Back in high school when I GMed Robotech in a New Generation era campaign... my players would never take off their Cyclone armor.  Ever.  Even in a friendly bar where no trouble was expected.  No matter what I did, I couldn't shake them out of their armor, so after a couple of sessions I just gave up and planned around it.

Oh yeah, sidearms are definitely in my games. People are expected to eat with something sharp when sharing a meal. For example knives are quite common, they are utilitarian and often a utensil. Etiquette may restructure their domestic use into something more genteel, but barring rare security locations no one is going to freak out over most everyday sidearms.

But Bren is absolutely right, there is an issue of degree. Halberds and the like are martial items, not everyday items. Unless a recognized authority and given contextual license, it would be more distressing than not to the public to parade around in gear ready for war.

Quote from: RPGPundit;841352I've found that in most D&D games, it's totally typical that a PC might go do his shopping in the middle of the city wearing plate mail and armed with a half-dozen weapons.

Of course, this is totally ridiculous from any kind of 'historical' perspective.

Do you usually do things like this in your fantasy games? Or do your fantasy-medieval cities actually have weapon/armor control laws?

Leather is the heaviest allowed.

A topic of much debate among my players...

Quote from: RPGPundit;841352I've found that in most D&D games, it's totally typical that a PC might go do his shopping in the middle of the city wearing plate mail and armed with a half-dozen weapons.

Actually, I've never had players walk around with a 'half-dozen' weapons.  They usually just carry one, their main one.  No one carries daggers, or short swords or hand axes, or anything that could be classified as a backup, or side arm, it's always their main weapon and maybe a throwing/ranged.  That's it, that's been it since 2e.

I wish players would carry a half-dozen, then maybe we could have them wandering around without the biggest meanest looking toys they got.

Minor tangent: I'm finishing up my second play-through of Ventica at present and since reading this thread have started having Scarlett (the protagonist) walk around in regular clothes if I know she's not going to be fighting. It makes absolutely no difference mechanically and means I have to go into the menu to equip her armor every time I venture out at night or head into the catacombs, but I find I'm rather liking the minor immersion boost.

I think I'm going to do the same with my character during game night this weekend. Maybe I can make it a thing with the rest of the party, or at least have fun with the discrepancy. "Look, wearing your armor and being scary and off-putting everywhere you go is great for the crazy dwarf with his own personal wurstmeister and the giant blacksmith-turned-apparent-steel-golem, but I'm the one expected to actually talk to people and smooth out the wrinkles in deals so I need to look presentable. Besides which, I have a reputation to uphold."

If I may be permitted to make another slight tangent...

It's much the same with modern games. Some games (very pulpy ones) allow players to have gunfights with minimal interference or repercussions (look at what Dr Jones gets away with on the silver screen). Other games will enforce the fact that the use  - or even carrying - of firearms tends to attract the sort of attention the PCs don't need.

In many D&D games, going armed and armoured 24/7 is the norm, and sort of fits the worldview of the game. In other D&D worlds and other fantasy games, such behaviour just seems silly. If the players stick to the conventions of the game setting, there tends to be no problem.

In one modern day game I ran, a player was always wanting to wear body armour, even when nipping out to the corner shop for a pint of milk. I suspect his PC was armoured and tooled up while watching tv in the evenings.

It depends on context.

If you walk around with a pistol in a shoulder holster in the UK, expect to be shouted at by a lot of armed police pointing guns at you. Do the same in the US and someone might ask for a permit.

If you walk around with a Kalashnikov in the UK, the police would probably shoot you, do the same in some parts of Africa/Middle East and nobody would bat an eyelid.

Walking around in armour/with weapons in a fantasy setting is probably the same.

Quote from: Opaopajr;842998Oh yeah, sidearms are definitely in my games. People are expected to eat with something sharp when sharing a meal. For example knives are quite common, they are utilitarian and often a utensil. Etiquette may restructure their domestic use into something more genteel, but barring rare security locations no one is going to freak out over most everyday sidearms.

But Bren is absolutely right, there is an issue of degree. Halberds and the like are martial items, not everyday items. Unless a recognized authority and given contextual license, it would be more distressing than not to the public to parade around in gear ready for war.

This is one of the issues when trying to put historical context onto a fantasy game.

Quote from: soltakss;843142It depends on context.

If you walk around with a pistol in a shoulder holster in the UK, expect to be shouted at by a lot of armed police pointing guns at you. Do the same in the US and someone might ask for a permit.

If you walk around with a Kalashnikov in the UK, the police would probably shoot you, do the same in some parts of Africa/Middle East and nobody would bat an eyelid.

Walking around in armour/with weapons in a fantasy setting is probably the same.

It is somewhat contextual.

In a country called Trabler, the more outskirt towns still consider it gauche to wear full armor in social situations but weapons are easier.  And at night, no one really bothers unless you are in the center of town.

Flash down to the capital, Igbar, and you'll get laughed at for wearing anything but town armors, and arrested for anything but dress blades or daggers.

I realized that this was a trope in D&D, so I started saying that my character took his armor off. Now I think we usually have armor off when in town.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;843110It's much the same with modern games. Some games (very pulpy ones) allow players to have gunfights with minimal interference or repercussions (look at what Dr Jones gets away with on the silver screen). Other games will enforce the fact that the use  - or even carrying - of firearms tends to attract the sort of attention the PCs don't need.

Good point.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;843110In one modern day game I ran, a player was always wanting to wear body armour, even when nipping out to the corner shop for a pint of milk. I suspect his PC was armoured and tooled up while watching tv in the evenings.

Some people just want to play Frank Castle.

Quote from: Sommerjon;843150This is one of the issues when trying to put historical context onto a fantasy game.

It's not an issue at all because it only requires putting fantastical magic into an historical context and extrapolate logical human responses to such.

Hey, I studied magic, obscurantism, and the occult from multiple cultures, in its varied contexts from anthropological lens to its own cultural viewpoint. For many real world human societies magic was explicitly viewed as a natural part of the world and proscribed a framework for dealing with it. That already provides a myriad of solutions to deal with the magic of fantasy.

The problem is nowhere as unresolvable as you suppose.

Quote from: Jame Rowe;843160I realized that this was a trope in D&D, so I started saying that my character took his armor off. Now I think we usually have armor off when in town.

Also my main character would walk around with just shield, which was slung on his back, and sheathed longsword. Of course, he was a noble, so he had the right.

If my Traveller scout goes armed he usually just carries his gauss pistol in an undercover holster, even though he has a noble-granted Imperial level firearm license. Not for being subtle but for less attention.

Quote from: Opaopajr;843235It's not an issue at all because it only requires putting fantastical magic into an historical context and extrapolate logical human responses to such.

That is the problem, you're making it a historical context.

Quote from: Jame Rowe;843160I realized that this was a trope in D&D, so I started saying that my character took his armor off. Now I think we usually have armor off when in town.

I think it also depends what you are playing.  In Game of Thrones (a fantasy TV show on HBO) they have a group called the Kingsguard.  They are often in armor when on duty, even when it's clear that they would prefer not to (see Jamie Lannister in Season one).

In the same sense, modern police officers wear vests on duty all of the time, and I would be surprised if politicians and bodyguards did not do so as well.  It's all context -- if it looks like you should be in armor than maybe this won't be a big deal.  And there is always somebody in the party for whom at least one warrior could be a bodyguard.