Armor

[steph]

hey guys .just want to know if you got a house rules for real armor....can you damage the armor and break it etc etc.................. and if you can do it did you keep the rule for naturel armor like trolls skins or dragons scales etc etc ..........can you explain if you use a house rule please
hope i am clear
english not my first language
steph

[Outsider]

If you want a means to have armor wear out through use, you can make it basically Ablative by location. It becomes just one more thing to keep track of, though.

How it would work :

Any time a character wearing armor takes BODY damage, his armor will be damaged as well. The location hit will gain an activation roll, and the activation roll will get lower for each hit (that the armor activates against) that does BODY damage to that location. This activation roll stays in place until the armor is repaired by a competent armorer.

Example :
Sir Steelplate wears a full suit of DEF 8 armor. While he is out on campaign, an opponent hits him in the left shoulder, doing 10 BODY, 2 of which gets through his armor. Now his armor on the left shoulder has a 15- activation roll. In the same combat he is hit in that shoulder again, this time for 9 BODY. His armor activates, and he takes 1 more BODY. Now that shoulder's activation roll is 14-. The next time his left shoulder is hit (this time for 9 BODY), Sir Steelplate fails his activation roll, and he takes that 9 BODY directly, and an impairing wound. Since the blow did not hit his armor, the armor is not damaged further, and retains its 14- activation roll on that location next time it is hit there.

[Eosin]

I don't have any rules - too much minutia to keep track of for the players. It bogs the game down.

What I do instead is require monthly "upkeep" or lifestyle maintence. The cost of this covers the frequent repair of armor and weapons. I should note that I do not use the Wealth Perk in my Fantasy Games.

It looks something like this - the $ amount is monthly cost of living.
Homeless: $500 - basically eating, and bad food at that
Dirt Poor: $1,000 - food and a shack
Poor: $1,500 - nothing fancy but the basic needs are met. Crude weapons and armor.
Average: $2,000 - some luxury but not much. soldiering weapon and armor.
Merchant: $3,000 - nice clothes, good food, but nothing extragavant. Soldiering weapons & armor.
Gentry: $4,000 - fine goods, moderate weapons and armor (chainmail)
Great Merchant: $6,000 - fancy house, a servant or two.
Knight: $8,000 - manor house, warhorse, palfrey, plate & chain, any weapon
Lord: $10,000 - squire, keep, warhorse, several other horses, half a dozen servants, plate & chain.
Merchant Magnate: $15,000 - palace or vila, dozens of servants, luxury items everywhere, exotic foods, 2 body guards, a dozen men-at-arms.
Great Lord: $50,000 +++ depends on extragavance, they might have a few knights in attendance, full platemail, a household of 30-40 servants, entertainment, etc... The greater the retinue the more expense.

Maybe I should write the whole thing up....

[Krieghandt]

from personal exprience, armor doesnt really "wear out" so much as it gets sections ripped off. Roman chain being one of the exceptions. I just use armor damage as a plot device, forcing Sir Steelplate to visit a nearby smith for repairs. Oh, and hacked up monster hide isnt worth as much as whole.
Krieghandt

[Outsider]

That's generally what I do as well.

But what do you do if Sir Steelplate is either unwilling or unable to visit that smith? Have damaged sections of the armor stop working entirely, rather than having them work more and more sporadically?

[Vondy]

I don't worry about armor being damaged unless its dramatically apropos.

However, the Focus rules include a section on damaging foci that does exactly what you are asking about. I think its generally regarded as being optional, but its right there in the rule-book. You could use it "as is" or combine it with some sort of activation/ablative mechanic.

[input.jack]

That's generally what I do as well.

But what do you do if Sir Steelplate is either unwilling or unable to visit that smith? Have damaged sections of the armor stop working entirely, rather than having them work more and more sporadically?

If I need Sir Steelplate to go to the blacksmith for a plot reason, yeah, Ill start telling the Player that Steelplate's armor how has an activation of 14- on the arm, or that the whole suit has deteriorated to 6 DEF, or something, and that only getting it fixed or replaced will restore his DEF to its former glory.

Usually gets the Player on the right track.

