Armor

[atgxtg]

BTw, a real quick question to some of our experts here. Does anyone know about how long it took for armor to be made. I Always thought that it was unrealistic for players to plop their gold down at the local smith and walk away with a set of plate armor. Maybe they mass produce plate and other armor in the Clanking city but I doubt if they do elsewhere. Magic might speed up the proccess but I suspect it would still be slow.

It depends on the armor. It also depends on the materials and number of assistancts in the shop. Plate was usually the worst, since it couldn't be divided up among apprentcies as easily. Say about ten weeks of work. Mail was actually more time consuming, but the work was easier to break up.

Some appoximate guidelines to make a complete suit of armor:

Flexible, natual material (cloth, leather): 5 days per AP
Hard, natual Material (cuir bouilli): 8 days per AP
Flexible Metal (mail): 12 days per AP
Hard Metal (plate): 10 days days per AP point
Combination (bezainted, scale): 7 days per AP

To make a piece of armor:
Find 1/10th of the Time. Mutipley that by the number of locations covered. Chest and legs due to being the largest parts of the body count double.

Example: To make a 6AP breatplate covering the chest an abdomen.

Plate= 10 days per AP so 10x6 =60 days

To make a piece: 60/10 = 6 days x 3 hit locations (chest and abdomen, but chest counts double) = 18 days.


Should be close enough for an RPG. Note that that is 18 full days of work. THat doesn't count holidays, or time spent on other projects, or failed crafting rolls.

The good news is that it also doen't factor in for assistants, either.

 

[Archer]

A solution to make different pieces of armor have more difference in what they protect would be to further divide the Hit locations as this;

d20
20   Head
19   Throat/Neck
18   Left Upper Arm
17   Left Lower Arm
16   Left Hand
15   Right Upper Arm
14   Right Lower Arm
13   Right Hand
12-10 Chest
9-8  Abdomen
7    Groin
6    Left Thigh
5    Left Leg
4    Left Foot
3    Left Thigh
2    Left Leg
1    Left Foot

To further make things intressting you could assign values of 1-100 for the locations instead of the 1-20, and then use a inverted attack roll to determine what hit location you strike (example; A successfull attack roll of 26 becomes a hit at hitlocation 62).

Unfortunately, due to the lack of Total HPs, a character becomes even harder to kill, if you assign separate HPs for each of these locations. So it is best to keep the HPs as they are, and only use this for armor coverage.

 

[atgxtg]

I'm not so found of the idea of using the to hit roll for hit location, inverted or otherwise. THe problem is that until a character has a 100% or better in an attack skill, he can't hit certain locations.

 

[Archer]

I'm not so found of the idea of using the to hit roll for hit location, inverted or otherwise. THe problem is that until a character has a 100% or better in an attack skill, he can't hit certain locations.

That aside, using the hit location table I described above, with added descriptions of armour pieces to know exactly what "sub-locations" they protect, you make armor different, and sometimes more worthwile in getting, despite ENC and same AP.

 

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

As an option an enhanced location piece by piece armour allocation might be interesting. Too much for my players I suspect except the determined among them.

I like the 'tweaked' armour table though I'm not sure all the armour types work in all the locations.

Regards

 

[atgxtg]

Greetings

As an option an enhanced location piece by piece armour allocation might be interesting. Too much for my players I suspect except the determined among them.

I like the 'tweaked' armour table though I'm not sure all the armour types work in all the locations.

Regards

I have considered doing an "Advanced" armor table, with pieces by location and AP adjustments against differt tpyes of attack. THat would also allow me differentiate between a armor types better, toss in a few more variants, and make layering more reasonable, AND realtistic. For instance, if mailis 5AP, but counts half vs. blunt attacks and thrust, and Quilt has 5 AP but counts half against edged and thrust attacks, the two together would provide 7AP. In fact, we could lover mail to 3 or 4 AP and expect 2 AP from quit padding to hit 5AP.

THisd would allow for reinforced peces to work even easier, since we could now vary some armor APs a bit without as much overlap or hitting ubervalues.

Break the body up into 20 locations and it also solcves the precvise attack problem. Instead of a penatyl to bypass armor, you aim for a unarmed (or less armored) hit location.


Thanks. I belive every armor listed on the table is/was made for the location covered, but is you have any doubts about some, please post them, and I;;lsee if I have or can find evidence to validate it;s exisitence, or not (and then remove it from the chart).

 

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

Thanks for the reply. I think the development of a system that eliminated the need for bypassing armour would be interesting. I've kept (for now) a cut down version for ease of play.

As far as armour pieces are concerned I'll dig out my table developed from yours and have a look. Mind you I was renaming armour pieces to suit my planned background so was using 'aketon' and similar terms. I also hadn't gone back to check my armour book so I may be incorrect in some respects anyway. I suppose the other thing to add is that I was thinking western mediaeval with a cast back to Greece for the spolas etc.

Regards

 

[atgxtg]

Yeah armor technolgoy varies considerably over the centuries. By the late medieval period, you could probably find a way to cover any location with any type ofarmor in some way . Plate, being rigid, was the toughest, but by then armourers could craft articulated plate with movable joints.

In a bronze age setting, you basically have a helet, breatplate, vambrances, rebraces and greaves. In fact, a warrior could probably just get by with the helment and greaves, since the hoplite shield covered practically everything from around the knees to the head.