Armor and Encumbrance penalty on movement

[gruundehn]

In line with the original idea, perhaps a -1 Encumbrance per X points spent on a skill (Wear Armor)? With a maximum of perhaps two levels of reduction? Wear Armor could be a specialty of Environment Suit. There is a trick, or perhaps several, to wearing armor so that it doesn't pinch etc. Also, as I remember, medieval knights were fairly athletic in their armor, it was the fatigue of the closed plate that caused the most trouble. Perhaps, as a balance, armor could cost extra fatigue after a fight.

[Tema69]

3.6 yards per second in full battle rattle is still pretty fast... That's 7mph/12kmh, which in my experience amounts to a regular unencumbered person's average jogging speed.

But as has been suggested, Low Tech armour weights, plus tailoring, will reduce the weight to very manageable levels.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Tema69

But as has been suggested, Low Tech armour weights, plus tailoring, will reduce the weight to very manageable levels.

That's making a change to the rules. My impression is that the OP wants to affect a change on his character - the kind of change that costs CP.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Tema69

3.6 yards per second in full battle rattle is still pretty fast... That's 7mph/12kmh, which in my experience amounts to a regular unencumbered person's average jogging speed.

But as has been suggested, Low Tech armour weights, plus tailoring, will reduce the weight to very manageable levels.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

That's making a change to the rules. My impression is that the OP wants to affect a change on his character - the kind of change that costs CP.

Even with Low-Tech's armor weights, a person in a suit of full plate is wearing close to 70 lbs. of armor (including a pot helm and great helm over it)*. (Jousting Plate tends to be up around 90 lbs!)

Assuming an ST 12, that's a BL of 29 lbs, with no Encumbrance penalties to that point; Light Encumbrance caps at 58 lbs, Medium at 87 lbs. ST 13 gives BL 34 lbs, Light Encumbrance at 68 lbs, and Medium at 102 lbs. ST 14 gives BL 39 lbs (39.2, rounded to the nearest), Light Encumbrance to 78 lbs.

Boosting ST to 14 either through straight ST or Lifting ST +2 lets the guy in full plate move with fewer penalties.

Now, as others have said, you're not likely going to be moving at full speed in combat when wearing heavy armor anyway; chances are, most movement will be going half-speed at best, using Defensive Attacks and All-Out Defense. Let those who aren't as well protected do the Move and Attacks and full-speed Moves; you're the tank who wades in to take the hits, not the guy doing hit-and-runs.



*Armor Breakdown:
Field Plate Suit ($8,410, 69 lbs.)
Arming Doublet; DR 0*, $160, 3 lbs.
Plate Corselet; DR 6, $2,500, 20 lbs.
Plate Arms; DR 6, $1,250, 10 lbs.
Plate Legs; DR 6, $2,500, 20 lbs.
Steel Pot Helm; DR 6, $500, 4 lbs.
Steel Great Helm; DR 6, $875, 7 lbs.
Gorget; DR 6, $125, 1 lb.
Plate Gauntlets; DR 6, $250, 2 lbs.
Plate Sabatons; DR 6, $250, 2 lbs.

[DanHoward]

The loadout I did for a 15th century German knight in full harness came out at 46.7 lbs.

[gilbertocarlos]

Arms and legs shouldn't have medium plate, it should be at most DR4.

[PseudoFenton]

Just buy high enough Lifting ST to cover the weight of the armour, that is capped so that it only ever reduces the additional load of the armour itself. Fundamentally, make a single advantage that simply says "don't count the weight of your armour when calculating your load". If nothing else, doing it this way is a lot easier to work with in game, especially when changing gear/basic ST/etc.

Due to different basic ST and different loads of armour, this should be eye balled to "this is the average expected ST for a knight" and "this is the average expected weight for a knights armour" matched up so that the additional required ST covers the additional load - and then the rest is handwaved for simplicity. The reduction of cost on the Lifting ST is likely to be around the 20% - 40% mark though, which will help reduce the cost some.

The exact values of these will vary from campaign to campaign however (are you using cinematic ST, heavy dwarven armour, does plate exist yet?), but it wont be hard to work out once.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Orochi-art

I'm looking for a solution to decrease penalty to knight's Basic Move that is induced by armor's encumbrance.

Remove the armor!

[Kalzazz]

Here is a thread where I was asking about such

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=82719


External Payload, only for armor, seems a good bet

[Kalzazz]

Also I find that heavy armor tends to be worn by high ST weapon masters, who tend to to A: need heavy armor to dampen the effects of being hit by someone vaguely like themselves, and B: can move around fairly nimbly in it anyway

A ST 17 has Basic Lift 57.8, so a full set of DR 9 armor and shield may run them around 120 lbs or so

And they need that armor desperately when they are trading punches at 3d+6 sw cut with a broadsword