80s ARMOUR - Two Alternative Armour Systems from the Gazeteer Series

As part of my ongoing project to disseminate material from TSR's BECMI products (begun with the Dwarf-Cleric post), I thought I'd share two alternative armour systems put forward in Gazeteer 10 The Orcs of Thar and the Dawn of the Emperors boxed set.

DoE showcased the two major powers in Mystara (the D&D Challenger, BECMI and B/X setting), Alphatia and Thyatis, with additional rules and classes provide in the Thyatian section to emphasise that nation's martial prowess. Among the additional rules was a full system for armour acting as a damage reducer rather than making characters harder to hit.

Orcs of Thar was concerned with the humanoid hordes inhabiting the broken lands, and included rules for running humanoid PCs (which I may adapt one day). There was also an interesting system for assembling piecemeal armour, in keeping with the crude bricolage aesthetic associated with goblins and their brethren.

I've summarised both systems below.

PIECEMEAL ARMOUR

Characters might not possess the funds or other means by which to purchase full suits of armour: instead, they might have to scavenge battlefields for odds and ends, upgrading as they go.

Courtesy British Library

In this method, armour is described by the area which it protects. Its weight and value are expressed as a fraction of the list price for a full suit/set of that armour. This table can also be used to randomly determine after-battle salvage:

Armour Pieces
1d20	Piece/Protected Area	Cost/ Encumbrance
1	Sabotons/boots (pair)	1/10
2-3	Cuisse/ upper leg (one)	1/10
4	Poleyn/ knees (pair)	1/10
5-6	Greave/ lower leg (one)	1/10
7-8	Culet/faulds/backplate (waist and butt)	1/10
9	Gauntlets/gloves (pair)	1/10
10-11	Vambrace/forearm guard	1/10
12	Cowters/ elbow pads (both)	1/10
13-14	Rerebrace/upper arm (one)	1/10
15-16	Shoulder plate/pauldron	1/10
17	Breast plate/ cuirass	1/4
18	Helmet	1/4

Using the table below, you can calculate the protection value provided by the armour, which can then be used to calculate armour class:

Piecemeal Armour Protection Value
1d20	Material	Helmet/ Breastplate	All other pieces
1-6	Hide/ padding	2	0.5
7-12	Boiled leather	4	1
13-17	Mail	6	2
18-20	Plate	8	3

Use the table below to calculate armour class. The formula is simple: traditional (descending) armour class is calculated by dividing the protection value by ten (rounding down) and subtracting the number from 9. Ascending armour class is calculated by dividing the protection value by ten (round down) and adding the result to ten.

Armour Class by Protection Value
Protection Value	AC (Descending)	AC (ascending)
0-9	9	10
10-19	8	11
20-29	7	12
30-39	6	13
40-49	5	14
50-59	4	15
60-69	3	16

Shields modify armour class in the conventional manner (though they offer no protection against attacks from behind).

Armour assembled in this manner is far more susceptible to failure: every natural 20 rolled against a PC in piecemeal armour necessitates a roll on the armour failure table. All effects cover shields unless stated.

Armour Failure Table
1	Dislodged A randomly determined piece of armour is forced out of place: armour class is reduced by one unless the PC can spend a round re-adjusting the dislodged piece.
2	Scattered The power of the strike displaces a randomly determined piece of armour, sending it two feet away from the PC per point of damage inflicted. Adjust protection value and armour class accordingly until it is re-attached.
3	Destroyed A randomly determined piece of armour is utterly destroyed. Adjust protection value and armour class accordingly.
4	Loosened The protective qualities of the armour are not compromised, but the armour is now incredibly noisy, making it impossible for the PC to move stealthily. It can be repaired by paying an armourer 10% of the armour’s total cost.
5	Busted The armour is battered and worn: the minimum number needed to inflict armour failure falls by one (this penalty can stack) until 10 points of armour are replaced or added. This does not affect shields.
6	Rotten straps Henceforth each successful hit (including this one) causes a random piece of armour to fall off, modifying armour class appropriately. Pieces can be replaced at the end of combat but the problem will persist until the straps are professionally repaired, at a cost of half the armour’s total value.
7-8	Completely Destroyed PC receives no damage but for every point that would have been inflicted, one piece of armour is utterly decimated. The mocking jeers of your enemies reduce the morale of your retainers by one point.

Courtesy British Library

ARMOUR RATING

This system makes characters easier to hit, but reduces the damage inflicted against armoured characters. PCs in heavy armour will last longer in combat, and lower-level characters may be a little more effective.

PCs (and NPCs and monsters, if desired) have two stats: defence class (DC) and armour rating (AR).

Defence Class (DC)

DC replaces armour class (AC) in order to determine the difficulty of landing a 1d20 hit roll. This is calculated in the following manner:

• Traditional descending AC: start with 9 and deduct any dexterity bonuses/ add any minuses. Deduct points if shields are used. On the hit-roll tables, refer to the equivalent AC.
• Ascending AC: start with 10 and add dexterity bonuses/ subtract dex minuses. Add points if shields are used.

Eg. A fighter with a dexterity of 8 (-1 AC) but carrying a small shield will have a DC of 9 (traditional AC) or 10 (modern AC).

Under this system magical armour modifies a PC’s defence class in the same way that it modifies AC. The fighter above, if wearing a suit of +1 mail will have either a DC of 8 (traditional) or 11 (modern) depending on the preferred system.

Armour does not make you more difficult to hit (unless it is magical), but it does reduce the damage inflicted, depending on its armour rating.

