I can answer that: it's by BTRC (Blackburg Tactical Research Center). Author: Greg Porter.

Metal, Magic, and Lore does the damage reduction, also, with bruising still getting through. There are 43 hit locations, so armor-by-the-piece is key. And there are seven kinds of damage, with armor rated against each separately. Armor degrades over time. It has to fit correctly. It's pretty cool. Very crunchy, but fairly painless in play.

It's funny; at some point I wanted to turn D&D armor into a more 'realistic' system, and basically tried grafting GURPS' system in.

And what I found was that 'called shot to avoid armor' matched almost perfectly with 'AC,' with some fuzziness for layers of varying armor.

So there's a third option; armor as reduced chance to hit, because the assumption is that you are going to avoid the armored bits.

Quote from: WillIt's funny; at some point I wanted to turn D&D armor into a more 'realistic' system, and basically tried grafting GURPS' system in.

And what I found was that 'called shot to avoid armor' matched almost perfectly with 'AC,' with some fuzziness for layers of varying armor.

So there's a third option; armor as reduced chance to hit, because the assumption is that you are going to avoid the armored bits.

But there are lots of effects that still need to roll to hit that are totally unaffected by the armour's ability to protect from damage. Say hitting with a magic missile, or someone throwing acid, or hurling greek fire, or the attack of a rust monster... Because there are so many of these effects in D&D (and other RPGS needless to say) a system in which armour reduces your chance to hit is definitely at a disadvantage when looking at these type of effects. Combine with this the face that there are called shots (not sure about 3e or 4e to be honest) in D&D that avoid armour on top of the fact that armour reduces the chance to hit and you have  a bit of a kludge.
The D&D armour system is a hold over from its wargaming roots and as such would not be the choice for any designer coming at the situation afresh. Its especially true of the fantasy milieu where the hero (Conan, the Grey Mouser, Aragorn, Tarl Cabbot etc) rarely wears full armour instead relyingon skill and swordmanship to avoid getitng hit.

Quote from: WillSo there's a third option; armor as reduced chance to hit, because the assumption is that you are going to avoid the armored bits.

Case in point: Touch AC.

Stu2000,

Metal, Magic, and Lore definitely has my interest.  43 hit locations you say?  That's intriguing and frightening all at the same time.

Quote from: wulfgarI've never heard of CORP before. What kind of game is it and who makes it?

Like Elliot said.  Here's a direct link to the CORPS nutshell PDF that gives a short summary of the rules.  It's excellent for gritty/realistic style rules.  It rapidly teaches you to avoid combat if at all possible, as it is possible to die from a single hit, if it's good enough.  Although it works for any genre, it does best with modern/SF style games.  

Most of Greg's attention is on his newer system, EABA, which is somewhat more cinematic and not as gritty as CORPS.  I need to refresh my memory on the EABA combat rules, at the moment I can't seem to remember exactly how they work.  I believe they take a more standard damage-reduction approach, though.

Quote from: wulfgarStu2000,

Metal, Magic, and Lore definitely has my interest.  43 hit locations you say?  That's intriguing and frightening all at the same time.

I really wish I had a website for reference. 5th Epoch is completely rebuilding their site at the moment. They have a very nice, professionally illustrated and well-designed basic book. It's hard to find it at the moment. My flgs has three copies.

There is very little innovation in the rules. It's a percentile, mostly skill-based system, with much in common with games like RuneQuest or Rolemaster. However--the armor system really stands out as an area of intense interest for the designers.They describe armor in crisp detail, they have rules for layering and customizing armor, rules for sizing and differences in quality and styles among peoples. They have the intimidating hit location chart and different probabilities of hitting locations depending on the attacker's stance.

Weapons do several different types of damage and armor protects differently against them. If your chain protects you from getting cut, you'll likely still take impact bruising.

It's the best game I've played for getting into the head of a character who feels like his life depends on his armor. The detail helped it feel more real to me.

Of course, you have to pay attention in play to work that kind of detail, but I like that kind of game. Combat is definitely slower than other modes of play, but I don't mind. I like tactical play. And for all the detail, combat isn't really that slow. On par with RQ and RM. Faster, with practice. FWIW.

On a related note, I was reading the book Infidels http://www.amazon.com/Infidels-History-Conflict-Between-Christendom/dp/0812972392/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210599126&sr=8-3 last night, and the chapter I was on gave a really vivid depiction of the power of armor in combat.  Frankish Knights in chain mail hauberks down to their knees were incredibly hard to kill.  The line that really sticks in my memory talked about warriors bristling with arrows looking like hedgehogs.