A darker age armour

MRQII Armour.[Revised]

• wiki

Body coverage

• Head – Skull, face and neck. 19-20
• Arms – Shoulders through hands 15-18
• Chest - 13-14
• Abd – Abdomen12-11
• Hip - Hips and groin 9-10
• Upper Legs – Thighs 5-8.
• Lower Legs - Knees through feet 1-4
• There are considerd to be seven locations for encumberance purposes – the head, the chest, the arms [2], the abdomen, the hips, the thighs [2], and lower legs [2].

Base encumberance is per location. Complexity of armour for smaller areas accounts for increased enc in those locations.

Armour ‘type’

• Half Armour. Covers roughly half a location. Reduces AP and Enc.
• Field Armour. The 'default' armour rating. Base AP
• Full armour. Total coverage of the location. Adds to AP and Enc.

Materials:

• All materials may be altered in weight to produce lighter armour, with corresponding changes in AP and Enc.
• Metals may also be made thicker and heavier.
• They have been set to predetermined changes to make it work for the system optimum armour types – assume this is the equivalent of knowing the tradeoffs in the armoury business and how to build for them.

Armour flexibility

• Flexible armours can be worn under [or sometimes over] other armour types.
• Hard or semi-rigid armours can be worn under rigid armour only if carefully fitted. This adds to cost, generally doubling it.
• Rigid armours can only be worn on more or less inflexible parts of the body.
• All costs and enc are per location.

The Base Armours

Flexible Armour, organic.

• Heavy Layered or Quilted Cloth 1 [enc 0.5] cost 35s
• Leather, soft.1 [enc 0.75] cost 20s
• Linen 2 [enc 1] cost 75s
• Leather, Hard. 2 [enc 1.5]cost 40s
• Heavy Quilt 3 [enc 1.5] cost 115s

Flexible armour, metal.

• Light mail 4 [enc 2.5] cost 300s
• Mail 5 [enc 3] cost 400s
• Heavy Mail 6 [enc 3.5] cost 500s

• Steel adds +1 to Mail. Costs double.
• Bronze is -1AP. Costs drop 20%

Rigid armour, organic.

• Cuirboilli/Kurbul/Treated Hvy Leather 3 [enc 1.5] cost 80s
• Stiff Linen 4 [enc 2] Cost 250s

Rigid Armour, metal.

• Lt Bronze 4 [enc 2.5] Cost 600sp
• Bronze 5 [enc 3] Cost800sp
• Hvy Bronze 6 [enc 3.5] Cost 1000sp
• Lt Iron 5 [enc 2.5] Cost 1000s
• Iron 6 [enc 3] Cost 1200s
• Hvy Iron 7 [enc 3.5] Cost 1400s

• Steel Adds +1 to Iron plate. Costs double.

Hard [semi-rigid] Armour, Organic.

• Scaled Kurbul, Horn. 3 [enc 2.25] Cost 100s
• Banded Kurbul 4 [enc 2.5] Cost 120s

Hard [semi-rigid] Armour, Metal. (Note: All these armours assume 1pt leather as a backing/coat. You may adjust enc and price for any other 1 or 2 pt flexible armour)

• Lt Ring 3 [enc 1.75] cost 150s
• Ring 4 [enc 2.25] cost 250s
• Lt Scale 5 [enc 2.75] Cost 450s
• Hvy Scale 6 [enc 3.75] Cost 500s
• Banded Plate 5 [enc 2.75] 650s
• Plated mail 6 [enc 3.25] Cost 1200s
• Brigandine 6 [enc 3] Cost 1500s

• Bronze -1AP and 20% cheaper
• Worked steel is +1AP Cost is doubled.

• Encumbrance is done by location [sorry about the % stuff, but assume that all % changes are added and subtracted before armour enc is determined.]

Add the final Enc and divide by ten to get your Strike rank reducton and other effects. A maximum of three layers of armour is arbitrarily declared, as it allows for pretty much all the historical examples I can think of.

Full and Half Armours, layers

• To get any basic 'full' or 'half' armour effects, work it by AP. Full iron plate (6AP) adds +2 to AP and 25% to enc. Half-plate becomes -2AP and -25% to enc. The same ratio is in effect for Kurbul but 2/3/4.

• Armours of 1 or 2 AP are 'set' - they dont adjust.
• Armours of 3 or 4 AP can be made 'full' or 'half' by +1AP, adjusting enc and cost appropriately.
• Armours of 5 or 6 AP can be made full or half by +2AP, adjusting as above.

Special Helms, etc.

• You could get as complex as you want with this armour system – you could make armours to fit exact replicas of historical styles by fiddling with the layered coverages of different areas.
• I suggest buying armour by the area and pulling it together as a basic armour ‘type’ appropriate to the era.
• An Open Helm, for instance, would be 'half' plate armour. A composite Helm would be 3/4 Banded with Heavy Leather instead of light.

A Kettle Helm would be 3/4 plate, a knights full helm complete plate (8AP, weighs a ton).

• I also declare a specialist skill for soldiers, warriors, etc called Wear Armour [con x 2] which is never rolled but reduces SR reduction by 1 for every 10% in the skill, to a maximum of half the armours reduction (rounding down but always at least 1).

• Warrior types get +10% in it, courtly types get it at base and add 10% to their courtesy, The reeve would have it at base and cop Streetwise at base. *The herbalist wouldn’t actually have it and can open a lore skill [something obscure] at 10% to compensate.