Need 15 more points in Armor

kes166

Artisan
Good Evening,

I'm looking at add an additional 15 points of armor onto my suit and I'm not sure where to get it from cheaply. I have a micromesh chain shirt which gives me 20 points when paired with my boots and in-genre bonus. What else do I need to get 15? I figure I could pick up a pair of bracers for cheap, but what else can I get?

This is going to be for an Ogre fighter.
 
I'm going to assume the 20 points includes upper arms, so you're in a rough spot. It becomes increasingly difficult to add armor the closer to max you get, and the easiest place to add points, the torso, is taken.

Basically to get 15 with what you have left you'd need heavy metal on shins, thighs, forearms and head. Thick metal isn't the cheapest (trust me, I've looked). If you're crafty, you can get industrial metal banding, chop into slats and hook together with rings for bracers, leggings and find a decent helm for a reasonable rate. 3 point armor just isn't cheap unfortunately.
 
A warning on helmets, anything that would actually be protective is a hindrance in our game. Weight, restriction of sight lines, restriction of hearing/verbalization, and restriction of airflow all make you actively worse at combat.
 
A warning on helmets, anything that would actually be protective is a hindrance in our game. Weight, restriction of sight lines, restriction of hearing/verbalization, and restriction of airflow all make you actively worse at combat.

Not 100% correct. There are quite a lot of open face helmets that will not be a hindrance.
I wear a full steel helmet and see little hindrances other than weight and I have trained my neck to handle it.
We have several people who wear leather with the same minor issues and weight becomes a non issue.
 
If you are crafty at all you can actually do some really cheap armor that is heavy metal :)rolleyes:) using a heavy fabric, like duck cloth, and nail/tie plates from a hardware store. Layer the heavy cloth (2 layers is what I have like when doing this) and sew in pockets to fit plates (there are a lot of types, just go to a store and check them out). Be sure that it is a pretty snug fit, and I like to use a file to round any edges on the plate. This will increase the life of the armor as the plates will take longer to rub through the canvas. Easiest to do is for the thigh area by making a belt loop on the top of the armor segment and a leg tie attached to the bottom portion of it.

You can also use this method easily on the upper arm area as well by tying it into the shoulder section of whatever armor you use on your chest. With a little practice it can look really nice in game...or really really terrible if you just sew plates on fabric. I would recommend against that method :) The armor segments end up with a look that is reminiscent of Lamellar, but obviously not.

Hope this helps!
 
I used to rock a coat of plates built like that. We found tin snips did a good job of rounding the corners. Only thing I'd recommend is that you make absolutely sure as to the gauge of the plates, keep a spare plate out for the marshals to check. The last set of those plates I worked with were a fair bit thinner than their specified gauge would suggest.

YlA3BDr.jpg


Edit : Found a picture! That's my old Foxkin in my black coat of plates, and Lost_Nation's High Ogre Taquib in his blue and black set. He did the designs and built both of these, and they came out great. Comfortable, well distributed weight wise, and durable.
 
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Oh dang! How's it going man! I'm the guy that hung with Taquib the first year or so he had the character. Tell him I say hi when you next chat with him for me!

The armor sits well on you when you where it. It won't look as nice as those sets when you first make them, but practice with refine it to some great gear. Very wearable, durable, and looks great. Those suits in the picture are probably his 6th or 7th version of a full build.

Anyways, yep. That's the stuff I was talking about. Even doing it for thighs and upper arm will help a lot.
 
I'm also gonna point out that the plates in that are riveted to the material, not just sewn into pockets - that'll help a LOT for durability. I've learned the hard way how frustrating it is to put a lot of time into an armor project and have it fall apart in a year or two.
 
Oh dang! How's it going man! I'm the guy that hung with Taquib the first year or so he had the character. Tell him I say hi when you next chat with him for me!

The armor sits well on you when you where it. It won't look as nice as those sets when you first make them, but practice with refine it to some great gear. Very wearable, durable, and looks great. Those suits in the picture are probably his 6th or 7th version of a full build.

Anyways, yep. That's the stuff I was talking about. Even doing it for thighs and upper arm will help a lot.

Man, I should read sigs better, hi Brent! Been a while, I think you were still playing Hengdin before I took my hiatus from SoMN after 2010!

I think Josh's blue and black was the 6th one, my black one was the 2nd built after the all-red first attempt for Bluebell that eventually failed due to the canvas coming apart. I'd probably still be using it but it got a case of the mildew that wouldn't come out and I put on too much weight for my knees to like hauling around that much steel.

The black one was three total layers of duck canvas, one on the front and two behind the plates. It held up really well, you can see some light spots on the photo, those are mostly wear marks from me sliding on the ground in armor when dying.
 
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