Real-Life Armor Stories
One of my hobbies is heavy weapons combat in the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is a martial art/sport that is meant to simulate medieval combat, with swords and maces and polearms. We use rattan (like solid bamboo) sticks to wallop each other, and wear armor to keep from getting concussions and broken limbs.
This means I put on armor once a week or so, and I see lots of people wearing different kinds. And boy, does that change your perspective on Things PCs Want to Do in Armor.
Donning My Armor
For reference: My armor is mostly leather (OK, and plastic). It's a lamellar (lots of little plates laced together - AD&D would call it scale mail) for the chest protection. I have a sword-arm guard made of hardened leather with a steel elbow cup, and leather legs with steel knees. My helmet is steel and open-faced, with a steel grill to keep my nose from getting bashed. My shield is modern aluminum, but I'm told the wooden shield can weigh about the same.
It takes me ten to fifteen minutes to get everything on by myself. If I were an adventuring PC surprised at night, I could throw on the vest of scales and the helmet in around a minute, then pick up sword and shield and join the fray. I wouldn't buckle the vest, probably, but I don't think it would slip too much. But forget the leg and arm protection. And certain types of upper-body armor require buckling or lacing up, or they'll just flop around pretty uselessly.
Is this rocket science? No. Even "complicated" armor like plate isn't hard to learn how to put on. And if it fits right, you don't need to "learn how to move in it" - it should move naturally with you. A dummy with a half-hour to spare and an instructor can learn how to put on a suit of armor. A bright person can probably forgo the instructor.
Wearing My Armor
It's not all that uncomfortable, despite not being designed personally for me. The straps make it adjustable to some degree. This is not true of all armor types! Some really should be formed for the individual wearer to fit really well. And small-medium-large sizing at least holds - you need to be about the same size and shape as the person for whom the armor was made. If the armor isn't designed just for you (or was, but was designed poorly) you can expect "armor bites" - places where plates or straps or whatnot dig in and cut or bruise you.
Could I sleep in it? Maybe. In a nice soft bed, almost definitely. On a hard rock floor which will cause every rivet and plate to dig into my body? Probably not. It's meant to be worn standing up, not lying down.
It's not that heavy. Even the guys in the all-steel plate get-ups can put on their own gear and clank around the battlefield at a jog or run. The place I feel it most is in my arms. You have to keep bringing that sword arm up and over a lot and any extra weight at all makes that much harder. This is why I believe spiky armor is incredibly dumb. Anything that adds weight is my enemy.
It's hot. Hoo-boy, is it hot. Your head is essentially enclosed in a metal oven. You are wearing extra insulation. If you're fighting, you're generating body heat. Most of the fighters "pop their tops" (remove their helmets) and loosen their gorgets ("GOOR-zhay," the throat protector) as soon as humanly possible after a bout. On the other hand, these are people that can and will fight for hours in the August heat and sun... as long as there are noncombatant waterbearers bringing out liquids so they don't keel over from heatstroke. Most of our fighting injuries are heat-related. Any tables your game provides for wearing armor in the desert should be heeded.
Visibility, even in an open-faced helmet, is terrible. Your field of view is very narrow, and bid your peripheral vision adieu. It's hard to hear in there, too. No, really. Like I have trouble hearing people five feet away talking in a conversational tone. People with their heads inside metal boxes ought to be much more suceptible to surprise.
So why wear a helmet? If your game doesn't do hit locations, don't! But if it does, get a good, sturdy one. The head is a primary target. That's where most of the kills I see come from - head shots. (The next most common target is the shield-side leg).
It's noisy. I clang a little, just with my metal joints. The guys with full metal legs on clank a lot. You can forget sneaking around anywhere - unless the enemy has his helmet on and can't hear a thing, anyway.
You are surprisingly mobile, even in 'heavy' armors. This game is build on speed as much or more than strength. Sometimes, strength affects speed, though. If you put lil' ol' me into a suit of plate, I'd scarcely be able to haul my arm up into position. But there are big, beefy gents who can throw all that metal around like it was nothing. I think they'd be even scarier in light armor. I wouldn't want to try gymnastics (well, maybe a forward roll) in my armor, but I can jog, run, bob, weave, fall to my knees, and get up again without too much difficulty. My gauntlets really cut down on my manual dexterity, though. I can grab things I can get my hand around, but fine motor activities like turning pages in a book aren't going to happen.
Armored Mages
Unless your game systems forbids magic-users to use armor as a matter of game balance, I don't see a reason they couldn't at least strap on some leg protection and something on their chests. Gauntlets are right out - my manual dexterity is limited to grasping my weapon; delicate magical gestures aren't possible. Arm protection should be thought over carefully - it's bad for one's arms to get tired and start to sag in the middle of Ugly Monster Summoning VI. Helmets that cover the entire head should also probably be forbidden; many spells require good vision and it helps to be able to hear yourself clearly.
So that's my armored experience. Got a beef? Got a question? Go ahead and email me.
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