Help with a Grim Survival DF Setting

[Mister Negative]

Just a suggestion on the 'battlefield scavenged' armor. Presumably, if this armor is scavenged from the battlefield, it was actually worn onto the battlefield, then scavenged by the survivors.

Rather than having genuinely random collections of armor, I would suggest everyone get an actual suit of very light, cheap armor (since that armor would be the least desirable, and the least likely to get taken earlier by someone else, and thus, available to be offered to rabble) and then have a random selection of better armor pieces that everyone can squabble over (one good helmet, one left pauldron, etc.).

To keep up the random, mismatched factor, you could also possibly roll (even on the hit location chart) for their basic armor to determine what was irreparably damaged (i.e., where the blow that killed the last wearer tore through the armor). Putting on armor with a gaping tear covered in dried blood might suit the genre.

This would be easier to track and equip (you have leather armor, except on your left arm, and you have a steel pot helm) and also a little less subject to wackiness (one guy rolls and gets relatively good armor, someone else ends up with a left leather glove and a right boot).