Does Body Armor & Helmet stack?

[Merudo]

The Keeper's Guide, page 125 list the values of some armor.

Interestingly, the U.S. helmet provides 5 points of armor, and the Military Body Armor provides 12 points of armor.

Does this mean that someone wearing both would get 17 points of armor?

With so much armor it seems most Mythos Creatures could only scratch the investigators. Or am I reading the rules wrong?

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Merudo

[andyl]

3 hours ago, Merudo said:

The Keeper's Guide, page 125 list the values of some armor.

Interestingly, the U.S. helmet provides 5 points of armor, and the Military Body Armor provides 12 points of armor.

Does this mean that someone wearing both would get 17 points of armor?

With so much armor it seems most Mythos Creatures could only scratch the investigators. Or am I reading the rules wrong?

No. If the creature attacks the head you only have 5 points of armour. If it attacks the body you have 12 points.

Yep it is still a lot of armour - but then I don't run military campaigns (this sort of stuff isn't available to civvies, or if it is it isn't stuff you walk around in - the cops get nervous).

If you know you are going to have a military campaign then you choose your mythos creatures accordingly. Don't go for frontal assaults but use spells and special attacks. A Byakhee draining your blood doesn't care about armour. A Fire Vampire doesn't care about your guns and its damage ignores armour and so on. Plus if the investigators feel invulnerable the more likely they are to stand and fight and suffer SAN loss and go insane.

[klecser]

I'm just curious as to how you see that going. 

Someone puts on a helmet...

And then puts a helmet on top of the first helmet?

Why would a helmet on your head stack with armor on your body? What games do you know of where a head piece stacks with a body piece?

[mvincent]

17 hours ago, Merudo said:

Interestingly, the U.S. helmet provides 5 points of armor, and the Military Body Armor provides 12 points of armor.

Does this mean that someone wearing both would get 17 points of armor?

No, but I can see the confusion, since the normal rules don't have hit locations, yet indicates armor applies only when the damage passes through it.

Probably best to assume Full military body armor includes a helmet, so you don't have to deal with hit locations. 12 points is still pretty darn amazing armor that many Mythos creatures are unlikely to scratch. It still probably won't save you though, in the end.

9 hours ago, klecser said:

What games do you know of where a head piece stacks with a body piece?

I've actually seen that in GURPS, D&D,  MMUD's, MMORPG's... it seems fairly common in RPG's that combine helmets with an absence of hit locations (which CoC does). Armor pieces in those systems often add a small amount each to your overall armor value (CoC does not do that... but it's hard to find where the rules indicate such).

Edited June 19, 2019 by mvincent

[klecser]

3 hours ago, mvincent said:

I've actually seen that in GURPS, D&D,  MMUD's, MMORPG's... it seems fairly common in RPG's that combine helmets with an absence of hit locations (which CoC does). Armor pieces in those systems often add a small amount each to your overall armor value (CoC does not do that... but it's hard to find where the rules indicate such).

I know what you're referring to. In DND, for example, AC boosts. I've always viewed damage reduction to have a very clear implication that is fairly universally applied across many games. Damage reduction subtracted from damage. And in that case, stacking DR for armor worn on completely separate parts of the body seems completely strange to me.

[Mugen]

7 hours ago, klecser said:

I know what you're referring to. In DND, for example, AC boosts. I've always viewed damage reduction to have a very clear implication that is fairly universally applied across many games. Damage reduction subtracted from damage. And in that case, stacking DR for armor worn on completely separate parts of the body seems completely strange to me.

Well, in StormBringer a plate armor is 1d10-1 or 1d10+2 depending on whether you wear a helmet or not.
One may argue that rolling 0 to 2 in one case, and 10 to 12 in the other is a hit to the head.

But you can roll 0 to your armor roll and get a Major Wound to the leg.

[General Kong]

Since Cthulhu normally does not use hit locations (and introducing them - for monsters, too -  makes the game more complicated I would either just add some AP to the vest (+2 for the helmet so that the total is 14) or I would "tarslate" armor the Stormbringer-way:

1D12 (for the vest) plus 1D6-1 (0-5) for the helmet = 1-17 points of armor.