Armour Rating

The persona’s armour rating includes all the dekes and dodges that one would use to avoid getting damaged in combat. Extra descriptions of the perfect defensive move can earn EXPS but do not alter armour rating.

The armour section is anthro-centric. Anthro personas will almost always be wearing armour when on an expedition. Armour, especially mundane armour, is restrictive and heavy. Restrictive armour can slow the persona down, impair her task rolls and impair initiative.

Most aliens do not wear clothing, let alone armour. Their naked armour rating is their natural armour rating. Armour will rarely be better than their skins and natural defences.

Only tool-using aliens can wear armour. None tool-using aliens would not understand or tolerate it. An alien that is a tool-user may have bespoke armour fashioned for her.

Robots do not wear armour A robot may have defensive systems that improve her armour rating or function like artifact armour.

The whole purpose of armour is to decrease one’s chance of being damaged in combat. The player adds the armour rating bonus to her persona’s naked armour rating. While it seems overly apparent, the persona must be wearing the armour to get the armour rating bonus. The AR Bonus gives and the Restrictivenesstaketh away.

The armour wate indicates the wate of the suit of armour in kilograms. The wate of armour is excluded from the persona’s wate allowance when she is wearing it. If the persona is carrying her armour, the armour wate increases the wate she is carrying.

A suit of leather armour would have a wate of 3 kilograms. A persona carrying her leather armour increases her wate allowance by 3 kg and does not get an armour rating bonus. A persona wearing her leather armour gets an armour rating bonus of +50, and there is no impact on her wate allowance.

Below is a list describing history’s most famous mundane armour types.

The whole purpose of shielding is to protect the persona from being damaged in combat. The player adds the armour rating bonus of the shielding to her persona’s naked armour rating.

The armour wate indicates the wate of the shielding in kilograms. Shielding wate adds to the persona’s encumbrance regardless of being carried or borne for combat.

Sheer power can overcome the restrictiveness of armour. For every 5 points of PSTR that the persona has, she can reduce the armour restrictiveness by 1. The armour still has its restrictiveness, but the persona is strong enough to power through it. A persona with an 11 PSTR wearing plate armour would reduce the restrictiveness from 5 to 3. A persona with an 8 PSTR could wear padded armour as if she were unarmoured.

Reducing restrictiveness by physical strength only decreases movement and armour bonus penalties. The minimum restrictiveness earned from physical strength is zero.

The restrictiveness of armour impairs movement rate.

A persona wearing studded armour would reduce her movement rate by two h/u because that armour’s restrictiveness is three. Personas with low movement rates may be unable to wear restrictive armour types. The table uses the physical strength adjusted restrictiveness. This table does not have negative values, and the minimum restrictiveness is zero. A persona with a 16 PSTR wearing leather armour has a restrictiveness of zero and zero movement penalty.

The restrictiveness of armour impairs task rolls. Players must pay attention to the restrictiveness of armour types. Vocations that require nimble actions, physical contact, or keen senses do not like to wear restrictive armour.

The Degree of Difficulty (DD) of the maneuver is increased by 1 DD per restrictiveness. Scale mail increases the DD of a maneuver by 4. If the persona removed her gauntlets for fine motor maneuvers, there would be no penalty.

Physical strength does not overcome the Task roll penalties of restrictive armour. A very strong persona would have to remove her helmet to listen for an ambush.

The armour bonus improves the persona’s armour rating. Restrictiveness can reduce the persona’s armour rating by removing a persona’s dexterity bonus. Restrictive armour prevents the persona from dodging and twisting to avoid damage. Physical strength can overcome this restrictiveness penalty.

Choosing armour in the tactical combat system becomes a balance of armour rating bonus and dexterity bonus. A persona with high dexterity and normal physical strength may have a better armour rating with lighter armour. If the amour’s restrictiveness causes her to lose her dexterity bonus, restrictive armour may decrease her armour rating. Physical strength can overcome this restrictiveness penalty.

Scavenging personas will often mix up armour types. A persona may have a synthetix helmet, metal breastplate, padded arms and studded leggings. The only way that The referee can run mix and match armour is by using the Hit Locations. The ref determines where the attack will land and then rolls to hit against the appropriate armour rating.