Over the years, armor in my campaign has slowly evolved and became more regularized. There are 3 large differences.
First, there is now boiled leather (leather is boiled in wax which makes it much tougher). Second there are now a wide variety of chainmail styled armor. Finally, no longer are there a few types of armor that get the benefites of great ST, and only at a few magic numbers. Now all armor gain the advantages of great ST. This is captured by the concept of the Threshold Number and the No Negatives Number.
For full details of how the Threshold Number and No Negatives Numbers work, see the article, "Advantages of Great ST". But basically when you reach the No Negatives Number, you can wear the armor with no negatives at all. Neither your DX nor your MA is penalized. At the Threshold Number, your great ST is starting to kick in, and there is one less DX penalty than normal."
Some races are more or less affected by armor. This is listed in the notes below.
| Armor | Hits | adj | adj | Price | Mass: | Threshold | No Negatives |
| Name: | Stopped: | DX: | MA: | $ | kg | Number | Number |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------ | ---------- | ----------------- | -------------- | ---------------------- | ----------------- | -------------------- |
| Cloth | –1 | –1 | +0 | $50 | 7 kg | 11 ST | 11 ST |
| Goblin Chain | –1 | –1 | +0 | $75 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| Leather | –2 | –2 | –1 | $100 | 8 | 13 | 15 |
| Elven Chain | –2 | –2 | +0 | $135 | 12 | 10 | 11 |
| Boiled Leather | –3 | –3 | –2 | $175 | 12 | 15 | 19 |
| Chainmail | –3 | –3 | –1 | $200 | 14 | 12 | 15 |
| Scale armor | –4 | –4 | –3 | $250 | 16 | 17 | 23 |
| Double Mail | –4 | –4 | –2 | $275 | 16 | 14 | 19 |
| Half Plate | –5 | –5 | –4 | $300 | 20 | 19 | 27 |
| Augmented Mail | –5 | –5 | –3 | $320 | 18 | 16 | 23 |
| Platemail | –6 | –6 | –4 | $500 | 25 | 21 | 30 |
| Giants Chainmail | –6 | –6 | –4 | $400 | 20 | 18 | 27 |
| Heavy Plate | –7 | –7 | –4 | $1,000 | 30 | 23 | 33 |
| Hvy Giants Chainmail | –7 | –7 | –4 | $550 | 22 | 20 | 30 |
Elves, Goblins, Kobolds and other light races get two extra movement negatives (to a maximum penalty of –4 MA) in armor. This raises the No Negatives ST by 2 if the MA column is –0, –1 or –2. It raises the No Neg # by 1 if the armor has a –3 adj MA. For armor that lowers the MA by 4, their is no effect. (Thus elves end to not wear armor or wear very heavy armor.)
Dwarves, Gnomes, Giants and other heavy slow races get two less MA negatives (to a minimum penalty of –0 MA) in armor. This lowers their No Negatives ST by 2 for armor with adj MA penalties of –2, –3 or –4. It lowers the No Negatives # by 1 for armor with an adj MA of –1. There is no effect on the No Negative #, if the armor's adj MA penalty is zero. (Thus dwarves tend to favour heavy armor.)
Chainmail (and all varients of chain), stops 1 less point of damage verses impaling weapons, and 2 points less from arrows, darts and stilettos. It includes helmet and gloves.
Scale Armor includes gloves. Half Plate and heavier armor includes gloves and helmet.
Fine armor that stops one extra hit, raises the Threshold Number and the No Negative Number by 2.
Fine armor that stops two extra hits, raises the Threshold Number & the No Negative Number by 6.
This link takes you back to Rick's top level.
