Armor (Action)
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| Heroic Action Role-Play |
Armor in action is something of an oddity, depending on genre. The benefits offered by armor are often dubious, and it attracts undue attention in many places, more so than weapons. It is also possible to bypass armor in various ways. Still, where appropriate, armor can be a great defensive asset, especially against masses of mooks.
Armor Table
Armor Rules
Armor has been worn through the ages, but is not very popular in cinema. To reflect this, it takes schticks to wear all but the lightest armor
Toughness Bonus This number adds to Body to create Toughness, which is used to soak most damage.
Reflex Maximum This is the greatest Reflexes that is unhindered by this armor. If you have Reflexes greater than this, your Reflexes are reduced by one. Reflex maximum can be overcome by Armor Proficiency and similar effects.
Move Maximum This is the greatest Move that is unhindered by this armor. If you have Reflexes greater than this, your Move is reduced by one.
Hits Armor is warm, heavy, and uncomfortable. To reflect this, anyone who wears armor starts each action scene already having taken the number of Hits shown. This cannot reduce your number of Hits below three. If you just put the armor on, or have been in comfortable surroundings doing no work, you may start without this damage.
Size Size is how large concealable the armor is. Obviously, most armor cannot be concealed.
Tech The Tech Level is the same as that of other items in Action.
Armor Descriptions
Cuirass
A hardened breastplate of boiled leather, hardened linen, or a soft metal such as bronze. Often worn with arm and leg bracers. Later equivalents include protective sportswear made from plastic or cork. This kind of armor can be fancifully decorated at reasonable cost.
Bronze Full Armor
An all-encompassing suit of soft metal armor, very heavy and clunky. Extremely expensive for its time. Modern protective wear made for goalies in ice hockey and similar heavy protective wear fall in this category.
Gambeson
A coat made of multiple layers or rolls of heavy fabric; cotton or linen. Flexible and cheap, this kind of armor is popular for infantry of all kinds, as well as light cavalry and the mounts of medium cavalry. Most armor of blacksmith to clockwork sophistication (with the notable exception of the Mail Shirt) include a gambeson as an undergarment.
Mail Shirt
A soft shirt made of mail rings expertly forged into a fine mesh. This armor remains popular for a long time as it can worn under outer clothes.
Mail Hauberk
A long tunic made of heavy chain mail, this covers the upper arms and legs as well as giving more substantial torso protection. It is heavier and noisier than the mail shirt.
Piece Metal Armor
Armor made of pieces of metal, either interlinked or fastened to a suit of cloth or leather. Examples include European brigantine, heavy samurai armor, or composite armor like scale mail or the roman Lorica Segmentata. Affordable military-grade armor.
Full Mail
Chain mail over the entire body, including a coif over the head. Often worn with a barrel helm. Flexible, but heavy and fatiguing.
Plate Mail
Full mail armor reinforced with metal at joints and over the chest; very encumbering and expensive.
Breast Plate
A breastplate of forged iron.
Half Plate
A breastplate with segmented armor covering the lower arms and legs.
Full Plate
An armored metal carapace covering the whole body like a second skin. Expensive and beautiful, this is a status item.
Jousting Plate
Made for mounted knights participating in dangerous bouts of jousting. Compared to full plate, this is heavier and less segmented, offering less freedom of movement. This kind of armor is basically useless on foot.
Flak Jacket
A heavy plated vest worn by gunners to protect them from shrapnel, the Flak Jacket is not intended for infantry combat.
Bomb Disposal Suit
A bulky bodysuit of metal and heavy cloth, to be worn when disarming lethal devices, this is unsuited to combat.
Undercover Vest
New fibrous materials make small lightweight concealable vests possible. These can be worn under street clothes, but are warm and uncomfortable.
Bulletproof Vest
A development of the flak jacket using flexible shock-absorbing materials reinforced with metal or ceramic plates, this is generally restricted to heavily equipped police and military units.
Armored Exoskeleton
A full plate made of modern light materials, self-supporting and highly durable. The final development of unpowered armor. Still experimental in the present time.
Gunner's Vest
Updated Flak armor, incorporating ceramic or titanium plates. Certain Bulletproof Vests have pockets that allows this upgrade on the fly. (A Limit Break.)
Armored Clothing
Armor can now be made to resemble normal cloth, light and flexible but going rigid when exposed to attacks. This material can be fashioned into combat fatigues or street clothing, but is not good for evening wear. Most armor of this tech level incorporate armored clothing as underwear.
Ceramic Breastplate
A lightweight rigid breastplate and greaves worn over armored combat fatigues, this is the armor worn by the futuristic grunt.
Scout Armor
A light power armor made to be mobile and flexible. Power armor is the obvious development of exoskeletal armor, it not only carries its own weight but has servers and motors actually facilitating movement - as long as they work.
Combat Hardsuit
General duty power armor made for urban assault, rescue operations, bomb disposal, and other highly dangerous tasks. Heavier servos makes this kind of armor noisy.
Assault Hardsuit
A dedicated heavy armor, generally worn only by elite troops. Practically a small fighting robot, the power unit of an assault hardsuit sounds much like a jet engine.