Skip to main content

Medieval diet and clothing


Fantasy larps are typically set in the medieval-ish period, and feature recreating the atmosphere to some degree. And while few larps have requirements as strict as living history or reenactment groups (both for cost reasons and the fact that fantasy styling is not always medieval).

However, looking back at how they did it in Middle Ages can teach us a lot. Digging deeper into medieval lifestyle makes for a much more immersive larp experience, since it's more different than what you do in your regular life.

I'll talk about mailny two things here - clothing and diet. The reason why I chose to talk about them was that they're most visible difference - to those around us and to ourselves. And, they're easy to simulate - actually most advices here will be cheaper and healthier than what people usually do on larp.

They might seem drastic, but they're actually easy to get in. Then again, most people who read this won't follow up on the advice because it's probably out of your comfort sphere... but please consider them.

Diet is where you can save a lot. Grand feasts were usually the privilege of higher nobility. Poorer classes had a much different diet. Gruel and pottage were staple food - in first, you cook some grain in water (like oatmeal, grains need to be at least cracked), and in others some vegetables. Cook for a long time. You may add a bit of salt. It might not be the tastiest thing in the world, but it's actually healthier and cheaper than what most people eat today.

Also, people were often fasting, in various ways. Some recent research says that fasting (done in moderation, of course) can be healthy. Either way, it's different than today's lifestyle (not to mention free).

Clothes were done with specific patterns and of specific materials. Patterns were usually not cheap and simple - as most larp clothes is - but rather complex. Main guideline was to achieve savings on material used, and for a good reason. More material meant more work, because you didn't just buy the material for a cheap price: you usually had to shear a sheep, spin the wool into a thread, weave a fabric you desire, and then tailor it down and sew. All by hand of course.

You probably won't have the same opportunity to repeat the entire process from the beginning. But, if you use authentic designs and materials (such as linen, wool, fur etc) you'll find them to be quite functional. And besides, synthetic materials just don't have the same feel. By the way, this advice is the only one around here which will probably cost you more money, as natural materials such as wool stuff are quite expensive.

Good footwear for larp is probably the hardest thing to obtain, especially if you're a guy - women typically have a selection of passable boots and sandals, but men have a hard time finding medieval-ish footwear. Luckilly, you have a cheaper alternative - go barefoot! (unless you're playing a noble, again) It takes some time getting used to if you don't usually walk barefoot, but if you practice a few weeks you should be fine in nearly all conditions. And it's healthy. Just be careful not to get stepped on.

There. If you follow any of those advices, they'll probably make your larp experience deeper - by offering new sensations during larp - while they might improve your health and your wallet situation (except for the one with cloth types). They'll also improve others' experience as you'll put other players into more authentic situations.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The 15 rules of larp

The following 15 rules (warning: strong language) were written some years ago in Great Britain, and have been pretty much generally accepted on the British larp scene. Especially popular is rule 7 - widely known by its number and commonly considered to be the most imortant rule of all (and I agree). Even the biggest British larp forum has taken Rule7 as its name. The rules have been originally created by the Drunken Monkeys and edited by Rick Wynne who added some extra stuff in the explanations to make them more understandable to international audience (it still contains some British larp lingo though), more work-safe and to throw in his two cents. (copy of the original wording is available here ) 1. Don’t play a mighty warrior; play a warrior and be mighty. Don’t label your character. As soon as you say that you are the best swordsman in the land someone will come along and kick your ass. Just get into the mindset of the person and role-play it out. 2. No one cares about you...

Mind's Eye Theatre: Werewolf The Apocalypse rulebook review

Available on DriveThruRPG Just under three years ago I wrote a review for  Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade rulebook . It was the first book published by By Nights Studio, and a year later I reviewed one of its supplements - Storyteller Secrets . Now, after a long period of work, after the success of their kickstarter campaign, By Night Studios finally released the full version of the new larp rules for Werewolf the Apocalypse setting. This was preceded by various alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omega slices - each containing a different playtest version of the rules, slowly released from September last year until July this year. First impressions were that the artwork is very cool, and that the book is HUGE. Numbering at 762 pages, that's over 200 pages more than Vampire the Masquerade. But before I start going in-depth, I'd like to mention that this blog's readers come from various backgrounds - and I'll adjust my review accordingly. I assume I'...

Larps in EU

Today Croatia has acceeded into the European Union as its 28th state. EU has loads of diverse and different larp scenes and cultures in them. Some of them are local, some are national, some encompass all speakers of a certain language, some are regional, and some are world-famous. Here's a short window into a couple of EU larps and larp scenes, carefully selected and profiled by the criteria of "those I actually visited myself" and "those who bothered to answer my survey on facebook on a short notice", with a dash of "this is like elementary culture you should know". So this is not a full list - not even close - and not even the fully representative one, despite it being the largest post on this blog ever. Even keeping track of the Croatian scene is quite a job and there are still many language barriers around. But hopefully you'll find plenty of new and interesting material here. If you want your larp represented - whether it's battle...