Destroying Armour!

[rook111]

I'm not one to go around and adding rule to my game Like amny of you I like to keep things simple. However I just got OGL Ancients and afteer a quick glance through I found a rule i like and am considering transporting over.

In a nut shell in Ancients, Armour Has Hit points and a portion of all damge which it stops (DR) causes it to lose Hit points until its degraded into uselessness. its a bit more complecated than that but I need to read it thouroghly to make sure it would port over well.

Anyone else seen this?
What did you Think?

 

[Hyena]

From what you say, it sounds like too much bookeeping for me.

 

[GhostWolf69]

From what you say, it sounds like too much bookeeping for me.

Second that.... on the other hand, having a separate character sheet simply to keep track of your armour has a certain... I don't know... flare? :wink:

/wolf

 

[rook111]

Yes as I read further it adds a great deal of bookkeeping and its a bit more complicated than I first thought, I'm not sure how to convert it to Conan. I am going to take a good look at it when I get home from work. If I convert it into something usable Here I will post it and I will make a Armour tracking Sheet as well (good idea Ghostwolf).

 

[Yokiboy]

In a nut shell in Ancients, Armour Has Hit points and a portion of all damge which it stops (DR) causes it to lose Hit points until its degraded into uselessness. its a bit more complecated than that but I need to read it thouroghly to make sure it would port over well.

Anyone else seen this?
What did you Think?

I haven't seen it rook111, but I like the rule already in Conan the RPG; that is if you take in excess of 20 hp of damage after DR your armor's DR is reduced by 1d4 points. Clean and simple IMO.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Hyena]

From what you say, it sounds like too much bookeeping for me.

Second that.... on the other hand, having a separate character sheet simply to keep track of your armour has a certain... I don't know... flare? :wink:

/wolf

Ever heard about Bloodlust, that old French RPG where you got to play a conscious weapon ?

 

[rook111]

[
I haven't seen it rook111, but I like the rule already in Conan the RPG; that is if you take in excess of 20 hp of damage after DR your armor's DR is reduced by 1d4 points. Clean and simple IMO.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

Yeah, but after three weeks of actually playing in three different games I haven't seen it occur once. From what I can see of the rule in Acients its gradual but steady you get hit your armor is damaged.

Its not a rules addtion that everybody would or shoud use but it does add a degree of grittiness and (dare I say) realism to the game.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Yeah, but after three weeks of actually playing in three different games I haven't seen it occur once. From what I can see of the rule in Ancients its gradual but steady you get hit your armor is damaged.

Its not a rules addtion that everybody would or shoud use but it does add a degree of grittiness and (dare I say) realism to the game.

What period are the Ancients rules? Are they bronze rather than steel, because that might explain why more rapid degradation of armour would be represented.

Cheers

 

[rook111]

Its set in the Broinze age but the rules concept would carry through I believe.

For instance in Ancients a Bronze Plate Corslet would have 60 Hit points. For each attack that scores a hit the armor itself would absorb at most 3 points of damage reducing its hit points (It also has a DR of 6 which is damge delfcted, so on a hit that did 10 points of damage, 1 point gets through, 3 points damage the armour, and 6 are deflected). Armor has 4 levels of Condition and when the armor is reduced to 0 Hit points it drops to the next level of Condition and starts over with a full amount of Hp for the new condition. In Ancients the Conditions effect how well the armor covers you In Conan I would simply reduce the DR avalable as the Conditions deteriorate.

Anyway thats a quick and simple explanation on how it works.

 

[Yokiboy]

For instance in Ancients a Bronze Plate Corslet would have 60 Hit points. For each attack that scores a hit the armor itself would absorb at most 3 points of damage reducing its hit points (It also has a DR of 6 which is damge delfcted, so on a hit that did 10 points of damage, 1 point gets through, 3 points damage the armour, and 6 are deflected). Armor has 4 levels of Condition and when the armor is reduced to 0 Hit points it drops to the next level of Condition and starts over with a full amount of Hp for the new condition. In Ancients the Conditions effect how well the armor covers you In Conan I would simply reduce the DR avalable as the Conditions deteriorate.

Sounds like a neat system, perhaps I have to check out some more Mongoose books, and get a second job while I'm at it!

