it.  Both are historically accurate.  Funny how that part is being neglected here.

Seriously, are you STILL at it?  Woodsmoke may have a point; we're feeding the trolls here.

But let me echo Asen: I would be very interested to hear your "historically accurate" citations of people casually walking around cities in plate armor.  (Or else I would be interested, if you weren't just deliberately trying to bullshit us, and probably hoping that there's not a single medieval historian on this forum.  We do tend to neglect things that just aren't true.)

Kiero also raises a related example with legionnaires, something else most RPGs and tabletop groups either ignore or had no awareness of in the first place: armor is hot, sweaty and uncomfortable for long periods.  Roman officers had the devil's own time getting legionnaires to wear armor on route marches through hostile territory, and often couldn't.  Two millennia later, US infantrymen in Nam weren't much more enthusiastic about wearing helmets, and a lot of troopers stuck with boonie hats.  

Now maybe your personal experience of all this is gaming in an air conditioned living room, balancing dice and Doritos bags on your belly.  Fair enough.  For others of us, our experience comes from the SCA, reenactors and/or combat LARPs.  Never mind wearing armor -- I wasn't enthusiastic about wearing wizard's robes at 90 degree summer events, and cajoled my wife into whipping me up a couple Turkish-style eteks out of light linen to go along with cotton gauze harem pants.  Our LARP would've had dozens more casualties if people wore historically accurate mail, complete with heavy wool quilted gambesons beneath, rather than faux link shirts or sleeveless leather vests for fiat armor.

Anyway, I'm rambling.  Honestly, you were better off sticking mulishly to your original premise: "I don't know shit and I don't care, fantasy means I can do whatever I want."

Quote from: Orphan81;844219I wasn't aware it was an issue so much as I don't tend to run a lot of fantasy.

It isn't an issue.

In games, PC walk around in armour, unless they are not allowed to.

On forums, it is a much bigger issue, blown out of all proportion, as with many issues.

Quote from: Ravenswing;844223Anyway, I'm rambling.  Honestly, you were better off sticking mulishly to your original premise: "I don't know shit and I don't care, fantasy means I can do whatever I want."

Quite. Some people like to play in campaign worlds that actually make some kind of sense, making reference to and drawing upon the real world when appropriate. The fact that it's "fantasy" doesn't mean human behaviour, anatomy, economics or whatever else is entirely upended and our understanding of them is made irrelevant for the most part.

My group applies the same thing to modern campaigns (like our current Werewolf game set in modern Paris). If you do noisy, destructive things, people call the police. My character used to be part of a dodgy government agency, and is on a watch-list. Thus he's careful when he goes out in public to watch for tails, avoid CCTV cameras and so on. That enhances the experience of the game for me, things operate as we'd expect them to in reality.

Quote from: soltakss;844231On forums, it is a much bigger issue, blown out of al proportion, as with many issues.

Oh, de doo dah day.

We have a winner.

If you think people are being strict using real world references about people in armor, you should look about real world references about people casting magic. If you are a stranger looking like you're making V, S, M bippity boppity boo, (i.e. not a recognized 'licensed' part of the social fabric, often the community shaman, priest, magician, or sorcerer,) then "you gon' die!" You got to take extra pains to create setting societies where being armed and casting magic without control is the acceptable norm, particularly about the unintended societal consequences. The default state among humanity is "oh hell no!" and thus the more easily relatable for actual play.

Quote from: Opaopajr;844303If you think people are being strict using real world references about people in armor, you should look about real world references about people casting magic. If you are a stranger looking like you're making V, S, M bippity boppity boo, (i.e. not a recognized 'licensed' part of the social fabric, often the community shaman, priest, magician, or sorcerer,) then "you gon' die!"

I don't see a problem here.

Quote from: AsenRG;844310I don't see a problem here.

Townspeople would not have forgotten this incident>

If Magic Missiles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Magic Missiles.

JG

Quote from: AsenRG;844175Not familiar with Aldea, sorry. The name seems to ring a bell, which might mean that I've seen it or even played in it, but likely shortly and a while ago.

Aldea is the Blue Rose setting. Its the Romantic Fantasy genre game,   good system (A True 20 variant)  and tolerable  though "progressive" political setting. I like it much better than I should to be honest.

Quote from: AsenRG;844175(Also, 16th century plate is neither awkward nor uncomfortable, as it's fitted on the specific wearer. It is, however, hot inside, indeed, which tends to make it uncomfortable with time;)).

I've only worn mail for brief time  so I don't have first hand experience with plate I  know that the armor is maneuverable and not awkward, you can even do acrobatics in it  but it takes what two people to don and wearing 60-70 pounds of metal and linen can't be terribly comfortable over the day. Certainly manageable and you can even sleep in it   but it not fun.  People except for peddlers don't wear packs for similar reasons.

Also though highly game specific to my world, most of my game world Midrea is fairly warm,  a mild Mediterranean climate. Doubly nasty.

Quote from: James Gillen;844319If Magic Missiles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Magic Missiles.

JG

You're just afraid the King is going to come into your home and take your wands away! Well you're completely wrong!

No matter what the KWC (Kingdom Wand Collective) says...the new Monarch has made no legislation to outlaw spell attacks for personal defense! What we need is registration for our wizards at all proper academies!

Quote from: Orphan81;844398You're just afraid the King is going to come into your home and take your wands away! Well you're completely wrong!

No matter what the KWC (Kingdom Wand Collective) says...the new Monarch has made no legislation to outlaw spell attacks for personal defense! What we need is registration for our wizards at all proper academies!

I've long thought that any Lawful kingdom/society in D&D would have a method of licensing all users of magic, whether Magic Users, illusionists, Clerics, Druids or whatever. Seriously, having people wandering around being able to cause mass destruction is dangerous and not wanted.

Licensed people would be legally allowed to use their magic, under set conditions. Break those conditions and you could lose your licence. Annoy the rulers and you could lose your licence. Not pay your annual fees and you could lose your licence. Losing your licence means that you cannot cast magic.

The idea of having Wizards study for a CertMgc, DipMgc, BMgc, MMgc,DMgc, or the equivalent -Ill or -Nec has always appealed to me.

Quote from: jeff37923;844313Townspeople would not have forgotten this incident.

Which exemplifies my earlier point about "Sometimes walking around town in full gear is advised."

If being it town can still get you attacked by "random fruitcake wizard" on a spree. Then you are going to have to treat being in town as no different from being in the wilderness.

In AD&D in a city you had a chance of an encounter every 3 turns  with encounters including, Assassins, Bandits, Demons, Devils, Doppelgangers, all the way up to Vampires and Liches. For perspective. That is 2 checks per hour in an AD&D city. (Rounds were 1 minute, Turns 10 minutes.) With a 1 in 20, or 1 in 6 depending on how you read it, chance of an encounter happening. with about a 15-25% chance of something potentially bad encountered in the daytime and 40-50% at night. Luckily most of the monster stuff did not come out till night.

"And you expect us to walk around with no armour or weapons? Yeah riiiiight. Sure we are gov."

Quote from: Ravenswing;844223But let me echo Asen: I would be very interested to hear your "historically accurate" citations of people casually walking around cities in plate armor.  (Or else I would be interested, if you weren't just deliberately trying to bullshit us, and probably hoping that there's not a single medieval historian on this forum.  We do tend to neglect things that just aren't true.)

Nah not this time.
You've given no proof to fit your narrative.  Why do I have to?