I should note what others added for Iridium:

Armor: Ablative, separated into ten areas supplying different Fortitude for different types (Chain supplies more than leather), Heavier armor decreases Defense (chance to be hit on a d20) making it easier to be hit;i.e. wear heavier armor makes you slower and easier to hit, Shields cover a roving but fixed number of areas, Shields may be used to parry.

Basic Mechanic: To attack one rolls a d20 (multiple times depending on the number of attacks a weapon has) and is attempting to get at or above the opponent's Defense ((STR+AGL+CON)/3). (Opponent may attempt a parry negating hits in the order incoming)  If successful, then roll targeting for each attack that hits. Natural 20 is a critical meaning automatic targeting and max damage. A second roll may be taken on percentiles to determine if a critical effect is produced.

Bill

This article is probably worth reading, even if you don't agree with all of the assumptions and conclusions.

That was a pretty insightfull article. Thanks.
After reading that, and having a discussion with my friends this weekend we discussed the big question.

What do YOU want armor to be?
Alot of them sort of were on the same page that they felt that armor shouldn't increase your ability to not get hit, but should absorb blows. However there should be some sort of deflection into it or something to that fact.  After a long talk here is what I took away from it.

#1. Armor is there to cusion the blows
#2. Certain weapons are effective against certain armor
#3. Heavy armor should have some movment limits but shouldn't be as restrictive as other games make it out to be.

So I got to thinking about this armor thread, and the options I have.
So here is where I think I stand at the moment.

Armor gives you HP on top of your HP. Everytime you are reduced to 0 HP or take 50% or more of your maxiumum Hit points, it's benift reduces by 1.
Armor takes additional damage from certain types of weapons. Example: Leather armor gives a slight amount of HP, and is weak against /Slashing/Percing weapons.
Plate gives more HP but weak against /Bludgeoning/Percing weapons.
How we translate that into the game setting will be bonus damage to weapons against their armor counterparts. So what happens is that someone who uses a longsword against plate, will take off hit points normally, but if they have a can opener kind of weapon it does more damage.

Its kind of nebulious right now , and sloppy but the basic idea is there.
Secondly, I find it quite intresting about giving weapons an ability to give you an AC bonus as apposed armor, which gives you just protection (Or hit points in this case) Any other game systems that have tied mechanics to ac into weapons, instead of armor? It kind of eludes to reach being a driving mechanic as well, which is sorta cool.

Finally I dont think alot of games regard ranged defense or its effects on the game. Since I think it would be to complicated for to have two to hit numbers (one for melee one for ranged) There need to be some sort of special rules in place. Thats where im looking at next to work on.

I really like the ide of degrading armor when you get to zero HP.  It makes sense and is a pretty easy rule application point to remember.  I'd keep forgetting to do it if it was at 50% HP loss.

From experience when we used to (years and years ago) use armor that can degrade, and these proto-ideas look like some potentially rapid degradation, is that carrying extra armor is going to become all the rage.


On types of weapon damage (slash, bludgeon etc.) this can work but from a historical prospective, plate was leather plus.  That is it provided superior protection against all weapons.  At least superior to other armors.   Heavier, and thus slower, weapons with the force more concentrated were designed to deal with it.  

In a game, I might balance plate by having it lower someones initiative and of course it weighs more so you can carry that much less gold, weapons etc.

You could even have heavy armor give a good HP increse but decrease your defense a bit.  Your not an encumbered sitting duck but you are a bit slower than if you didn't have any armor.  Getting even more refined, you could make this defense edit: decrease greater for someone not trained to fight in the heavy armor.

A good wounding/ armor system is hard to come by.

I say it's crucial to feel the pain of your character (meaning: every blow you take could be meaningful) without making it ridiculously dangerous.

Armor should, in most cases either block potential damage entirely or not. "Cushioning" the blow should be a weaker factor. Although there are systems which are OK balanced with that. (Earthdawn had a good soaking armour-system, which was average in itself, but well balanced. Also, weapon damage was open ended, so a dagger could potentially kill a plate armor guy)

German "Arcane Codex" has a nice wounding system, but fails to support it with the rest of the design. It's almost tragic, such potential...

Wounding & Armor was BY FAR the very weakest part of Shadowrun (my god was it shitty!).
 I nearly felt the need to use a smiley to express my harsh feelings for it. Breath deep, it's OK, Einzelgaenger, it's OK, ...