Don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how people in the State dressed. It’s not crucial and we don’t want to micro manage you. It’s your character, you may decide how they look within the guidelines we provide here.
It’s only three years since the rise of the fungus infection and around two years since the collapse. This leads us to think that people are wearing modern day clothes that are a mix and match of items put together over time. It’s not about looking fashionable and coordinated, but staying warm. Some might look a little bit neater, others might not care so much. No one looks like they’ve had time to consider an outfit, because homes, retail stores, warehouses etc. have been looted by dangerous and brutal raiders. Only scraps, odd items and shitty things have been left behind. What the characters have are remnants of what they wore on Day 0 (the day the State collapsed), things that have been scavenged from a rare cache or looted off the dead.
We’d like the characters to look like individuals and have some diversity. We don’t want a group full of tactical gear-wearing war veteran looking people, nor do we want studies in neo-clad cyberpunk. Try to imagine what sensible clothes for a life mostly spent on the road looks like. Consider what your character would look like, once you get it and sprinkle some personality into their clothes. Maybe they were a farmer or a bank worker or a police officer or a politician. Maybe they desperately want to keep some semblance of their former life. If your character is a former soldier, you may decide how your branch of the armed forces looked, as long as you wear and tear the costume pieces accordingly.
After three years, many clothes would likely be on the earthy color scale, but blooms of color are fine too, as long as you make it look filthy. In general, you have to make your clothes look worn, repaired and dirty. There are no working laundromats or washing machines any more, so everything would be grimy and filthy. We ask you to avoid prints or logos that are strongly connected to a specific country, company or event (e.g. London Olympics 2012, University of <somewhere> or Medeltidsveckan). The State was a tightly closed country where citizens had no contact with the outside, nor were they influenced thereby. They probably didn’t even know of Star Wars, Frozen or DC/Marvel.
We suggest you consider these items part of your costume:
- Boots. No one would get very far in Converses, loafers or flimsy sneakers
- Trousers. A clever choice for life on the road would be pants with lots of pockets, but you choose
- Warm sweater and warm underlayers
- Scarf (keep in mind that most of you are not war veterans with a love for shemaghs)
- Gloves of any kind. Protect your hands and keep them warm
- Warm hat, cap, beanie etc
- A worn bag/backpack for your character’s belongings. This must contain everything you bring to the larp (except sleeping bag and mat, which you still need to carry, though)
- Face mask, apocalyptic corona style if you want
For visual references, we’d like to refer to the following:
- Larps: Lotka-Volterra, Hinterland
- Movies/TV: The Road, Children of Men, The Walking Dead, The Book of Eli, Snowpiercer
