What does your D&D character wear?
I don't mean, oh, they wear half-plate, fifteen plus dex,
disadvantage on stealth.
I mean, what do they wear?
What colors?
What fabrics?
What kind of shoes?
Are they stylish?
Do they wear a hat?
If you aren't sure how to answer that question,
then today's video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hello friends, Ginny Di here, and I'm a cosplayer,
so obviously, I think about clothes a lot.
When I come up with visuals for a D&D character,
it's usually with the understanding
that I'm probably going to dress up like that someday.
But you don't have to plan on actually creating
and wearing your character's outfit
for it to be interesting and useful
to know what their clothes look like.
You might be asking yourself,
why should I care about my character's clothes?
And of course, you don't have to.
Plenty of people play whole campaigns
without ever knowing what color their character's shirt is.
But spending a little time thinking about
your character's outfit can add layers to your role play,
and help you visualize them.
If your character is going to tear a strip off
of their cloak to bind a friend's wound,
you should probably know whether or not they wear a cloak.
Knowing whether their clothes are spattered
with dried blood or draped from expensive silks
may change the way that NPCs
or other players view them.
Clothing can often be plot-relevant
such as identifiable military or religious clothing,
or as indicators of wealth or country of origin,
or even when used as a disguise.
Plus, if you have any interest in drawing
or commissioning art of your character,
it's important to have at least an idea
of what they're wearing.
For me, thinking about what a character wears
is an important part of the character creation process,
and it can often change as my characters level up
and move through the world.
By the way, if you wanna win a $50 gift certificate
to my shop, as well as a feature
in Worldbuilding Magazine,
you'll be super excited to hear about
the new World Anvil costume challenge.
World Anvil is a toolkit for writers,
game masters, and anyone else who does worldbuilding.
Tools like articles, interactive maps,
family trees and timelines,
and support for stat blocks and character sheets
make it easy to keep track of your world,
your characters, and your plots and histories.
World Anvil usually sponsors
my point of view role play videos,
but this month they wanted to sponsor this one
because their new competition
is all about costumes and clothes.
To enter, all you have to do is make a post
on your World Anvil account,
which is free, by the way!
All about a uniform or outfit that exists in your world,
be that the world of your tabletop game,
or any other world you've created.
Tell us all about what it symbolizes,
who wears it, how it's evolved over time.
I think clothing is an under explored part of worldbuilding,
and I am so excited to see
how you guys incorporate it into your world.
I will be judging the entries,
so make sure to gimme your best!
I will link to the challenge page in the description
for more information.
And as always, if you fall in love with World Anvil
and you wanna access their full list of features,
you can use the code GINNY to get 30% off
any annual membership.
So, let's talk about how to design clothes.
It's a big ask,
especially if you've never really done illustration
or sewing, it can be hard to even know where to start.
Even though I have done both illustration and sewing,
I still feel like I'm not very good at designing clothes,
which is why I have historically turned
to my friend Kelsey, known on the internet as @toughtink.
- I can't believe that we're both wearing cat ear headphones
we are just like, we're E-girls Kelsey.
- Its meant to be!
- There's nothing to be done!
- My ears are actually removable
- So are mine!
- Or really?
- We can just look like normal girls
- Oh no, why would I do that? Why would I ever want that?
Kelsey is both an illustrator and a cosplayer
and she actually designs costumes for cosplayers
on her Patreon every month.
If you like Aisling's outfits, you have Kelsey to thank
because I commissioned her to design them.
She also designed my winter Jester look
from my "Jesters" music video.
♪Never have to face a fight alone, you see♪
♪I'm here to keep their eyes on me♪
- Which, by the way, is the whole reason
I got into Critical Role!
- I love that so much!
I want to get everyone into Critical Role
Just like one at a time, every person in the world
- It's working
- She's basically the perfect person to ask about this stuff
We had a great conversation about design
and after reviewing it, I feel like we can break it all out
into four aspects to consider
when designing clothes for your characters.
First: Story.
Your character's background
current location
and objectives
all play a part in what they wear.
A character who comes from money
will probably have more expensive clothes
than a character who comes from a poor background.
That means their clothing can be more colorful
it can feature more fabric
it can include jewelry or other decorative accessories
and it's probably in good condition
not torn or sun-bleached or worn.
If your character does come from a poor background
you can ask yourself
where they might've gotten their clothes?
Do they wear hand-me-downs from an older sibling?
slightly too big, maybe patched or darned?
