Unusual materials for items

[hcobb]

Duracrystal - Weapons and armor made of this material are non magnetic and cost fifty times more than steel items, but are enchanted in the same way. They are twice as durable as steel items. They stop the same number of hits when used as armor or shields, but it takes twice as many hits to destroy the item itself and they have half the chance to be broken as steel items. When made into shields they are given a one-way mirror polish so that the user can see through their own shield, reducing the DX penalty of the shield by one.

[David Bofinger]

TFT has a problem with materials. Bronze armour is not as good as iron (or steel?) armour, but really none of them is better than leather armour or cloth, except that there is more of it. Unless you fix this problem it's always going to be weird talking about the superiority of one material over another. But I don't see a clean way to fix it.

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

TFT has a problem with materials. Bronze armour is not as good as iron (or steel?) armour, but really none of them is better than leather armour or cloth, except that there is more of it. Unless you fix this problem it's always going to be weird talking about the superiority of one material over another. But I don't see a clean way to fix it.

I agree. Bronze armor (and weapons) should have the same damage reduction as iron (same damage for weapons), but either be heavier or have a higher DX reduction.

[David Bofinger]

I toyed with rating armour in sixths of a point of protection (roll a die for any fraction) and that would have made technology effects or ST dependence a bit more practical. But I'm doubtful anyone cares enough.

[hcobb]

Bronze is about 8% heavier than steel with about half the yield strength.


Silver is 33% heavier than steel so Cidri smiths must use a very light metal in their alloy.

[Axly Suregrip]

I'm changing my answer.

This makes more sense:

Maybe the point of bronze armor being off by -1 point is that there is no point in bronze chainmail.

So bronze age armors (-damage reduction / -DX reduction):


Cloth -1 / -1
Leather -2 / -2
Bronze Half-Plate -3 / -4
Bronze Plate -4 / -5

Bronze Half-Plate will be the bronze age breast plate and greaves.

[hcobb]

Shouldn't bronze armor fall apart at least twice as fast as steel?

Obsidian has the same cost and half the weight as steel and can be used for weapons, but is very brittle and any six rolled on a to-hit roll is treated as a break weapon result. (I.e. a roll of 1+1+6 totaling 8 is a break weapon result.) It can't be fine, very fine, or well balanced. Obsidian is also unsuitable for enchantments and hence can't be used for the Staff spell.

[tomc]

Is the material the only consideration here, or do you want to look at the state of armor technology at the time when each material was king?

Would iron armor constructed with bronze age designs be better than the most advanced plate mail made with bronze instead of iron or steel?

I've always used bronze armor to indicate lower tech cultures, and maybe to nerf the bad guys a bit, while fine polished unobtainium was for the body guards of the elite.

There's not a lot of granularity when armor is measured in hits per attack, but you can play with cost, weight, and the all important DX penalty.

[David Bofinger]

It's true, the improvement in armour is also due to the ability to make it cover more places. See, for example, the joint protection of Milanese plate armour.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

It's true, the improvement in armour is also due to the ability to make it cover more places. See, for example, the joint protection of Milanese plate armour.

And hence the importance of doing shrewd blows into the remaining gaps with a dagger in HTH. (Knightly daggers appearing after armor coverage protected against most sword cuts.)