Expanding the armor concept gambeson

[dragon5145]

I am not sure if this should go here or in the equipment/cards area. I have been reading variousn posts on different rules and thoughts on armor, such as whether plate needs the movement penalty or not. I have my on thoughts about it, but that is not what this topic is about. Reading different topics,about the inbuilt advancement method of game got me thinking about the starting stats of the heroes. They all start with a number of attack combat dice based on the weapon they start with, and in an early it is shown that unarmed in the base GS all heroes have on attack combat die. In contrast for defense they all start with 2 combat die, this got me to thinking why are the heroes naturally better at defense. I assume the decision was made out of game balance testing, and that itself can be enough of a reason.

My thoughts are since none of the heroes are given starting armor, I am not consider heroes introduced in the remake, why not introduce a starting armor for them one that adds +1 indefense. This way the heroes all start with one for both offense and defence when unarmed and unarmored. I am thinking of some along the lines of a gambeson. These quilted or padded tunics were often worn under chain and plate, it was also used as an armor in it's own right. I see no reason that such an outfit would interfere with a wizards spellcasting especially since a wizards cloak, enchanted albeit, is introduced later. So such an armor would be usable by the wizard and the cloak can be used with it. Now for the armor used by the other hero, the only changes that I see that would need to be made is reducing plate armor only add +1 on defense and stating that the "gameson", if that is the name settled on, chainmail and plate mail can all be worn together.

Do this would allow the heroes that can were all the metal armors to still be maxed out at 6 for defence when equipped with a helmet and shield as well. It will also slow armour progression a bit since players that want plate mail will be less likely to sell their chainmail back to offset the cost, most likely not at all since doing so would have no benefit and only a movement penalty. Other issues to be determined would be the cost of this new armor in the event group decides to have the heroes start with no armor and 1 in defense or if the armor is stolen/destroyed and not recovered in quest.

I see two possible ways to implement this idea.

1. The easiest just update the heroes character card or just the character sheet at time of play to show all heroes start equipped with a gambeson. Then quest on.

2. Let the heroes start with no armor and only have 1 in defense until they can afford to purchase one in the armory between quests. While I like this option as would slightly extend the advancement system of the game, I am afraid it would increase the difficulty of the earlier quests to frustrating levels without major rebalancing of those quests. Probably need to reduce the number and or strength of the foes, also maybe increase the gold rewards in a few early quests but that defeats the idea of slowing or lengthening the advancement system.

[dragon5145]

Just for clarification, I believe I am justified in the idea of allowing chain and plate be worn together since it is historically accurate, and maybe more important in the game system is that the artwork for the plate armor shows indications of chainmail in both the NA and EU version, the NA version is fairly obvious while in te EU artwork found on the inn site indicates a chain skirt at the very least.

[cardcardigan]

I do like the idea of opening up some early design space by allowing for heroes with one defense. Could even do a +1 enhancement by allowing them to reroll black shields or something. Idk how much it does for the game with The Trial standing in the way at the start, but like you said, things can be adjusted on both ends. I can see where you're going with the idea.