GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Helm upon his head
Stout breastplate atop hauberk
He stood girt for war

— Some hack

What, you thought we were done with the GURPS Low-Tech series? Never! From e23 comes the next-best labor-saver after a squire for your armored warriors: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor.

No longer will you have to fumble around matching this armor technology with that body part, figuring out how much the results cost and weigh . . . assuming you didn't miss some footnote or special case. This handy supplement breaks down armor by location and type, enabling you to read all the stats off a table in an instant. Even gamers who like to do math in their head will appreciate the item-by-item donning times and Holdout stats, adjusted to take into account the peculiarities of each piece of armor. They'll also find it handy to have all the special notes in one place – and to have exceptions to TL accounted for in cases where some pieces become available a little earlier than others.

And you get more than just armor tables (or we would have called this GURPS Low-Tech: Armor Tables). All the special materials and modifications for armor are tabulated by TL, showing applicability, cost, and effect, with page references to GURPS Low-Tech. There's also a list of historical helmets, which are among the trickiest bits of armor to work out. Finally, there are new optional rules for sublocations within the abdomen; for arming garments, boots, cloaks, gauntlets, and pectorals; and for layering, looting, and sleeping in armor.

Do you like low-tech armor? Then you'll love Low-Tech: Instant Armor!

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Was Dan working on another armour book besides this one or will this include all the stuff he's been slyly hinting at?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Dan also has GURPS Loadouts: Low-Tech Armor (working title only!) in the pipes.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I'm pretty sure he was working on an Armor Loadouts (or Loadouts: Armor) as well.

This book is essentially a shopping list of armor pieces built using the rules from Low-Tech. Of the 21 pages 12.5 of them are nothing but Armor Tables. I'm suspecting that Loadouts will take pieces of Armor from this book, and possibly some more customized pieces, and make historically accurate Armor Suits.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Ah, I thought I saw him hint at two things. Well, sounds like I'll buy both.

Did he get permission to put his corrected weights for scale and segmented plate in either book or are we stuck with the ones that appeared in LT (and made it through all our revisions without anyone noticing that they were making metal armour worse than some varieties of leather and textile armour)?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Picked up Instant Armor but really looking forward to historical fullsuits by cullture. Math is my strong suit, history not so much. -GEF

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Slapped my money down!

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Oh, this is torture! Two great new supplements, and me without a dime to spare... well, I'm sure I can scrape something together. =P

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It's like that at Christmas. Alas I find that e23 is outside most of my family's cybershopping repertoire. -GEF

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Happily purchased it. Now I'm just waiting to hear more about Dan's other project. As for the price, it's less than a six-pack of decent beer, so how can you go wrong (aside from a not being able to get aforementioned beer)?

Now the big question: aside from Dan's Load-out project, what other Low-Tech supplements might we see? What would people like to see (though perhaps this is best for another thread)?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Having bought it for the optional rules, I've got to say I don't recommend it unless you in fact want the Instant Armor that is the title and primary content. It most certainly looks like it delivers on what it promised, but I wouldn't say it's a must-have on the rulestuff front.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I see this small sourcebook as a very useful and interesting addition to the GURPS Low-Tech series: Visual Glossary, tables, optional rules . . . It´s neat.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Oh, yes, the visual glossary is great.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

First off, those looking to purchase this supplement should be aware that it's Armor Tables not loadouts. It's precalucated costs/weights by type & location. It's handy to put together armor sets quickly for NPC's and Players that don't like math (or Players that as a GM you have to hand hold through the equipment buying set-up)... but it's not critical for those that like the detail of putting together a suit of armor for their favorite characters... and due to rounding, you won't usually get the same numbers.

--------------

Secondly, the optional rules section is pretty small, but there is some useful stuff in there... (although by those rules sleeping with a pair of mittens on will fatigue you ;p )

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Third is a nitpick, and since I was the original person to gripe about the lack of stats for Light Leather, it's only fitting that I be the one to gripe again about the stats being a bit off (mainly cost).

