Mano a Mano:Armor

Armor

Any equipment with cover and absorption is armor. Normally, the best absorption of all the armor worn by a character is subtracted from the power of successful attacks against the character. However an attacker can aim any attack to avoid armor, which increases the difficulty of the attack by the cover of the armor avoided. The attack can avoid all or just some of the armor a character is wearing. An attack cannot avoid armor that has complete cover.

Consider for example a character wearing a leather jacket (5 cover, 2 absorption) and a crash helmet (2 cover, 5 absorption). If an opponent attacks the character without specifically avoiding the character's armor, the armor will absorb 5 power from each attack. If an opponent tries to hit the character where the armor provides no protection, the armor will absorb no damage, but the difficulty will be increased by 7 (5 cover from the jacket plus 2 cover from the helmet.) However, the opponent can also try to avoid only the helmet. Then the leather jacket absorbs 2 power from each attack but the difficulty of the attack is only increased by 2 (the helmet's cover.)

Sometimes armor is worn in layers. A brigandine (vest lined with metal plates) is often worn over a gambeson (padded coat) or chainmail. Bulletproof ballistic vests often have optional inserts which offer extra protection to vital areas such as the heart. If one piece of armor is completely overlapped by another, the overlapping area has the cover of the smaller piece of armor and the absorption of both pieces added together. (This is like subtracting the cover of the layer with the least cover from the cover of the layer with the most cover, and adding the absorption of the layer with the most cover to the absorption of the armor with the least cover.)