Re: (TFT) plate and half-plate...opinions wanted

["grabowski" <grabowski@erols.com>]

Stan stated,

> It seems to me that plate and half-plate are a real losing
> proposition in TFT, particularly since they have DX penalties
> higher than the protection they provide.  Starting or moderately
> experienced characters with a DX high enough to take the -5 or
> -6 penalty likely won't have the ST to manage the armor's
> weight.  By the time their stats can handle the armor, they
> may well be wealthy enough to suit up in fine plate.
>
> I was thinking of extending ITL's "Advantages of Great Strength"
> downwards, such that at 14 ST half plate would "only" be -4 to
> DX and at 16 ST plate would be -5.  This would hopefully make
> these armors a bit less useless to moderately experienced
> characters.
>
> To make this work with Rick's revised "advantages of great
> ST" rules, the basic DX penalty of plate and half plate
> would be decreased by one, and a note added regarding
> "Disadvantages of Wimpy ST" saying that if you don't have
> at least a 14/16 ST, the DX penalty goes up by one".
>

Armor and DX modifications is one of the poorest realistic-wise rule in TFT.
I had earlier posted a DX and MA modifications for weight carried in an
earlier post (9/6/99)and I generally follow those guidelines (houserule).
Another thing that you could do is use the encumbrance modifications only
(TFT:ITL p. 35) as DX modifiers and not the negatives for wearing specific
armor.

Realistically, weight or mass slows you down when carrying things.  Yes
armor constricts fine movement but not to the negative modifications that
TFT gives.  There should be a general negative modifier for wearing any
armor.  An example would be chain armor (chainmail is redundant), which is
flexible and doesn't restrict arm and body movement that much, so give it
a -1DX, rather than the TFT -3DX.  I have worn both padded cloth and chain
armor and I always felt the cloth armor because of its bulk inhibited arm
and body movement more than chain, so give it either a -1 or -2 DX.
Finally, maybe a -2DX wearing halfplate and a -3 for plate.

Yours in Cidri,
Justin




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