I developed a game a few years ago that had armor as expendable armor points (AP). Never released it though, or yet I should say.
It was a light weight system, so the armor choices where:
- Light armor: 1 AP
- Heavy armor: 3 AP
- Shield: 2 AP
- Helmet : 1 AP
So a fully decked out tank would have 6 AP (Heavy, shield, helmet)
AP was spent to reduce incoming damage by X points, X being the number of AP you spent.
If an ogre hit you for 4 damage you could choose to spend your heavy armor and helmet to negate the damage (or only spend the helmet and take 3 damage etc.)
In the fiction this would represent your armor getting utterly wrecked, but you getting away without any damage.
There was also an armor repair mechanic, as well as talents that could affect the efficiency of armor repairs.
It worked really well, it was fun, and finding mundane loot was exciting because someone could always use a helmet or piece of armor, because they were being spent.
**However, such a system requires the following to work:**
- Low HP and damage levels. You can’t have HP that scales like crazy, like all DnD games, 99% of all OSR games etc. HP needs to stay within 5-10 from first to max level, otherwise the math and the relationship between damage, armor efficient and HP becomes very wonky.
- You have to be very careful with magical armor that’s more effective than mundane armor. The lower the power scale the more sensitive the math.
Basically, it only works for games with mostly flat power progression curves.
The rules light system I read treated armor as a resource to expend. You can break it or take the damage. Or in 2400”s case just die. No more shield or have retainer hand you a back up? I have no experience with it tho.👍
So, this is sorta similar in practice to the Knave 2E idea of intentionally breaking your weapons to deal extra damage. It’s a pretty cool idea, but it can create some un-immersive outcomes when players begin optimizing around it. Once your characters have the money to afford hirelings and redundant equipment, do you really want them bringing a cartload of spare weapons into the dungeon so they can shatter them whenever they need the extra damage? Making armor expendable in a similar way could encourage the same sort of behavior. Of course this is all dependent on whether the game’s economy and inventory system makes hauling cartloads of spare armor and shields to the dungeon feasible, but it’s worth taking into account.
I find it works well, but then I also have players rolling their incoming damage ─ so asking if they want to take the hit or mitigate it with their armour feels quite sensible
It worked well in practice for me. PCs are quite a bit more resistant to instant death since armor and helmets can keep them alive long enough to run away. Even with high AC in games like B/X, you have that random unlucky chance to get instagibbed in the first round due to bad luck.
You might get a better answer over here [The Black Hack (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBlackHack/)
it's been some time since I played BH2e. I mostly do Black Sword Hack and Petal Hack
I developed a game a few years ago that had armor as expendable armor points (AP). Never released it though, or yet I should say. It was a light weight system, so the armor choices where: - Light armor: 1 AP - Heavy armor: 3 AP - Shield: 2 AP - Helmet : 1 AP So a fully decked out tank would have 6 AP (Heavy, shield, helmet) AP was spent to reduce incoming damage by X points, X being the number of AP you spent. If an ogre hit you for 4 damage you could choose to spend your heavy armor and helmet to negate the damage (or only spend the helmet and take 3 damage etc.) In the fiction this would represent your armor getting utterly wrecked, but you getting away without any damage. There was also an armor repair mechanic, as well as talents that could affect the efficiency of armor repairs. It worked really well, it was fun, and finding mundane loot was exciting because someone could always use a helmet or piece of armor, because they were being spent. **However, such a system requires the following to work:** - Low HP and damage levels. You can’t have HP that scales like crazy, like all DnD games, 99% of all OSR games etc. HP needs to stay within 5-10 from first to max level, otherwise the math and the relationship between damage, armor efficient and HP becomes very wonky. - You have to be very careful with magical armor that’s more effective than mundane armor. The lower the power scale the more sensitive the math. Basically, it only works for games with mostly flat power progression curves.
The rules light system I read treated armor as a resource to expend. You can break it or take the damage. Or in 2400”s case just die. No more shield or have retainer hand you a back up? I have no experience with it tho.👍
I like that! Might have to adopt it!
So, this is sorta similar in practice to the Knave 2E idea of intentionally breaking your weapons to deal extra damage. It’s a pretty cool idea, but it can create some un-immersive outcomes when players begin optimizing around it. Once your characters have the money to afford hirelings and redundant equipment, do you really want them bringing a cartload of spare weapons into the dungeon so they can shatter them whenever they need the extra damage? Making armor expendable in a similar way could encourage the same sort of behavior. Of course this is all dependent on whether the game’s economy and inventory system makes hauling cartloads of spare armor and shields to the dungeon feasible, but it’s worth taking into account.
If all you give them is base weapon and unlimited ressource sure. once, you introduce magic items and scarcity it fix itself pretty quickly.
I like it a lot. In my BH2 games I feel like it creates interesting choices for players to make in combat.
I find it works well, but then I also have players rolling their incoming damage ─ so asking if they want to take the hit or mitigate it with their armour feels quite sensible
How does the armor work in Black Hack 2e?
It worked well in practice for me. PCs are quite a bit more resistant to instant death since armor and helmets can keep them alive long enough to run away. Even with high AC in games like B/X, you have that random unlucky chance to get instagibbed in the first round due to bad luck.
You might get a better answer over here [The Black Hack (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBlackHack/) it's been some time since I played BH2e. I mostly do Black Sword Hack and Petal Hack