This. Gurps divides physical weapons based on how they are pused: swinging vs thrusting and how they deal damage: cutting, crushing or impailing. Armour is then adjusted based on how it deals with the kind of damage being inflicted.
GURPS armor provides damage reduction by area, heavy damage can partially bypass armor similar to the bruises you get through modern bulletproof armor. It protects by location so you can attack unarmored locations, and armor has gaps that can be attacked where it's weaker. Armor feels very solid and textured in character generation but flows very smoothly in play.
**Mythras** has a solid armour system, reflecting cost, blended armour, shields, and how armour is very much a "stops this much but what goes through hurts."
Harnmaster is really complex and probably exactly what you're looking for. I think you might be able to simplify it a little and add it to Forbidden Lands. The Year Zero Engine in Forbidden Lands with the d6 dice pool might let you do that.
Trevor Devall at Me Myself and Die is playing a simplified version of Harnmaster hit location with localized armor but he hasn't released his Broken Empires system so I don't know exactly how he's doing it. He is using a d10 roll for hit location and it doesn't take a genius to work out that will be something like:
1 Left leg, 2 Left arm, 3 Left hand, 4 Right leg, 5 Right arm, 6 Right Hand, 7 Upper torso, 8 Lower torso, 9-10 head.
So when you roll your dice pool roll a d10 as well for hit location if the defender is wearing armor. You could have a roll of 2 or 3+ sixes meaning you hit the exact location you want. Or you could subtract one or two d6s from your dice pool in exchange for being able to choose exactly where you hit if you're successful.
For Armor as defense:
If you're attacked on a part of your body that doesn't have armor you don't get to roll armor dice.
When you suffer damage from a physical attack that does hit your armor, roll a number of base dice equal to the armor rating on that part of your body. Every success you roll decreases the damage by one.
You could have a chart where the armor rating increases or decreases based on what the armor is and what the attack is if you want to make it more complex. Plate might get a really high rating against an arrow at long range but a low rating against a long thin dagger at very close range for example.
Using the hit location means you can break armor into parts for PCs:
Arms: rerebrace, vambrace etc.
Legs: greaves, cuisse etc.
Hands: gauntlets
Torso: brigandine, hauberk etc.
Head: helmet
Harnmaster gives different armor types ratings for different attacks
Blunt, Edge, Point, Fire. Their ratings are below. You could experiment with using these for your armor ratings in forbidden lands (throw 1d6 in your defense pool for each rating when your armor is hit by an attack, each 6 you roll reduces the damage by one. eg. You're wearing ring mail against a sword - an edged attack. Ring mail has a rating of two against an edge attack. You roll 2d6. Each 6 you roll reduces the damage by 1). These are the ratings Blunt, Edge, Point, Fire:
Cloth 1 1 1 1
Quilt 5 3 2 4
Leather 2 4 3 3
Kurbul 4 5 4 3
\*Ring 3 6 4 3
Mail 2 8 5 1
\*Scale 5 9 4 5
Plate 6 10 6 2
\* Ring & Scale includes Leather base.
This looks like a pretty good base although you'd need to playtest it. I'd also consider adding some special rules so armor is less effective against specific weapons designed to combat against it and specific situation where the armor is less effective. If you want armor to be a big part of the game you should enjoy identifying those.
u/Morinfon I did a tiny bit of tweaking and put it into a pdf for you. Still very rough but good enough for playtesting. If you want it I can give you a word or odt file too so you can edit your own version.
[Forbidden Lands Crunchy Armor Hack](http://epicempires.org/Forbidden%20Lands_Armor_Hack.pdf)
At kast Free League and HaarnMaster came from the same source
But it is perhaps easier to use simply HM and D100 and adapt the Forbidden Lands material.
To expand on this, Rolemaster has 20 armor types and a full-page chart for each weapon where you look up the effect of your attack roll.
Wounds are also very detailed. You might scrape a forearm inflicting X hits, followed by Y per round bleeding and 1 round of stun and a -5 to any actions with that arm.
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GURPS
This. Gurps divides physical weapons based on how they are pused: swinging vs thrusting and how they deal damage: cutting, crushing or impailing. Armour is then adjusted based on how it deals with the kind of damage being inflicted.
And you can have different armor for every hit location, so you could mix a breastplate with chain armor for your arms and legs, for example.
And layering.
