Brass chains as armour, weight, DR and cost?

[lachimba]

A player has suggested brass chains wrapped around his PCs arms as armour.

It doesn't need to be super realistic (not super efficient or practical), but what would be a starting point for DR, cost and weight?

[Anthony]

Chains would have the same stats as chainmail against attacks they are effective against, which is basically only cutting attacks against the grain; most impaling attacks and some cutting attacks will go right through it unimpeded.

[mhd]

I'd use the stats for cheap butted mail, plus maybe a coverage roll to simulate the gaps. Depending on the bondage factor, that's either 4/6 or 5/6.

Plus +50-100%% of weight, because it's not a very effective way of covering the arms (overlap etc.).

So DR 4*/2*(cr)/1*(imp), 14 lbs for both arms (and with 1 vs. piercing/impale, I might skip the coverage roll, although that probably makes it too good for cutting attacks).

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by mhd

I'd use the stats for cheap butted mail, plus maybe a coverage roll to simulate the gaps. Depending on the bondage factor, that's either 4/6 or 5/6.

Plus +50-100%% of weight, because it's not a very effective way of covering the arms (overlap etc.).

So DR 4*/2*(cr)/1*(imp), 14 lbs for both arms (and with 1 vs. piercing/impale, I might skip the coverage roll, although that probably makes it too good for cutting attacks).

ok and the brass versus bronze?

[Anaraxes]

What's the genre? A supers character with chains wrapped around his arms just buys DR as normal, and the brass chains are cool fluff text for his appearance. The realistic low-tech historical adventurer has discovered a terribly inefficient form of real armor.

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by lachimba

ok and the brass versus bronze?

The mechanical differences are too low for GURPS to worry about.

[mhd]

Originally Posted by lachimba

ok and the brass versus bronze?

I'll leave that to all the material scientists we've got on this forum.

But between "what type of brass/bronze", the type and size of the chain links (chandelier chain? jewelry chain?), I doubt that it matters all that much. You'll be more likely to bypass the protection because of the construction than the material, and there's enough of the "rule of cool" in my stats. Whether that's a bit more or less over the top...

[Bruno]

Actually, what kind of chains is a good question - I immediately thought of heavy duty work chains, even though brass isn't normally a material those are made of.[1] Decorative chandelier chains have bigger links, and jewelry chain is going to end up with much smaller gaps but you'll need to wrap a LOT on to get any significant protective effect.

As a first order approximation, something like jewelry chain would have the stats of fine mesh mail but twice the weight (because of needing to wrap so much on) and something more substantial would be like butted mail - not because the links might be easy to force apart, but for the way impaling attacks might go between the loops of chain.

A double layer of jewelry chain might get you DR 1 vs cutting. Not sure how much it would weigh. Not sure a single layer would provide consistent protection against cutting - a 50% chance of giving DR 1 perhaps.

[1] I read too many comic books with characters with chains in them, I guess. They all look like steel chains there.