WHAT IS LARP? @hunlarpfag - Tumblr Blog

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Allegedly according to tumblr this blog is 13 years now. In the last few years I didn't had much time or motivation to post here so I will just put a few pics here now from the bigger games I was so far this year (with the exception of Purges, because no photos yet about that one)

#larp

medievalsnippets

How a Man Shall be Armed. French Knight ca. 1415

Source

mastomysowner

Landsknechts in a tavern, 1520's by Nils Wadensten

Pay attention to the lower left corner😁🐭

pins-snip

Gabe Freeland took some lovely photos of us at Momocon!

prokopetz

RPG about/inspired by German Landsknechte where your clothing grants equipment bonuses based purely on what colour it is. A red tunic grants different bonuses from a blue tunic, which grants different bonuses from a yellow tunic, and so forth; there'd be different sets of colour-based bonuses for pantaloons, gloves, hats, etc. Striped, slashed, particolour, etc. garments would offer hybrid bonuses based on the specific combinations of colours involved (and potentially even those colours' locations; e.g., a tunic with two differently coloured sleeves which grants different bonuses to each arm) to further fine-tune your build. Basically, what I am describing is a game where you have a concrete mechanical incentive to dress like this:

prokopetz

#so the character sheet is pretty much a coloring book page #that would be neat (via @weilaverdui)

The character sheet would absolutely be a colouring book page.

tragedyposting

I disagree. If you’re going to be able to make ongoing changes, it should be a paper doll with an elaborate booklet of punch-out paper doll outfits.

prokopetz

I'm sure that would seem like a great idea right up until the moment a stray dice roll knocks your character's pants off.

not-this-crude-matter

How's that bad? I have yet to see anything in the proposal that says this game has to be about combat.

hunlarpfag

war is no reason for pants Also the color combination of red and green should give you additional bonus, and the combination of blue and brown should give you debuffs

deutsche-bahn

kleiner Legion-Photodump aus Nostalgiegründen.

Pictures by Very Guth Pictures

hunlarpfag

been there in that game, took the 9mm retirement plan, will do again.

Landsknecht Hurra, 2023

#reenactment #landsknecht

#larp #hungary

hunlarpfag

I made a new larp shield

Well I actually started to make three similar ones because that’s how much material I bought, but only planned to finish one just in the for Drachenfest. The other two will be finished later. Anyway the base of it is from 4,5mm thick ABS plastic, mainly because it’s durable and you can bend it easily if you put enough heat on it.

Also it’s kind of easy to cut it and sand it down (though you have to be careful, if you do it too fast it can start to melt from the friction)

This was the so to speak test version from the three planned shields, where I tried out the forms, so at the end my favorite shield would end up in a little different shape, with a better curve, but used this one to figure out the possible problems with the straps and padding.

At the end I decided for this kind of strap placement. Main reason was so that I can use it properly as a two point shield that isn’t too big, holding one of the straps in my hand. And also that it can be strapped fully to my arm, leaving my hand free and also out of the shield, so I can use a halberd with it.

then a few screws (because fuck it, nobody will see it when it’s finished) and buckles

Then one layer of foam as padding (had some leftover insulation foam that was 10cm wide, so I used it just to get rid of some) and several layers of textile. The red one is densely woven work cloth textile, had good experience with it in the past, the inside is just some random, kind of soft thing I had lying around. I think 6 layers of it went there plus the two layers of workcloth textile.Also the workcloth textile goes over the outside and sewn together at the outside of the shield so it has less chance to move and kind of fixed to it’s place without gluing

And this is now the actual shield that later finished, with better shape, while I glue sheets of eva foam at the outside of it. Also I decided that the padding’s over the outside part should be over the outside foam on this version as the foam sticks better to the plastic which surely won’t move. (Also for the middle part I cut out a little in the foam the places for the straps. In the end it slipped a little but still better than nothing) Obviously the edges got eva foam padding too.

And this is is after I glued the same textile as cover, that I used for the padding, over the outside of the shield. Also as it can be seen I painted the inside of the shield black, so it looks better in my opinion. The white sewing at top and bottom is for the cover and the padding so again, securing so neither of them would move much. Also that was my strongest leather sewing thread hence the color.

from the outside.

regular strapping

and with halberd during full on crafting frenzy.