The cost is (as per RAW & LT) based on 30% COL since it's basically "Winter Clothing"... I get that, and I'm fine with it. But the torso cost should not be the whole 30% COL, since that cost also covers shoes, gloves, sleeves and pants!

Weight is non-inclusive of handwear/footwear (per LT errata), so 8 pounds (per the LT errata) divided by 2.5 (100% Torso, 50% Arms, 100% Legs) should yield a weight of 3.2 pounds (maybe a bit less to cover the weight of a scarf, belt, etc.). That's close enough to what's printed that it's workable.

But cost should be 30% COL divided by at least 2.5, but since winter clothing is supposed to inculde the cost of handwear & footwear, it's more like divide by 3... which means that the Light Leather Costs are at least 3 times too high.

In fact, if you went the route of taking 30% COL, subtracting the cost of gloves & boots, then divided by 2.5 (or 2.55 for + Neck, or 2.8 for a hood as well), you'd get a base cost (100%) of about $50. Which is available for $25 for a plain utility status -1 version.

However, after having picked all those nits, I am happy that Light Leather was in fact inculded.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Does it have the sort of grand unified hit location table that Dan's been hinting at?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It's got the same armor location table that Low Tech does, but nothing other than that that could fit that description.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I thought he was going to include the locations from Martial Arts, all the "miss by one" and "roll 1d" rules and the Pelvis.

I'd really like something like this, if that matters to anyone.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Me too.

It also matters to me, but I didn't read the book yet. What I can say is that there are reminders of hit location rules at the start of some tables arranged by body parts. For instance, in page 11 we have:

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The pelvis is included, just not on the table. Instead there's an optional rule for the abdomen that means you randomly hit one of the vitals, the groin, the gut or the pelvis and never "just" the abdomen, so it's a pretty dangerous location.

Dont see any miss by one stuff.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The Pelvis hit location was taken directly from Tactical Shooting. It can be directly aimed for (at -3) like in TS but it was also given a random hit location in the abdomen table.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Double checking that I understand some things about the Pectoral (pg 20) that aren't explicitly mentioned:
* It always protects the vitals from the front, even on an abdomen or "lower chest"/location 10 hit yes?
* Aiming at the "lower chest" is the same -1 as the "upper chest" and would never hit the pectoral right? Which also means as I see it the stuff about aiming at the upper chest but avoiding the pectoral is not likely to come up all that often.

Some other comments:
I'm surprised the helmet stats don't include the padding. From a "grab and go" and "avoid footnotes" perspective I would have thought only needing 1 set of numbers for head armour would be better, with those who want a seperate padding cap doing a subtraction rather than everyone else doing addition.

Possibly clustering the notes so all the notes that affect DR were together would make it easier to quickly check in play.

When I saw references to mittens I was hoping the table would include chain mittens. Darn. Did they not really ever exist or something?


Also, cool book.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It protects the vitals on the chest only. Nowhere else.
Probably not

Notes have to be listed in the order that they appear in the tables.

Yep. They were called mufflers. They'd have exactly the same stats as regular mail gauntlets so there is no point wasting a line entry for them. You could argue that expert tailoring wouldn't reduce Ham Fisted penalties. In other words, only fingered gauntlets could be expertly tailored.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I find that ... surprising. Not from a realism perspective, that's where the hunk of metal would be after all, but because it just says protects the vitals, which sounds like the term of art (to steal a phrase I've never used before). Not sure I'm being clear here, but staring at this paragraph I can't improve it.
Wait, if you hit the chest and roll a 1 would you hit the pectoral? If not then I'm thinking about the tables the wrong way and once I make that mental adjustment everything is fine.

Re: lower chest
Well, that certainly makes the words spent talking about how to avoid the pectoral more important. My problem is that (ignoring the vitals) I can't see why adding a new sub-location you can aim at for the chance of hitting more armour is better than adding one you can aim at to definitely avoid that armour. Purely a game play thing, I can see my players wanting the latter far more than the former.

