Partial armor

[Steve Plambeck]

A truly over-simplistic suggestion, intended only for those who want partial armor to add color to descriptions and narrations:

A partial suit is identical in all respects to a full suit of the next lowest armor type:

Treat partial leather as = cloth, & partial chain as = leather.

The snag being there is already a partial plate armor (Half-Plate) with it's own stats, so you wouldn't wanna say "partial Half-Plate". Fixable by adding one more type to the list -- call it Scale -- that stops 4/a. Then drop half-plate altogether, and let partial plate = scale.

Again, not a solution for anyone who wants hit location effects, just for someone to be able to say "this character is in partial chain male" or the like.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

A partial suit is identical in all respects to a full suit of the next lowest armor type

I think this is the right idea. In fact I think armour needs a list of examples much like those for weapons (the box on ITL 111) providing guidelines for using a Greek panoply, Roman legionnaire's armour, samurai armour, etc.

I also like the idea of a 1 MA penalty for every point of armour, and a +1 MA for moving first, to get rid of magic numbers.

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

A truly over-simplistic suggestion

I think you underestimate the simplisticity (is that a word?) of TFT. The game is underpinned by lots of approximations this rough. Yours is fine.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

I think this is the right idea....

I also like the idea of a 1 MA penalty for every point of armour, and a +1 MA for moving first, to get rid of magic numbers.

I think you underestimate the simplisticity (is that word?) of TFT. The game is underpinned by lots of approximations this rough. Yours is fine.

Thanks & glad you like it. More often than not the houserules I see proposed add granularity to TFT, but simple things are more to my own liking and indeed more in keeping with TFT's spirit.

Thinking about my post afterwards I decided I like it so much I amended my personal rules to include it, with a tiny modification: I now assume the helmet in a partial suit is as good as the helmet in the full suit, seeing that's what PCs would probably buy. So my partial chainmail (for example) that only stops 2 hits would, for a blow to the head, still stop 3. (Head blows are the only specific hit attempt I allow anyway, so no need for exceptions for any other parts of the armour.)

I already use only -1 MA for each level of armour for greater mobility. I have no problem with rounding up when calculating 1/2 MA where MA is an odd number.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

I now assume the helmet in a partial suit is as good as the helmet in the full suit, seeing that's what PCs would probably buy. So my partial chainmail (for example) that only stops 2 hits would, for a blow to the head, still stop 3.

This rule adds complexity, and creates a question of why anyone would wear 2-point leather when they can wear 2-point limited coverage chain and get a bonus on head attacks.

And I don't see it's needed. A man who has decided to go in with less armour on his arms for speed and fatigue reasons may well also decide to have less armour on his head, for vision and breathing reasons.

There should be a modifier to perception tasks for armour, either -1 per level or -2 per level, not sure which.

I have no problem with rounding up when calculating 1/2 MA where MA is an odd number.

Magic numbers are evil and should be slain wherever practical. In this case I have two weapons:

• +1 MA for moving first
• -1 fatigue for using your full half-move, so MA 9 allows half-MA 4 without fatigue cost.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

This rule adds complexity, and creates a question of why anyone would wear 2-point leather when they can wear 2-point limited coverage chain and get a bonus on head attacks.

And I don't see it's needed. A man who has decided to go in with less armour on his arms for speed and fatigue reasons may well also decide to have less armour on his head, for vision and breathing reasons....

It's for rare contingencies only. If the party is bedded down for the night, and they hear attackers riding up, I might only allow them time to get partially dressed. They'd definitely grab their helmets, and just their cuirass, hauberk, or a leather jacket. Now there's a rule ready for that.

The other rare contingency could be a PC who eagerly wants to buy plate for example, but has only half the money -- I might want to be magnanimous and let them buy partial plate (including the helmet) for half price, and let them upgrade to the full suit later when they have the rest of the money (if they get back alive). I might. I might not <evil grin>.

[DeadParrot]

Another option would be to modify the "Using Up your armor and shield" optional rule ITL108. Example: someone wearing a partial set of Full Plate might be treated as having suffered 10 or 20 hits to the armor set and therefor lose 1 or 2 points of damage absorption. Lets you do the partial armor thing and avoids the called shot issue.

You could assign a point value to each piece, for Full Plate perhaps:
Helmet 10
Main chest 10
Both arms 10 or 5 per arm.
Each leg 10

So someone that owns a set of Full Plate but was caught sleeping might put on her helmet and grab a shield. Helmet worth 10 points of a 50 point(5 hit) total so absorbs 1 hit and the shield works normally.

If you want to get really detailed, assign a point value to each small piece and total. Round accordingly. But all the math bits are done before the game session so it shouldn't slow things down much.

[TippetsTX]

I'm not sure I see the gameplay advantage of a 'partial armor' model.

I would agree that more armor options with more variation is desirable (one such revised framework can be found in my Armor Up! thread), but beyond the obvious question "what kind of helm are you wearing?" I don't know why you would want to keep track of different protection values for different parts of the body.

[hcobb]

We don't have partial armor because we're avoiding complexity in armor enchantment.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by EKB

The formula for the overall protection provided by partial or mixed armor is the sum of the armor protection on each arm, each leg, the head, and three times the torso armor, divided by eight and rounded to the nearest whole number.

Anyone who cares about their character's effectiveness and survival will try to make the total armour load 3 more than a multiple of 8, so it rounds down. Maybe you don't care.

[EKB]

They'll get a benefit against attackers making called shots to the locations protected by those three total points of extra armor. And no, I don't care about players gaming the system to squeeze out that small advantage.