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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We recently had a bit of a coup in my gaming group
on the subject of armour weight/encumbrance. In terms of background,
we use the fatigue rules from RQ3. Over the course of our campaign, the
players have gradually gotten their hands on better armour and now find
themselves well loaded up with bronze lamellar armour. We recently entered a
jungle environment, though, and I imposed heavier fatigue penalties for the heat
and humidity (-2 fatigue per round instead of -1). They only put their armour on
when they sense danger, now, but when they do they find that they can
only last from 10-15 rounds before collapsing from exhaustion. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I personally don't have much experience with
wearing armour, so I'm not really in a position to defend the rules as written.
One of my players, though, is a live steel re-enactor who has fought in plate
armour, and he feels that the amount of time the characters should last ought to
be longer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What we've decided to do for now is to reduce the
encumbrance of armour to the next lowest size level - so that Large size armour
will now have the ENC of medium armour from the table. This will net them an
extra 2 rounds in the hot climates, and 4 in the colder one, for the
lamellar users, which doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me. Skills such as
Jump and Sneak will go up by 4 points.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Does anybody else have any comments on the
encumbrance values of armour? How realistic are they? What house rules have you
used?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Also, on a slighly related note: I've been reading
recently about Bronze Age weapons and armour in Europe. There are a few examples
of bronze helmets and breatplates found in archaology, but the authors of the
book I'm reading feel that these would only have been worn for ceremonial or
decorative purposes, not being strong enough to be adequate defence. They
speculate that leather or quilted armour would have been the norm in combat,
even amongst those who could afford Bronze. This, of course, is at odds with the
romatic view of bronze armour. Does anybody have any further insight into
this?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Many thanks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chris</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>