Considering I was wrong both times, I'm glad I brought it up. Easier to remember it now than fix my thoughts later.


Neat. Possibly cheap chain would have mufflers rather than gauntlets.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Yes, on a small pectoral. Larger ones would also protect on a 2 or 3 or more.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Sorry, I put that stupidly.

What I meant was: if you hit the chest (not specifically the upper chest) and roll a die to see if you hit the vitals and get a 1 do you hit the pectoral.

Put another way, does the random vitals effect on a torso hit reflect hitting the same bit of skin you aim at for a vitals hit, or is it the weapon burrowing through generic flesh somewhere else to hit essential bits. Since I first encountered the 1 to hit the vitals in the context of limiting torso damage I tend to think of it as the former.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Dan, thanks for including the pectoral in this release. I did have a question: in the depictions, I've seen, it looked (to me at least) like it was located right smack in the middle of the chest. Wouldn't this lead to protection for both the lower and upper chest? And would you consider a Samnite triple disk breastplate to be an example of the largest form of pectoral (since it didn't protect the sides of the torso like a breastplate conceivably would)?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I thought of doing it both ways. The lack of a playtest meant that I had less people to toss around ideas with.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Has any thought been made as to whether or not to errata the cost of Light Leather?

Since the cost for just the Torso is the entire cost of Winter Clothing that it's based upon, which is sipposed to include the cost of sleeves, handwear/footwear and pants! I'm Guessing the cost should be divided by at least 3 ($60), and possibly lowered a bit below that (at about $50).

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I just now noticed that none of the Arm and Leg tables, nor any of their respective sublocations, have Heavy Plate or Heavy Segmented Plate on the list.

Are we to take this to mean that one realistically cannot have Heavy Plate or Heavy Seg. Plate covering these areas, even on fairly non-flexible sublocations like the forearm and shin? Or were these simply left off the list for space and implicit extrapolation (despite the fact that both armor types appear for the Chest, Heavy Seg. Plate appears for the Abdomen, and Heavy Plate appears for the Groin)?

Edit: And if the former, is this because of physical limitations (i.e. such armor cannot plausibly exist there), or because of historical tendencies and preferences (which would mean such armor could have existed there, but didn't for whatever historical purpose)?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Well what guy doesn't want the best protection they can get down there??

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Certainly no guy I know. I was just observing that it doesn't seem like those armor options were "assumed to be extrapolated," because they appear in other location tables.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I have no idea how it stacks up historically, but game mechanically, you can use plate on the forearms and shins and then use medium segmented + layers of padding on the balance of the limbs to match their DR, if you're aiming for the simplicity of a single DR value for the whole limb. -GEF

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I know you can use plate on the forearms and shins (and everywhere else on the limbs). My point is that the tables for those locations don't go beyond Medium Plate and Medium Segmented Plate, and I'm wondering if that means that Heavy version are not available for them.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

None of the thicker armours should be available anywhere except the torso and head.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Does this help at all?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

There is an abdominal sublocations rule that includes the pelvis. ...I'm a bit dubious about it, given that it implies that a crushing Major Wound is likely to rupture the digestive tract.
Is that based on mechanical limitations, or just historical usage?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It's good to see that this is a thread with the value of being a sort of Designer's Notes article.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I have that (printed out poster sized in-fact), it is awesome! But what I'm talking about would also include the sublocations from Low-Tech (shoulders, forearms, upper chest, abdomen, and so on) and Tactical Shooting (pelvis) with "roll 1d" and "miss by 1" results that fully integrate all of them.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

200 sales already. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy. Hope it is helpful.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

As the various threads on making complete suits from it indicates, it's very helpful. Thanks muchly, Dan.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Hello! I just bought this, and it's indeed convenient. However, it brought to the fore a slight doubt I had about Low-Tech armor.

The impression I had from reading the base rules and this forum was that, while plate armor was listed for the "full" torso hit location, you actually had to buy it with only 75% coverage and use segmented plate on the lower abdomen/groin, which were the remaining 25%.

