The Eyes Have It: Armor Chinks

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by JP42

I have to wonder if the intent of the rules isn't to force targeting the slits, bypassing all DR, as the only way to hit the eyes through a helmet the covers the face.

Rereading the entry in Low Tech, I think you may be correct. Still, I rather prefer having the option of targeting Eye at -9 and Eye Chinks at -12 (at Skill 17, the former can be moderately reliably done with a Telegraphic Attack, while the latter would require a Telegraphic All Out Attack; at Skill 13, you need Telegraphic All Out Attack to pull off the former), in no small part because it allows for better differentiation of eye protection.

Originally Posted by JP42

I think my issue with it isn't that they can't be the same sort of location, merely that you can't target them both at the same time - that you can target the chinks, but hitting the vein/joint/whatever underneath can only happen by random roll based on the location.

That doesn't make any sense to me, but if you want to run things that way in your games, I've got no problem with it.
My own thoughts are that targeting Chinks means you know (or can tell) where the weak points in armor are, and targeting Arteries/Veins or Joints means you know (or can tell, particularly relevant for Joints) where these parts of the body are. If you know/can tell both, and there is overlap, it makes sense to be able to target this location. The additional penalty in this case isn't because of the small size of the hit location, but rather because you need to hit a specific location (normally you've got, say, a few places on the arm where Chinks apply, and a few places where you can target the Arteries/Veins; now you can only target the one place where the two overlap). Missing due to this additional penalty is likely to result in a hesitation, rather than an actual miss.

Originally Posted by The Benj

Bypassing half of DR, but yeah.

Eye Chinks (or slits) completely bypass DR. This isn't explicit in the FAQ, but I think was in the original Kromm post and certainly is in Low Tech (see LT101).