Guidelines For a Better Costume
There are quite a few festivals in Ansalon that feature folk dressing up in costumes. The Night of the Eye, where kids dress as Wizards of High Sorcery and go running through the streets collecting cookies, is but one example. The Spring Dawning festival in Palanthas features city folk dressing themselves up as knights (the flavor of knight each year is as appropriate for the current government; do not make your fake armor too far in advance as such things are subject to change). And then there is that day when all the dwarven men dress in drag...
But I digress (and tease).
The point of this article is not to address those holidays in which the people of Ansalon dress up. That has already been handled by the Order of Aesthetics in Palanthas, and you the reader can look up such topics at your leisure (not mine please). What I want to focus on instead is the topic of people who feel a moral obligation to "dress" up as, and pretend they are, someone famous. The Heroes of the Lance are the most common examples, but one sees a fair number of Minas (both PG and PG-13 versions), Palins (I still cannot forget the Palin packing 250 pounds of almost all muscle), and Kangs (word to the wise, making your entire costume out of bronze plates is a BAD idea) nowadays. There are just a few too many people who seem to think that if they can look the part (badly) and act the part (badly), that they somehow look good during these holidays.
Here are several guidelines to help you better portray your disguise as someone famous (and not look like an idiot in the eyes of your peers while doing so):
1. If it does not protect both the chest and torso, it is not armor. Kitiara uth Matar was a very good fighter...and not a very stupid one.
2. Plainsmen... and plainswomen... typically wear pants. When dressing up as certain members of the Que-Shu tribe, if you believe you should be bare-legged to the hips, I think you need to take a striding walk through long plains grass followed immediately by a wade through salty ocean water. I guarantee the resulting sting will cure you of your madness...
3. If you are going to disguise yourself as a famous person, please pick a character role that fits your body type. I have seen more folks disguised as Raistlin Majeres (or worse, Lauranas!) that resemble ale barrels rather more closely then I care to remember. Use prudence; some weight classes are more suitable for certain character roles then others...
4. Dalamar the Dark did wear undergarments.
5. Tika Majere did wear undergarments. There is even a song to prove it...
6. Dressing in leather, carrying a bow, and attaching fake ears does not automatically make you Paladine's gift to women, no matter how much you might believe otherwise.
7. Fake gnomish gadgets on the costume should remain exactly that: fake.
8. There are no Knights of the Daisy.
9. People annoyed by you whilst you pretend to be kender will react in the same fashion as if you were actually a kender...and that fashion could be attempted murder...
10. Minotaur females do not have udders.
11. Draconian females do not have udders.
12. Just because you are portraying Sturm Brightblade does not give you license to "demonstrate" your abilities with the sword you are wearing as part of your costume.
13. Steel Brightblade did not wield a katana.
14. If you have made your Knightly armor out of anything other then metal, you will look like an idiot.
15. If the only factor present in your costume that preserves your decency while in public is magic or magical in nature, expect to be indecent in public at least once before the night is over.
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