Now, looking at the armor tables, the very first one is for "Torso, 100%", and it lists plate armor just as the base book does. Does it mean the rule described in the above paragraph is optional?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

This was actually covered earlier in the thread. Basically, the Plate Armor that's in the Torso, 100% section is for people who don't use a separate Abdomen hit location - so yes, it's optional, but only if you aren't trying to be fully accurate. If you want complete accuracy, you can't have rigid plate in the abdomen.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

So does it or not? I suppose I'm just going to have to buy it (which I was going to eventually anyway) to find out.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It does not have a unified hit location table. On page 16 has the same table as Low Tech page 100.

It is also true that it has a 1d6 sub-location roll for the abdomen on page 19, which includes pelvis and digestive tract hits. But the PDF doesn't include any of the Martial Arts hit locations at all. Except possibly the joints, and it doesn't talk about the joint-hit rules for those.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Was Bruno a playtester? Maybe it was cut? Anyway I still want one of these.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Instant Armor has the same hit location table that is in Low-Tech plus an Abdomen sub-location. It includes the Pelvis location from Tactical Shooting. What else do you need? I needed a Face sub-location table for the Loadouts book - it is consistent with the mechanics in Martial Arts.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

A set of tables with all the location and location specific effects from the Basic Set, Martial Arts, High-Tech, Low-Tech, Horror and Tactical Shooting (and I guess now Instant Armor and Historical Loadouts). This would include all previously published "missed by one" and "roll 1d" results. It would be extra cool if the non-humanoid tables from the Basic Set were included and similarly expanded (but obviously I didn't expect this from Instant Armor).

Right now this stuff is scattered all over the place.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I think the same. It would be great to have all that officially unified in a single resource.

Even if many people has the options stored in their heads, such resource would ease and encourage the use of the aforementioned rules –specially for those that find the details and nuances "overwhelming" during the game.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Something more than p. 2 of Onki's free sheet??

I might quibble with the formatting or presentation, but he's done a lot of the work you seem to be requesting.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I honestly haven't looked at that in a while, because when he first did it it wasn't noticeably superior than the mook's sheets and preferred the mook's formatting.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Perhaps this is a bit of an aside, but I'd like to hear Dan's opinion. Would it be fairly balanced to allow expert tailoring to reduce Dex penalties for layered armor? I understand the official stance that the penalty will reduce munchkin abuse, but when I see illustrations of the War of the Roses I suspect those that opted for brigandine over mail, rather than plate protecting their torso, were not dealing with reduced dexterity. Indeed, from my scant sources, I'm led to surmise that it was an issue of choosing comfort over protection, which is really the opposite of the effect that one gets with the GURPS rules as written.

The layering rules work fine I think, if you're looking to model historical armor from the transition from mail to plate. I can see that armor getting awkwardly cumbersome as they experimented with more bits layered on. But when it comes to including widely available plate harness in my games, while trying to keep the combat medieval, I usually look to the slightly more advanced era of the War of the Roses for inspiration. Historically they had handgonnes and whatnot, but that is easily ignored in a romanticized and more enduring age of chivalry, such as appears in many "fantasy" settings.

Am I misguided by illustrations that show well equipped warriors and knights in a mix of plate corset and fauld, and what appears to be brigandine over a mail haubergeon?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

If every layer was expertly tailored then it might be reasonable to negate one point of the DX penalty.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Thanks Dan. I highly value your knowledge and opinions when it comes to historical armor (a sentiment much shared I'm sure).

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

That doesn't seem to have the armor locations from Low-Tech. Argh!

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Drop Onki a note. My observation is he'll bang it out remarkably quickly.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Most of the time you hit "just" the abdomen unless you manage to inflict a major wound.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Well, it's a matter of space... IMHO he made a great job, the most important things are all there, but you're right that sometimes it would be nice to have further differentiation of some hit locations, too, e.g. splitting the "Arms" location into shoulders, upper arms, elbows and forearms...*

We could save enough space in the big block "Weapon Statistics for Melee and Ranged Weapons" because most advanced players are knowing a lot of this anyway, so it could be shortened significantly... (maybe making that an 'advanced' version of the sheet, to save the current detailed descriptions for beginners, too...?)


