Armor Rules

How Armor Works

Armor reduces damage through DR, degrades through sunder, and creates pressure through fatigue and movement costs.

The Basics

Five operating principles cover how armor layers, stacks, degrades, costs, and requires proficiency.

• One piece per layer per location: you cannot wear two breastplates on the same body location, but you can layer different categories on one location and plate on different locations.
• Damage Reduction stacks: the DR of every piece covering a location is summed and subtracted from incoming damage at that location.
• Sunder tracks degradation: the outermost piece on a hit location absorbs the blow. Excess damage beyond that piece's DR drains its sunder pool. When the pool empties the piece loses 1 DR permanently. When DR reaches 0 the piece is destroyed.
• Proficiency determines cost: wearing armor outside your proficiency tier adds fatigue every round and drops your movement to the next tier down, with a minimum of ×0.5 base movement.
• Coverage is explicit: DR only applies to locations the piece actually covers. Exposed locations receive no reduction.

How Armor Works

Armor in OpenRPG is built from underlayers upward, combining damage reduction, sunder, and encumbrance into a layered system.

Protection in OpenRPG is built from the ground up. Start with basic cloth underlayers, add quilted padding, then layer on leather, mail, composite, or plate depending on budget, need, and proficiency. Each layer adds its DR to the total — more layers means more protection at each location.

Armor is organized into three proficiency tiers — Light, Medium, and Heavy — each unlocking a wider set of layers. Wearing armor within your proficiency tier costs nothing beyond the weight. Exceeding it adds fatigue pressure and reduces movement.

Each armor piece has a sunder pool that tracks structural integrity. The outermost piece on a struck location takes the hit. When raw damage exceeds that piece's individual DR, the excess drains the sunder pool. A depleted pool means a permanently degraded piece. Repair restores the pool; only a craftsman can restore lost DR.

Layer Reference

The layer system defines what armor can be worn together, what DR each layer contributes, and how pieces stack.

Every armor piece belongs to a layer. Layers are numbered so that outer layers sit on top of inner ones. Each layer can only contribute one piece per body location. DR values are per piece — total DR at a location is the sum of all pieces covering it.

Layer Overrides & Special Cases

Not every armor piece fits neatly into its default category, so some pieces intentionally override the normal layer progression.

Damage Reduction

DR is summed across all worn layers for each body location and subtracted from incoming damage. The outermost piece tracks sunder independently.

When a character is struck, identify the body location hit. Sum the DR of every armor piece covering that location. Subtract the total from raw damage — the remainder is dealt as actual damage. If total DR equals or exceeds the raw damage, no damage gets through.

Separately, the outermost piece on the hit location takes a sunder check. The outermost piece is the highest-numbered layer covering that location. If raw damage exceeds that piece's individual DR, the excess drains the piece's sunder pool.

Example

A fighter wears a linen shirt (DR 1, Torso), a gambeson (DR 2, Torso), mail hauberk (DR 5, Torso), and a breastplate (DR 7, Torso). Total torso DR = 15. A sword blow deals 12 damage — fully absorbed, 0 damage gets through. The breastplate (outermost, DR 7) takes the sunder check. Raw damage 12 exceeds the breastplate's DR 7 by 5, so 5 is subtracted from the breastplate's sunder pool (15 → 10).

Sunder mechanic

Each armor piece has a sunder pool representing its structural integrity. The pool drains when the piece absorbs more than its individual DR can handle. A depleted pool means the piece has been pushed past its limit.

• Only the outermost piece sunders per hit — inner layers are protected by what sits above them.
• If the outermost piece is destroyed, the next layer becomes the outermost and takes future sunder checks.
• A piece at reduced DR still contributes its remaining DR to the total — it is degraded, not gone.
• Multiple blows in the same fight can push a piece through multiple degradations if they drain the sunder pool repeatedly.

Damage-Type Interaction

Armor choice matters because materials blunt some threats well and fail badly against others.

Donning and Removing Armor

Armor must be donned in layer order and takes time to put on properly. Rushing reduces protection.

Donning armor takes time proportional to its complexity. Lighter layers can be pulled on in minutes; a full plate harness requires an assistant and the better part of an hour. Armor removed in haste is not removed safely — pieces may be damaged or lost.

Shields

Shields are actively wielded rather than worn, providing DR that can be directed at incoming attacks.

Unlike worn armor, a shield must be actively interposed against an incoming blow. Using a shield is a defense action — the bearer declares a block with the shield and rolls against their Shield skill. On success, the shield's DR applies to that strike.

Shields do not passively stack with worn armor. Their DR only applies on the turn they are actively used to block. A character wearing plate and carrying a tower shield has excellent passive DR from the plate but must spend their defense action to benefit from the shield.

Proficiency

Armor proficiency is tiered into Light, Medium, and Heavy. Wearing armor outside your tier costs fatigue and reduces movement.

Armor proficiency determines which layers a character can wear efficiently. There are three tiers. Each tier includes all layers up to its ceiling — a character proficient in Medium can wear everything up to and including composite without penalty.

Fatigue cost

Wearing armor within your proficiency tier costs no additional fatigue beyond the natural heaviness of a long fight. Exceeding your tier adds a passive fatigue drain every round of active combat.

Movement cost

Heavier armor reduces base movement speed. Proficient wearers take a manageable reduction. Non-proficient wearers drop one further tier, with a hard floor of ×0.5.

• Apply the multiplier to the character's base movement value. A character with base movement 6 in heavy plate (proficient) moves 4 hexes per round.
• Sprint is ×2 of the adjusted base — not ×2 of the unarmored base.
• ×0.5 is the hard floor regardless of additional penalties.

Practical Armor Loadouts

Example loadouts show how the layer system produces recognizable battlefield roles with different DR totals, fatigue costs, and movement profiles.

Light Infantry — "The Conscript"

Basic protection for militia and levies. Cheap, mobile, and sufficient against common threats. No proficiency requirement beyond Light.

Profile: Light proficiency. Movement ×0.9. No fatigue cost. Torso DR 3 reduces an 8-damage blow to 5 — hurts, but survivable. Good mobility for skirmishing.

Professional Soldier — "The Mercenary"

Balanced protection for experienced fighters. Mail over padding gives strong defense without sacrificing too much mobility. Requires Medium proficiency.

Profile: Medium proficiency. Movement ×0.8. +1 fatigue per 3 rounds. Torso DR 8 reduces an 8-damage blow to 0 — fully absorbed. Strong against slashing, weaker against heavy bludgeoning.

Armored Knight — "The Wall"

Maximum protection for elite warriors. Full plate over mail and padding creates near-impervious defense at the cost of movement and sustained fatigue pressure. Requires Heavy proficiency.

Profile: Heavy proficiency. Movement ×0.65 (base 6 → 4 hexes). +1 fatigue per 2 rounds. Torso DR 15 fully absorbs most standard blows. The counter is weapon type, sunder pressure, and exposed gaps — not raw damage.

Armor Assembly Guide

A practical assembly flow helps players build legal armor sets instead of guessing at valid combinations.

1. Start with underlayers: linen shirts, hose, and other cloth basics protect skin and manage comfort.
2. Add padding: gambeson or arming doublet cushions impacts and supports heavier armor.
3. Layer rigid protection: leather, mail, composite, or plate depending on budget and expected threats.
4. Fill gaps with addons: gorgets, spaulders, besagews, and other small pieces protect vulnerable seams.
5. Equip a shield if desired: shields occupy a hand but add substantial defense and active blocking potential.