I think I’ve figured out how to do shields and magical armour/weapon magic in my Glorantha Hack, but could use some extra pairs of eyes on it.
It’s based on standard AW conventions for weapons, harm and armour. A decent sword or axe can do 3 harm and a decent set of the best armour gives 2 amour. The premise is that using a shield should effectively give you an extra point of armour in some circumstances. You can also get up to a+1 harm and/or +1 armour from magic. Within those assumptions I need a system where no character is ever completely invulnerable.
Fight in Close Combat
When you fight in close combat, nominate an opponent
within reach with which to exchange Harm as established,
then roll+Might. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a miss, they choose one against you:
•You inflict terrible harm (+1 harm).
•You suffer less harm (-1 harm, or -2 if you have a protective weapon).
•You ignore armour provided by any protective weapon they are using such as a shield.
•You gain the advantage: take +1 forward, or give +1 forward to an ally.
•You force them where you want them.
•You seize or hold some objective by force.
•You win free and get away
•You force your way through
[weird strikeout fixed]
Shields have the ‘protective’ tag. NPCs with a protective weapon get +1 armour by default, but note a PC can negate that using the move. Conversely PCs must take a pick on a hit to gain the extra protection of a shield.
I think this does what I want. The most armour an NPC will have is 4 armour (2 mail, +1 magic, +1 shield). But a character with a 3 harm sword and no magic can on a 10+ negate the shield and inflict terrible for 4 harm against the 3 remaining armour.
Conversely a PC with 2 armour mail and +1 armour magic is still vulnerable against a 3 harm adversary. On a miss the PC gets no protection from the shield and the opponent can inflict terrible for a total of 4 harm.
Can anyone see any problems? Better ways to do it? The move is a bit of a kitchen sink, but spitting it creates its own problems IMHO but maybe there’s a way?
