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Heroic Knight
 
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Last Login: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:46 PM
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| I personally don't have a problem with shiney plate. Some Greeks actually used to shine their armour for the effect. Black armour I have a problem with, only because it's worn by everyone. Leather armour is a very very good idea. Sadly most of teh leathers worn in larp constitute leather clothing and not armour. Boiled armour can be as good as plate if not better. Until the rain comes. I quite like Leather armour. Every one in metal armour seems a little silly. Both then and now it was rather expensive to wear. Small problem I have at LARP is lack of imaignation and snobish behaviour towards people who are doing their best with their stuff for the look they want with something they have made up. 
Fame and Fortune; DT/Ref/4th monsterSkullDuggery; Baron Tamworth Grim Faded Glory; Book Crossbowman "not a mage"
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Champion
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Famer3 (12/2/2007)
people who are doing their best with their stuff for the look they want with something they have made up. You can't say fairer than that.
-- -- -- Eos: Manius Shard. Upset. FnH: Officious Guard no.1
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Champion
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Last Login: Monday, December 01, 2008 6:24 PM
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| I think its greate people can suspend disbelife in regards to orcs, magic, deities but its completely inconsivable that they have come up with another dying techinque to make black easier. As for variety in our system we have a mixture of leather colours used, although most greaves and vanbraces do appear to be black dude to avalibility. Is the avalibility due to demand though....
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Eos: Sornasian: Gregory Patell; Burning Salamander; Fingers  Club Secretary Heroes and Heroines LARP
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I do talk a good fight
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Last Login: Saturday, November 29, 2008 11:45 AM
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Famer3 (12/2/2007)
Leather armour is a very very good idea. Sadly most of teh leathers worn in larp constitute leather clothing and not armour. Boiled armour can be as good as plate if not better. Until the rain comes. I quite like Leather armour. Every one in metal armour seems a little silly. Both then and now it was rather expensive to wear.
Boiled leather IS a type of armour (cuirboilli). Like you say, though, 90% of LRP "leather armour" isn't cuirboilli, & thus isn't armour...
Even cuirboilli has its problems -- enough rain or sweat, and it becomes a lot less useful (softer, easier to cut, often loses its shape).
The idea that boiled leather can be as good as steel plate seems somewhat fatuous, though! When it was used in Europe in the 14th-15th centuries, it was either as an augmentation for mail armour (early in that time period), or as tournament armour for the limbs in hot countries (later). Once plate armour was available it largely replaced mail & completely replaced the occasional cuirboilli additions (except for tourney use). I see no reason for it to do so if cuirboilli was better, given that cuirboilli would certainly have been cheaper. Apparently tests indicate that cuirboilli is actually less protective than quilted armour:
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_spot_quilted.html
Quilted or padded armours are what were used for lighter-armoured troops in the later middle ages. Quite often the better quality padded jacks would have a final covering of stag hide, at least on the torso, but the majority of the protective qualities came from 25 to 30 layers of cotton or linen.
Plate was actually pretty common in the late 15th century -- helmets, breastplates, gauntlets and even full harnesses ("Almain rivet", available in 3 slightly adjustable sizes) were mass-produced by that point. I very rarely see an excess of full plate harness at LRP events.
http://www.hyboriantales.com
PD: Ghostdance ("The most irritating curse I've ever encountered" -- NPC played by H.)
Riftworld: Rossar Kuug ("Clearly mad, because he thinks he's a Com-Trow Skirmisher" - Aela)
Hyborian Tales: Crew, cook, dogsbody, general labourer, toilet cleaner ("Dangerously overoptimistic ref" -- Tom Nowell)
Otherwise usually crew ("Quite spry & fit, & willing to wear a big costume & run around a lot" -- various event organisers)
"My other oversized foam weapon is THE LORD" -- Questionable Content
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Live roleplaying's greatest cheerleader...
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| I have a sneaking suspicion the Re-enactors giggle at the amount of black leather in LRP because of the 70/80’s Fantasy movie baddy thing. I was brought up on a diet of these bad yet excellent movies and still to this day if I do see the traditional black leather trousers and black leather armour I just have to giggle. Can’t help it. The other theory I have is that re-enactors feel repressed by their own hobby. Not being able to express themselves through costume or roleplay and that black leather represents freedom and something they just can’t have! They aren’t mocking LRPers, they envy the perceived freedom and the naughty overtones of black leather. So they just giggle a bit in a nervous way, then say 'black leather'....eh.....eh...wink...wink.
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RL: Mr Sofar
Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.
ShelfordFX
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Champion
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| sadly, from my experiance, re-enactors are happy to find anything bad to say about LRP. thats not to say all re-enactors, but certainly the ones I have encountered. Their is, like any hobby, a snob value attached to the higher levels of anything, and I suspect re-enactors often see themselves as more cultered, and harder too (they fight with real weapons you know! ) the issue I feel is not so much that black leather is cool, it's that it is easy to get, your main leather crafters seem to have black and brown, and black seems to be more readily available. I'm more surprised that the re-enactors don't mention the thickness and quality of the armour rather than it's colour! as previously said, larpers live in a world where magic, elves, dragon, orcs etc are common, so black armour shouldn't be any less believable. If you can regrow a limb with a spell, why can't you get black leather?! it only becomes an issue in semi historical larp, Viking for example, where, to their credit, I saw little black, and vibrant reds etc, and what I did see was on nobles.
EOS - Garak - G - Overworked Diplomancer (aka Drax's Bitch!)
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Knight
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| From a point of view from someone who makes and sells leather armour- LRP is mostly set in fantasy worlds, therefore greater scope and imagination can be used when designing armour, the leather should look and feel like armour i.e not soft, it does not need to be cuirboilli in LRP due to the fact that most swords are made of foam! We do not use clothing leather or suede as mainly because it is a very poor phys rep of armour, we mostly use 4mm veg tan/shoulder or higher , our bracers are normally two layers of 2.5mm and 1.5mm to bring them to a decent thickness and stiffness. We use black leather due to demand, i much prefer to use browns, which to me look much better and as a craftsman i enjoy working with natural colours and using dye's and finishes to get a look that i want, but that is my bias, many of our customers like black leather and there isn't a problem there, after all it is in a fantasy world, and so i've been told the customer is always right (apparently) If you see something for sale in Black and you would like it in brown, ask the trader, supply is not a problem, if they say it is, go to another one (to be honest we normally get asked the question the other way round!) And remember life isn't just Black and Brown, be imaginative Oh if someone ever says to you that leather armour isn't proper armour, ask them what their weapon is made of! nuff said!
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Wag
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hiffano (12/3/2007)
, and I suspect re-enactors often see themselves as more cultered, and harder too (they fight with real weapons you know! )
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They may carry metal weapons, they may even hit each others metal weapons,but very few of them actually "fight" with metal weapons (and of those who do, many are top level LRPers as well) so to be honest any percieved cultural high ground is at best- boggy.
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