Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Neck armor (layered or not) is prone to restricting head motion, but there aren't very many DX-based tasks involving the head and neck anyway; the major effect would tend to behave like No Peripheral Vision.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Add a Light Mail skirt underneath; it seems to have been commonly done...

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Here's typical late medieval field plate base on Dan Howard's pre-Low-Tech suggestions: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...86&postcount=8

Field Plate Armor
DR 7 Steel Bascinet with Visor Wt. 7.5 $937.5
+1 DR Helmet Padding Wt. 1.5 $12.50
DR 6 Segmented Plate Gorget Wt. 2 $75
DR 7 Breastplate Wt. 9 $1,125
DR 6 Back Plate Wt. 7.5 $937.5
DR 6 Segmented Plate Fauld and Tasset Wt. 10 $375
Arming Doublet Wt. 3 $160
DR 6 Plate Arms (Pauldron, Rerebrace, Couter, and Vambrace) Wt. 10 $1,250
DR 4 Segmented Plate Gauntlets Wt. 2.4 $90
DR 6 Plate Legs (Cuisse, Poleyn, and Greave) Wt. 20 $2,500
DR 4 Segmented Plate Sollerets Wt. 2.4 $90
75.3 lbs $7,552.5

Add a cod piece if fighting on foot!

For simplicity's sake in my own game, I'll likely combine all the torso armor into a single DR 7 piece (Wt. 24, $3000) and trust to the chinks and gaps rules to represent the incomplete protection, assuming a light mail skirt as part of the arming coat.

PS
By "typical field plate" I do not mean historically. I mean for my campaign (which started based on GURPS 3ed). I'll likely add some tailoring to the gauntlets and sollerets to bring the weight down as this loadout is still slightly over most historic examples I've read of.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

If you stack a helmet on top of a mail coif, you only need to pad the coif, right?

I presume that you can take coif padding under a smaller helmet to get DR 1* on your neck and that this would actualy be fairly common for medieval troops.

Some historical helmets were worn without padding, weren't they? I seem to recall tight fitting steel skullcaps being worn under hats and wigs. Would there be any penalty for that?

I assume that you can make leather and fabric 'helmets' to represent exceptionally sturdy hats and other protective headgear and that most of them wouldn't require padding.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Low-Tech doesn't care. You can have a helmet without padding if you want.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Well, it does care - as you don't get teh +1* DR from the padding. That's a pretty good penalty right there.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Head Butt comes to mind, but that's about it. And you really want to be able to do this if going corps-á-corps with your greatsword against another knight...of course he'd also be weaping a greathelm, so maybe not. ;)

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

El KaBONG!! It would be funny to watch, but suggest we need blunt force trauma for even rigid armors under certain circumstances.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Here's a loadout which isn't historically accurate at all...

Fantasy Female Fighter

Armoured Corset and Miniskirt - covers abdomen with reinforced light layered leather (DR 2*/3* vs. cut). $37.50, 4.7 lbs.
Busty Breast Plate - covers front of chest with light plate (DR 3). $375.00, 3 lbs.
Collar and Pauldrons - covers neck with medium hardened leather (DR 2) and shoulders (with medium segmented plate (DR 4). $96.25, 3.2 lbs
Arm Banding - covers one upper arm, elbow and forearm with light segmented plate (DR 3). $120.00, 3.2 lbs.
Bracer - covers one forearm with medium hardened leather (DR 2). $15.63, 1.9 lbs.
High Boots - covers knees, shins and feet with light layered leather (DR 2*). $78.00, 9.8 lbs.
Knee Guard - covers one knee with light segmented plate (DR 3). $15.00, 0.4 lbs.
Armoured Tiara - covers front of skull with light plate (DR 3). $100, 0.8 lbs.

TOTAL: $837.38, 27 lbs.

This is a fairly restrained version of the kind of armour seen on women in fantasy art. It doesn't have a plunging neckline or exposed midrift, although it does show quite a bit of skin, with the thighs, half an arm, the upper back and the face exposed to the elements. In keeping with genre conventions, it's asymetrical and features a lot of different kinds of armour, probably held together by a bewildering assortment of straps.

I'd actually consider this to be moderately good armour for a lightly equipped fantasy adventurer. It offers significant protection against small to medium animals (who typically do around 1d-2 cutting), gives some chance of surviving a dagger or spear thrust, concentrates protection on the most important areas (the front torso, weapon arm and front skull) and fits in a reasonable budget and weight allowance.

Re: Low-Tech Armour Loadouts.
 

Tōseigusoku, Sengoku-Period Samurai Armor (Late 16th Century, TL4)

$3,439.8125, 40.7075 lbs. (I couldn't find how I should round up or down a fractional cost and weight.)

In the Sengoku (Warring States) period, the emergence of black powder weapons and organized mass combat drove samurai to invent the tōseigusoku (lit. "modern armor" -- this type of armor was "modern" from the viewpoint of people at that time) like this. Unlike the earlier-era ōyoroi, it utilized a lot of plates instead of scales. Most notable was dō, composed of two relatively simple armor plates (front and back) hinged each other, which rapidly replaced the older dōmaru. It was lighter and easier to make than ōyoroi. Below is an example of full suit of tōseigusoku for fairly rich samurai. In fact, "tōseigusoku" is the catch-all term for sengoku- or later-period samurai armor, so there were many other types of construction in reality.

Components

Kabuto (helmet): Medium plate bascinet and cloth padding. Protects skull from all directions and face from the back. DR 7, $637.5, 6.5 lbs. (Often ornamented with one or more tatemono, or crests and plumes.)

Mempō (face guard): Visor with perforations. Combined with the helmet, it protects face from the front. DR 6, $156.25, 1.25 lbs.

Shikoro (back neck guard): Medium segmented plate lobsterback. Attached on the helmet. Protects neck from the back. DR 4, $27, 0.72 lbs.

Nodowa (front neck guard): Medium scale gorget for front half. Attached on the body armor. Protects neck from the front. DR 4 (-1 vs. cr), $13.75, 0.7 lbs.

Dō (body armor): Medium plate the on front and light plate on the back. Protects chest. DR 6/3 on front/back, $1312.5, 10.5 lbs.

Kusazuri (lower body armor): Light segmented plate. Protects abdomen. DR 3, $150, 4 lbs.

Tōseisode (upper arm guards): Light segmented plate. Protects shoulders, upper arms, and elbows. DR 3, $150, 4 lbs.

Kote (forearm guards): Light plate. Protects forearms. DR 3, $250, 2 lbs.

Tekkō (hand guards): Light segmented plate. Protects hands. DR 3, $60, 1.6 lbs.

Haidate (thigh guards): Light segmented plate. Protects thighs and knees from the front. DR 3, $150, 4 lbs.

Suneate (shin guards): Light plate. Protects shins. DR 3, $500, 4 lbs.

Kōgake (topside foot guards): Medium hardened leather, splinted. Protects feet from the topside. DR 2 (+1 vs. cut), $7.8125, 0.9375 lbs.

Waraji (sandals): Sandals. Protects feet from the underside. DR 1, $25, 0.5 lb.

I'm not a trained historian, so I can't guarantee that the stats above are historically correct.