Cumulative Encumbrance Penalty and Armor Layering

[HreshtIronBorne]

I am a little fuzzy on the intent of armor layering. Specifically the ** notes for leather armors in the chart which state

** Can be worn under any other armor, with a cumulative encumbrance penalty. Instead of leather, this could also be quilted or thick cloth. It has the same 
qualities as described for leather.

I haven't seen anywhere that describes a cumulative penalty and the chart shows all the leather pieces weighing 0 ENC. Wouldn't everyone want to wear some form of clothes if they are weightless and 1AP?

The description of 

Linothorax, Quilted: This armor covers the chest and 
abdomen, and is made up of several layers of quilted leather. 
It can be worn underneath other armor. Price: 20 L.

States that it can be worn under armor, but the chart shows nothing to indicate this. 

How much armor can a warrior get strapped into? 

I cureently have a starter Humakti that is wearing a Linothorax, Quilted and a compliment of leathers (trews 1ap 0ENC, vambraces 1AP 0ENC, and cap 1AP .5ENC) under his starting armor (p. 71 Heavy Infantry  Heavy scale hauberk (5 pts. protection) or 
disk plate cuirass (5 pts. protection) and studded leather 
skirt (3 pts. protection), plate greaves and vambraces (6 pts. 
protection), closed helmet (5 pts. protection). He ends up at 8 in the abdomen, 6 in the head, and 7 everywhere else, right? What does he end up weighing in at? 

[Pentallion]

For your example, you are correct if you took the hauberk instead of cuirass and skirt.  You end up weighing in at 8.5 encumbrance.  But no idea if or how to calculate the encumbrance penalty for overlapping leather pants with a hauberk and linothorax. 

 

The way I read it, you could wear a Quilted Linothorax covering chest and abdomen.  A heavy leather Hauberk covering same.  Then you could wear heavy leather pants with leather pants underneath.  All of this would weigh 3 encumbrance (quilted=1, hauberk=1, pants=1).   You'd have 4 armor in chest, 7 armor in Abdomen and 3 armor in legs.

But I agree, nowhere can I find where it says how to calculate any encumbrance penalty for wearing 4 pieces of armor over the abdomen.

Let's say you wanted to put on your Big Boy armor.  Plate greaves, leather pants, quilted Linothorax and Heavy Scale Hauberk.  That weighs encumbrance 6 (scale=3, lino=1, plate=2).  You'd have 7 armor chest, 8 armor abdomen and 7 armor legs.

And again, no clue how to calculate any encumbrance penalty if any for wearing three pieces of armor over the abdomen.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Pentallion

[SDLeary]

This sounds like its another cut-and-paste artifact. In RQ3, you could wear soft armor under stiff armor, and the ENC for the soft armor was doubled.

SDLeary

[Atgxtg]

Leather could be worn under other armors in RQ2, and most pieces did have some encumbrance, typically  1 ENC per 2 items, and you just stacked it with the outer armor. The logic being that, realistically, you want padding under the armor to absorb impact and prevent chafing.

 

Linen Armor (linothroax) is usually considered to be stiff and hard ( and real world ones were often lined with metal) and it wasn't wearable under other armors in RQ2 (but you could wear 2 point leather under it for armor that provides good protection, is  lightweight, low cost, and quiet). I think SDLeary is right, and having the liniothrax be wearable under other armor is a cut & paste artifact error from early editions of RQ2. I believe it's in my RQ2 book, but it's definitely not in the Classic Edition. 

[styopa]

Considering that the effort here is to make RQG streamlined and simpler, I think it's a lot easier to say "that 6 point piece of armor already includes necessary and optimal underpadding". 

If people really want to overlay, just make the penalty so heinous it's prohibitive: 3x ENC for nonrigid armors, 5x ENC for rigid, with (something like) 2x penalty to all physical movement skills including attacks.

[Atgxtg]

33 minutes ago, styopa said:

Considering that the effort here is to make RQG streamlined and simpler, I think it's a lot easier to say "that 6 point piece of armor already includes necessary and optimal underpadding". 

Yes it is. But that's not the way RQ has traditionally done it, or, apparently, how RQG does it now.  IMO, I think they should have just added the padding into the AP and ENC values,  With the average SIZ being 13 and most human characters getting a +1D4 db, I think they could have used the extra point or two of padding. In my experience nobody ever wanted to pass up on the padding anyway. It's cheap, and light. If ENC is a problem, then characters were always better off going with a lighter armor over the padding than to go without the padding.

Armor is rather inexpensive in RQ2/RQG anyway. And I don't think RQG characters will feel the same sort of money crunch that starting RQ2 characters did. Starting characters don't take loans from the Guilds anymore, do they?