Skip to content

Custom Armour Creation Rules

Edited by Mario Butter for The Guild Companion

Overview

These rules expand the piece by piece armour rules found in the core HARP rules.

The following rules work on two assumptions:

1. Armour weight and protection is based on the size of the wearer (able to wear thicker/better armour)

2. Armour weight and protection are varied based on the material used.

Abbreviations

Abbrev Meaning Description / Effect
CP Casting Penalty The casting penalty
CX Cost Multiplier Modifies the cost
DB Defensive Bonus Modifies the DB by the IV value
IV Increment Value The increment value of the armour
MP Manoeuvre Penalty Movement & manoeuvre penalty
Key Area
A Abdomen
Ar Arms
Sk Skull
Fe Feet
G Groin
H Head
Hn Hands
Le Legs
N Neck
S Shoulders
T Torso

Armour Piece Values

Each armour piece is rated for the percentage of the body covered, the days to make, its base DB, IV, CP and MP values.

Item Area %Mod Days DB IV CP MP
Aventail N, S 5 1 3 0.5 1 2
Boots Fe 7 1 2 0.5 1 2
Bracers Ar(1/2) 8 0.5 2 0.5 1 2
Coif H(1/2), N, S 8.5 1 3 0.75 1 2
Cuirass T, A 30 3 7 1.5 6 6
Gauntlets Hn 5 1.5 2 0.5 1 2
Gorget N 2 1.5 2 0.5 0 2
Greaves Le (1/2) 14.5 1.5 2 0.5 2 2
Hauberk Ar, T, A, G 47 5 10 3 9 10
Helm (Cap) Sk (1/2) 2 0.25 1 0.2 0 1
Helm (Full) H 7 0.35 2.5 0.5 1 3
Helm (Open face) Sk (1/2) 4 0.3 2 0.25 0 2
Pauldrons S 3 2 2 0.5 0 2
Shirt T, S, A, G, Ar(1/2) 42 2 9 2 8 8

Material

The material used to construct a suit of armour also has an impact on its performance and weight characteristics. The table below details this by material type. The values listed in this table are applied to the values in table one.

Material Cost(sp) Wei Dayx DBx CPx MPx UFx
Chain (Butted - Leather) 1.25 0.6 4.5 2.2 0.5 3.25 2.25
Chain (Butted) 1.125 0.55 4 2 0.5 3 2
Chain (Riveted - Leather) 1.375 0.6 5.5 2.4 0.5 3.25 2.25
Chain (Riveted) 1.25 0.55 5 2.2 0.5 3 2
Cloth (Cotton) 0.05 0.02 0.5 0.25 0.1 0.25 1
Heavy Cloth 0.075 0.05 1 0.5 0.1 0.5 1
Heavy Leather 0.225 0.15 1.75 1.25 0.2 1.5 1.5
Leather 0.15 0.1 1.5 1 0.2 1 1.25
Plate 1.875 0.7 6 3 1 5 2
Quilt (Cloth) 0.125 0.25 1.25 1 0.2 1.25 1.25
Quilt (Leather) 0.225 0.3 2 1.5 0.2 1.5 1.5
Rigid Leather 0.375 0.2 2.5 1.5 0.25 2 1.5
Ring Mail 0.525 0.25 3 1.75 0.4 2.25 1.5
Scale/Banded 1.35 0.5 5 2.4 0.5 3.25 2
Scale/Banded (Chain) 1.45 0.85 5.25 2.6 0.6 4.5 2
Thick Plate 2.25 0.75 6.5 3.25 1.2 5.25 2.2
Thin Plate 1.5 0.65 5.5 2.8 0.8 4.75 2

Target Weight

Finally, the weight range for which the armour is being designed also has an impact on the final profile of the armour. For ease of reference, weight has been split into a number of ranges.

Class Maximum Weight (lbs) AWM
aaaa 5 0.1
aaa 20 0.2
aa 50 0.4
a 70 0.6
b 150 0.8
c 340 1.0
d 630 1.2
e 1,000 1.4
f 1,500 1.7
g 1,900 2.0
h 2,500 2.4
i 2,980 2.9
j 3,440 3.5
k 3,960 4.2
l 4,480 5.0
m 5,000 6.0
n 5,520 7.2
o 6,040 8.6
p 6,560 10.3
q 7,080 12.4
r 7,600 14.9
s 8,120 17.9
t 8,640 21.5
u 9,160 25.8
v 9,680 31.0
w 10,200 37.2
x 10,720 44.6
y 11,240 53.5
z 11,760 64.2

Last Bits

The final part of the creation process involves calculating the MinMP, and UF MinMP. This is a bit less scientific in its approach so I analysed what was already in HARP and came up with the following values:

MinMP = MaxMP / 8 (round)

UF Min MP = UF MaxMP / 6 (round)

Creating The Armour

Once we know the piece of armour, the material and the weight range for which we are building the armour for it is simply a matter of putting all the calculations together. I have provided a spreadsheet to help with this process.

DB = DB x DBx x AWM

IV = IV

CP = CP x CPx

MaxMP = MP x MPx x AWM

MinMP = MaxMP / 8 (round)

UF MaxMP = MP x UFx x AWM

UF MinMP = UF MaxMP / 6 (round)

Cost (sp) = %Mod x Cost (sp) x AWM

Weight = %Mod x Wei x AWM

Hours = Days x Dayx x AWM x 24

Editor's Note

An Excel 2007 spreadsheet for this can be found at http://ennyn.com/node/9