Mundain Armor and when to apply it.

[Kiero]

One thing to keep in mind is that toughness powers are allways on, armor has to be worn. Getting attacked in your bathtub, good luck without powers...
Walking arround all the time in military grade equipment also invokes suspicion so he should walk arroudn in it all the time. Murphy or Sanya only wear armor when they know the wade into battle not when walking to get a newspaper.

This bears repeating. Armour is inconvenient for a number of reasons, not least that you have to think ahead to make sure you have it on, and it's both bulky and not as comfortable as simple clothing. Compare that to people with Inhuman Toughness, who often have it on all the time at no discomfort. So there's hardly a "saving" there by having mundane armour.

That's without getting into all the problems both owning and wearing body armour can cause you in most civilised countries (where it's ownership is often strictly controlled).

Something else worth mentioning; kevlar is usually designed either to stop bullets or blades, not both. A stab jacket has a different composition to a bullet-resistant one. British police, for example, routinely wear stab vests to protect them from knives (and screwdrivers, etc), but they don't wear bullet-resistant ones.

[Silverblaze]

I keep it far simpler than worrying about when to apply it.

I keep armor statistics low in games I run, then simply apply it to everything - or everything but a few scenarios where armor won't help at all, regardless of type.

Why?

Simplicity.

Realism is great until it bogs down a game or overcomplicates my fun.

[Todjaeger]

Actually in the campaign I'm in (which is set in Connecticut, USA) assuming the players are smart and don't have their characters do stupid things, there wouldn't be much difficulty with them having & owning body armor.

Granted, some levels of protection are restricted to law enforcement or military personnel but for low levels of stab, ballistic or blunt force trauma protection, it is completely legal for an ordinary civilian to have.  In CT what gets difficult is that such armor can only be purchased in person unless you are LE/Mil, or have it issued by your department (which used to happen to some ambulance crews).

Now some of the lower level protective vests Type IIA, Type II and even a few Type IIIA are specifically designed to be worn in public without being obvious as body armor.  Some are compact enough to be worn under normal clothing, other vests are designed and built into things like
jackets: http://www.bulletproofme.com/Ballistic_Clothing.shtml
and windbreakers: http://www.securityprousa.com/bujaleiiprwi.html

Because of that, as long as whatever the character is wearing is weather & climate appropriate, they won't suffer too much grief about it.  Even in the novels, Harry ended up commenting a number of times about how he would wear his duster in the summer due to the danger, and suffer the heat effects (hello Aspect...) as well as the occasional odd look from people.

What's important from my POV is that the table agree on how things will run and that they be treated that way in a logical and consistent manner.

Realism is great until it bogs down a game or overcomplicates my fun.

Quite true, though the realism can also add to the fun as well, and sometimes the lack of realism ends up detracting from the game.  Case in point, when Sleepy Hollow was run, one of the players had a character that was a Red Court Infected with Inhuman Strength and Inhuman Speed.  Now this was the campaign start, and the player wanted to have a sword which his character would carry around with him under his jacket like in the Highlander TV series...  When it was pointed out to the player that there isn't a way to effectively conceal something as long as a sword on ones person and that the first cop who say the character was going to spot and search them to find out what that long rigid object they had was...  The player's response was that if any NPC tried to take it away from his character would just slaughter them.  In this case, the way the player ran their character ended up detracting from the game a little since aside from sociopaths, people don't state that if someone tries to do their job, they'll be killed.
-Cheers

[Kiero]

Our game is set in Britain (starting in earnest tomorrow!), there is no level of weapons or armour that is legal for a civilian to own. Even things like collapsible batons are only available to serving law enforcement.

[Todjaeger]

Our game is set in Britain (starting in earnest tomorrow!), there is no level of weapons or armour that is legal for a civilian to own. Even things like collapsible batons are only available to serving law enforcement.

Body armor for low level blunt force should still be available.  It's what motorcyclists, especially those who race, wear when riding.  Not much good against guns or blades, but could certainly help if being punched or clubbed by someone.

As for weapons, there are always sporting implements like golf clubs (stick with the irons, not wood or graphite) or bats.  Granted bowling someone over with a bat isn't exactly cricket but it would be effective.

-Cheers

[CottbusFiles]

Our game is set in Britain (starting in earnest tomorrow!), there is no level of weapons or armour that is legal for a civilian to own. Even things like collapsible batons are only available to serving law enforcement.

and this is what i think is running Dresden Files in Europe so interesting. Guns is a skill that comes with a LOT more baggage here.

[Kiero]

Body armor for low level blunt force should still be available.  It's what motorcyclists, especially those who race, wear when riding.  Not much good against guns or blades, but could certainly help if being punched or clubbed by someone.

As for weapons, there are always sporting implements like golf clubs (stick with the irons, not wood or graphite) or bats.  Granted bowling someone over with a bat isn't exactly cricket but it would be effective.

-Cheers

I suppose if you don't mind being hot and uncomfortable all the time, biker leathers might be an option.

As for weapons, you can't carry any of those around "for self defense"; indeed "self defense" isn't recognised as a justification for carrying any weapon or item that could be used as a weapon. Now if you happen to have all your sporting equipment in the boot of the car, and look dressed to be engaging in that sport, you might get away with it.

[zenten]

I suppose if you don't mind being hot and uncomfortable all the time, biker leathers might be an option.

As for weapons, you can't carry any of those around "for self defense"; indeed "self defense" isn't recognised as a justification for carrying any weapon or item that could be used as a weapon. Now if you happen to have all your sporting equipment in the boot of the car, and look dressed to be engaging in that sport, you might get away with it.

If you're willing to risk getting killed by some monster by fighting them (even if they jump you it's because you're behaving like a PC instead of staying as far away from trouble as possible), why aren't you willing to risk some cop spotting your weapon?

[The Mighty Buzzard]

I suppose if you don't mind being hot and uncomfortable all the time, biker leathers might be an option.

As for weapons, you can't carry any of those around "for self defense"; indeed "self defense" isn't recognised as a justification for carrying any weapon or item that could be used as a weapon. Now if you happen to have all your sporting equipment in the boot of the car, and look dressed to be engaging in that sport, you might get away with it.

Yeah, biker leathers might do armor 1 vs edged and blunt if they were padded.

In the US, walking around in a full suit of plate would get you marked as a complete nutter and likely hassled by the cops but you wouldn't spend jail time for it.  Dunno about over in GB.  Is extremely outdated armor as illegal as the modern stuff?

[Silverblaze]

If you're willing to risk getting killed by some monster by fighting them (even if they jump you it's because you're behaving like a PC instead of staying as far away from trouble as possible), why aren't you willing to risk some cop spotting your weapon?

Exactly.

Criminals do it every day in every country of the world.  Not all of them get caught, obviously.  Therefore, I argue that there is no baggage added.  If a police opfficer spots you beating on anyone, supernatural or not...last I checked that is assault.  Using a weapon is generally assumed to be attempted murder.  Adding a gun charge really isn't causing much more damage to one's rap sheet (as far as punishments go).  Hence the reason criminals still carry guns.  In that line of work, it is safer than not having one.

Lets face it armor applies here too.  In any case one can veil weapons/armor or glamour them.