Plate Armour

[Nerrad72]

How about not applying the penalty at all to the barbarian, cause he's so hench? .

We say 'henge' down here. As in stonehenge. A person with big right angle shoudlers

[Tott]

you could also add another item, treasure, potion, ring etc. to negate movement impairing effects.

[cynthialee]

the plate mail movement restrictions make no sense once you have actually seen men in full plate mail
the suits are tailored and do not limit movement anywhere near what most folks seem to think
They had a guy on one of the education programs (think it was History chanel) doing cartwheels in full plate. Not much of a movement penalty if the dude is doing cartwheels.

[el_flesh]

So if he crawls on the ground to try and be stealthy, it won't be what Beernut told Zebs of Dooooom: "Imagine the sound you would make dragging an anvil down the corridor on a rope."

[Daedalus]

It's only slightly better - I still can't see myself wearing that to be honest.

Not a bad idea. Another option would be to give the hero a maximum movement (say 6).

How about not applying the penalty at all to the barbarian, cause he's so hench? This would give him a long-term incentive that he lacks.

I like the maximum movement idea even better. It has more impact, but still presents a limit simply. A Hero with a maximum move of 6 can only out-pace Zombies and Mummies, while Skeletons, Firmirs, and Gargoyles keep up with him. Chaos Warriors (damned chaos armor!), Orcs and Goblins are faster.

Personally, I prefer to see the Barbarian gain his needed improvement from an inherent 1-attack-die bonus rather than a better starting weapon, but his strength could also be worked into this rule to a lesser extent (with a bit more detail). I also feel the Dwarf should keep pace and find Plate Mail a lesser burden. So here's a second version:

Plate Mail
850 Gold Coins
      Armor

This heavy metal armor gives
you 2 extra combat dice in
defense. However, because it is so
heavy, a Barbarian's or Dwarf's
maximum movement is 6 squares
while wearing it; an Elf instead
must choose just one red die for
movement. May be combined with
the Helmet and/or Shield. May not
be worn by the Wizard.

The downside is that the mod adds two extra lines to the Armory description. The upside is Plate Mail would suposedly be used by more players, justifying the entry.

[torilen]

Typically, I handle heavy armor in this way.
Scale Mail might be a simple -1 space to movement.
Half Plate might be a simple -2 spaces to movement.
Full plate might be a simple -3 spaces to movement.

These would have a minimum of 2 spaces of movement (the lowest roll with 2 red dice).

One could theoretically make these penalties higher for the elf, since he wouldn't be
as strong as the barbarian or dwarf. Perhaps -3, -4, and -5, respectively.

[el_flesh]

But if they're so moveable and unrestricting...probly weighing less than chain mail...

[Ethica]

I think this myth that heavy armour isn't that cumbersome is itself a myth (Just like the "water doesn't spin the opposite way down a plug hole in the other hemisphere" myth. The fact is it does). The plate armour might weigh 20kg (the chain mail 10kg).

While you may be able to do as much movement as you could without the armour, soon you'll tire because you'll be using like twice the amount of energy to do it (so says some experiment I was reading about).

I would like the movement penalties as suggested by torilen, but only if applied to a fixed movement system. I don't like the idea of applying modifiers to dice rolls, because the normal heroquest rules don't feature that sort of thing. I am considering different movement for each hero: Barb and Elf- move 8 squares, Dwarf and Wizard- move 7 squares. With different reductions for use of plate armour (-1 for barb, -2 for dwarf, and -3 for elf), so barb retains his benefit from being strong and dwarf and elf become equalised.

I like this thread. This is a very important issue that needs discussion.

[Templar]

Would a simple thing such as a maximum movement equal to your starting amout of body points work?

It is only logical that heavier armour makes you more tired, faster. And since I imagine the heroes walking a bit to get to the dungeon/cave/fortress, someone wearing plate armour should, in my opinion, not be as fast as someone weraing chainmail.

[Ethica]

Would a simple thing such as a maximum movement equal to your starting amout of body points work?

No, because then the dwarf would be faster than the elf and that doesn't seem right.