Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

Back when I used to try using the full-sized GURPS skill list, I removed the requirement to specialize by type, not wanting to charge multiple times for the ability to repair and maintain melee weapons, body armor, and missile weapons. Now I've smashed Armoury into a familiarity of the same core skill as Smith, Carpentry, Masonry, Architecture, Leatherworking, Sewing, Artist(also no longer specialized), and Cooking. It's still going to mostly serve as background flavor.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

One of the PCs in my Dungeon Fantasy game has Armoury (Body Armor). So far she's only used it for identifying the value of armor as treasure, and for routine armor maintenance. (For example, she went swimming with armor on in the last session, and knew how to correctly dry everything to prevent rust.) If they ever find good armor that doesn't fit (quite likely, as one PC has Skinny), then she'll get a chance to resize it.

In a low-tech game, it's a nice flavor skill, or possibly a job skill, but not super-important for the average PC in a civilized area where NPC armorers are available. I could see it being more important if the PCs are far from civilization.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

This is true of any craft skill. Adventurers are normally specialists, who trade their rare skills for manufactured goods made by people who did specialize in making stuff.

If you are playing in a campaign where it is likely the GM will drop you naked somewhere, crafting skills can be very useful for the first few sessions after that happens - if you expect that do invest a point in Armoury/TL0, being able to chip a good stone edge can be really invaluable - but otherwise don't come up much.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

Sounds like you'd be happier with Smith!

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

If you use the damage to armor rules from LTC2 and have the PCs operating even slightly away from a base or logistics tail, they might have significant use for someone who can manage at least minor armor repairs in the field.

Dungeon Fantasy doesn't usually track that sort of gear upkeep, which takes away the major routine utility for having an adventuring armorer.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

Wildcard skills cost too many points, especially in comparison to attributes. I prefer to simply narrow down the list of skills and broaden the definitions of those skills, leaving point costs per skill the same.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

In my Fantasy world, my characters often use Armoury skill. And in the middle way form.

The bowman uses it to make his own arrows during the travel or change a damaged bowstring. The warrior use it to remake a sharp tip on a pointless knife, to sharpen weapons after battle, to repair shield and restore lost HP, to remove rust on metal armor after a sea travel, to modify an handle to justify the weapon bond perk, to adjust or create a weapon for the SM of other characters (we have a hobbit and a ogre in the party).
And for me the main use of the Armoury skill (Body Armor) is to adapt a looting armor to his new owner. That follow the LT rules My Armor Doesn't Fit, and the result is than often the characters don't jump directly on the new beautiful magical armor with the Fortify and Ligthen spells and some ornatement. It's mainly a background skill, but essential in battle campaing or during a long travel in the wilderness.

Now the group don't want to go in adventure without their armourer. Like he doesn't had Jewelry, he often miss some aspect on beautiful panoply but he is a crucial element of the party !

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

There's that Pyramid article on abstract prep work (spend time and roll the day before and get points that can be spent for rerolls, etc.). I've used that with Armoury to reroll malfunctions.

At the moment, I don't have access to my collection, or I'd give the issue and title of that article.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

Particularly in a cinematic campaign, you can easily have a heroic armorer who can make higher quality gear than the local NPC's, or at least can do so at less cost and greater speed. Finding a Very Fine Balanced Greatsword in town is highly unlikely, although you might be able to find someone that can craft or order such a thing. You're going to be paying around $21,600 for it, and are probably going to have to wait for some months before it's ready.

A general houserule I've worked out for crafting is to have a character's skill directly determine the speed at which they work. Skill 12 for an Average or harder skill (or Skill 14 for an Easy one) corresponds to Average income for purposes of labor for that TL, and every +1 to skill is +1 SSR to income. So, at TL 3, Armory (Melee Weapons) 12 corresponds to $700/month in labor - you can craft things at a rate of $3.5 per hour. Skill 20 is +8 SSR - $15,000/month and $75/hour. So, that $21,600 sword costs around $100 in materials, for $21,500 in labor. That's going to take you 287 hours, or a bit over a month. With Skill 20 you can afford to take some Haste penalties - a -5 (rolling against 15) will cut time in half, and in a pinch you could risk a roll against 12 (74% chance of success) to drop time to a bit over 57 hours - if you're willing to work 10 hour (rather than 8 hour) days, you can have that weapon ready in a week (and you could drop time further with relevant Craft Secrets - still need to determine how those should work for my variant). A typical armorer makes a bit under $500 in a week, so assuming you're displacing one to rent space at a smithy, you're looking at around $600 for a 74% chance of getting a $21,600 sword in a week.

Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Armoury
 

My main use of it has been medieval: a squire used the Armoury skill to make repairs on behalf of his knight-master. Later on, he would use it to adjust scavenged pieces of armour to fit when he started recruiting followers, meaning they had viable armour sooner. For instance, if he fought a dozen guys wearing mail shoulder-mantles he might cannibalise those mantles into skirts for the abdomen or sabatons for the feet or otherwise adjust the shaped mail into a new shape.

Looting; you can get a little more mileage from damaged armour found on the battlefield if you’re able to patch it up a little, whether using it or selling it for profit. So this is an economic benefit if not a direct functional one.

With black powder weapons, being able to safely over-charge your firearm can be useful for x1.1 damage and range (requiring Armoury). It might make little difference with a puffer pistol (2d-1 damage) but a wall gun on the ship’s rail (5d+2 IIRC?) does an average of 2 extra damage, which can be helpful when it takes a while to reload and you’re trying to blast through the rails or boards of the other ship. If you only get one shot then it might as well be a stronger shot.

That +10% damage might matter even more if you can use it with cannons; a broadside from a series of 4 lb. ship’s guns (6dx3=approx. 60 damage) does +6 damage per shot. Again, combine this with careful loading and you make that volley count. If you have 10 of these with a broadside that’s an extra 60 damage to the other ship. It might help you tear a larger hole into the other ship when firepower is limited.

Note the Firearm Quality rules in Low Tech require Armoury rolls, and the description implies you modify a pre-existing weapon, so you can upgrade your loot quite handily. When all your NPC backup has their firearms improved with increased reliability and accuracy it can pay dividends in the long-term. Like the OP mentioned, +1 effective Accuracy is a good use of downtime. If you’re able to equip your guys with this as standard, then it helps build loyalty for the unit to see that you are making sure they’re well-armed and if leading a unit of 20 guys giving everyone that extra +1 is going to matter when they take their first volley.

So for me, a combination of Armoury, Scrounging & Rank meant leading a unit with better than average logistics and just making that company stretch their budget a little bit further. The benefits are not immediate but gradually over time it can lead to continuously improving equipment due to cutting costs.

Occasionally you could combine Armoury with Soldier or Combat Engineer and improvised pavises to create barricades and cover. They might not be of noteworthy quality, but they are still essentially easy fortifications to set up on demand.

The thing that stands out to me is these improvements seem fairly granular, or useful on a large scale rather than individually. Those benefits might be meagre in general, but if you are a TL4 officer with Rank 2, commanding 20 people, and all of those have re-sized looted armour, upgraded petronels, and frequently reinforce their position with the help of a pavisade, then that Armoury skill is definitely getting its points-worth.