Assuming a system roughly equal to Apocalypse World, what does a piece of gear that gives 3-armor do to the game?

Assuming a system roughly equal to Apocalypse World, what does a piece of gear that gives 3-armor do to the game?

Assuming a system roughly equal to Apocalypse World, what does a piece of gear that gives 3-armor do to the game? Does it utterly break it?

14 thoughts on “Assuming a system roughly equal to Apocalypse World, what does a piece of gear that gives 3-armor do to the game?”

  2. It definitely makes the bearer nigh-invulnerable against normal attacks that don’t exploit any vulnerabilities it has. I think I’ve tried high Armor on monsters in Monster of the Week and Dungeon World, and the results were very miserable because of how much damage that armor soaks up. (Granted, this was also natural armor, so players didn’t exactly have ways of removing it.) The players eventually won, but it was a slog to get through.

    For example: let’s say that a character takes four 4-harm hits; that armor gave them 9 extra effective HP. Plus, if you can’t bump your damage up to 4-harm, they basically get infinite HP.

    That said, it’s definitely less of a problem when you give that to players. The only time I could see that being an issue is if you get to PvP conflict, at which point the non-armored player is going to have to be really clever with finding ways to immobilize the armored character, or ways to get that armor off, because they’re pretty much going to be able to sit there all day and take hits.

    And, of course, armor is less useful against a massive hit. If someone has a 4-segment Harm clock and you deal 7-harm in one shot, that still takes them out. Might require a massive effort, but that’s the most effective way to hit through armor.

  3. And don’t forget a medium gang with Harm-3 weapons is going to be putting 2-harm through the armor.

    But going by the fiction, anyone with that kind of gear really can expect to wade through most firefights, so it’s not a breaker. They have to sleep sometime.

  4. It breaks the game. Not utterly but kind of bad.

    Because Apocalypse World’s harm system is built on a hidden exponential curve, 3-armor lets you go toe-to-toe with a dozen armed combatants or like a humvee or something.

  6. Vincent Baker Can you elaborate on this “hidden exponential curve”? I don’t mean to make you lay out all the math, but a brief overview (or a link to where you have already discussed it) would be much appreciated.

  7. Jason D’Angelo I can elaborate a little! I don’t think I’ve discussed it anywhere.

    Hand weapons do 1-2 harm and hurt and sometimes kill people.

    Heavy weapons do 3-4 harm and kill people and damage vehicles and threaten small gangs.

    Mounted weapons do 5-6 harm and ruin small gangs and threaten bigger gangs and blow up vehicles and damage buildings.

    The biggest weapons in the game do 7-8 harm and butcher large gangs and leave craters where armored trucks used to be and bring buildings down.

    So 8-harm doesn’t mean 8 times the harming power of 1-harm. It means more like 50 times the power. Y=X^2 would make it 64 times, and that’s totally plausible.

    When it comes to armor:

    1-armor reduces 3-harm, deadly to people and threatening to small gangs, to a more manageable 2-harm.

    2-armor reduces 4-harm, damaging to vehicles and trouble for a small gang, to 2-harm.

    3-armor, now! It reduces gang-ruining, vehicle-crippling, building-damaging 5-harm to a survivable 2-harm.

  9. The exponential curve is also clear on what the armor looks like, right?

    1-armor is anything you can find, not at all obvious. Like a sweater or trench coat.

    2-armor is what, like the door of a car? It’s always obvious.

    What’s 3-armor, then? Like powered armor?

    So, in Rob’s game is 1-armor like elven padded armor, 2-armor like dwarven chain armor with a helmet, and 3-armor magical mithril?

  14. Yeah, 3-armor needs to be something really obvious and special.

    Like, from Fallout? The powered armor of the Brotherhood would be 3-armor.

    I doubt I’d give it to the Orc. I don’t think of Orc culture as producing such marvelous defenses.

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