DISCUSSION: Hypocricy in garb vs armor

[Thrush Svartehjertet]

From the rulebook, emphasis mine:

Costuming for Darkon should be inspired by pre-­‐industrial historical clothing or fantasy genre clothing. A simple costume could consist of a tunic style shirt with pants/kilt/skirts and medievalesqe or historical footwear; the outfit must give the impression of being inspired by pre-industrial historical or fantasy genre clothing. Hoods, mantles, capes, belts (white belts are reserved to characters that are Knights of the Realm), and pouches can all be worn to add to a costume’s appearance. Armor does count as costuming; however when the armor is removed while still participating at the event, proper costuming must be worn.

20th/21st century contemporary clothing, modern looking, steam punk, and any sci-­‐fi/futuristic costuming are strictly prohibited;

These are good rules. They intend to give darkon a good flavor. And for the most part, with good enforcement, it works.

So why the hell do we still allow people to wear military helmets from post 1900? They look really bad. I don't care that you painted it... unless it is covered and can't be identified, I know you are wearing a vietnam/WWI/WWII/whatever helmet. You just painted it.

Painting a Ferrari logo on a Pinto doesnt make it handle well at 160...

Why is this ok? It's against the rules.

It's a cheap, * way of getting around having to be good at fighting flails, OR making legit helms.

I call *. Every time I show a picture of a Darkon field to people they always ask why we ruin our pictures with modern helmets... Darkon has come a long way in garb standards, why are we overlooking something that jumps off any photo?

Thrush
berserk

[Amazing_Iltztafein]

It's the direct descendent of several styles of actual period military helmets.

This topic was done to death last year on Facebook, FYI. Close to 1,000 non-troll comments, even.

[Thrush Svartehjertet]

That is, quite honestly, the dumbest goddamn reason for being lazy nerds Darkon has come up with yet.

Glad it's been talked about. I htink we need to move away from coddling lazy nerds. There's no good reason to allow them in the game.

Thrush
berserk

[Inox]

Yeah, we have a long history of letting them skate, but they really shouldn't.

They are pretty terrible looking, and stand out no matter what you paint on them.

[Thrush Svartehjertet]

Yep. My Under Armor shirts are direct descendants of silk shirts... I am now wearing ONLY Under Armor shirts... what a bunch of horse *.

Thrush
berserk

[Ogre Solaris]

This is as good an excuse as any to get off my ass and mod my WW II helmet like I've been wanting to. They can be made to look good, I'm sure of it, and I've had the inclination to fix mine up but always find something else I should be doing instead.

[Thrush Svartehjertet]

Covering them with leather is a good start, but changing the overall shape is what would go the farthest.

Thrush
berserk

[Ogre Solaris]

I was thinking of putting a fir rim around the lip at the bottom and a chainmail piece in the back to hang down. The fur will disguise the shape I believe, making it a round topped helm with fur trim. If that doesn't work I suppose I could hammer the thing into a slightly different shape at the bottom, maybe attach leather pieces to the sides to house and hide the straps, there's a lot you can do, it just takes time, some tools, and materials/money to do it.

[Thrush Svartehjertet]

That's the spirit! Good on you!

Thrush
berserk

[shroom2021]

I did just that to mine a long time ago. Looked better than a standard WW2 helm, but not nearly as sharp as the nasal helm I picked up a year or so ago.