Post-Apocalyptic Armor 2: The Road Warrior

Played a session with the new armor rules. I went in with each piece having weapon die modifiers, fumble modifiers, armor check penalty modifiers, fractional modifiers. It was overkill and stupid. Here are the streamlined Wasteland Armor rules, and a list of wasteland armor.

1. Armor does not (generally) modify Armor Class. Instead it soaks damage.
2. Armor Class is modified by Reflex Saving Throw Modifier.
3. Armor die is determined by moving up the Die Chain for each Armor Die Step.
4. After a hit, the defender rolls its Armor Die. The result reduces the attack's damage by the number rolled. 
5. On a roll of 1 on the armor die, one piece of armor of the defender's choice is damaged, reducing it's effectiveness by one step. If reduced to zero, it is destroyed.
6. Some pieces of armor do not provide armor die steps, they are there for when ones are rolled to keep the good stuff from breaking.
7. Fumble Die is equal to the total armor die, unless additionally modified by an armor piece's SPECIAL NOTES.
8. These rules only apply to player characters of at least first level and special bad guys. Otherwise shit would slow down too much.
9. Shields work normally, granting a bonus to AC.

Helmets

Armor Piece	Armor Die Steps	Armor Check Penalty	Special
Hockey Mask	1	-1
Catcher’s Mask	1		Pointy attacks ignore.
Football Helmet	2	-1	Increases fumble die one step.
Motorcycle Helmet	2	-2
Riot Helmet	2
Welder’s Mask	1

Body

Armor Piece	Armor Die Steps	Armor Check Penalty	Special
Shoulder Pads	1	-1
Spiked Shoulder Pads	1	-2	Grants +1 to AC. Increases fumble die one step.
Catcher’s Chest Protector	1
Leather Apron	2	-1
Tire Tread Chest Piece	3	-2	Increases fumble die one step.
Hubcap Breastplate	2	-3	Increases fumble die one step.
Metal cuirass	*	-3	Grants a d4 Armor Die in addition to Armor Die provided by other Armor Pieces.
Leather Jacket	2
Riot Gear Torso	3	-2
Flak Jacket	*		Grants a d6 Armor Die in addition to Armor Die provided by other Armor Pieces.
Leather Chaps or Pants	2

Additional Pieces

The following do not provide armor dice, but may be worn as additional protection to be sacrificed when armor is damaged. There is an Armor Check Penalty of one for every two pieces worn (round up).

• Elbow Pads
• Forearm Guards
• Spiked Elbow Pads (Provide +1 AC, but incur additional -1 Armor check Penalty and increase fumble die by one.
• Razor Bracers
• Shin Guards
• Knee Pads
• Goggles

I made this equipment character sheet to simplify tracking the armor. Each piec will go on a little post it that is stuck in the roughly corresponding position. I also made a spot for usage dice (Stolen from +David Black's Black Hack), and the items thing is for a LotFP meets Black Hack, style encumbrance rule set. I also got some ideas for this from Last Gasp, namely having "Ready Items." 

PDF of the Equipment Character Sheet.

DCC RPG: Post Apocalypse Armor

So far in the two sessions we've played, there hasn't been much armor floating around. In the first session some slaughtered boat people had their fancy high tech body armor taken, and that's all anyone has gotten.
It was just sort generic, I only threw it in so that they'd get the idea that the boat people were operating at a more advanced tech level than their village. By the end of the last session, they were battling The Shunned, a gang of cut-throats in a city ruins. These are the kind of guys that would have Naked Raygun, Mad Max, New Barbarians type shit.

Now I could just describe the armor, all shoulder pads and codpieces and give it an armor class, but it's such an essential component of what makes road warrior apocalypse shit so rad, I think it needs to be special. As homework I started with what Adam at Kickassistan posted last summer about Armor-less AC and what Claytonian posted over at the G+ DCC group recently.

What I'm stealing from Adam is that a character's reflex save is their armor class bonus and armor reduces damage. From Claytonian I'm pulling the variable damage soak.

What I'm adding to the mix is that any 1s rolled on a soak die breaks the armor one step down the die chain, and that multiple pieces combine to step up the die chain. Some special things will give extra dice. I have to work out the specifics, but here's a quick maybe examples:

Shoulder pad armor: one step up

Spiked shoulder pads: one step up and +1 to AC (those spikes get in the way of wallops)

Motorcycle helmet: two steps up

Leather duster: One Step up

Armored Breastplate: Additional d4 armor die

So let's say Eggfart has gotten herself Shoulder pads, a helmet, a leather duster and an armored breastplate. 

Crack! Vicious clubbing for 6 points of damage. All together she rolls a d4 for the breastplate and a d6 for everything else. And she gets a 1 and a 5. Cool, that soaks up all the damage, but oh no, that 1 means the breastplate is damaged and now is only worth a 1d3. Better kill these Shunned and take their chainmail crochet dress.

Will try and get something more codified before the next time we play, and figure out how exactly the fumble die will work.