[Thia Halmades]

Meh. There's a rule for it - "Real Armor (-1/4)" - easiest way to handle is that the PC has to declare 'upkeep' every day, or the armor starts to lose efficacy (incurs loss of dex, offers less protection, etc.). This gets steadily worse until it either needs repairs, falls apart, etc.

I think there's a full set of rules in Fantasy HERO, but I don't recall. It's basically the same mechanic as Real Weapon (-1/4) but applied to armor instead.

[Krieghandt]

Leather and other organics decay in the constant presence of human sweat, and straps are constantly being stressed any time the wearer moves.
In battle breakage is usually a dex penalty as the armor ALWAYS moves into the wrong place. Trust me.

with plate, the plates are warped and dont fit the body (rare), or more commonly, the straps have broken. So I would remove the section.
Chain is the easiest to deal with, as a piece of cord will tie it back in place, so I would use a 14- for less armor.
Brigadine and Leather tend to have large, hard to repair rips in them, but tend to stay on, like a torn leather jacket. 14- to by pass all armor, no dex penalty.

Just some fast rules based on personal exprience with broken armor
Krieghandt

[Tywyll]

I don't have any rules - too much minutia to keep track of for the players. It bogs the game down.

What I do instead is require monthly "upkeep" or lifestyle maintence. The cost of this covers the frequent repair of armor and weapons. I should note that I do not use the Wealth Perk in my Fantasy Games.

It looks something like this - the $ amount is monthly cost of living.
Homeless: $500 - basically eating, and bad food at that
Dirt Poor: $1,000 - food and a shack
Poor: $1,500 - nothing fancy but the basic needs are met. Crude weapons and armor.
Average: $2,000 - some luxury but not much. soldiering weapon and armor.
Merchant: $3,000 - nice clothes, good food, but nothing extragavant. Soldiering weapons & armor.
Gentry: $4,000 - fine goods, moderate weapons and armor (chainmail)
Great Merchant: $6,000 - fancy house, a servant or two.
Knight: $8,000 - manor house, warhorse, palfrey, plate & chain, any weapon
Lord: $10,000 - squire, keep, warhorse, several other horses, half a dozen servants, plate & chain.
Merchant Magnate: $15,000 - palace or vila, dozens of servants, luxury items everywhere, exotic foods, 2 body guards, a dozen men-at-arms.
Great Lord: $50,000 +++ depends on extragavance, they might have a few knights in attendance, full platemail, a household of 30-40 servants, entertainment, etc... The greater the retinue the more expense.

Maybe I should write the whole thing up....

Please, please, PLEASE do so sir. That would be awesome.

[Frenchman]

I don't have any rules - too much minutia to keep track of for the players. It bogs the game down.

What I do instead is require monthly "upkeep" or lifestyle maintence. The cost of this covers the frequent repair of armor and weapons. I should note that I do not use the Wealth Perk in my Fantasy Games.

It looks something like this - the $ amount is monthly cost of living.
Homeless: $500 - basically eating, and bad food at that
Dirt Poor: $1,000 - food and a shack
Poor: $1,500 - nothing fancy but the basic needs are met. Crude weapons and armor.
Average: $2,000 - some luxury but not much. soldiering weapon and armor.
Merchant: $3,000 - nice clothes, good food, but nothing extragavant. Soldiering weapons & armor.
Gentry: $4,000 - fine goods, moderate weapons and armor (chainmail)
Great Merchant: $6,000 - fancy house, a servant or two.
Knight: $8,000 - manor house, warhorse, palfrey, plate & chain, any weapon
Lord: $10,000 - squire, keep, warhorse, several other horses, half a dozen servants, plate & chain.
Merchant Magnate: $15,000 - palace or vila, dozens of servants, luxury items everywhere, exotic foods, 2 body guards, a dozen men-at-arms.
Great Lord: $50,000 +++ depends on extragavance, they might have a few knights in attendance, full platemail, a household of 30-40 servants, entertainment, etc... The greater the retinue the more expense.

Maybe I should write the whole thing up....

This is revealing...Homeless people make more money than I do. They must be too smart for college, then