Mithril Armor in Dungeon Fantasy

[mlangsdorf]

Mithril is likely copyright, so I doubt we'll see it in any official SJ Games product. But I'm throwing some suggestions out for home use:

Mithril is an armor modifier only available for mail and double mail. It can be (and usually is) combined with Elven, Fine, Ornate, and Thieves'. It comes in 4 grades:

Common Mithril provides +1 DR at 1/2 the usual weight: +29 CF.

Heavy Mithril provides +1 DR, and can be under other armor without a DX penalty for layering. Only one of Giant Spider Silk or Heavy Mithril or Superb Mithril can be worn without a layering penalty, though: +99 CF.

Superb Mithril provides +1 DR at 1/2 the usual weight, and can be under other armor without a DX penalty for layering. Only one of Giant Spider Silk or Heavy Mithril or Superb Mithril can be worn without a layering penalty, though: +139 CF.

Exquisite Mithril provides +1 DR at 1/2 the usual weight, and can worn under other armor without a DX penalty for layering. Exquisite mithril can be worn with Giant Spider Silk! A full suit of exquisite mithril can be traded for a Shire's worth of land: +399 CF.


Do these costs seem reasonable to other people? It's basically the Giant Spider Silk or Orichalcum CFs applied to mail armor.

At the top end, a mobile character could an Orichalcum Fine Corselet (DR4, $50700, 10 lbs), an Exquisite Mithril Fine Elven Double Mail Hauberk (DR6*, $212400, 16.5 lbs), and a Fine Giant Spider Silk Cloth Torso armor (DR 2*, $3270, 4.5 lbs) for DR4+8* at $266370 and 27 lbs.

A heavy armor warrior could replace the Orichalcum Corselet with a Fine Triple Proof Dwarven Steel Breastplate (DR10, $29900, 54 lbs) and save enough money to get Lighten (50%) cast on it. The extra 17 lbs of gear would increase armor to DR10+8* - very useful when dueling siege beasts and stone golems!

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

The extra 17 lbs of gear would increase armor to DR10+8* - very useful when dueling siege beasts and stone golems!

Although you can substitute a pile of HP and a healer for the armor. Costs less in dollars, costs more in CP, and a pixie healer weighs less than 17 lbs!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Do these costs seem reasonable to other people? It's basically the Giant Spider Silk or Orichalcum CFs applied to mail armor.

As I wrote it up, orichalcum is to bronze what mithril is to steel.

Bill Stoddard

[Kromm]

. . . and it's also important to note that I took stats for alkahest, orichalcum, and paut in DF from GURPS Cabal, not GURPS Fantasy, so it's possible that the orichalcum there a different thing again!

[Ed the Coastie]

Mithril may be a copyrighted word, but the concept isn't and yttrium silver fills the same niche that mithril does. Now I just have to find an appropriate "fair use" word to represent it.

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by Ed the Coastie

Now I just have to find an appropriate "fair use" word to represent it.

Seems to me it was occasionally referred to as "true-silver" in LOTR. And I am revealing to much geekiness here, but in Sindarin it means "grey-glitter."

[mlangsdorf]

Do the Cost Factors seem balanced for the weight, DR, and layering advantages?

[DanHoward]

Why would you limit Mithril only to mail?

Once Low Tech is out all you will need is a weight and cost modifier for mithril. Everything else is handled by armour modifications such as fluting and heavy plate.

Suppose a DR3 iron cuirass costs $800 and weighs 8 lbs.
The same thing made from mithril might be 30x cost and half weight ($24,000, 4 lbs)
If you want heavier armour, say DR5, then use the heavy plate modifier which results in $48,000, 8 lbs. Once this is done you add padding which gives a final cost of $48,160 and weight of 11 lbs. for a DR5 mithril cuirass.

Same thing with mail. Just look up the entry for light mail, double mail, fine mail, etc and apply a cost and weight modifier for Mithril. You'll never get mail to behave like cloth no matter how magical the wire is. If you want Mithril to be layered under other armour without penalty then you make Mithril thread and weave into a textile. I'd treat it like super strong silk which would be exactly the same as spidersilk.

Is 30x enough? Suppose that mithril is worth 5x gold and all coins are equal weight:
1 copper coin = 2 iron coins
1 bronze coin = 2 copper coins = 4 iron coins
1 silver coin = 5 bronze coins = 20 iron coins
1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 200 iron coins
1 mithril coin = 5 gold coins = 1000 iron coins

Based on this a piece of armour made from bronze should cost 4x its iron equivalent; gold would be 200x; mithril should cost 1000x.

Edit: On 2nd thoughts wouldn't Mithril be 500x since it is half the weight of iron?

[mlangsdorf]

I'm limiting mithril to mail because this is Dungeon Fantasy, and material modifiers tend to be iconic rather than reasonable. The iconic piece of mithril armor is a mail shirt, so mithril is mail only.

I'm less concerned about a reasonable math approximation (again, Dungeon Fantasy) of the value of mithril and more of a play balance thing. Is it worthwhile to spend $200K to get another 5* DR?

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Is it worthwhile to spend $200K to get another 5* DR?

Assuming the PCs can get their hands on that kind of cash? Probably yes. I know that if Lenia were sticking around after our houserule revision of Signature Gear, that mail shirt+sleeves would become mithril pretty much right away.