Why would PCs wear capes?

[Wraith Form]

Maybe in a cool or cold weather setting though. You can't just have your character zip up the old Member's Only jacket when you have to go hang around outside (or even sleep outside). Also, it doubles a blanket.

Exactly--before zippers and jackets were invented they were used for warmth. Haven't you ever wrapped yourself up in a blanket to keep warm? Same idea.

 

[sukael]

In the Watchmen comic a character named Dollar Bill wore a cape and it got stuck in a bank's revolving door and the bank robbers killed him easily.

I think it was French police who wore capes with weights in the bottom edge to allow them to swirl it around and wrap a limb of a felon or cover the face to hinder them. At least a trick a rogue/swashbuckler could use.

In Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger, the lead character uses a cape with a supply of gold coins sewn into a pouch in the bottom edge as both an improvised club and a backup money supply.

(After all, they might rob your pocket--but who would think to rob your cape?)

 

[Ranger REG]

Of course, in D&D a cape, cloak, or mantle respresents one more slot for a magic item. The question then becomes "who wouldn't wear one"?

A high-level nudist monk.

 

[Taloras]

Somewhere I remember seeing a duelists cloak listed.....its a weighted cloak. The phrase cloak and dagger comes from a combat style...dueling using daggers with cloaks as either entangling items, or wrap it around your arm for protection(makeshift buckler). Cloaks are also quite warm and dry(this coming from someone who has one, and wears it at SCA events quite regularly). Cloaks are useful for covering up things you want hidden....you dont always want people to notice that shiny magical sword on your hip. Or the jeweled dagger you keep on your person.

Also.....a dark cloak hood, when pulled over your head when you sit in the back corner of a tavern makes you look sinister.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, the urge to go into the differences between capes, cloaks, mantles, and caped cloaks is difficult to fight down...

The reason to wear one is that they are very good at shedding rain and snow, and were popular in places where it rained and snowed a lot. In other places they were merely fashion symbols. Now ruffs are a fashion statement that I never understood...

The Auld Grump

 

[tetsujin28]

From looking at fantasy artwork, it seems that heroes and capes (sometimes cloaks) go together. (snip) Are capes a sign of social status or have some specific utility that make them worthwhile?

They are warm. They can be used as a blanket, a bed, a pillow. They are also (if made of felt) pretty darn waterproof.

I can't think of any tactical benefits from wearing a cape.

They're very distracting, and can be used quite effectively to snag enemy blades. Watch the Salkind Brothers production of The Three Musketeers.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Because the *coat* had not yet been invented - and was difficult for the most part to sew in any fashion so as to keep you dry.

Even after the coat had been invented - it was expensive and it frequently leaked. Cloaks were not and did not (as much).

Fashion has its own momentum. A long coat had to be split in order to ride a horse (even the longrider was split). A cloak did not suffer from this design flaw. Moreover, cloaks and capes were easy. They required little in the way of sewing or buttons. We did not have sewing machines during the time when these were de rigeur.

A cape is simply a short cloak. You don't wear a trench in July do you? Sometimes - you still were a jacket though. Same difference.

Which is not to say that fashion did not have a lot to do with it; but the assumption that there were easy and econmical alternatives is in large part incorrect.

As we moved towards an industrialized society with sewing machines and carriages and trains - coats became far more fashionable and economical and efficient; at the same time the cloak became rare - then quaint - until now it is wholly eccentric.

 

[Quickleaf]

What's all this about capes? Now a turban! That's something special!
It'll keep a hot thing cool and a cool thing hot. You'll never have to carry rope again as it's 40 feet if undone. You can hide a bag of coins on top of your head. No brainsucker is going to suck your brains out. You'll never get sucked into a jet engine. And they're quite fashionable too.

 

[Rel]

A cape is simply a short cloak. You don't wear a trench in July do you?.

I can't speak for July but there was a dude walking outside the convention center at GenCon in a complete black outfit and trenchcoat. It looked hot. Stupidly so.

 

[lissilambe]

As mentioned above, once you wear a cape or cloak for a while, you get quite used to it, and it snagging or a hindrance isn't a big deal. When I was playing NERO (a boffer weapon LARP), I wore one for years as my first character. Not only is it all the things above (stylish, protective against the elements and concealing, as well as a pillow and blanket), but a dark cloak at night can be used for camouflage by dropping to a crouch and using it over the body. I also used it as a shield against weapons, something I got very good at to the frustration of many an opponent. And finally, I took a page from the Shadow, who wore a trailing cloak/trenchcoat (depending on just when he was being written), for misdirection. To purposely hang or flutter a large portion of it to the side. In dark light, many people would target in that direction and miss my body entirely. Not so good for spells in our game, but for weapons and ranged attacks...worked well.

Don