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I'm on something of a simplification obsession at the moment and Armour Rating has come under scruntiny. Currently, for PCs there is an armour rating for each part of the body. I know why I did this - so you could have a heavily armoured helmet and less body etc. For a stock human, AR is just 1 all over.

However, while creating the armour section for the next version of the equipment index, I really don't think it adds very much. I am beginning to think that an armour has a single armour rating. Also, it's telling that over the years it's not really been used very much and we've certainly playtested the hell out of it!

What do you think?

It depends on how much you want to save page count. If you feel you would regret taking it out after publication, then don't. My misses sold joshuas pram when he got too big for it. needless to say she regretted it! She'll regret it even more if she ever falls preggers again (heaven forbid)

well it may seem like waffeling but i think combinring the two ideas is doable, give a uniform AR rateing to "real" armor
Tactical vests, hard body suits etc give uniform protection while piece work improvised are rated by section and generaly infireor.

@misterecho You're right that page count is a factor - it's just not an important one. This is more about making the act of using the system easier and speeding up game play.

@randolph - I am glad there is justification from the real world although I've set things far enough into the future that I've managed to get away with all sorts of liberties.

You've been playing for years and it's rarely come up? Scrap it!

Too many games are too complicated.

I recently asked myself the same thing for my game. As I was completely retooling all armours, this was the time to make any sweeping changes like that. What I finally decided to do was to have full suits (called 'harnesses') that have single stats for all-over. In a separate and succeeding section, I will have the component pieces. These will have their own individual stats, and are combined as needed or desired. To avoid having to create specific hit locations--Midian doesn't need that mess, and real armours rarely fit neatly into any such system--I simply described the areas covered by the pieces, and let the GM's and players work out any needed details on their specific case-by-case basis.

I should turn up here more often...

I don't see any problem with doing that, aside from the possibility of having different body parts at different AR due to incremental cyberware upgrading (ala Jim from the Bennedict game), pretty much exactly as Kinslayer says... Wouldn't be a huge loss though.

What might be an undesirably simplistic approach could be to have armor pieces add to the overall armor rating, so that players are still free to play dress-up with their characters.

To provide an example, Trogdor the Adventurer is wearing the following items:
Nanofiber Helmet (Armor value 10)
Flight Jacket (AV 2
Jeans (AV 1)
Right Bracer (AV 3)

His total Armor Ranking, then, would be 16, which is what is used in combat. All the accounting happens before (more or less; I could see a great battle ensuing where the PCs are up against a nigh unstoppable foe and have to attempt to remove his armor during combat to have a chance).

This, admittedly, would be slightly lacking in realism, as why should wearing a helmet make it harder for someone to stab you through the heart, but it sounds like called body part specific damage isn't really being used.