Partial armor

[Skarg]

I'm re-posting this question and my answer from the main forum, where I don't think it belongs:

Originally Posted by JustAnotherJarhead

I gave it a good Look, but I didn't see any mention of piece-armor.

Now, I realize this opens a can of worms, but maybe we can address this on a very basic level? To at least add some realism and/or flavor to the game?

What about the guy who just buys and wears a chainmail shirt? Offering no protection to unarmored limbs or head. But also being less encumbering?

Would you say ... yeah that's just dandy mate, for normal attacks he gets the full 3 points of damage reduction, but any called shot or any other normal reason that something should target a limb or head shot, he receives 0 protection. Is that a fair trade off?

Would you even want to do this as a character? Maybe institute that the reduced encumberance also related to a reduction in the DX penalty by one point? Maybe MA by a small bit? maybe not.

Being that Half-plate has the worst numbers, would it be a good candidate to consider this main torso only protection, in exchange for a small reduction in DX penalty?

I feel that overall, it sounds pretty good, and would add some flavor, but I can't help but think that sooner or later a player is gonna have a **** fit, when his brave warrior with his fancy $3000 fine breast plate that is accustomed to having 6 hits reduced, is of no value to that lucky strike on his sword arm by that Orc leader with his war axe.

" it's just a flesh wound " !

but it does add flavor to the game

Anybody have input on piece-armor?

** (again, just keeping it simple, I don't want three different armor "types" on one character, just exploring the archer who maybe wears a boiled leather breast plate, sans all other protection.)

Well, piece armor generally works just fine in GURPS... but GURPS is a bit different from TFT. One of the main reasons it works easily in GURPS is because there are almost zero direct DX & MA penalties for armor - mainly just the effect of weight, which does affect both movement and (defensive) combat ability in GURPS.

It would work in TFT, but would throw off the balance of designs, and the question which would affect balance would be about how much of a DX & MA penalty someone has for various combinations of armor on different body parts.

It also would create a level of detail with consequences that I tend to think many TFT players might balk at, given how quickly they tend to balk at anything that increases complexity.

i.e. Depending on the answer to the DX & MA penalty question, there might seem to be several cases where fighters have advantages over others IF they pick some peculiar armor mixes, and/or IF they go for aimed shots, which may annoy players who either find some fault with those results, or who simply prefer to be able to make a fully armored character and not think about aiming at body parts, and who don't want to feel at a disadvantage if they don't.

Another issue might be not really liking what the Aimed Shots and/or Crippling Blows rules do to TFT combat dynamics. (Not that I necessarily feel that way - but having used those rules a lot, I can see some reasons why some people might not prefer to use them.