How important is the character's appearance in your games?

I know that in real life people expect you to "dress the part" but I don't often see where the character's appearance matters.

Yes, you could consider Wizards wear robes, Thieves can only wear leather armor type of thing but is that it?

Appearance is not that important in most of the games I run, apart from Runequest, where what the character is wearing can directly influence how people interact with them (if you're studded with death runes, people react to you differently than if you have the odd earth rune showing).  

But in some of the games I play in, especially cyberpunk style games, appearance can be pretty important. If you don't look cool, you're no one.

Quote from: spon;1099362Appearance is not that important in most of the games I run, apart from Runequest, where what the character is wearing can directly influence how people interact with them (if you're studded with death runes, people react to you differently than if you have the odd earth rune showing).  

But in some of the games I play in, especially cyberpunk style games, appearance can be pretty important. If you don't look cool, you're no one.

Not looking cool and being no one can be an advantage as often as a disadvantage.  What bugs me are players that make their characters with only one look in mind.  Doesn't matter to them what their character is doing,  that one signature outfit is worn for all occasions.

Quote from: Greentongue;1099360How important is the character's appearance in your games?

I know that in real life people expect you to "dress the part" but I don't often see where the character's appearance matters.

Yes, you could consider Wizards wear robes, Thieves can only wear leather armor type of thing but is that it?

My players need to have a picture of their character. It gets used for the online games. It also gets put on their character sheet. They have to look the part, of course. And pictures will change during a campaign as well.

We mainly play TotM so appearance is not really a big part of our game and does lead to occasional hilarity when someone imagines that the whole party are Androids.

Having at least one picture for your PC sounds like a good idea though, so I will get them to do that for my Age of Ashes campaign that is kicking off tonight.

Seems to me that more games should include reaction roll modifiers based on the characters clothing. It certainly effects how the character react to others.
The GMs description of a NPC has a huge effect so, why wouldn't it work the other way too?

Quote from: Greentongue;1099693Seems to me that more games should include reaction roll modifiers based on the characters clothing. It certainly effects how the character react to others.
The GMs description of a NPC has a huge effect so, why wouldn't it work the other way too?

Like the metagame idea that a group of PCs can always "detect new PC" when looking around the tavern by simply noting who is armed & equipped far beyond the norm.

Quote from: Greentongue;1099360How important is the character's appearance in your games?

As important as a mustache to a French waiter!!!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/french-mustache-strike

Quote from: Greentongue;1099360I know that in real life people expect you to "dress the part" but I don't often see where the character's appearance matters.

It matters for immersion. If PCs don't have pictures, I want a short description of what you look like so everyone at the table can imagine what you look like. Even if its "Engyor is a dwarf, but shorter and fatter than most who wears his graying hair in long artistic braids. His armor is covered in dents, and it looks handed down for generations." That's enough for a mental picture.

Also, in game, it matters for interacting with NPCs. Most NPCs will judge a book by its cover.

Quote from: Greentongue;1099693Seems to me that more games should include reaction roll modifiers based on the characters clothing. It certainly effects how the character react to others.

The computer game Kingdom Come: Deliverance had this. If your clothing was well-made and freshly-laundered, this gave a bonus to friendly interactions; torn up and dirty, a malus. If you were covered in blood and gore, this gave a bonus to intimidation and a malus to friendly interactions.

At one point I tried to introduce some house rules to this effect.

Uninterrupted sleep in warm bed, +1 Con.
Good meal prepared by a professional cook, either meat (Str), vegies/etc (Con) or tea (Dex)
Barber visit, +1 Cha
Fine clothes (+100% cost) on day worn, or readied by professional valet, +1 Cha.
Listen to ballad by a scop, +1 WIS

but the players didn't seem too interested.

I go the opposite route. If your dressed inappropriately, you take negative to CHA checks with the NPCs. AKA, if you want a favor from the local lord, you invest in tailored robes and finery before showing up at his event.

Its the same thing at the tavern. Who's the clientele? Merchants, bards, bawds and travelers. In walk six heavily armed and armored strangers. That's gonna change the mood of the place.

Players mostly only care about combat, but one can make a strong case that appearance is important in combat, too.

I've seen someone on another forum reason that spellcasters absolutely should wear long sleeves and wide-brimmed hats to help conceal their somatic and verbal components from enemy spellcasters; this would have the effect of making their spells harder to read and thus more difficult to encounter.

It depends on the game and the setting.

If you are playing Wizards in Discworld, then you may well come up with the problem described in one of the books, where the Unseen University Faculty was trying to sneak somewhere in disguise, the problem was they wouldn't take off their pointy hats or shave their beard, the solution, of course, was to stick little wires behind their ears and make it look like they had fake beards, so they appeared to be disguised as Wizards. Genius.

In a game where tribal membership is important, you might wear particular clothing, so one tribe might always wear kilts and another might always wear trews, so a kilt-wearer disguising themselves by wearing trews might be a really big thing.

An Orangeman PC probably wouldn't wear green, so would be difficult to disguise if green had to be worn.

However, in a setting where that sort of thing was not important, it wouldn't matter if you wore jeans and a T-Shirt or a suit and tie, had a beard or moustache or were clean shaven.