Armor, Armor Everywhere, and Not a Cod to Piece!

[TarionzCousin]

I fought in "heavy" armor in the SCA for years. The most important pieces of armor, in order, IMHO:

1. Helm
2. Shield
3. Greaves
4. Gauntlets

These protect the places you get hit the most. It is easiest to hit someone in the head or below the knee. It's actually easier to hit someone in the shin than in the head, but I believe the head is more important to protect. The same reasoning applies to the shield.

After that, I would probably recommend groin protection. A glancing blow to your shoulder will probably sting a little. A glancing blow to your unprotected groin will make you wish you were dead.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or in the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson:

"Och, me plums!"

 

[Dice4Hire]

#1 Plumpiece?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I would be inclined to do armor by period - with chain replacing scale, brigandine replacing splint, etc.. as time passed.

Leather, whether in the form of cuir boili or a buff coat, is in for the long haul. Chain changed a bit over time, becoming more substantial and less encumbering (haubergion vs. a suit of mail).

Tired, and leaning toward the verbose, so I will leave off at this point.

The Auld Grump, cause fixing typos is not much fun....

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Type:

1. Leather
2. Mail
3. Plate

Weight:

1. Light
2. Medium
3. Heavy

That's 9 combinations, so:

10. Shield

 

[Stormonu]

In game worlds where dinosaurs (and in some cases, ray guns) can show up, people are really nitpicking over whether or not Maximilian plate should be included?

 

[DogBackward]

Type:

1. Leather
2. Mail
3. Plate

Weight:

1. Light
2. Medium
3. Heavy

That's 9 combinations, so:

10. Shield

That's actually what I've been doing for my homebrew d20 game, though I don't use Heavy Leather or Light Plate, which only gives seven. I do have the light, medium and heavy (tower) shields, though, so I guess mine still goes to ten...

I've always been a bigger fan of mix 'n' match equipment, rather than specific pieces. That way everybody gets to pick the type they want. That's why I just do light, one-handed and two-handed weapons, with the choice of slashing, piercing, hacking and slashing*, with the ability to choose an additional benefit (reach, higher threat/crit, multiple damage types, etc...) based on the type of weapon you want the stats to represent.

* Two very different types of damage, really, when you think about it. Hacking drives the force of the blow perpendicular to the target, while slashing keeps the force mostly parallel, but over a longer line.

 

[Lanefan]

I think we only have about 12 types in our game overall; pretty much everything else can be shoehorned in as one of these:

None
Padded (can be worn by itself and must be worn under heavy armour) and Soft Leather
Leather (hard-boiled)
Studded leather
Ring mail
Chain mail
Elven chain and Dwarven chain (a.k.a mithril mail; very rare, very expensive)
Scale mail
Splint and Banded armour (same thing except the metal bands go horizontal on one and vertical on the other)
Plate mail
Full plate

Buckler
Small shield
Medium shield
Large shield

I've always assumed things like helm, gauntlets, etc. commensurate to the particular armour being worn just come with it, though characters are free to mix and match these things if they like.

The quote below is from my houserules page regarding armour.

Lan-"modern oddities such as the bulletproof vest or the plexiglass shield will be dealt with if the need arises"-efan

 

[Jhaelen]

I like the Runequest armor types, which come in two varieties: soft & hard.
Soft armor types can be worn beneath hard armor.

It's about ten types:

- Soft Leather
- Stiff Leather
- Cuirbolli
- Bezainted
- Ringmail
- Lamellar
- Chainmail
- Standard Platemail
- Reinforced Platemail
- Superior Platemail

To allow for shields, I'd combine some of the similar armor types, e.g. like this:

- Soft Leather
- Stiff Leather/Cuirbolli
- Bezainted
- Ringmail/Lamellar
- Chainmail
- Standard Platemail
- Reinforced Platemail/Superior Platemail

This leaves room for three types (sizes) of shields, e.g.:
- buckler/targe
- viking round shield
- tower shield

Since Runequest uses boy zones, the main difference between shields would be the number of zones it can cover.

 

[El Mahdi]

In game worlds where dinosaurs (and in some cases, ray guns) can show up, people are really nitpicking over whether or not Maximilian plate should be included?

Only if the Maximilian Armour is proofed against dinosaurs and ray guns!