Studded Leather Armor

[Drakenbow]

Back in the 80s, I picked up three thin booklets made for another game which focused on weapons mostly. Weapons and Castles, Weapons and Assassins, and Weapons and Armor (by Matthew Balent).

For the last book, the author details quite a few weapons for weight, length, symmetry (for throwing at 1-3), damage (1-4?), DX (or rather a quickness number), along with the type (6 types).

The armor section was well developed with historical examples which he broke down with resistance numbers (0-12) against Chop, Cut, Thrust, and Impact, plus effects against DX, plus the approximate weight of it.

He wrote up on some period styles with values for those armor types. He had over 40 types and 26 cultural styles.

Basically some armors were good against slashing but not as well against blunt. Some weren't as good against spears and arrows/quarrels as they were against slashing and pounding.

Having noted all that, one could design some armors to be half way - stops 3 hits for blunt and blades, but stops only 2 for piercing.