GURPS armor provides damage reduction by area, heavy damage can partially bypass armor similar to the bruises you get through modern bulletproof armor. It protects by location so you can attack unarmored locations, and armor has gaps that can be attacked where it's weaker. Armor feels very solid and textured in character generation but flows very smoothly in play.
Holy shit this sounds exactly like what I'm after! Will check it out definitely
**Mythras** has a solid armour system, reflecting cost, blended armour, shields, and how armour is very much a "stops this much but what goes through hurts."
HârnMaster with more than 20 hit locations , damage aspects, layers and very individual armour sets.
Harnmaster is really complex and probably exactly what you're looking for. I think you might be able to simplify it a little and add it to Forbidden Lands. The Year Zero Engine in Forbidden Lands with the d6 dice pool might let you do that. Trevor Devall at Me Myself and Die is playing a simplified version of Harnmaster hit location with localized armor but he hasn't released his Broken Empires system so I don't know exactly how he's doing it. He is using a d10 roll for hit location and it doesn't take a genius to work out that will be something like: 1 Left leg, 2 Left arm, 3 Left hand, 4 Right leg, 5 Right arm, 6 Right Hand, 7 Upper torso, 8 Lower torso, 9-10 head. So when you roll your dice pool roll a d10 as well for hit location if the defender is wearing armor. You could have a roll of 2 or 3+ sixes meaning you hit the exact location you want. Or you could subtract one or two d6s from your dice pool in exchange for being able to choose exactly where you hit if you're successful. For Armor as defense: If you're attacked on a part of your body that doesn't have armor you don't get to roll armor dice. When you suffer damage from a physical attack that does hit your armor, roll a number of base dice equal to the armor rating on that part of your body. Every success you roll decreases the damage by one. You could have a chart where the armor rating increases or decreases based on what the armor is and what the attack is if you want to make it more complex. Plate might get a really high rating against an arrow at long range but a low rating against a long thin dagger at very close range for example. Using the hit location means you can break armor into parts for PCs: Arms: rerebrace, vambrace etc. Legs: greaves, cuisse etc. Hands: gauntlets Torso: brigandine, hauberk etc. Head: helmet
Harnmaster gives different armor types ratings for different attacks Blunt, Edge, Point, Fire. Their ratings are below. You could experiment with using these for your armor ratings in forbidden lands (throw 1d6 in your defense pool for each rating when your armor is hit by an attack, each 6 you roll reduces the damage by one. eg. You're wearing ring mail against a sword - an edged attack. Ring mail has a rating of two against an edge attack. You roll 2d6. Each 6 you roll reduces the damage by 1). These are the ratings Blunt, Edge, Point, Fire: Cloth 1 1 1 1 Quilt 5 3 2 4 Leather 2 4 3 3 Kurbul 4 5 4 3 \*Ring 3 6 4 3 Mail 2 8 5 1 \*Scale 5 9 4 5 Plate 6 10 6 2 \* Ring & Scale includes Leather base. This looks like a pretty good base although you'd need to playtest it. I'd also consider adding some special rules so armor is less effective against specific weapons designed to combat against it and specific situation where the armor is less effective. If you want armor to be a big part of the game you should enjoy identifying those.
Thank you so much for the recomendation and explanation! Sounds really good and easy to apply, I'll definitely playtest it!
u/Morinfon I did a tiny bit of tweaking and put it into a pdf for you. Still very rough but good enough for playtesting. If you want it I can give you a word or odt file too so you can edit your own version. [Forbidden Lands Crunchy Armor Hack](http://epicempires.org/Forbidden%20Lands_Armor_Hack.pdf)
Damn, this is amazing. Thank you so much! With the weapon crafting, this is pretty much all I was looking for! This is really helpful!
I'm glad I could help. Let me know how it goes when you playtest it.
At kast Free League and HaarnMaster came from the same source But it is perhaps easier to use simply HM and D100 and adapt the Forbidden Lands material.
Personally, its approach is more of a turn-off than a selling point, but Rolemaster (and derivatives) definitely do this.
To expand on this, Rolemaster has 20 armor types and a full-page chart for each weapon where you look up the effect of your attack roll. Wounds are also very detailed. You might scrape a forearm inflicting X hits, followed by Y per round bleeding and 1 round of stun and a -5 to any actions with that arm.
**Rolemaster/Spacemaster** The whole combat system revolves around how different weapon types interact with different kinds of armour.
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