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Dhavaer
2007-07-16, 12:31 AM
What kind would you be likely to find in the pseudo-medieval world of D&D? It seems to me that most of the kinds around today would require more manufacturing capability than exists or is affordable.

Fishies
2007-07-16, 12:34 AM
People wore underwear in medieval times?

Whiplord
2007-07-16, 12:35 AM
Perhaps a chainmail bikini? (http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=product&productid=134600)

Dhavaer
2007-07-16, 12:37 AM
People wore underwear in medieval times?

I was thinking 'none' would be the most likely option.

A Gray Phantom
2007-07-16, 12:40 AM
I did a double take when I noticed the title of this thread.

I'm not sure if they had underwear back in the medieval times. Although, I'm quite certain that dragons and magic didn't exist (yes, heresy, I know), so I'd conclude that, by observing the frenzied beserker prestige class (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/sg_20060915a.jpg) (Complete Warrior), your best bet is bikini chain mail :smallbiggrin:.

PS: Yar, Whiplord be ninja'ing me posts!

Yiel
2007-07-16, 12:44 AM
Try this link for different sites and articles about Medieval underwear: http://scatoday.net/node/2439

Maxymiuk
2007-07-16, 12:49 AM
I was half-expecting this thread to be about a player who wants to count underwear as another magic item slot. :smalltongue:

Swordguy
2007-07-16, 01:01 AM
Try this link for different sites and articles about Medieval underwear: http://scatoday.net/node/2439

Curse you. I came here to post that.

And yes, I've had players ask me to use underwear as magic item slots. BoEF deals with it. Breeches are a leg slot, corset is a chest slot, codpiece is a belt slot. It's easy.

Fhaolan
2007-07-16, 01:01 AM
It depends a lot on the precise time period and region you're dealing with, but in brief (ha!), yes they did, but it may not be what you would recognize as undergarmets.

A shirt would have been considered an undergarmet in many periods in Europe, and such a shirt might be long enough to reach your knees, if not longer (an woman's Irish lein, for instance goes almost to the ground). Over that shirt would be corsets, tunics, jacks, vests, coats and so on, making many layers. Braes the leg equivalant to the shirt, over which you would have trews, chaps, chausses, and so on. And this is just the men (yep, including the corsets). Women's clothing would be *considerably* more complicated.

While the poorest peasants would only wear a long shirt or belted blanket, this is the equivalant of modern people walking around downtown in bathing trunks or a bikini. Yes, it happens, but doing so admits that you are the poorest of the poor, fit only for pity, derision, and ridicule.

Edit: Okay, yes. In places like California and the like, spending your entire life in a speedo is technically possible and maybe even encouranged. I don't know. I can't live anywhere that far south, so I discount those stories as rumours. :)

horseboy
2007-07-16, 01:10 AM
I was half-expecting this thread to be about a player who wants to count underwear as another magic item slot. :smalltongue:
Only in Morrowind

Yeril
2007-07-16, 01:18 AM
In the Immortal badly translated from memory words of ElfOnlyInn comic

--Looting Succubus--
female elf ranger; Ugh.. a Chainmail thong how disgusting.

male Human barbarian; Oh come on its all the fashion nowdays

female elf ranger; are you serious! who in there right mind would wear these, they are so -degrading- to women! would YOU ever wear this?

male Human barbarian -now wearing chainmail thong-; for a +5 strength rating i'd wear Anything!

bluish_wolf
2007-07-16, 01:46 AM
Of course people in the middle ages had underwear. Why wouldn't they?

Here is a common form of medieval underwear, braies:

http://www.larp.com/midgard/braies1th.jpg

de-trick
2007-07-16, 08:27 AM
or go commando, play a barbarian wearing a kilt thats small on him then get a wizard to cast overland flight on you, make sure you have a 18 chr though

Quietus
2007-07-16, 08:28 AM
In the games that I play, everyone has what's known as their Complimentary Loincloth. As can be assumed, these are free - they're dirty and smelly if they're all you're wearing, but at least you aren't naked. And if anyone ever tries to remove their loincloth, there's another one underneath, always. This prevents our DM's from ever having to talk about our player's junk.

