Does it fit?

[Supplement Four]

A short, barrel chested, burly Vanir downs a tall, lanky, skinny Hyperborean and wants to take the dead dude's mail.

How do you guys handle that? Do we care about size at all? Do all humans "fit" the gear and clothes and armor of any human they come into contact with?

Or, do you have some system that accounts for the size difference in people?

 

[Spectator]

Yeah, I guess if you want to be super realistic it should not fit right off the bat. But I suppose anyone wiith a day or two at hand could alter the mail to make it (sort of) fit.
IE: the bruly guy could cut the tighter mail on the sides and re connect it with some leather cord so his belly and chest is still covered, but the area from his armpits to his hips is unprotected by mail.

 

[Supplement Four]

I don't want to be too anal about this, but I would like a quick rule of thumb--probably based on the difference in stats--to use to see if something is tight or loose to the point of being unusable until it is altered.

This will make the player who took Craft (Armorsmith) feel like he didn't waste the skill points.

I might try to work up something simple based on the difference in STR, CON, and DEX scores.

 

[strategos14]

if there is a huge and obvious size difference then i apply minuses until it can get properly fitted. but usually mail coats and scale and armor like that had many different owners. whether it was mail shits of Republican Roman soldiers or the mail of Dark Age Vikings. so the only armor i am picky about is plate armor. it's expensive and was always made for someone. it was intricate in it's design and so it was difficult to wear a whole suit originally made for someone else. i mean you could wear it but it wouldn't fit right and would have to be altered by an armorer. although in my game, i don't make plate armor all that common. like not common at all.

 

[Supplement Four]

but usually mail coats and scale and armor like that had many different owners. whether it was mail shits of Republican Roman soldiers or the mail of Dark Age Vikings. so the only armor i am picky about is plate armor. it's expensive and was always made for someone.

I like your thinking on this. I think I'll adopt it.

I guess the big challenge in scavenging armor of dead people will be the damaged parts.

I'd like a quick-n-easy rule to judge how torn up armor is after the last owner died in it. Hmm.. have to think about that one.

 

[strategos14]

yeah, technically they have that rule that the armor is damaged it 20 pts of damage is dealt but sometimes if a player is like "hey, can i take that dudes mail off him since hes dead?" i might reply with "sure but there's a spear through it, it's covered in blood, and men tend to soil themselves when they die. DR is 2 worse." so i guess i ad-hoc that too.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

I'd prefer to say no, but I've heard just way too many players gripe about stuff like that over the years and I just let them wear it so I don't have to hear it anymore. I'd say more than half the players I've gamed with since 2000 would cry foul.

 

[strategos14]

if it's damaged i would minus the DR. if it doesn't fit i would make the max dex and skill check penalties worse. sometimes i will declare a percentage and let the dice decide. say a character wants to scour a a small battle field for a mail coat that fits and isn't damaged. i might say ok, 20% chance you'll find that so roll. i just base the percentage on the situation and what feels appropriate at the time. most characters end up with money enough to have armor made or to buy decent armor but i remind them that this isn't so for most. any armor they loot will most likely already have been patched and fixed and altered in some way many times.

 

[DooMJake]

Going by "Rules as written" armor is made in 'one size fits all' style with the exception of platemail.

Personally I think it is realistic as armor has been mass-produced for the average soldier.
For those who want more restriction for armors you could make them form-fitted for the individuals and that armor needs to be retalored to be used by another NPC with different physical stats, but I dont see the benefit of that.

 

[strategos14]

to be honest, i don't think i've ever declared armor doesn't fit a player. non-plate armor i mean. i may have back in D&D days when a dwarf wanted a humans mail coat and i told he need to hem the thing. but that's about it. i've declared armor damaged a number of times though. never really unusable but damaged to some degree.