BUT WAIT! THERE IS MORE!

I happen to have a friend, her name is Tünde Flesch who happens to be an aspiring artist and good with drawing, painting and the like (this is the place for advertisement) who I paid to bring something pretty on it. Something very specifically pretty on it.

In the end I think it turned out pretty well, will be a nice addition to my Landsknecht stuff.

hunlarpfag

so the shield I made back in 2019 worked quite well, and was very usueful. Also the ABS plastic I bought for it had material for two more of it, and back in the day I even cut out and shaped the two more, but they were put in the corner because of other projects.

This year though, I wanted to level up my group again, to be a little more overarching thematic, not just a bunch of hungarian landsknechts among other landsknechts. So among other things finished those two shields, got the original artist to draw two more pictures for them so it would look similar, but a little personal touch for everyone. And they are finally ready, though the painting part was done by other people

Hopefully we can stab a lot of people who would argue about grammar, not realizing that if they can read the text they are already in the danger zone (or shitposting range)

#larp #shield #drachenfest

hunlarpfag

If a Landsknecht tellerbarret goes through a metamorphosis first it wil shead it's feathers, then acquire new ones. The new, fancier feathers needs to be tied together in pairs or in some cases three piece at a time. Addattional shaping of the feathers may or may not happens.

Then in this case it starts to grow some additional layer on the brim and for a briefe period of time one could think it's for some very fashionable japanese guy

but at the end of the growing process this additional layer will curl up and rippen in proper landsknecht fashion.

Only time will tell how will be the feathers attached to the hat...

hunlarpfag

The hat grew some feathers finally. First the bigger, red ones that point kind of forward

Then with time the yellow side feathers hatched properly.

Contrary to popular beliefes the hat doesn’t use the feathers for flying. It’s mostly used in courtship and against it’s mortal enemies: doors and logistics. Anyway, Drachenfest soon fellow larpers

#Landsknecht #tallerberret

Then in this case it starts to grow some additional layer on the brim and for a briefe period of time one could think it's for some very fashionable japanese guy

but at the end of the growing process this additional layer will curl up and rippen in proper landsknecht fashion.

Only time will tell how will be the feathers attached to the hat...

#landsknecht #tellerbarret

cy-lindric

Progress on my current project ! Having some with stripes and slashing this time around. Didn't take any progress photos for the hosen/pants because it broke my brain a little, lol. I also started doing fingerloop braiding for the lacing cords.

I still have to fix a few things on there, including fixation on the brustfleck, and after that onwards to making the hat !

illustratus

Landsknecht with Halberd by Lucas Cranach the Elder

renard-des-marais

dresshistorynerd

So I got this tag on my answer to an ask about when it became acceptable for western women to wear pants, and you know it's all I need to go on a tangent.

I think the short answer here would be men have worn skirts as long as people have worn anything, so pretty long tbh. But since I am incapable of answering anything shortly, I think we can re-frame this question:

When did skirts stop being socially acceptable for men?

So let's start with acknowledging that tunics, togas, kirtles and such men wore through history were, in fact, skirts. I think there's often a tendency to think of these as very different garments from those that women wore, but really they are not. Most of the time they were literally referred to with the same name. (I will do a very broad and simplified overview of men's clothing from ancient times to Early Middle Ages so we can get to the point which is Late Middle Ages.)

Ancient Greek men and women both wore chitons. Even it's length wasn't determined by gender, but by occupation. Athletes, soldiers and slaves wore knee-length chitons for easier movement. Roman men and women wore very similar garment, tunics. Especially in earlier ancient Rome long sleeves were associated with women, but later became more popular and unconventional for men too. Length though was still dependent on occupation and class, not gender. Toga was sure men's clothing, but worn over tunic. It was wrapped around the waist, like a dress would, and then hung over shoulder. Romans did wear leggings when they needed to. For example for leg protection when hunting as in this mosaic from 4th century. They would have been mostly used by men since men would be doing the kinds of activities that would require them. But that does not lessen the dressyness of the tunics worn here. If a woman today wears leggings under her skirt, the skirt doesn't suddenly become not a skirt.