Did they steal it? so it has mismatched styles
or clearly doesn't fit their body?
Is it something they made by themselves?
What about location?
What's the weather like where your character is from
or where they are now?
Do they wear heavy furs to protect from the cold?
or clothing in a certain color
or style that's popular in a specific region?
If they came from a monastery, what did monks wear?
If they trained in the military,
do they still wear the armor or insignia of that army?
Even their personal plot line can impact what they wear.
- I have a character that's a tiefling
she has some people that she's like hiding from
that she had like, escaped from.
So I wanted her to have, like, a big hooded cloak
that she wears sometimes, that can like, hide her
but because of the way I did her horns, her horns kind of
go like this, and so, similar
to these little cat ears, when she puts up her hood
it almost looks like she's got cat ears underneath it.
You can dig into personality for this, too.
What does your character look for in clothing?
Do they want something sturdy?
something warm? something subtle? something stylish?
And are they in a position
to get the kind of clothing they want?
I find it helpful to just try and walk myself through
where the character would've gotten these clothes
and under what circumstances.
This can lead to a way more interesting and unique outfit
than whatever might come to mind
when you just think "what does a ranger wear?"
Second: Consider aesthetic, like colors and vibes.
We associate meaning with color all the time.
There's a reason why a red dress is considered sexy
or brides wear white to represent purity.
- I have a color scheme, like oh, I really like nature
colors I want something natural and airy
so now I'm working with a pastel palette
and I start thinking of clothing pieces
that will show that off in a way
if I want something that's more natural colors
or if I want like really bright jewel tones
or something that feels like rich and luxurious.
That starts to tell a story about the character
with just those simple first choices.
- You might already associate
certain colors with your character
but if you don't, I would encourage you
to look up color symbolism
and just see if any particular colors
seem to match up with your character's personality
or energy.
When I designed Edith's outfit for my matchmaker video
I knew I wanted to use white because she was a cleric
and white just feels like a religious color to me.
And I also knew I wanted to use red
partially because her deity, Sune
is described as having red hair, and red lips
but also because red usually represents passion and romance
both of which are important to Edith as a matchmaker
and personally as someone looking for love.
Someone extravagant, like a Bard
might be willing to wear a bunch of different
bright colors at once
whereas a Rogue who needs to sneak through the shadows
is probably never gonna wear much yellow.
Or maybe they would!
And that would also tell you something about that character.
Like, that they value fashion
more than being an effective spy
or that they're not very good at their job!
Or that they're so confident in their skills
that they don't think even a bright yellow shirt
is gonna hurt their stealth.
Color isn't the only thing that affects
an outfit's vibes either.
If your character is very lawful, very inflexible
they might wear clothes that are quite structured
something that's buttoned all the way to the neck
something neatly fitted, something with straight lines.
On the other hand, a carefree and adaptable character
might be more likely to wear flowy fabrics
loose-fitting garments that have a lot of movement.
Third: Think about utility.
I know I mentioned earlier that your character's outfit
doesn't have to begin and end
with the type of armor they wear
or anything else that's actually
mechanically relevant to the game.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take the utility
of a costume into account when designing.
Your D&D character probably travels, they probably fight.
What does this mean for their clothes?
- Well I know my character's gonna have to carry
a bunch of crap, so where are they putting it?
You don't necessarily have to have a bag
big enough to actually hold everything
but if you start thinking, like okay
well I want them to have a belt that's got a bunch
of trinkets on it, you know, they're like a alchemist
so they have all sorts of different potions and components
that they carry on them so maybe that's like something
they could use, you know.
- Of course, you don't have to be married to utility.
Most D&D characters are carrying around a lot of stuff
and just because your character
starts off with three weapons
and a musical instrument
and a dungeoneering pack and a hunting trophy
and whatever else doesn't mean that all those things
have to be visible on their person
or even believably carried.
It is, after all, a game
so you don't have to get too intense about it.
- It differs from person to person how much
you want the utility to matter
and obviously in a world with magic
it maybe matters less.
- But thinking ah yes, they have a sword
so they should probably have a scabbard
or they have wings, so their clothes
should probably be open at the shoulder blades
those kind of thoughts can help guide your designs.
- Maybe they have a cloak, like what does it look like
when you style it with the cloak VS without
like maybe they have a hood that's designed
very specifically to cover their identity, you know.
This is something Kelsey
and I incorporated in Aisling's designs.
She wears leather armor
so we settled on a leather corset
with leather leaf-shaped pauldrons to invoke
the feeling of armor, while still allowing us to design
something that suited my aesthetic vision.
