...is that there would be a way to have the players want to run around in light armor, instead of the heaviest plate they can find. Yes, I know there are creative ways I can do this (excess heat, armor prices, etc), but they feel forced. And my friends would have immediately caught on to what I was doing and would get grumpy.
With the rules as written, it's really hard to get someone to have a "hoplite" style character with helm, shield, and spear, and maybe leg greaves. It's too bad. But I guess that's what Runequest is for. :)
7 comments:
With no official thief class in S&W, that means everyone's a thief, as in, everyone gets a chance to move silently, hide in shadows, etc. But not if they're stomping around in plate mail. Emphasize what the characters are giving up in exchange for those few points of AC (my advice at least!:)
Of course, if all else fails, you do control what's available for sale at the local armory...
You could try 'Messing about with boats' or any other occasion where swimming or at least not plunging to the bottom.
Or a race of blind creatures with fantastic hearing. Sort of reinforces Al's point.
The other way to look at it is that the 'plate armour' isn't high medieval full plate, but a panoply of bronze greaves,vambraces, breastplate, and a Corinthian helmet.
One dislisked word: encumbrance.
I like the greaves, breastplate, etc. suggestion. I might just have to use that sometime.
Use Dex as alternate AAC.
Players can use the better of: armor class, or Dex, as their AAC, but they cant combine them. That is you dont get a dex bonus on top of your armor, nor do you get an armor bonus on your dex.
I rather like the DEX = AAC thing. It's very much suited for both swashbuckling campaigns and for those less-than-serious sword and sorcery campaigns where everyone's running around half-naked (and it's a quite welcome boost to magic user survivability at the lower levels). I'd grant unarmored fighters and clerics a +1 bonus to DEX-based AAC if they're using a shield though -- but that's just me.
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