I've always assumed that women had similar bras, just because it seemed appropriate.

Capt'n Ironbrow
2007-07-16, 08:39 AM
Aside from having some characters have actual sexual intercourse there once was the time my Dwarf Character carried with him some woman's undergarments (no "Lingerie"!) he had found somewhere... Oddly enough people seemed very uneasy that this Dwarf carried woman's undergarments with him, I couldn't sell it anywhere despite the good quality, shop owners just freaked out! Fortunately I managed to sell them to the only female PC a few sessions later (a chaotic bounty huntress with an impressive record of kills and combats), but boy was that hard too! she thought I had tried them on myself, I being a dirty working class dwarf who only bathes once a year :smalltongue:

somehow Dwarf Male and human female underwear freaks people out

Dragonmuncher
2007-07-16, 08:48 AM
Bronze Pantalets go very well with Golden and Silver Pantaloons...

Tweekinator
2007-07-16, 09:55 AM
I was half-expecting this thread to be about a player who wants to count underwear as another magic item slot. :smalltongue:

I tried socks once. I asked my DM if I could get socks of prestidigitation and the answer was no.

Diggorian
2007-07-16, 10:16 AM
Interesting topic.

This crossed my mind when writing my setting which is first century AD as opposed to medieval D&D. AS I understand it, Romans and Greeks didnt sport them. I decided to fill in that fluff if it comes up (... why does that sound dirty to me?) :smallconfused:

Only bonus bloomers give with me would be bonuses to Fort against cold weather.

Neek
2007-07-16, 10:56 AM
Interesting topic.

This crossed my mind when writing my setting which is first century AD as opposed to medieval D&D. AS I understand it, Romans and Greeks didnt sport them. I decided to fill in that fluff if it comes up (... why does that sound dirty to me?) :smallconfused:

The Romans and Greeks had them, actually. The men didn't go commando beneath their togas and tunics. A man could be expected to wear a loin cloth beneath their clothes. The loin cloth would always be worn except when a). exercising (i.e., gymnasium, whereas gymna- means nude), b). bathing, or c). sleeping.

Women on the other hand, it's not clear if they wore anything at all that relates to underwear. This is what we know: The upper-class Romans did think large breasts were attractive, and since good taste is dictated by those in the highest of positions... A young woman would wear a fascia, a cloth binding, over her breasts to help support and stunt their growth. A woman with larger breasts would wear a mamillare, another type of cloth binding that helped conceal. (Optionally, a woman would just wear a palla and tie a string below the breast line. Today, these pallae appear as a shirts with tight covering over the chest, an elastic band going below, and loose and flowing, but not as long).

During the medieval ages, things had decidedly changed: the loin cloth was replaced by a loose fitting braies, and the tunic became a shirt that was tucked into the braies. Sweat and oils from your body would first be absorbed by your underwear, which was easier to wash than your outer garments. A woman would just wear a chemise and sometimes a braies. You would be surprised if a woman wore a support for her breast, and if she did, it was never more complicated than a cloth wrapping.

Diggorian
2007-07-16, 11:13 AM
Thanks, Neek. This will be helpful.

Last session the party was attacked while they slept and the medium cuirass wearing Dwarf had to fight bare (no Endurance means sleeping in weighty armor aint good). Luckily it wasnt the focus of much musing as they fought to survive.

Neek
2007-07-16, 12:39 PM
No problem. I just felt that the links that were given in this thread catered towards Victorian era rather than the Roman or Medieval era (the earliest they had was 1000-1400, I do believe, and I wasn't sure how much information was in there.

TheThan
2007-07-16, 01:34 PM
Perhaps a chainmail bikini? (http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=product&productid=134600)

You mean something like this? (http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/a/n/andersson/good_girl_vs_evil_girl.jpg.html)

(warning: not safe for work)