I also think a key part of utility is variety.
Most people don't wear the same exact thing every day.
And while an adventurer who's on the move
might not have an extensive wardrobe with them
they would probably have at least a change of clothes.
Ask yourself, what do they wear when it gets cold?
When it rains? When they stop to make camp?
When they're meeting someone in a position of power?
I like to think not just about a single outfit
but about their whole closet.
And finally, I'm putting this one last
because I think there are people who unfairly ignore it
but there are also people who place too much weight on it.
And that is: History.
- I love historical clothing! How things close, for example
like, is it a lace up?
Like obviously this for example
lacing is really common
having things that tie, things that buckle
there's a lot to learn there
there's a lot that you wouldn't necessarily think about
if you don't learn about how they did it.
- Learning about how clothing and armor
was made throughout history can really open your eyes
to different styles and forms
that your character's outfits can use or reference.
Especially if, as Kelsey mentions, you go behind the narrow
slice of European history that most
fantasy media pulls from.
- We kind of see the same two eras applied to fantasy
in a way, and its really fun
to just kind of branch out from there
and like you can find a lot of really fun shapes
and silhouettes to use when you look at
historical fashion around the world from different cultures.
- Ultimately, Dungeons and Dragons
while often inspired by and referential to history
is not history.
It's fantasy.
So you don't have to use historically accurate clothing
for your characters.
That said, history is full of ideas!
Taking some of those ideas and incorporating them
with your other sources of inspiration
can lead to some really unique looks that sometimes feel
even more fantastical than a truly historically
accurate costume might.
- Looking at current runway trends and stuff
and finding places where maybe you can
marry the historical with the modern
I think is really fun, and like the perfect place
to kind of find fantasy in between.
- Once you've looked at these four factors
story, aesthetic, utility, and history
you should have at least a basic concept
of your character's clothing in your mind.
But having something in your head is very different
from representing it in a way that others can take in
like your fellow party members
or an artist that you want to commission.
There are lots of different ways
to bring your clothing designs to life.
As anyone reading about Scarlett O'Hara's dresses
in Gone With the Wind
or one of Cinna's designs in the Hunger Games books
can attest, you don't need an actual
image to communicate a visual.
A written description of an outfit
can create an image in the reader's mind
so don't feel pressured to use a visual medium
if you don't want to.
I often start with a written description
of an outfit before I start to translate it
into sketches or even actual clothes.
But if you do want to use visuals
there are a few different angles you can take.
I would encourage you to try drawing it
even if you don't think you're a good artist.
Especially if you're just doing this for personal use
you can try tracing other pictures for a base
or even using a fashion design templates
so you don't have to learn the ins and outs
of anatomy I order get started.
You can also put together a mood board or a collage
from images of similar outfits or individual garments
that call your design to mind.
I love Pinterest for this, I make a Pinterest board
for almost every character I design.
That way, you can grab a photo of a modern pair of pants
a painting of a historical figure
wearing a certain type of doublet
and someone's sketch of a cool headpiece
and put them all beside each other to create
a mental image of the combination.
Online dollmakers can also be a great resource
if you can find one that suits your aesthetic vision.
But beware, you can lose hours into browsing those things
trying to find one that has all the options you need.
I speak from experience.
All of these things - written description, sketches,
moodboards, dollmakers...
they can be super helpful if you want to commission
an artist to draw your character.
Any reference you can provide will help them create
something that matches what you're envisioning in your head.
- It can be really, really good to know the difference
between if you want illustration VS if you want a design.
Because an illustration implies you already know what
your character looks like, and you maybe want a really
pretty portrait of them or something
Where as if you want design work, that can sometimes
be a more involved process.
- Kelsey is not taking commissions right now
but if you want the opportunity
to commission her in the future or you just want
to enjoy her beautiful art and beautiful cosplays
make sure to follow her @toughtink.
I'll put all her links into the description
- I couldn't get @toughtink on Twitter, which sucks
[Laughs]
- That's okay, I can't get @GinnyDi on twitter either
Its some old lady, she's never Tweeted!
She's only followed by her pastor!
[Laughs]
Remember, if you have until June 5th
to enter the World Anvil costume challenge
where you can win a $50 gift card to my shop
as well as a feature in Worldbuilding Magazine.
I'll put a link in the description
with more information about how to enter.
Good luck with your designing!
may your characters be very fashionable
or very unfashionable
if that's the kind of character they are.