Heavy Armor
A big part of The Streets of Avalon RPG is the tag system. The equipment in the game relies quite a bit on it. I’ve been going through the equipment because I realized during my Session 0 for my most recent playtest group that the armor rules weren’t going to work for the heavier armors. Here’s the Heavy Armors and how they’re listed:
Here’s how it was written:
Armor Proficiency. Wearing armor provides damage reduction against attacks which would logically provide damage reduction. If you don’t have proficiency with the armor you’re wearing you have the clumsy and slow tags. Some armor just has tags regardless of if you’re proficient with the armor or not.
Heavy Armor. Some heavier armors increase your max hit protection along with its normal damage reduction. Those who do not have the strength to properly operate in this armor do suffer from some drawbacks. If the Armor table shows “Str 4” or “Str 5” in the Strength column and the user doesn’t have a Strength score equal to or greater than the listed number, then the armor gives them the Heavy tag, and doesn’t provide any increase to max hit protection listed
Here are the changes:
Armor Proficiency. Wearing armor provides damage reduction against attacks which would logically provide damage reduction. If you don’t have proficiency with the armor you’re wearing you have the clumsy and slow tags. Some armor just has tags regardless of if you’re proficient with the armor or not.
Heavy Armor. You can only gain benefits of heavy armor, Damage Reduction and the increase to max hit protection, if you’re trained in their use. (This was not included in the previous version)
Strength Requirements. Some heavier armors and shields increase your max hit protection along with its normal damage reduction. Those who do not have the strength to properly operate in this armor do suffer from some drawbacks. If the Armor table shows “Str 4” or “Str 5” in the Strength column and the user doesn’t have a Strength score equal to or greater than the listed number, then the armor gives them the Heavy tag, and doesn’t provide any increase to max hit protection listed.
It’s not a huge change. I just added Heavy Armor only provide its benefits if a PC is trained in its use. It makes having training in the named armor relevant. If a PC is not trained in the armor, it doesn’t mean they can’t wear it, it just doesn’t give you any positive benefits and incurs several negative ones. This allows for those wacky ideas where PCs try to disguise themselves or other something even more bizzare. Players are weird and come up with wild ideas. Point is, it puts the armor back into a space that feels like it fits into the narrative context of the world while still allowing the flexibility to use it in potentially unconventional ways.
Tags
The other thing I came across was a few tags I rewrote because I didn’t like the way they read or felt in play:
- Broken. The item is only as usable as the GM determines until fixed.
I originally had Broken as the item is useless until it’s fixed. That doesn’t fit into my flexible play and rulings not rules design philosophy. I changed it so the GM could decide if and how a broken item could be used if a PC came up with a clever idea to use a broken item.
- Enhancer. If the harm your basic attack would deal is higher than the weapons base harm. It adds +1 to the harm. Example. Your unarmed attack deals 1d4 harm based on class bonuses and brass knuckles deals 1d3 harm. If you use brass knuckles you add +1 to the harm your unarmed strike deals while they’re equipped.
I came up with this tag because the brass knuckles didn’t make sense with the Brawler fighter talents a character was playing in a previous playtest. This was to make the brass knuckles relevant to an unarmed fighter.
The Brawler Talent
The last thing I came across and changed was how the brawler’s critical hits work when someone takes the Brawler Talent.
Before
Brawler (Primary). You’re trained in unarmed combat.
- Your unarmed strikes deal a 1d4 bludgeoning harm.
- You gain a +1 harm with unarmed strikes. The +1 harm is added to your off hand unarmed strikes even if you don’t get to add your strength.
- If you roll a critical hit with an unarmed strike, you roll the harm dice three times instead of just once. Only add the stat modifiers once.
After
Brawler (Primary). You’re trained in unarmed combat.
- Your unarmed strikes deal a 1d4 bludgeoning harm.
- You gain a +1 harm with unarmed strikes. The +1 harm is added to your off hand unarmed strikes even if you don’t get to add your strength.
- If you roll a critical hit with an unarmed strike you roll the harm dice three times and your stunt dice. Only add the stat modifiers once. This replaces the critical hit rules as written.
In the before they rolled the dice 3 times instead of once to deal harm. You don’t actually roll dice on critical hits other than your stunt dice. You just maximize your harm dice. So it was written wrong since it was based on an older version of the rules. Now it’s in line with what I’m going for and even has the potential to do less harm than a normal crit. It’s unlikely but possible which felt right to me. After all, some unarmed strikes, even ones that connect quite well, end up being glancing blows or not hitting in quite the right place. Still harmful but not quite the knock out blows they could be.
So that’s what I’ve been messing with while I’m also recording episodes of Under the Lamplight with Brett and getting ready for session 1 of The Whisper Killings. I’m looking forward to talking about that next week in the development blog.