Detailed (mundane) armor

[mhd]

As I see it right now, quasi-medieval mundane armor has one characteristic to rule it all, i.e. the same value for PD/rPD/ED and rED.

Has anyone ever thought about doing a Hârn-like differentiation between damage types by doing that a bit finer grained? As we don't differentiate between slash and thrust damage, there's no big need to vary the protection, but I could easily picture some armor types having more rPD than straight PD, e.g. making a bigger difference between heavy chain and plate. While we're at it, we could think about the two ED types, but I'm not all that concerned about that.

 

Any ideas/experiences? Or other ways you made armor more detailed?

[Portland Barbie]

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor

 

I'm not sure if i could justify to myself a reason to have a different level of rPD than PD for armor, since rPD applies to Killing Damage, and that's the whole reason to wear armor in FH . . . but since I'm using the Hit Locations in my game, I did vary the level of protection provided to the various locations depending on the suit of armor. Now, since I'm running a simplified game (nothing really more than an extended dungeon crawl with a single town to sell loot) to introduce new players to both role-playing and HERO, it's not as complex as it could be . . .

[Markdoc]

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor

 

I thought about doing this for my games as well. Chain, for example offers a good deal less protection than plate, and while Cloth armour is effective against impact, and soewhat against slashing, it offers much less protection against piercing weapons. One way to simulate this is to vary the degree of PD/rPD as suggested, so that chain for example, would still be 6 DEF, but at 4rPD+2PD, while plate would still be 8 PD, but it'd be all rPD. But you know, I decided it'd be too much trouble (for me, anyway). I also thought about ED: but in the end, I'd rather have a metal surface (which might get hot, yes) than cloth or leather (which might burst into flames). So since the higher DEF armour looked like it'd also have higher ED, I just decided to leave it all alone.

 

However, one area which I think is worthwhile is sectional defences. I priced out and worked out the weights of sectional defences so that players can decide where they want the heaviest armour. That works well and seems to hit the sweet spot between "too much detail" and "not enough detail".

 

cheers, Mark

[Old Man]

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor

 

Sectional armor is usually enough for most games, but I too have thought about assigning different DEF values for cutting, piercing, and crushing damage. Then all you have to do is decide what type of damage is what. The interesting part for me was that it gives another layer of tactical interest on offense--do I want to stab with my sword and inflict piercing damage, or swing it and try for a cut? Is the bad guy wearing mostly chain or some plate? I never got around to writing up the various attack modes for different weapons, though.

[bluesguy]

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor

 

I did play in a Fantasy game - a long time ago - where we went for realism on encumbrance and used sectional armor defenses. And then we also started using hit locations. It did change the dynamic of the game. Players would often target hands, lower legs, and feet - all of which were usually lightly armored - vs chest & head shots.

[mhd]

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor

 

We do use sectional armor and hit locations. Targeting skill levels plus CSLs make for some deadly ranged combatants...

My incentive for some added rPD mostly came from the two extremes of armor usage, i.e. both well-padded ultra-heavy plate and light cloth/leather. Both might do fine with some additional protection against bumps, probably most of what the "armor" is worth for the heavy-cloth types. As I'm playing a "Iron Kingdoms" game, those types are well represented by either elite troops with insulated uber-plate and the ubiquitous dusters & greatcoats.