I do love Jim's "Grab all the blaster!" line. Never change, Jim.
On the topic of armor in games, I've been playing in a Shadowdark campaign this year where "better" armor (as in a higher bonus to your AC) explicitly has downsides, such as disadvantage on stealth and swimming, or flat-out no swimming for the heaviest armor. Better armor also takes up more of your (highly limited and extremely precious) equipment slots, making taking it less of a no-brainer choice over lighter armor even if you can afford it. I was also just reading the beta rules preview for the new Cosmere TTRPG on Kickstarter and there heavier armor is both more encumbring and has the potential to cause negative or hostile reactions in NPCs from casually wearing it in non-explicitly-military situations.
This two part series (part I, part II) on "order in armor" by professional historian Brett Devereaux is also an interesting read; he goes over the general order of which body parts get armor in case there isn't enough material to armor everything based on historical evidence from the people making those choices. This maybe isn't as applicable to TTRPGs where armor is bought as a set (instead of in individual pieces) and where it doesn't matter where on the body a wound happens, but it's interesting world-building material if you're trying to have, say, "light" troops and want to know how much armor they'd be wearing and what it would cover, historically speaking (people tend to prefer armoring their heads over their shins, for instance).
On the topic of armor in games, I've been playing in a Shadowdark campaign this year where "better" armor (as in a higher bonus to your AC) explicitly has downsides, such as disadvantage on stealth and swimming, or flat-out no swimming for the heaviest armor. Better armor also takes up more of your (highly limited and extremely precious) equipment slots, making taking it less of a no-brainer choice over lighter armor even if you can afford it. I was also just reading the beta rules preview for the new Cosmere TTRPG on Kickstarter and there heavier armor is both more encumbring and has the potential to cause negative or hostile reactions in NPCs from casually wearing it in non-explicitly-military situations.
This two part series (part I, part II) on "order in armor" by professional historian Brett Devereaux is also an interesting read; he goes over the general order of which body parts get armor in case there isn't enough material to armor everything based on historical evidence from the people making those choices. This maybe isn't as applicable to TTRPGs where armor is bought as a set (instead of in individual pieces) and where it doesn't matter where on the body a wound happens, but it's interesting world-building material if you're trying to have, say, "light" troops and want to know how much armor they'd be wearing and what it would cover, historically speaking (people tend to prefer armoring their heads over their shins, for instance).
Statistics: Posted by Philadelphus — 12 Aug 2024 18:51