All over Europe thorough the early Middle Ages, the clothes were very similar in their basic shape and construction as in Rome and Greece. In Central and Northern Europe though people would wear pants under shorter tunics. There were exceptions to the everyone wearing a tunic trend. Celtic men wore braccae, which were pants, and short tunics and literally just shirts. Celts are the rare case, where I think we can say that men didn't wear dresses. Most other peoples in these colder areas wore at least knee-length tunics. Shorter tunics and trousers were worn again mostly by soldiers and slaves, so rarely any other woman than slave women. The trousers were though definitely trousers in Early Middle Ages. They were usually loose for easier construction and therefore not that similar to Roman leggings. However leggings style fitted pants were still used, especially by nobility. I'd say the loose trousers are a gray area. They wore both dresses and pants, but still definitely dresses. I'd say this style was very comparable to the 2000s miniskirts over jeans style. First one below is a reconstruction of Old Norse clothing by Danish history museum. The second is some celebrity from 2005. I see no difference.

When we get to the high Middle Ages tunics are still used by both men and women, and still it's length is dependent on class and activity more than gender, but there's some new developments too. Pants and skirt combo is fully out and leggings' are back in in form of hose. Hose were not in fact pants and calling them leggings is also misleading. Really they are socks. Or at least that's how they started. As it has become a trend here they were used by everyone, not just men. During early Middle Ages they were worn often with the trousers, sometimes the trousers tucked inside them making them baggy. In high Middle Ages they became very long when used with shorter tunics, fully displacing the need for trousers. They would be tied to the waist to keep them up, as they were not knitted (knitting was being invented in Egypt around this time, and some knitting was introduced to Europe during middle Ages, but it really only took off much later during Renaissance Era) and therefore not stretchy. First picture is an example of that from 1440s. Another exciting development in the High Medieval era was bliaut in France and it's sphere of influence. Bliaut was an early attempt in Europe of a fitted dress. And again used by both men and women. The second illustration below from mid 12th century shows a noble man wearing a bliaut and nicely showing off his leg covered in fitted hose. Bliaut was usually likely fitted with lacing on the sides, but it wasn't tailored (tailoring wasn't really a thing just yet) and so created a wrinkled effect around the torso.

In the 14th century things really picked up in European fashion. European kingdoms finally started to become richer and the rich started to have some extra money to put into clothing, so new trends started to pop up rapidly. Tailoring became a thing and clothes could be now cut to be very fitted, which gave birth to fitted kirtle. At the same time having extra money meant being able to spend extra money on more fabric and to create very voluminous clothing, which gave birth to the houppelande.

Kirtle was once again worn by everyone. It wasn't an undergarment, for women that would be shift and men shirt and breeches, but it was an underlayer. It could be worn in public but often had at least another layer on top of it. The bodice part, including sleeves were very fitted with lacing or buttons (though there were over-layer kirtles that had different sleeves that changed with fashions and would be usually worn over a fitted kirtle). Men's kirtles were short, earlier in 14th century knee-length but towards the end of the century even shorter styles became fashionable in some areas. First picture below shows a man with knee-length kirtle from 1450s Italy.

Houppelande was also unisex. It was a loose full-length overgown with a lot of fabric that was gathered on the neckline and could be worn belted or unbelted. The sleeves were also wide and became increasingly wider (for men and women) later in the century and into the next century. Shorter gowns similar in style and construction to the houppelande were also fashionable for men. Both of these styles are seen in the second picture below from late 14th century.

In the very end of 14th century, first signs of pantification of men can be seen. In France and it's sphere of influence the skirt part of the kirtle became so short it barely covered the breeches as seen below on these fashionable musicians from 1395-1400 France. Long houppelandes, length ranging from floor to calf, were still used by men though (the second picture, 1414 France), as were knee and thigh length gowns of similar loose style.

