Quote Originally Posted by Tyndmyr View Post
Sometimes nothing. Depends how poor you were. Spiryt is correct, though, in that textiles did see notable use. Wooden shields and such were also a common defensive option, even if cheap shields were fairly disposable... but frankly, not everyone on the battlefield even had defensive stuff. Sometimes you're just a dude with a spear.
That does also depend on the era; on late Medieval battlefields armor was pretty ubiquitous.

Larp is larger than just SCA though. Consider other organizations, like Dagorhir, and you can definitely see that the rules allow much cheaper/easier/lighter "armor" than metal. The larps for which combat is more of a tap sport are even less likely to require leather to be particularly thick.
Well, that isn't relevant to the use of leather for 'armor', because in that case it's just a costume isn't it? I mentioned the SCA gear because their kit is assumed to have some protective quality to it, at least against blunt impact, though again, I don't think leather actually holds up to sharp edges very well regardless of how thick it is.

Basically just trying to provide some context on the heaviness of leather as armor, the way it's depicted in RPG's. Obviously it can thin as you like for clothing or decoration (which is actually all armor usually is in most fantasy films and a lot of RPG's).

G