I dive into history and (usually European) geography for character inspiration, so I'll have a Irish Celtic character, a Medieval Finn, a Dark Age German, an Early Modern Venetian, and so on. I then try to match names, hairstyles and (where possible) armour and clothing to that concept. I don't worry too much about the character matching the rest of the setting culturally, but it does jar when the relative historical periods are too far apart. My Early Modern Germanic greatswordsman interacting with Classical period NPCs, for example.
D&D has long been a mish-mash of historical technology. Romano banded mail and shortswords running alongside full plate armour, heavy crossbows and rapiers makes me wince, but the game is what it is. If the NPC is supposed to be a desperate refugee but is wearing a fine velvet gown and has an elaborate hairstyle, well... 'it's only a game of D&D'. I wouldn't have made that artistic choice myself, but I can barely run Discord let alone code a PC game. My own tabletop game is where I get to determine what the NPCs wear and look like, not in a commercial CRPG.
Last edited by Sadurian; 08/11/20 08:08 PM.