The hems continued to be short through the 15th century in France, but in other places like Italy and German sphere of influence, they were still fairly long, at least to mid thigh, through the first half of the century. In France at some point in late 13th century the very short under-kirtle started to be called doublet and they are just getting shorter in 1400s. The showing underwear problem was fixed by joined hose and the codpiece, signaling the entrance of The Sluttiest Era of men's fashion. Below is an example from 1450s Belgium of doublet and early codpiece in display. As you can see from the other figures, the overgowns of the previous century were also getting very, very short. In the next French example below from 1470s we can see the skirt shrink out of existence right before our eyes.

The very skimpy doublet and it's accompanying codpiece spread to the rest of the Europe in the second half of 15th century and it would only get sluttier from there. The Italians were just showing their full ass (example from 1490s). The dress was not gone yet though. The doublet and codpiece continued to be fashionable, but the overdress got longer again in the French area too. For example in the second example there's Italian soldiers in a knee length dresses from 1513.

But we have to talk about the Germans. They went absolutely mad with the whole doublet and codpiece. Just look at this 1513 painting below (first one). But they did not only do it sluttier than everyone else, they also changed the course of men's fashion.

Let's take a detour talking about the Landsknecht, the mercenary pikeman army of the Holy Roman Empire. (I'm not that knowledgeable in war history so take my war history explanation with a grain of salt.) Pikemen had recently become a formidable counter-unit against cavalry, which earlier in the Medieval Era had been the most important units. Knights were the professional highly trained cavalry, which the whole feudal system leaned against. On the other hand land units were usually not made of professional soldiers. Landsknecht were formed in late 15th century as a professional army of pikemen. They were skilled and highly organized, and quickly became a decisive force in European wars. Their military significance gave them a lot of power in the Holy Roman Empire, some were even given knighthood, which previously wasn't possible for land units, and interestingly for us they were exempt from sumptuary laws. Sumptuary laws controlled who could wear what. As the bourgeois became richer in Europe in late Middle Ages and Renaissance Era, laws were enacted to limit certain fabrics, colors and styles from those outside nobility, to uphold the hierarchy between rich bourgeois and the nobles. The Landsknecht, who were well payed mercenaries (they would mutiny, if they didn't get payed enough), went immediately absolute mad with the power to bypass sumptuary laws. Crimes against fashion (affectionate) were committed. What do you do, when you have extra money and one of your privileges is to wear every color and fabric? You wear every color and fabric. At the same time. You wear them on top of each other and so they can be seen at the same time, you slash the outer layer. In the second image you can feast your eyes on the Landsknecht.

Just to give you a little more of that good stuff, here's a selection of some of my favorite Landsknecht illustrations. This is the peak male performance. Look at those codpieces. Look at those bare legs. The tiny shorts. And savor them.

The Landsknecht were the hot shit. Their lavish and over the top influence quickly took over men's fashion in Germany in early 1500s. Slashing, the technique possibly started by them, but at least popularized by them, instantly spread all over Europe. That's how you get the typical Renaissance poof sleeves. They at first slashed the thighs of their hose, but it seems like to fit more of everything into their outfits, they started wearing the hose in two parts, upper hose and nether hose, which was a sort of return to the early Medieval trousers and knee-high hose style. The two part hose was adopted by the wider German men's fashion early in the century, but already in 1520s had spread to rest of Europe. It was first combined with the knee-length overdress that had made it's comeback in the turn of the century, like in this Italian painting from 1526 (first image). At this point knitting had become established and wide-spread craft in Europe and the stockings were born, replacing nether hose. They were basically nether hose, but from knitted fabric. The gown shortened again and turned into more of a jacket as the trunk hose became increasingly the centerpiece of the outfit, until in 1560s doublet - trunk hose combination emerged as the standard outerwear (as seen in the second example, 1569 Netherlands) putting the last nail on the coffin of the men's dress as well as the Sluttiest Era. The hose and doublet became profoundly un-slutty and un-horny, especially when the solemn Spanish influence spread all over with it's dark and muted colors.

