Discworld Roleplaying Game armor loadouts

[Michael Thayne]

I'm planning a one-shot Discworld Roleplaying Game adventure, and reading the book, I mostly like the little rules simplifications there. But I'm a bit puzzled by the armor statistics. "Very Light", "Light", "Plate," and "Jousting Plate" seem to be straight out of GURPS Basic Set, just picking out the obvious pieces of armor and rounding off the cost and weight a bit. (Judging from other values in the book $1AM = 20 GURPS dollars.)

If I play with the numbers a bit, I justify the stats for mail, using mail for the limbs, scale for the torso, and a legionary helmet (!)–though I don't know if that was Phil Masters' thinking, or it just reflects the fact that Basic Set has a lot of DR 4 pieces, so odds were some combination would add up to the Discworld stats.

I'm really stumped by the "Medium Armor", though. Basic Set doesn't have many DR 3 pieces, and some are notably poor fits (bronze armbands and bronze greaves are much too heavy, for example). The "Light Warrior" loadout from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 13 is the right weight, but it's too cheap by 80 GURPS dollars, too much for that to be a matter of rounding, I think. Steel Breastplate + Pot Helm + Boots (my attempt at a "watchmen's loadout") is both too light and too cheap.

Does anyone know where these numbers are coming from? I ask partly because if it really is based on assuming some parts of the body are unarmored, I'd prefer to use the more realistic hit-location based rules, so you don't, say, have a pictsie's dagger bouncing off Constable Thunderhelm's unarmored calf.

[Michael Thayne]

After playing with the numbers more, and taking a closer look at the artwork of the Watch, here's my best attempt at replicating what some members wear using only pieces from Basic Set:

• Bronze Breastplate ($400, 20 lbs.)
• Cloth Sleeves ($20, 2 lbs.)
• Leather Pants ($40, 3 lbs.)
• Bronze Pot-Helm ($60, 5 lbs.)
• Sandals ($25, 0.5 lbs.)

I figured "bronze" can be used to represent "cheap, not necessarily really bronze". The footwear was a sticking point for me for a long time, since the Discworld novels make a big deal about Sam's boots, but the artwork in the RPG shows many members of the watch with some sort of open-toed footwear. The big thing that doesn't quite fit is that the above loadout is TL1, whereas the Discworld Roleplaying Game lists "Medium Armour" as TL2.

[Phil Masters]

Actually, you can find my breakdown of Watch armour at https://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/UnderTheBonnet.pdf — see p.8. It’s a rather diverse collection of stuff.

[Phil Masters]

The “light” and “mail” suits were, as I recall — and it’s a long time since I worked on that manuscript — fudged together best guesses, based on what the Basic Set (and maybe Low-Tech) could offer that provided approximately that DR over the whole body or as near as possible, then tweaked so that upgrading one’s gear came at a vaguely plausible looking price in cash and encumbrance.

If you’re going to use the full Basic Set rules, complete with hit locations, that’s cool; I’d recommend then dropping the Discworld armour table altogether and using the Basic Set lists — or even better, the Low-Tech rules. Combining a simplified approximation with a more detailed treatment rarely goes well.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Actually, you can find my breakdown of Watch armour at https://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/UnderTheBonnet.pdf — see p.8. It’s a rather diverse collection of stuff.

Thanks! Somehow, I missed that you had a website where this sort of thing might be available.

One question - how'd you get the stats for the breastplate? If you're using Low-Tech, I think a light breastplate should be $25AM, not $15AM.

I'm also leery of mixing Basic Set and Low-Tech armor stats, since the statistics in the two books seem unrelated to each other. This is most noticeable with plate (which Low-Tech makes a TL later, but potentially much more effective), but even for your Watch loadout, using Low-Tech would increase the price of the helmet and mail shirt.

Maybe I should re-do everything using Low-Tech, but Discworld is a setting that tends towards "combat is pretty much always deadly for members of all social classes" as opposed a realistic late-medieval paradigm of "knights are nigh-immune to some things, specialized tactics and weapons like bodkin arrows are needed to defeat them".

Of course, it's possible to come up with story reasons for the absence of heavy plate. Ankh-Morpork's nobs are rather incompetent in military matters, Klatch is too hot, most human-run parts of Uberwald like Borogravia may be too poor, and the vampire and werewolf aristocrats of Uberwald may put too much confidence in their natural abilities. This is something I'll have to think about more.

[Michael Thayne]

Going to Low-Tech: Instant Armor, the main pieces using only that source plus the option Light Mail Shirt ($25AM, 12 lbs.), Light Breastplate ($25AM, 4 lbs.), Light Plate Pot-Helm with Padding ($10.5AM, 2.8 lbs.) A tad expensive, but using the "cheap" modifier could bring down the cost a lot. You probably want "fine" mail if it's going to be cheap, so that DR vs. crushing isn't zero. That would cost $18AM and weigh 15 lbs. Or maybe only the breastplate is cheap. Shrugs.

[Michael Thayne]

I just spent some time going through the Kindle edition of Jingo with the search function, and surprisingly I can't find much about the armor worn by the nobility. The functional parts of the official Commander of the Watch uniform appear to be similar to the regular watch armor, but better polished. There's also an off-hand reference to the dukes of old wearing chainmail. Perhaps heavy plate never caught on on the Disc?

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

One question - how'd you get the stats for the breastplate? If you're using Low-Tech, I think a light breastplate should be $25AM, not $15AM.

It looks like you're right. Probably a typo in my notes years ago. But then, as the PDF says, that plate breastplate takes the cost of the whole ensemble a bit too high anyway. Given the comments in the early Watch novels about the poor quality of Watch equipment, you could probably assume that it's old and battered, with some kind of failure risk (or just DR 2), and reduce the cost accordingly -- or make it Chest only, which brings the cost down a bit (but also reduces the weight).

Or treat it as Schrodinger's breastplate; 40% of watchmen encountered aren't wearing one, because there wasn't one in stores when they signed up, or it's in the shop having the straps replaced, or it's too *&£!^$ heavy to wear on a hot day, thanks, sarge.