Armor Taken From The Battlefield

[Greenfield]

If the chain armor is well made it will distribute so well that the wearer can forget that he/she is wearing it. Literally.

My shirt is 3/8th 16 gauge stainless, with short sleeves, and weighs about 25 lbs. I've fitted it onto 10 year old kids and men as big as 6'4" and 240 lbs (I'm about 5'10" myself). I joke that it's "magic" armor because it weighs 25 lbs in the hands and 5lbs on your shoulders.

Proper chain would have the ends of the links overlapped, then pounded flat so rivets could be set through them. An opening big enough for a sword to come through could be as small as one or two broken or split rings. Repair (if you have the skill) could be done in the field, without the need for a forge. Just replace those rings with some taken from an edge. Rivets can be set using a pair of properly made tongs.

Note that "in the field" doesn't mean "on the field of battle". It means outside of a town or smithy. You could do it in night camp.

And yes, the under padding could get soaked in blood. It could also be cleaned, to some extent. Poorer quality padding, such as sheepskin, could get clotted with blood and lose the soft yielding property that makes it good padding. Again, though, it could be washed out (with effort) and the hide side re-oiled.

In short, the Craft Arms and Armor skill is applicable. Repairing broken armor is half the cost of building that same armor from scratch, according to the rules, and this is one of those times when I think they got it about right.

 

[Ryujin]

If the chain armor is well made it will distribute so well that the wearer can forget that he/she is wearing it. Literally.

My shirt is 3/8th 16 gauge stainless, with short sleeves, and weighs about 25 lbs. I've fitted it onto 10 year old kids and men as big as 6'4" and 240 lbs (I'm about 5'10" myself). I joke that it's "magic" armor because it weighs 25 lbs in the hands and 5lbs on your shoulders.

Proper chain would have the ends of the links overlapped, then pounded flat so rivets could be set through them. An opening big enough for a sword to come through could be as small as one or two broken or split rings. Repair (if you have the skill) could be done in the field, without the need for a forge. Just replace those rings with some taken from an edge. Rivets can be set using a pair of properly made tongs.

Note that "in the field" doesn't mean "on the field of battle". It means outside of a town or smithy. You could do it in night camp.

And yes, the under padding could get soaked in blood. It could also be cleaned, to some extent. Poorer quality padding, such as sheepskin, could get clotted with blood and lose the soft yielding property that makes it good padding. Again, though, it could be washed out (with effort) and the hide side re-oiled.

In short, the Craft Arms and Armor skill is applicable. Repairing broken armor is half the cost of building that same armor from scratch, according to the rules, and this is one of those times when I think they got it about right.

Yup, properly tapered and contracted, where necessary, the weight would lie pretty evenly. I'm shooting for 2/3 length sleeves on mine. I'm also currently making a set of 'bikini mail' as a women's costume, out of 1/4", 16 gauge aluminum rings. Too many damned projects

The danger with even flaxen, cotton, or wool padding is that it would become infested and start to rot, if it was blood soaked and then left for a while. That could become rather nasty, if the wearer was wounded through it. Chain could be repaired using a drift and a mallet, too, to set the rivets. I don't work with riveted mail since I don't have a forge, I'm not really making anything that needs to perform above costume levels, and I don't expect that the zombies will be swinging swords or shooting bows when The Apocalypse comes

Given limited exposure to metal armours the barbarians would likely be limited to picking over the complete pieces, or perhaps layering damaged ones. Not too tough given something like chain and, as i said before, scales could easily be adapted using basic skills.

 

[Greenfield]

Ring mail seems like it would be well within the tech/economic/skill level of the barbarian. Metal rings the size of quarters simply stitched over curabolie (leather boiled in oil or wax to harden it) are effective to stopping slicing blows, and it's very skill-light to maintain.

As for the padding: Since you're almost certainly going to get blood on it (yours or someone elses, most probably both) I'm liking sheepskin more and more for the underpadding. The hide backing won't soak through nearly as easily.

If you want to make your own leather armor, a good way (short of the oil/wax treatment) is to soak the leather in water laced with Titebond wood glue. It's a water based acrylic, similar to white school glue, and easy to find. Soaking the leather in a dilute form of that will make it soft and pliable. Shape it over a form and let it dry. Leather will normally stiffen from this treatment, since the water will wash out some of the leather oils, but adding the acrylic glue will make it as hard as fiberglass.

Oh, and a good way to dry it without risking mildew? Put it, on the form, in your car and leave it in the sun with the windows closed. Natural solar oven, with enough air space to handle the humidity.

 

[nijineko]

I haven't seen those and couldn't find them, but my quick and dirty rules on mixed armor types is, "It's padded, hide, or splint depending on what you mainly made it out of."

The Conan RPG has its own set of parial armor rules, so I'll use those. But, I still want to look at what's up on that Dark Sun site. Thanks for the tip!

ah, my bad. the piecemeal armor rules are in the Athasian_Emporium_beta_1.2.pdf, not the ds3-r7.pdf.

page 16.

 

[Bluenose]

Considering that historically, the corpses on a battleifield would often be stripped naked either by the victors or people following behind the battle for that purpose, I'd say the odds would be pretty good.

This. Hannibal's army spent years in Italy with almost no supply from their homeland. The troops were almost indistinguishable form Romans by the end, at least in terms of the equipment they had. Stripping the bodies, salvaging equipment from them, and putting the usable bits to use was common practice at least into the 17th century.

 

[nijineko]

This. Hannibal's army spent years in Italy with almost no supply from their homeland. The troops were almost indistinguishable form Romans by the end, at least in terms of the equipment they had. Stripping the bodies, salvaging equipment from them, and putting the usable bits to use was common practice at least into the 17th century.

same thing happened with cortez in the americas. the native quilted armors were better adapted to the climate, and turned edged weapons just as well as the metal cuirasses they came with. quite a few of the troops adopted them.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm curious. In real life, if a survivor picked over a battlefield of corpses, how likely is it that he'd find some good armor for himself?

I wondering this because, in my game, I've made armor pretty scarce up until this point. They're a group of barbarians, and intricate chain link isn't made in this part of the world. But, now, I'm thinking of making more of it available. They're going to have to take it off the dead.

Now, I realize that a lot of armor on a corpse will be bloodied and soaked with gore and most likely damaged--at least from the killing blow. But, if they find some acceptible armor on a corpse (maybe they guy died from a blow to the head), how likely is it that it will fit the PCs?

Very likely, unless their body sizes are very different?

Your thoughts?

As long as there are armorers nearby, a cart load of battlefield scraps should glean good armor for a handful of folk, particularly if the battle involved a hundred or more participants that weren't picked clean before the group came upon them. What isn't used to outfit the party can offset the cost of cleaning and adjusting what they do need.

 

[Greenfield]

Just as an historical note: The fast majority of "troops" in a medieval battle didn't have any armor, or even formal weapons. Most were farmers wielding farm implements like bill hooks or pitchforks. They were the "peasant yoemen" drafted on relatively short notice.

Standing armies were a luxury that few cared to afford.

 

[Derren]

Most were farmers wielding farm implements like bill hooks or pitchforks. They were the "peasant yoemen" drafted on relatively short notice.

Standing armies were a luxury that few cared to afford.

Thats why merceneries were in heavy demand.

 

[Gorgoroth]

Very informative posts, Greenfield! I'm saving those links, love armor making tech (though there is no way I'd ever even dream of doing that myself, unless I lived a thousand years)