*: Just noticed that I haven't used these new armor locations, yet. Is it right, that, for instance after a sword cut to the hit location 'Arms' one would roll a further d6 to see if the shoulders (6), upper arms (5), elbows (4) or forearms (1-3) are hit? Or is this meant in another way? I'm not 100% sure because the splitted write up is a bit difficult to read IMHO... Also it seems there are no penalties given for striking explicitly at the upper arms, forearms etc. ...?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

This was a total brain fizzle on my part.

Part of it is that I don't consider "Joints and veins" to be separate hit locations, any more than "chinks in armor" are separate hit locations - they're mentally filed under "combat options". I can totally see why people think about them differently, though.

I have absolutely no such excuse on the subject of the face sub-locations or spine. That's pure brain-fail :)

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Yes you are supposed to roll again on the sub-location table. If one of your dice is a different colour then you don't need to roll twice. Yes there should be penalties for deliberately targeting sub-locations. The arm/leg is -2 and hands/feet are -4 so a reasonable penalty to target part of the arm or leg would be -3.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

There's a generalized rule in High Tech about targeting any X in 6 sub hit location (in the context of partial armor coverage, which is basically exactly what we're talking about here).

This is for targeting "any in this list that are uncovered", rather than a specific location, but it looks like an area that covers 1/6 is -4, an area that covers 2/6 is -3, an area that covers 3/6 is -2 and an area that covers 4 or 5 in 6 is -1.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

It isn't just about size. It is also about how close it is to the attacker and how much it moves around. In general, even though the target area is smaller, the thigh is easier to hit than the shin; the shoulder and upper arm are easier to hit than the forearm. IMO -3 to hit all of these locations would be a resonable simplification.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Those factors should already be fully represented in the X in 6 sub-location hit mechanic.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

They had to be kept general enough to use on animals too.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I agree with this, but what a pity: first, because this isn't in the Instant-Armor sourcebook nor in any other official release, and second because, unless I'm missing something (which is likely), the High-Tech's rules Bruno quoted in her last post seems to go against this approach.

For instance, the shoulder "sublocation" (a 6 in a d6) would be targetted with a -4 penalty, while the forearm (1-3 in a d6) would be significantly easier to target.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Either one would work. You could apply a penalty of -3 to hit the upper arm or shoulder. Or you could apply a penalty of -4 to hit either of them separately and -3 to hit the whole area. The upper arm and shoulder add up to 2/6 which is the same as the thigh (-3 to hit). So that could work too. The difference is only 1 point and there are no special effects for hitting the upper arm or shoulder so it doesn't really matter much.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I have a question about pectorals. Since they only protect the vitals and (sometimes) upper chest, what do I do about attacks that deliberately target the chest? (As opposed to attacks for which hit location is rolled.) Since the rules do not normally distinguish between upper and lower chest, how do I know which is hit?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I suppose you'd roll 50-50 to see which you'd hit. The chest (areas 9-10) as a whole has no penalty to hit but if you wanted to specifically target area 9 or area 10 then the penalty would be -1 just like the abdomen (area 11).

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Thanks for the clarification. Seems a little cumbersome, though. I may house-rule pectorals a bit to simplify things.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Another question on pectorals. I am using the expanded hit location rules in Martial Arts. I hit a pectoral-wearing character in the upper chest from the front with an impaling attack. The attack misses the pectoral - maybe I took the -2 to -4 penalty to avoid it, or maybe I rolled 1d to see if the pectoral protected against the attack, and it didn't.

Do I then roll 1d to see if the vitals are hit, as per MA137? Or does the roll have to be made before determining if the pectoral protects? (In the latter case, the full pectoral DR would always apply to vitals hits, unless using the targeting chinks in armor rules.)

