Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

So in my fantasy game, I'm trying to flesh out the selection of arms and armor to make the setting a bit more unique and interesting. To make it all a bit more interesting and, well, "fantastic", I'm trying to come up with some materials for armor and such. I also liked it in RPG's when there were new stuff to fashion other stuff from and every piece of armor wasn't the same. ("Yawn, another plate cuirass...")

In particular, I'm looking to make the Dark Elves of my setting a bit more unique in their equipment. Culturally, think the Dunmer from Elder Scrolls (feuding houses somewhat united under a foreign Empire, homeland relatively desolate and filled with ash and rocks, a natural affinity for magic...). If nothing else, I might also shamelessly rip off their style of armor, bonemold. (Link: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Bonemold) But any suggestions are quite welcome!

Just out of curiosity, have you ever used weapon/armor/other materials in fleshing out a world?

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

If you have Low-Tech, you can use it to help distinguish materials. Take existing armor flavors from Low Tech and assign them exclusively to fantasy materials (Quality Leather, Lightened, etc). One fantasy metal could offer Edge Protection, another could always be considered Lightened, another could be +1 vs crushing, etc. My fantasy games often include Atlantean armor, which is bronze plate with all the TL4 bells & whistles (fluting, etc). My current campaign includes Sea Leather, cribbed from the Elric RPG, which is just cuirboulli that helps you float (armor encumbrance doesn't count against swimming rolls).

I.C.E.'s Middle Earth RPG also had a nice array of fantasy metals available for weapons and armor, might be worth a look.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

Not to be self-serving or anything, but Dungeon Fantasy 8 has some variant materials for both weapons and armor, as well as a few oddball exotic weapons (there are a few in Fantasy-Tech as well, but I think DF8 has more of what you're looking for). You might also want to look into Low-Tech and Low-Tech Companion 2 for a more realistic set of variant materials and customization rules.

Also, there was a thread on an Elder Scrolls conversion some time ago which has suggestions on how to convert some specific items from there. Worth searching for.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

I have chitin from various gigantic insects, wyrm skin, and dragon skin (really good but dangerous to wear as dragons reincarnate and while they don't mind (too much) being killed...).

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

The Low Tech armor system also makes it pretty easy to add new material types, once you've got an idea of what the basic properties should be like (gives X DR, weighs Y lbs for a torso-covering piece, costs Z$ for the torso-covering piece).

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

I mostly reused some of the standard materials from fantasy and myth and assigned them X properties.
Adamant I have used as a metal and a crystal but either way it was lighter and gave better DR.
Orichulium was a green jade like substance that was more a ceramic then anything and was magic resistant.
Mithril was a silvery and easily enchanted metal about as light as aluminium but hard as steel.
Used various woods and leathers to provide special properties based on origin.
Even used Morganti steel (from the Vlad Taltos series) that was a necromantic metal.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

Speaking of utterly fantastic materials, what would be a bearable, non-utterly-munchkiny way of treating something that has mass like steel or bronze, but is literally unbreakable once forged and specially treated?

That certainly doesn't sound like infinite DR to me, more like infinite edge (and tip) protection, i.e. unless you bypass it (chinks, other location) you'll always get a wound multiplier of 1. Not quite sure if that's enough, though.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

This would depend on how it could be manufactured. If it could only be made in 1" cubes it would be very different from making it in any shape you want. Also what happens when weapons are made out of it?

The main problem with say plate armor like that is that GURPS really is not set up for what it would take to hurt someone inside that. For example outside of cannons the character would be bullet proof as you shifted to momentum transfer as your main method of damage. You need to toss them around to hurt them.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

Depends a lot on the mass/thickness of the material once it's "invulnerable".

Very thin, flexible, foil-like sheets would be very like silk - which in the real wold doesn't stop impaling attacks, because it wraps around the spear/arrow/sword tip and gets merrily driven into your wound cavity along with the weapon. However it seals the wound some, and makes extracting an arrow head much easier, and if you add magical antibacterial or self-cleaning properties it would protect it from infection to an impressive degree (not entirely unless it also cleans your skin and you don't wear anything between your skin and it).

The thicker/stiffer it is and the larger your plates of it, the more damage resistance you'll get as the force of impact is distributed over a wider area under approaching-ideal circumstances.

Re: Materials for armor in Fantasy game
 

Treated Linnen Armor (Fantasy Tech page 13) is impenetrable: all damage that pierces DR becomes crushing. +19CF cloth armor modifier.