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Yokiboy]

Yeah, but after three weeks of actually playing in three different games I haven't seen it occur once. From what I can see of the rule in Acients its gradual but steady you get hit your armor is damaged.

Have you tried any house rules, such as lowering the threshold? Say to 10 hp, or any time more than twice the DR in HP damage passes through the armor the armor's DR is reduced by 1?

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Mongoose_Ade]

What period are the Ancients rules? Are they bronze rather than steel, because that might explain why more rapid degradation of armour would be represented.

Cheers

Ancients is primarily Bronze Age; you're entirely correct as to the reasons for the more rapid degradation. Iron corselets and the like didn't really come in until the Romans.

The system doesn't involve all that much extra bookkeeping. You just mark off your armour's hit points. Additional character sheets for your vambraces are not necessary.

 

[Samvail1]

Hi all

During playtesting, armour damage was a hotly debated issue. Here is an early version of the rules

"Each time a suit of armour is struck by a weapon that deals more than twice its DR in hit points of damage (before the DR is taken into account), its DR is reduced by 1."

It was decided that most armour would fall apart pretty quickly, so this particular rule was dropped.

Sam

 

[Yokiboy]

During playtesting, armour damage was a hotly debated issue. Here is an early version of the rules

"Each time a suit of armour is struck by a weapon that deals more than twice its DR in hit points of damage (before the DR is taken into account), its DR is reduced by 1."

Heh heh... That is just what I suggested as a house rule.

What about reducing the DR by 1 each time armor pierces it, i.e. AP + Str mod >= DR? Or would this result in armor deteriorating too quickly?

A drawback with the current rule is that Sneak Attacks are most likely to result in a DR reduction, which is kind of weird.

Another possible house rule - and this is all off the top of my head - would be to reduce DR by 1, each time someone rolls maximum damage.

Oh well, I have to try some variants and see how it goes.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Taharqa]

[
I haven't seen it rook111, but I like the rule already in Conan the RPG; that is if you take in excess of 20 hp of damage after DR your armor's DR is reduced by 1d4 points. Clean and simple IMO.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

Yeah, but after three weeks of actually playing in three different games I haven't seen it occur once. From what I can see of the rule in Acients its gradual but steady you get hit your armor is damaged.

Its not a rules addtion that everybody would or shoud use but it does add a degree of grittiness and (dare I say) realism to the game.

Since taking more than 20hp damage requires a Massive Damage save, it seems that most people are going to die long before their armor gets banged up. What about adjusting this to be 20 points of damage before damage reduction is accounted for?

In any case, it seems to me that armor should deteriorate fairly quickly if a character is taking damage, because it implies that his opponents are penetrating the armor (except for finesse attacks).

 

[Yokiboy]

Since taking more than 20hp damage requires a Massive Damage save, it seems that most people are going to die long before their armor gets banged up. What about adjusting this to be 20 points of damage before damage reduction is accounted for?

That's a good suggestion Taharqa, it would work better than my "maximum damage suggestion".

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[DrSkull]

How about this, every time an attacker rolls a "6" on his damage die, the defending armor drops 1 DR. That way small weapons like knives and daggers won't degrade armor, and big weapons like pollaxes and bardiches have a chance at degrading armor 2 Dr in a single hit (rolling 2 6's). All you have to do is keep a lookout for any 6 that comes up on the damage die roll.

 

[Yokiboy]

How about this, every time an attacker rolls a "6" on his damage die, the defending armor drops 1 DR. That way small weapons like knives and daggers won't degrade armor, and big weapons like pollaxes and bardiches have a chance at degrading armor 2 Dr in a single hit (rolling 2 6's). All you have to do is keep a lookout for any 6 that comes up on the damage die roll.

That could work, I must find the time to playtest some of these suggestions.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[MightyCthulhu]

How 'bout this alternative:

Whenever an attacker rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll, the target's armor looses DR equal to the Crit multiplier of the weapon-1. So most wepaons would degrade the armor 1 point, big weapons 2 points.

 

[Azgulor]

How 'bout this alternative:

Whenever an attacker rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll, the target's armor looses DR equal to the Crit multiplier of the weapon-1. So most wepaons would degrade the armor 1 point, big weapons 2 points.

I like it! Especially since I'm probably going to adopt Wounds/Vitality and under that system crits go straight to wound damage. This provides a nice mechanic for getting through the armor to the person inside.

Azgulor