Usefully piecemeal armour. I want it. I want my PCs looking like Toshiro MIfune with a mail sleeve wrapped around his head as protection. I want a splash of acid eating through a breastplate, so it's torn off and cast smoking to the ground, or a motley assemblage of old plate strapped to a PC for so they can make a Ned-Kelly esque trudge across deadly ground.
Below is an excerpt from a character sheet.
---ARMOUR & COMBAT ATTRIB.-----
Sh
Hd 08 08 11 --
Tx 02 02 02 07
Ab 02 07 --
Ar 02 07
Lg 06 07
AR = 2.6 = 3
VN: 9
HP: 4/6
MATK: d12
RATK: SD0
---INVENTORY-------------------
DEPOSITED CASH: 69sp
WORN CLOTHING: Beadworked Waistcoat, Sash, Red culottes, Caligae
1. Torc
2-5. Breastplate TxTxTxAbAr 4Slt
6. Winged Jackboots Lg
7-8. Buff coat TxAbArLg 2slt
9-11. Kettle Helm HdHd 3slt
12. Ceramic Face Mask Hd
13. Shortsword d6
14.
15.
16.
17.
- 15 slots exist for pieces of armour. Each is worth 0.2 Armour (AR) points.
- The body is broken into the Head (Hd), Thorax (Tx), Abdomen (Ab), Arms (Ar), Legs (Lg). Shields (Sh) can occupy only the leftmost column.
- Digitially, this is very hard to effect, but on paper one can easily bring a puzzle into this. Armour that goes across multiple bodyparts must have a certain shape, and that shape may preclude other desirable pieces.
- Overlap in the armour array is forbidden (and would be pointless anyway), and contradictory combinations are forbidden - eg two breastplates, four gauntlets &c.
- Armour pieces are held in the inventory, where there bulk is tracked. The number of the first inventory slot a piece occupies is how it is annotated in the armour array.
- AR is summed from the covered slots in the armour array and rounded to the nearest whole number (Valid range: 1-3), and used in Melee Attack hit calculation.
Melee Attacks
- Roll a MATK die (Default: d14, improves to d12, d10, d8). To hit, the result must be > target armour (AR) and <= target vulnerability (VL). (Default 9, improves to 7, 5)
- Rolls > VL miss
- Rolls <= AR are deflected by armour
- Advantageous or contrary circumstances may see an attacker's MATK die stepped up or stepped down.
Consequences
- Armour can be mixed and matched. This is useful 1. To force the players to wear ungodly combinations 2. To facilitate the damage, destruction, and replacement of individual pieces 3. So individual pieces of armour can have special effects or magical abilities.
The primary upgrade is armour that takes less slots.