Armour Rating

Under this system, armour reduces incoming damage in accordance with its armour rating (AR) as follows:

Type	Armour Rating
Hide/ padding	1
Boiled leather	2
Scale armour	3
Mail	4
Banded Armour	5
Plate	6
Full suit	7

The armour rating is the amount by which the damage of an incoming attack is reduced, with the following caveats:

• A successful hit will always do one point of damage. This is deducted from the damage total.
• Armour cannot reduce damage from falling
• To reflect their penetrating power, arrows and crossbow bolts have their damage reduced by half  the armour rating, rounding down, after inflicting the initial first point of damage.
• Armour may reduce magical damage, depending on a) spell type and b) the needs of the campaign (some suggestions are listed below)

Examples:

1. Bork is wearing a banded mail and receives a blow from a warhammer. His opponent rolls 5 points of damage. The blow automatically inflicts one point of damage, but the remaining four are soaked up by his armour
2. Celine is wearing a full suit of plate and is struck by an arrow. Her opponent rolls a six. She automatically receives one point of damage. Ordinarily the remaining 5 points would be deflected by her steel plate armour (AR 7), but the armour piercing properties of arrows mean they treat her plate as AR3. The damage inflicted is reduced to 2 points, causing her a total of 3 hit points of damage.

Monsters & NPCs

If you wish, you may find it easier to continue using conventional armour class for NPCs and monsters, while running the alternative system for PCs only. Running the AR system for all enemies necessitates making a decision: you must decide how much of the creatures AC is a consequence of their speed and agility, and how much is a result of their thick hides or body armour.

This is one instance where bringing in monsters from later editions of the game might actually be easier, as they often include full attributes and equipment lists, making it easy to see how much their armour class is calculated and thus making it easy to convert to AR and DV values. Note, however, that monsters in later editions of the game also have a a greater number of hit points, so using damage reduction may make combat into a real slog.

Converting from older editions of the game takes a little more intuition. For instance, a goblin in the red box edition of the game has an AC of 6. Given that they're most often considered to be agile creatures, we can assume perhaps 1 point of this is due to their dexterity, with the other two points coming from a shield and the scraps of armour they've assembled. So we can reset the AC of 9 to a DC of 7 and and AR of 1. This will make the goblin a little easier to hit, but they will be able to withstand a greater number of blows (though with an average of 3-4 hit points, perhaps not too many).

Statisticians might question the value of spending time re-statting monsters (for the most part, this can probably be done on the fly), but one area in which an AR might be useful is in mitigating magic damage. Many damage causing spells hit automatically: at the DM's discretion, a monster's armour rating could reduce the damage they do.

Spells & Magic Damage

The Dawn of the Emperors boxed set suggested a list of spells for which the damage reducing effect of armour should apply. The list is reproduced below, but DMs are encouraged to analyse the list in and reassign spells as they see fit.

Spells whose damage is reduced by armour rating:

• CLERIC SPELLS: Striking (III:); Barrier (VI) 
• MAGIC-USER SPELLS: Magic Missile (I); Fireball (III); Ice Storm/Wall, Wall of Fire (IV);  Delayed Blast Fireball, Sword (VII); Prismatic Wall, Meteor Swarm 

Spells not Affected by armour rating

• CLERIC SPELLS:  Cause light wounds (I); Cause Serious Wounds (IV); Cause Critical Wounds, Finger of Death (V); Holy Word, Obliterate, Life Drain (VII)
• MAGIC-USER SPELLS: Lightning Bolt (III); Cloudkill (V); Death Spell , Disintegrate (VI); Power Word Stun (VII); Explosive Cloud, Power Word Blind, Rune (VIII); Power Word Kill, Wish (IX)
• ALL DRUID SPELLS (as if anyone ever ran a BECMI Druid)

Courtesy British Library

Combining the Two Systems

There's two methods to combine piecemeal armour with the armour rating method, one of which is more straightforward than the other.

The Easy Way

First, calculate the armour class of the piecemeal armour as detailed above (ignore shields), using the method described above. Then cross-reference that figure to receive the AR:

AC (Descending)	AC (ascending)	Armour Rating
9	10	0
8	11	1
7	12	2
6	13	3
5	14	4
4	15	5
3	16	6
2	17	7

The Crunchier Way

This way will make combat a lot slower,as it will necessitate one or even two further rolls to determine hit location. However, if this is not an issue for the table then consider Rolemaster a try...

1d20	Area Hit
1	Feet
2	Right lower leg
3	Left lower Leg
4	Right knee
5	Left knee
6	Right lower leg
7	Left lower leg
8	Right hand
9	Left hand
10	Waist/ back
11	Left forearm
12	Right forearm
13	Left elbow
14	Right elbow
15	Left upper arm
16	Right upper arm
17	Left shoulder
18	Right shoulder
19	Torso
20	Head

Once the area that has been hit is determined, simply reduce the damage according to the material (if any) protecting the affected body part.

Note that the above table represents a revision to the original, which included "shield" as a potential area hit, but no rules were provided as to what would happen if struck (shields already affect the hit roll).

The subject of shields brings up a whole other set of potential amendments to armour (at that's not even considering he popular sunder shield house rule), but I'll save that for a follow-up post next week, and try to compile it all in a handy pdf.

UPDATE: Here's the follow up post I promised! https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2020/01/active-defence.html

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who ran the original DoE armour value rules, or any other houserule variant of armour as damage reduction: you know where the comments are...