Can you move in armor ?

[steph]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bnM5SuQkI#t=135

[eepjr24]

No, I can't. Can the dude who trained enough to be considered unusual among his peers? Yes. =P

 

More seriously, I don't doubt that if you spend the amount of time training he is talking about you could eliminate most of the penalties for moving in armor. Certain things would still not be possible (I don't think full plate allows the flexibility for something like a yoga crow pose or some other exercises requiring extreme flexibility). That said, your average warrior would be more affected by armor than someone not wearing armor.

 

- E

[Spence]

But you are going against the entire concept of modern thinking!

 

Pick something, show a cool video of a tiny tiny exception and then use it as a baseline for normal....

 

Oh wait.  No one has really posted anything.  

 

I'll repost this later on...

[eepjr24]

A few more thoughts with some an article:

 

http://www.benjaminrose.com/post/mobility-in-medieval-plate-armor/

 

 

 

Of course, that doesn’t mean plate was like wearing your birthday suit. All that armor still weighs 50 to 70 pounds, some of which is weighing down your arms and legs. Some scientists actually did a study to see how much effort it takes to wear plate armor while running on a treadmill. Unsurprisingly, it’s harder than wearing no armor at all—about twice as difficult in terms of total energy expenditure. It was also harder than wearing the same amount of weight in a backpack. The plates on the arms and legs requires your muscles to work harder to move around.

So while mobility might not be limited per se, long term endurance is a factor. 

 

And all of this is real world. In RPG's, there is a common trope that someone in plate is slower and clumsier than someone in leather. It may or may not be true (I have never seen the two compared in a meaningful way), but it is still a common trope.

 

- E

[JohnnyAppleseed098]

Well, I can move in Leather or Chain, but anything heavier is a no go

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah its restrictive, but not enormously so.  The weight is telling over time, but not crippling.  You don't need help getting up, or a crane to get on a horse.  I have, as I've noted elsewhere, watched a fit but not athletic man in period-accurate plate armor leap over a fence and vault on to the back of a horse.  It causes some restriction of movement and vision, and has weight, but its not nearly as crippling as often portrayed.

[Richgee]

There is also the point that unlike the soldier a knight was born to it. As the son of a nobleman you were born and raised to become a knight. You practiced in combat and armour from an early age until they become second nature. As a knight you are the top 1% of society. You eat well, you have time to do things other than just survive and you are fully sponsored in the field. Comparing an armoured knight to a normal person is like comparing a 3rd generation elite athlete to a normal person.

 

So for these historic knights you have no baseline normal, from birth they are already 10 steps ahead of normal.

[dmjalund]

maybe Armor should have a STR Min, if you have less than the required STR, your movement is impaired and suche,. However if you have the required STR, you canuse your full move, but you must also expend the END for the STR Min to do so.

[Old Man]

maybe Armor should have a STR Min, if you have less than the required STR, your movement is impaired and suche,. However if you have the required STR, you canuse your full move, but you must also expend the END for the STR Min to do so.

This makes sense to me.

 

One thing I've never seen compared is acceleration with and without armor. In the linked video we see climbing and slow cartwheels. We do not see abrupt changes in direction (dodging) or melee weapon usage (arm swinging). The mass of plate mail may be evenly distributed but it's still additional mass that the muscles of the body must accelerate. This may not matter for tumbling but it surely has an effect in melee combat when you are trying to move your body or limbs as quickly as possible in an effort to strike an opponent and not be struck by him.

[bigdamnhero]

Move in armor? Sure. (Or at least I could in my SCA days.) Acrobatics in armor? Yeah, I'd say that requires special training.

Dance in armor? Hell, I can't dance without armor...

 

So for these historic knights you have no baseline normal, from birth they are already 10 steps ahead of normal.

Fair point, but it's not just nobles. There are numerous historical examples of ancient & medieval heavy infantry running (or at least jogging) in full armor, etc.

 

maybe Armor should have a STR Min, if you have less than the required STR, your movement is impaired and suche,. However if you have the required STR, you canuse your full move, but you must also expend the END for the STR Min to do so.

Interesting idea. Of course, if you're using Encumbrance then there's already effectively a STR Min below which you start to accumulate penalties. I've sometimes thought the END penalties for Encumbrance should start start a step sooner than they do, but that's another matter.

[Christopher R Taylor]

One thing I've never seen compared is acceleration with and without armor. In the linked video we see climbing and slow cartwheels. We do not see abrupt changes in direction (dodging) or melee weapon usage (arm swinging). The mass of plate mail may be evenly distributed but it's still additional mass that the muscles of the body must accelerate.

 

 

Yeah facing and such is kind of abstracted in games, its not really much of an issue for most role playing games including Hero.  And the ones that do include it are ridiculously complex.  I think that's what the Dex modifiers are for encumbrance, to represent a restriction on mobility of that sort, but I think maybe the numbers are a bit low.