Tumbling in full plate

[pawsplay]

Really? I mean, it would be exhausting, but it shouldn't be terribly difficult, if you can already do acrobatics.

 

[mcrow]

I have seen a couple of people do catwheels, head first rolls, and swing on ropes in full plate. I think someone trained in armor use and who is fitted correctly for it can do quite a lot of the more basic acrobatics. They wont do it as fast or quite as smoothly as an unarmored person, but they can do it.

 

[Piratecat]

Pkitty can tumble? I dare you to prove it. At Gen Con.

Ah! I meant hold a tumbler. Of booze. While I'm also holding a plate filled with appetizers. See, tumbling with a full plate.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm a little deaf in that ear.

 

[pawsplay]

I can sneak in chain mail. It's funny, you don't usually see guys in adventure films running around holding the hem of their armor to keep it from jingling, but it works.

That said, even fairly light leather armor slows you down appreciably in a fight. It takes a lot of training to be able to wear even light armors effortlessly.

 

[Gez]

You know, GURPS has gotten lots of flak for its claim that you can do acrobatics in plate mail. Plenty of people said that this "proved" that GURPS was unrealistic after all...

Those are the same who claim an average sword weighs 20 kg.

Of course, some of those claimants are only doing that for comedy.

 

[Bacris]

I heard Eric Noah can tumble in full plate while blind-folded and hog-tied. Of course, he'd never actually let someone blind-fold and hog-tie him, but he can do it!

 

[the Jester]

Ah! I meant hold a tumbler. Of booze. While I'm also holding a plate filled with appetizers. See, tumbling with a full plate.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm a little deaf in that ear.

That's not your ear.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I heard Eric Noah can tumble in full plate while blind-folded and hog-tied. Of course, he'd never actually let someone blind-fold and hog-tie him, but he can do it!

Yeah. Chuck Noah!

 

[Ourph]

Having worn reproduction plate armor based on 15th century models a couple of times, my opinion is that (without a helmet) tumbling wouldn't be drastically affected as long as the wearer were strong enough to bear the extra weight. Anyone with better than average upper body strength should be fine. Wearing a helmet (other than maybe a "pot" helmet)severely restricts your head movement, so tumbling that might require head-tucking (forward rolls, for example) would be more awkward, but not impossible.

Well made plate armor actually provides nearly a full range a movement at all of the joints because of the placement of the leather straps that hold everything together. The leather is flexible, so the metal can move around quite a bit. If the joints don't "hit" in the right place on you, the armor is very restrictive. If they do, it's really no worse than wearing a thick winter coat, IME (in fact, a thick winter coat is probably worse).

 

[Darklone]

I don't have videos but I've seen guys make flick-ups in full platemail, run uphill to catch an unarmored guy (the guy in plate was a well-trained cop) and climb a castlewall... without rope.

But the same guys complained like old women if they had to walk 1000m to get somewhere

Of all manoevers above, the flick-up impressed me most. The guy got tackled, fell on his back, rolled a bit away and was back on his feet before the guy who kicked him down was able to hit him with his blade.

And yes, that guy was wearing a customtailored fullplatemail (though he liked it a bit heavier than usual at 45kg due to doublewoven chainmail).