RE: [dq-rules] Armor Skill

["Copley, Ron" <rcopley@huntingt.gannett.com>]

> Of course, fighting effectively in armor requires *some* 
> training, so I 
> guess you could give an additional penalty for characters who haven't 
> practiced. I guess a week or two of practice per armor type would be 
> sufficient to remove the "non-proficiency penalty", but you'd 
> still have 
> to deal with the weight. Someone in plate armor is going to 
> be severely 
> penalized enough by that that they don't need any other 
> handicaps on top 
> of it. The Armor skill only makes sense if you're ignoring 
> encumbrance 
> for armor worn and weapons wielded, in which case it would work.

I've been watching this and thought I'd thrown in my two drachmas. The way I'm seeing it is that the skill is more of an "armour familiarity" skill that represents having worn and fought in the armour before. Instead of using a skill, it could just be represented by a penalty that gradually tapers off as the individual uses the armour from day to day. A version of this has already been mentioned, I believe. However, I don't believe that the penalties already present represent any sort of familiarity with using any given type of armour. Certainly, the cloth and leather types that are just basically heavy clothing would not really count for this, but the more intricate types of banded, chain or plate armours would. Just because a character is strong and fast enough to wear armour without penalty does not mean that they're used to using it correctly. In lieu of a skill, I think the game mechanics would be better served with a decreasing penalty for using "unfamiliar" armour.

Cheers,
Ron