(TFT) Rules for armor penalties

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

  These are rules that I've imposed on players from 
time to time.  They have succeeded in making plate
armor very rare in my campaign...


  Fatigue damage in combat:
  Each 2 minutes people take fatigue damage from 
being in a battle.  The base amount is 1 fST for
someone in no armor using weapons at their regular
strength.  (If you are two stronger than the 
minimum ST for that weapon this counts as a bonus
1 point that can be applied against the penalties
below.)
  Each two minutes, you take a 1 fST penalty for
each point that the armor stops.  So if you are 
wearing chainmail (stops 3) then you would take
4 points of fatigue per 2 minutes of heavy fighting.
  If you are too weak for your weapon, then you 
just do the less damage and take the DX penalty 
from the book.  People in my campaign are free to
make a great effort (increase their ST for 2 turns
by paying fST) to avoid these penalties.  But that
adds onto the fatigue that they are paying in the
battle.
  If the battle is less intense, (there are periods
where you can walk or stand and catch your breath)
then I usually lower these costs by a point or 
two. 
  It actually comes up fairly rarely, and is simple
enough to use.  You could add a bunch of modifiers
(e.g. Running talent improves endurance, check for
fST loss every 4 minutes rather than every two 
minutes, etc.) but for a rule that is rarely used
I suggest keeping it simple.


  Time to put on armor:
  For just normal trooping around I don't let people
wear their armor all the time.  It is just too 
uncomfortable.  (The PC's don't care but I assure
them that their _characters_ DO care.)
  If they know it is likely they will be attacked 
tonight that is different.  But for just knocking 
about people have to take off any armor heavier than 
cloth to sleep.  (The guys on watch can be armored of 
course.)  
  The time to put on armor is one minute per point
of armor stopped.  Perhaps this formula would be
more realistic:

# of minutes to put on armor is equal to:
 ([ # of hits stopped by armor * 2 ] - 1) minutes.

  In my campaign, I use the simpler faster formula.


  Traveling in armor:
  Someone wearing very heavy armor (plate armor and 
the like) pretty much must have a horse if they want
to travel long distances.  And if the armor is very
heavy, then you want a big horse.  Maybe two if you
want the one you are riding to be fresh when the 
fight starts.  Caring for 1 or more heavy horse is 
an expensive habit.
  If a player insisted in walking long distances in
plate (it has never come up) I would likely charge
them a penalty of 1 fST per point that the armor 
stops for each hour walking with out a break.  I 
also allow people to recover 1 fST of fatigue per
hour walking so those in cloth are immune to this
effect.  But someone trooping around in heavy plate
would be dizzy with fatigue if they don't spend as
much time resting as walking.  This will piss off
those in a hurry to get anywhere.
  ("Come _ON_!  The next inn is up on that hill 
over there and I don't want to sleep in the rain
again!")


  DX and MA Penalties:
  There has been a lot of debate over the years if
the DX and MA penalties from TFT are realistic.  The
general feeling is that (especially for light armor)
they are too severe.  I've had a number of people in
the SCA say that they can run around all day in 
Leather armor and it does not slow them down at all
OR make them more clumsy.
  That said there remains those who say that plate 
armor was so heavy that it crippled those not on a
horse.  Not counting jousting plate, I've never 
believed that people who were going out to fight for
their lives would do that.
  I have left the DX and movement penalties alone.
  However, I've expanded and regularized the rules
for Great Strength for armor (see my article on Ty's
website), so if you are strong enough you get less
or no penalty for wearing armor.  A couple of my
current players have decided it is a sin against the
"gods of mini-maxing characters" to every wear armor 
that they can't ignore the penalties of, so they tend 
to use light armor and depend on magic & other tricks 
to keep them from taking damage.


  Maximum w/ae:
  I've split weapon / armor enchantment into two 
separate spells as I want them to behave differently.
Now the maximum armor enchantment that can be put on
an armor or a shield is equal to the stopping power 
of the armor.  So plate could have the full 5 point
armor enchantment but you don't see people wearing 
cloth stopping 5 more hits than normal.  


  Wearing out of armor and shields:
  After much messing about now I use these rules 
which, if not realistic, are at least simple:  if the
armor is well maintained (assumed to be the default
for PC's) then it lasts forever.  However shields
have to replaced 2 to 3 times a year (once per year
for magic shields).  Except very rich characters, no
one bothers with magic shields.  Finding one is a 
really nice bonus, but the PC's know that the item 
is living on borrowed time.


  Regards, Rick Smith
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