Especially in Middle Ages, but thorough European history, trousers have been associated with soldiers. The largely accepted theory is that trousers were invented for horse riding, but in climates with cold winters, where short skirts are too cold, and long skirts are still a hazard when moving around, trousers (with or without a short skirt) are convenient for all kinds of other movement requiring activities like war. So by adopting hose as general men's clothing, men in 1500s associated masculinity with militarism. It was not a coincidence that the style came from Landsknecht. I may have been joking about them being "peak male performance", but really they were the new masculine ideals for the new age. At the time capitalism was taking form and European great powers had begun the process of violently conquering the world for money, so it's not surprising that the men, who fought for money and became rich and powerful doing so, were idealised.

Because of capitalism and increasingly centralized power, the feudal system was crumbling and with it the feudal social hierarchy. Capitalism shifted the wealth from land ownership (which feudal nobility was built upon) to capital and trade, deteriorating the hierarchy based on land. At the same time Reformation and centralized secular powers were weakening the power of the Church, wavering also the hierarchy justified by godly ordain. The ruling class was not about to give up their power, so a new social hierarchy needed to form. Through colonialism the concept of race was created and the new hierarchy was drawn from racial, gender and wealth lines. It was a long process, but it started in 1500s, and the increasing distinction between men's and women's fashions was part of drawing those lines. At the same time distinctions between white men and racialized men, as well as white women and racialized women were drawn. As in Europe up until this point, all over the world (with some exceptions) skirts were used by everyone. So when European men fully adopted the trousers, and trousers, as well as their association to military, were equated with masculinity, part of it was to emasculate racialized men, to draw distinctions.

Surprise, it was colonialism all along! Honestly if there's a societal or cultural change after Middle Ages, a good guess for the reason behind it is always colonialism. It won't be right every time, but quite a lot of times. Trousers as a concept is of course not related to colonialism, but the idea that trousers equal masculinity and especially the idea that skirts equal femininity are. So I guess decolonize masculinity by wearing skirts?

hunlarpfag

Just in the defence of the Landsknechts, they did had skirts too in the form of a knee lenght dress, called waffenrock. I mean it wasn’t specific to them, as it was basically just a form of gown if we want to generalize, but they obviously pimped it out as with everything

And a little interesting detail, it was SO fashionable that it got represented in armours too. Here is the thing about armours: they are first and foremost functional, but if you have enough money and important enough you obviously want to pimp it up and also follow the latest trends. Basically if you know in which period what kind of clothing was fashionable, you could roughly tell what plate armor belongs to what time period.

Here is another thing: protecting your groin and legs isn’t the easiest thing with plate. Lots of moving parts there that bend in all kind of ways, so to make it work it has to be well engineered and designed. In the transitional period from chain to plate they just left the chain there most of the time, or just a few pieces of plate.

But obviously as warfare evolved more protection was needed so more and more plate was added to the flexible places (though chain remained basically forever both for high and low end armors in some form) The problem is as I said it’s very hard to put plates in that area that would move correctly. Not an unsolvable problem but requires knowledge, time, and lots of work. So the easiest solution was a Tonlet.

it’s relatively easy to put it together, you still have mobility and covers all the vital areas like groins and inner tights where you could get serious bleeding injuries.

Anyway it was relatively short lived as it had the drawback of needed more material than a form fitting armor thus being heavier, and also armor technology advanced quickly. So the proper stereotypical full plate came after that

Or sometimes even more closed

Also honorable mention one of the tournament armors of Henry VIII. (technically the ass armor is his too but anyway) It’s from 1520 and tonlets are kind of out of style by then armor-wise (but as I said in clothing fashion the waffenrocks and whatnot getting strong again), but according to legend the original armour he would bring to the tournament (which was held by the French king) was banned for various reasons (that too is a funny story but probably even less is true about it) so he needed a new tournament armor FAST so this is what they come up with because it was easier and faster to do that in that timeframe. Great story, though I’m kind of sure that wasn’t the main reason.

Anyway as I said waffenrocks and the various other skirt and skirt like clothings in german fashion got so popular that the skirt armor COME BACK, even though functionally it isn’t peak performance. I mean, it was mostly for tournament and decorative armors, but here and there got into the battlefield too (mostly for higher ranking officiers though, so there is that)