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The whole point of wearing a pectoral is to cover the vitals. The only way to hit the vitals is to go through the DR or to use the chinks in armour rule to try and target the vitals around the armour. If a pectoral is worn then there is no way to randomly hit the vitals without also hitting the pectoral. If you want to avoid the armour then you aim for a different part of the body such as the back or abdomen.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

Is this what you imagine pectorals would actually do? Or is it just an abstraction you chose to use? I've been puzzling over that since they first came up. It seems there are innumerable ways to strike to the vitals without going anywhere near a pectoral.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

My thoughts exactly, which is why I started this thread.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The RAW approach seems okay to me for a rules-light game that's not too concerned with realism. But I'd like to see a "harsh realism" option for pectorals, so they reduce the risk of vitals hits but don't eliminate it entirely. Completely protecting the heart wouldn't require a very large plate, but the lungs (which, canonically, are vital organs) are relatively large and not centrally located.

I was pondering a house rule: have "confirmation rolls" for random vitals hits, with the odds of confirmation dropping as the size of the pectoral increases. But that adds an extra roll.

BTW, I noticed an issue with the modifiers for targeting the vitals around a pectoral: It is harder to bypass a 3/6 pectoral than to hit the armpit of a person wearing a full cuirass. And if the cuirass lacks sliding rivets, even a 1/6 pectoral is harder to bypass.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The pectoral is an abstract piece of armour specifically intended to completely cover the vitals in the upper chest. If you want to hit the vitals without going through the armour then you need to aim for vitals in other hit locations or you use the chinks in armour rules.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

The penalty to hit the armpit is -8. The penalty to hit the upper chest without hitting the pectoral varies from -1 (no pectoral) to -4 (5/6 pectoral). I would not allow the Chinks in Armour rules to target the vitals if someone was wearing a cuirass. It is not reasonable. If any mechanic does not make sense in the situation then the GM needs to make a ruling.

Personally, I do not use the Chinks in Armour rule at all. I only use Harsh Realism - Armour Gaps.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

On the one hand, there are no rules whatsoever for targeting vitals in other hit locations. There are rules for hitting them accidentally, but no rules for specifying a called shot to a subset of the vitals except, from Horror, the heart.

On the other hand, you can reach the vitals in the upper chest from practically any angle. What are the applicable armor gaps? A pectoral protects your vitals as completely as a full corselet?

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

An attack to the armpit is treated "as an attack to the vitals", with a small chance of crippling the arm in addition to the usual triple damage for impaling the vitals. For practical purposes, an attack to the armpit is an attack to the vitals, but better.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

You can target the vitals at -3 in the chest, the back, the abdomen. All the pectoral does is protect the vitals in the upper chest from the front.

This exact discussion has occurred before. Use the search function.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

This is the most relevant thread I found, if anyone is curious: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=73401

I'm going off on a tangent here, but I just realized I've been playing something wrong.

Using the Martial Arts hit location rules, if a character wearing an open-face helmet is hit in the face with an arrow, there is a 1 in 6 chance the arrow will strike the skull. I had always assumed that meant it passed through the bones of the face into the brain, so the helmet's DR didn't apply. But, for reasons stated above, that defies the logic of the system.

Apparently, the 1d roll actually represents the chance that the arrow will miss the face entirely, regardless of the attack roll, and strike the skull instead. Odd.

Re: GURPS Low-Tech: Instant Armor
 

I though I would resurrect this thread to see if the above question has been answered? Is there an errata for the cost of light leather.

Also, the weight is off. If Winter Clothing is used as the basis of the leather, the weight of a total outfit (torso, arms, legs, feet) should be about 5 pounds. By the rules it is over 8 pounds (without boots, gloves or any kind of coat/cloak).

Or is the light leather based on a heavy long coat (sufficient to provide 1 DR vs cutting, +4 CF, double weight). Then a torso, arms, legs combination is around $250 and 10 lbs, which is closer to the numbers given in Instant Armor.