(bold added)
NOT in Europe.
Let's be clear about this (since I really don't want to bother arguing with you again further) plated mail is what I use as plate in 5E. It is plate on chain backing, not FULL plate like shown in the image. So, yes I have AC 18 "plate" because it is better than splint (plates on leather, not chain).
I gave you citations. Things even remotely like actual PLATE armor appear in the 15th century. The game already offers splint armor for what you describe (overlapping strips or plates of armor on some kind of backing, usually leather, with chain at the joints for flexible protection.) The explicit description of Plate Armor is: "Plate consists of shaped, interlocking metal plates to cover the entire body. A suit of plate includes gauntlets, heavy leather boots, a visored helmet, and thick layers of padding underneath the armor. Buckles and straps distribute the weight over the body." This type of armor
did not exist until 1420. Hand cannons were common in France, as I cited (a Wikipedia link, but it cites an actual history book in turn), by
1338. Guns predate anything like "plate armor," and the plate armor item explicitly IS the full 15th century suit.
The only way around this dilemma is to literally be using the term "plate armor" in a factually incorrect way. It is
literally not possible to include "plate armor," in the phrase's actual, historical meaning, and yet exclude hand cannons. Either you must accept both (aka, use 15th century as your tech basis), or you must
actually reject both (aka, use 12th century or earlier as your tech basis), or you must accept hand cannons and
not plate armor (aka 14th century tech basis), or you must use words to mean things they don't actually refer to historically (aka calling lamellar armor "plate" armor when it just...isn't, in complete defiance of history.)
The reason I push back so hard on this is that I don't like when someone claims a high horse and then blatantly disregards their alleged standard. Your game isn't historical. You forbid a real and extant medieval technology, hand cannons, while embracing a technology which came later, under the pretense of it being a different armor type
already present in the rules. If you just want to say, "I hate guns and think plate armor is cool, I don't really care if that's historically accurate, it's what I want," that's absolutely fine. If you want to say, "I don't like guns, so to make my game historically accurate I don't include technology that appeared after roughly 1250 AD, meaning I forbid both guns and plate armor," that's fine too. It is the claim that
because of historical accuracy you forbid guns
but let "plate" be lamellar armor that is sticking in my craw.
But I have always forbade guns in D&D and will continue to do so. As I said in the other post--no gunpowder, no cannons, etc. I really don't know why you are making an issue of it. D&D has always been a mixture of technologies from different ages and cultures, and DMs typically disallow certain items.
As I said: if you do this because you feel like it, sure, fine, whatever lifts your luggage.
Just don't go around claiming it's about being super historically accurate and that you could
never permit such an inaccurate thing as
guns in pseudo-medieval faux-Europe.
As a final point, I've never met a DM who did allow guns in their game that I've seen outside of the rare cross-over adventure (lost space ship found and laser guns is the closest).
I've met plenty. Guns are hardly different from bows in most games. Often worse, actually, because medieval weapons usually take forever to load.
Also?
I allow guns in my game. They're rare and not widely made, at least not at present, in the region where the game is set. This puts the onus on the player (spellslinger, a gun-toting artificer-wizard hybrid) to come up with ways they can get better equipment. Thus far they have done things like looking for engraved plates to rivet to the sides of their primary gun (which is essentially a revolver, very Lone Ranger vibes; they keep a set of one-shot flintlocks if needed), finding new alchemical formulations for their powder, and looking for gadgets and magical effects to improve the gun they already have. The character's presence and activity has highlighted these weapons to certain groups, causing potentially unwanted attention, and the character is very careful not to let actual Waziri mages anywhere near that primary weapon, because Waziri mages primarily learn new magic via destructive analysis of existing spells or magic items. They covet that gun and the character isn't about to satisfy their interests any time soon.
