Author Topic: Custom armor classification  (Read 1453 times)

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Offline Fingolfin80

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Custom armor classification
« on: February 09, 2018, 08:43:30 AM »
For my homebrew i use a reduced set of attack tables: 1 for melee, 1 for ranged, 1 for sweeps/grapple, 1 for unarmed strikes and 1 for natural attacks. To differentiate weapons I apply a modifier based on the weapon and it's size, it works well and is easy to make it fit a normal size GM screen, so it speeds up combat a lot.
I used RMU table as start point and after adjustments I get results that are not too much different from the original tables. However to make the table for weapon adjustments I made a classification of the armor type in four groups, in a similar way that MERP used to do: No armor, Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor. In this way a weapon may be +5 vs no armor, 0 vs light and medium and -5 against heavy. I'm overall satisfied of the result, but I'm not entirely sure fo the  armor classification. I divided AT in this way:

No armor: AT1
Light armor: AT2, AT3, AT4, AT5, AT6
Medium armor: AT7, AT8
Heavy armor: AT9, AT10

But i'm not really sure of AT6 and AT9, though this way seems the more correct from a mathemathical point of view.
Any advice? Should AT6 or AT9 be moved to medium?
 

Offline jdale

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2018, 09:25:57 AM »
For purposes of head and limb armor, we call AT 2-3 Light armor, AT 4-6 Medium, and 7-10 Heavy.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2018, 10:19:05 AM »
And I think the basic rationale, generally speaking is:

No armor (AT 1): clothing
Light armor (AT 2-3): heavy robes and furs
Medium armor (AT 4-6): leather/thick hides
Heavy armor (AT 7-10): metal
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Offline Sable Wyvern

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2018, 07:11:05 PM »
I don't know RMU armour types, but in previous editions, I'm of the opinion that each category (other than skin/cloth) had two light and two heavy armours. This is supported by both the associated modifiers, and the actual effectiveness of the armour. It's certainly not a simple linear progression where each subsequent armour type is heavier or more effecitve than the one preceding it.

Light Armour
* Leather Jerkin
* Full Length Leather Jerkin
* Leather Breastplate
* Leather Breastplate and Greaves
* Chain Shirt
* Chain Shirt and Greaves
* Metal Breastplate
* Metal Breastplate and Greaves

Heavy Armour
* Reinforced Leather Jerkin
* Full Length Reinforced Leather Jerkin
* Half Hide Plate
* Full Hide Plate
* Full Chain
* Chain Hauberk
* Half Plate
* Full Plate

If I was to use a medium category, I'd keep the Leather Jerkins as light, and move everything else in Light to Medium.

Offline jdale

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2018, 09:24:24 PM »
For RMU, it's pretty linear. For armor that is stronger but with less coverage, e.g. metal breastplate, in RMU you would represent that by using the higher AT (9 or 10) but only for the abdomen and torso, not for the limbs.

For previous editions, yeah, it's way less linear.
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Offline Peter R

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2018, 10:15:46 AM »
For my homebrew i use a reduced set of attack tables: 1 for melee, 1 for ranged, 1 for sweeps/grapple, 1 for unarmed strikes and 1 for natural attacks. To differentiate weapons I apply a modifier based on the weapon and it's size, it works well and is easy to make it fit a normal size GM screen, so it speeds up combat a lot.
I used RMU table as start point and after adjustments I get results that are not too much different from the original tables. However to make the table for weapon adjustments I made a classification of the armor type in four groups, in a similar way that MERP used to do: No armor, Light armor, Medium armor, Heavy armor. In this way a weapon may be +5 vs no armor, 0 vs light and medium and -5 against heavy. I'm overall satisfied of the result, but I'm not entirely sure fo the  armor classification. I divided AT in this way:

No armor: AT1
Light armor: AT2, AT3, AT4, AT5, AT6
Medium armor: AT7, AT8
Heavy armor: AT9, AT10

But i'm not really sure of AT6 and AT9, though this way seems the more correct from a mathemathical point of view.
Any advice? Should AT6 or AT9 be moved to medium?

A few weeks ago I produced an ultra light RM combat system. The entire thing fits on a single sheet of paper. If you are going down the reductionist route it may be of use for you.

http://www.rolemasterblog.com/necessary-nothing-nothing-less/
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Spectre771 A couple of weeks ago, I disemboweled one of my PCs with a...

Offline Fingolfin80

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Re: Custom armor classification
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2018, 10:38:52 AM »
Well, thank you all for the inputs.

And I think the basic rationale, generally speaking is:

No armor (AT 1): clothing
Light armor (AT 2-3): heavy robes and furs
Medium armor (AT 4-6): leather/thick hides
Heavy armor (AT 7-10): metal

It's probably the more logical choice, but mathematically speaking I'm not sure it works. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'll need to check if this doesn't embalance the modifiers.

A few weeks ago I produced an ultra light RM combat system. The entire thing fits on a single sheet of paper. If you are going down the reductionist route it may be of use for you.

http://www.rolemasterblog.com/necessary-nothing-nothing-less/


I checked this out, it's very interesting, but a little too much for what I'm searching. My homerule has more tables, but they can still fit in one standard gm screen and I have to sacrifice less specificity.