Armour

#### Arming Cap

An arming cap is a padded cap to be worn underneath a helmet. It keeps the helmet from banging directly against the wearer's head. One of these may be worn without taking up the Head slot.

#### Chainmail Coif

This is essentially a hood made from chainmail. It protects the head and neck decently.

#### Norman Helmet

This helmet could be described as a hornless viking helmet, were it not for the fact that viking helmets had no horns to begin with.

#### Barbute

Often called a "greek helmet", it is characterized by its "T" or "Y"-shaped eye slit. It provides good protection at the cost of close-range vision.

#### Greathelm

Often called a "crusader helmet', this helmet is characterized by its narrow eye slits and flat top. While it protects well against slashing and piercing attacks, it is quite vulnerable to striking attacks.

#### Armet

The iconic knight's helmet, characterized by its compactness, and locking visor. It affords excellent protection, and allows for a great deal of mobility, making it the pinnacle of helmet design.

### Torso

#### Gambeson

A long-sleeved protective jacket made from quilted wool and linen. It comes with straps for attaching heavier armour.

#### Hauberk

A long-sleeved chainmail shirt that reached below the groin.

#### Arming Coat

A gambeson with bits of chainmail woven into it.

#### Brigandine

A gambeson with metal plates riveted to the inside.

#### Cuirass

A cuirass is a piece of metal armour that protects the torso. It is recommended to wear padding underneath.

### Arms

#### Pauldrons

Metal plates which protect the shoulders.

#### Vambraces

Padded plating that protects the forearms.

#### Rerebrace & Elbow Cop

Armour that protects the upper arms and elbows. Must be worn in conjunction with Paudrons and Vambraces.

#### Full Arms

A composite of Pauldrons, Rerebraces & Elbow Cops, and Vambraces that fully protect the arms.

### Legs

#### Tassets

Plates that protect the groin and upper legs, which hang from the cuirass.

#### Thigh Plates & Knee Cop

Plates that protect the knees and thighs.

## Armour Qualities

### Slash Protection

When an attack against the wearer receives slashing damage, it is reduced by this amount. This also reduces the critical threat range against slashing attacks.

### Pierce Protection

When an attack against the wearer receives piercing damage, it is reduced by this amount. This also reduces the critical threat range against piercing attacks.

### Strike Protection

When an attack against the wearer receives strike damage, it is reduced by this amount. This also reduces the critical threat range against striking attacks.

### Critical Protection

In addition to reducing damage from certain types of attacks, armour also reduces the risk of being dealt a critical hit.

1: In these cases, the range is still limited to a natural 20. The numbers above 20 simply make calculating reductions easier. For instance, a character has a +9 (23) against piercing attacks, and an opponent's Skill and weapon allows them to reduce the protection by 5. A player simply needs to subtract 5 from 23 in order to get 18: the minimum they would need to roll in order to score a critical hit.

By default, there is a limit on how much the critical threat range for each type can be reduced by armour. (It can be further reduced by Skill.)

Default critical hit protection limits
 Pierce
 Impact

These limits can be increased through the effects of Extra Protection.

Hard limits on the amount of critical protection armour can offer

 Pierce
 Strike

1: A character with a slash protection of +7 or higher is immune slash critical hits. Once a character is fully immune to slash critical hits, no amount of skill can make them vulnerable.

### Slots

There are ten slots on the body for armour:

* Head (1)
* Cap
* Outer Torso Layer (2)
* Inner Torso Layer
* Shoulders (3)
* Arms (4)
* Hands (5)
* Groin (6)
* Legs (7)
* Feet (8)

Slots do not strictly determine which parts of the body a piece of armour covers. Instead, slots are used for the purpose of determining which pieces of armour interfere with each other. For example, it is possible to wear vambraces and a haubergeon, but not vambraces and a hauberk, since both occupy the Arms slot.

Most slots have a corresponding number. When certain types of critical hits are scored, the attacker rolls 1d8. If the result corresponds to a slot whose equipment possesses the Plate keyword, then that piece of equipment receives a Puncture.

## Armour Keywords

### Armour Component

Equipment with this keyword is a component for a piece of equipment with the Composite keyword. Some of these can be used as a standalone piece of armour.

### Composite

Equipment with the Composite quality is not actually a piece of equpment in it's own right, but rather the combination of other pieces of armour which posess the Armour Component keyword. For the purpose of wearing, however, it is treated as its own piece of equipment.

For example: Leggings are a composite of Tassets, Thigh Plates & Knee Cop, and Greaves.

### Dependent Pieces

Dependent Pieces are Armour Components which cannot be worn as standalone armour.

### Extra Protection

Pieces of armour with this quality go the extra mile to ensure the most protection possible. When worn, they increase critical protection above the normal limit, but not above the hard limit.

### Hard Helm

Whenever a character wearing a helmet with this keyword takes damage, they lose one more initiative than normal.

### Harness

This armour is designed to be worn with and attached to padding underneath. Attempting to wear this armour without padding causes the wearer to take a -2 to attack and guard.

### Padding

While this armour is effective on its own, it is also intended to be worn underneath heavier armour. This keyword confers no additional bonuses or penalties to the wearer, and is a "dummy" keyword. However, it allows the wearer to avoid the penalties associated with wearing heavier armour without padding.

### Plate

Equipment with this keyword is made up of metal plates. This is a "dummy" keyword that exists for the benefit of other keywords.