Benefit of clothes

Emirikol · Dec 17, 2003

What are the in-game benefits of clothes? Should they affect abilities or skills?

jh

Chroma · Dec 17, 2003

When there aren't any spellcasters...

...clothes keep my party alive!

Winter gear has saved my PCs several times... the campaign takes place in a northern clime, and when the "Endure Elements" have been turned into "Cure Light Wounds" those heavy furs keep away Old Lady Frost... *laugh*

Kichwas · Dec 17, 2003

Well not having them should give you a bonus on swim checks and probably an increase of at least 10% in speed...

There's also issues of weather... anything under 70 degrees might require cold checks.

According to Rousseau we'd be less morally corrupt if we were nude (but also only if we engaged only in incest and women stopped choosing men who weren't their brothers... so the issue here is not really clothing...). According to Hobbes original sin was not eating the apple, but putting on clothes (and thus telling God we felt his image was something to be ashamed of), but then those two political theorists are both a little less than sane in other areas...

Clothes make you look 'snappy'.

And it's often believed that a slightly clothed woman looks better than a fully unclothed one, because there's the allure of the mystery... So perhaps without clothes there might be a penalty on certain forms of diplomacy.

Certainly not being clothed would affect intimidation checks.

In a serious vein though, I think you'd just be looking at weather and the rules of the given society. Honestly in a tropical society there's no reason to be clothed - and until Europeans showed up many people in the warmer climes didn't. There are parts of Africa and the Amazon today where clothing is still not used, and other places where was passes for clothing is anything but what we consider clothing today - such as those guys in New Giunea who wear wooden shafts on their... well... [insert mental picture here].

megamania · Dec 17, 2003

Clothing...even basic stuff can be extremely helpful. In my current Storyhour- Under a Darksun, the heroes were just running around without any getting sunburn, silt scrapped and otherwise uncomfortable around each other

Seriously- clothes are as much a mental state as physical protection. We played this up on several occations already.

megamania · Dec 17, 2003

Just realized I didn't answer your question. Yes, the lack there of should affect the game. This is obviously the use of skill/ability check modifiers. Str will not so much but DEX and CHA can alter. Before you get carried away with the CHA part. Think of a high level proper LG Paladin. 18+ Cha sounds good. Take him/her out of theier clothes and modesty will likely kick in. This nervousness should be a penality. How others react to this can go either way.

Anything dex or movement related can improve....unless the terraiun calls for footwear. Sharp rocks? Hot sand? You get the idea.

bubbalin · Dec 17, 2003

Nudity won't help with swimmin or running because of all the dangly bits that would swing around, etc. So unless you introduce some sort of attribute to describe how well endowed a particular character is, its hard to generalise. Though of course,this endowment attribute might make the difference between whether they laugh at you or give you lots of repect when making diplomacy checks in the nude.

Kichwas · Dec 17, 2003

Actually it's proven that nudity does help with swimming - lowers friction and drag. There's even a theory that the short fur on humans (we actually have just as much hair as a chimpanzee - it's just shorter) is because we were "water primates" half the time, and tree primates the other half. Not sure how much stock is in this theory - but it stems out of how well we adopt to water and, of all things, the bouancy in human mammory glands.

I wasn't talking about running, but it would likely help a little there in terms of wind resistance and a well toned athletic woman will be unlikely to have a large chest. As for men, Greek warriors proved you can run just fine nude - some of them had running ability unmatched to this day, and they did it nude, running for a day or more non stop.

If nudity is a cultural norm, modesty is not an issue. Modesty is an artifical creation bred out of induced shame over one's natural state - you don't find it in the traditional cultures that don't cloth themselves.

Nightfall · Dec 17, 2003

Well they will save you from being mobbed by women if you're of high enough Charisma...and they want to bear your children. There there's whole rape issue for female PCs that are naked...

Nightfall · Dec 17, 2003

arcady said:
If nudity is a cultural norm, modesty is not an issue. Modesty is an artifical creation bred out of induced shame over one's natural state - you don't find it in the traditional cultures that don't cloth themselves.

You also don't find that many instances of women having equal rights as men, or decision making. Or for that matter reading, writing or mathetics.

Kichwas · Dec 17, 2003

I'm wondering what possible bearing that has on this Nightfall...

The answer, far as I can see, is none.

Though it should be noted that in very traditional cultures, on the tribal Amazonian* or African level - women play powerful roles in the society. This is also true among the native people of North America. This is completely unrelated to this present dicsussion about nudity.

*BTW: My ancestry is a quarter south american native, and half my family still lives there, a quarter from the other side is Cherokee and Crow...