With this, base armor is 0. So having 2 chunks of normal armor grants 2 armor dice
Armor Points/Dice!
Nimlouth
#25
that was my first thought! but I’ve been using this rule for a while now and it works wonders, it is in my experience a lot more intuitive than “DnD” armor, specially for newbies. The main appeal for this is to be able to stack piles of armor, removing the normal cap of +10 and adding a “feeling” of absortion rather than deflection.
Still, armor as a bonus to defence also works perfectly!
Saulfire
#26
I have this dumb homebrew im experimenting with, in which when you roll for Attack, you roll your D20 + DWeapon + MOD (i have broad weapon categories with D4Light, D6/D8Medium, D10THICC) and then how much you went over the enemy’s Armor/Defense is how much damage you dealt, its probably awfully realized since luck is such a huge part in the statistic but haven’t run intro trouble yet…guessing is just because we dont do combat that much, but is the solution i found since i wanted to incorporate stats in combat instead of effort die, balance the fact that d4 weapons attack twice since the smaller dice mean you have less of a chance to hit each roll, and made it so heavy armor characters not only are hit less but hit for less which is probably broken? wouldn’t know
Ezzerharden
#27
Try Ezzerharden’s Optional Rules … hundreds of hacks from years of gameplay and forum archives. It includes the monster manual, books of Yoga vol 1 & 2, torton book of war, and lots more…
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkP1l1xZjKC2j-oudnEQMNNyQ0uqFQ?e=o3TrIS
Nimlouth
#28
You might want to take a look at Frostgrave, which is a fast and simple miniature skirmish wargame that plays with just a d20. For combat both opponents roll a d20+mods and the one higher not only hits, but also deals damage equal to the difference between both rolls.
Nimlouth
#29
I’ve used some Ezz’s rules a lot indeed! Like everyone of us tho, I did things my way in my games and slowly progressed into “House-Rules, the game” ending up with a plethora of small (and big) changes.
Nimlouth
#30
UPDATE!
I’ve been using this A LOT since I posted the first time , and I’m now having great success experimenting with replacing the use of d6s for armor reduction in favor of using a stat like STR/CON (Physique in my own games).
How: You absorb damage equal to your STR for each Armor Point spent.
Example: Oh crap I got hit for 6 damage! I spend 2 Armor points and soak 4 damage since I have +2 STR.
Why: This allows “physical” types of characters to make better use of armor more realistically (which really appeals me and my players as HEMA enthusiasts), and makes it more of a tactical “measurable” choice when hit in combat.
Cheers!
P_Frota
#33
Oh, this is great!
I’m coming to ICRPG after some time playing Dungeon World so that was the first rule I changed. When I GM I don’t roll dice, so I came up with a similar rule for my games. This is how we do it:
Armor as Damage Reduction and Defense Rolls
In this awesome variant, characters don’t have a fixed stat that determines how hard it is for monsters to hit them – in fact, the GM never rolls to hit characters. Also, Armor now grants an amount of damage reduction ( DR ), reducing the damage you take instead of making you harder to hit.
Armor as Damage Reduction
Armor does not increase how hard it is to hit you; instead, it simply reduces the amount of damage you take by its value. Any gear, loot, spell, power or rule that increases Armor in ICRPG now has half-strength in damage reduction (minimum +1). So, a piece of gear, loot, spell or power granting Armor +1 or +2 in ICRPG grants damage reduction 1. A piece of gear, loot, spell or power granting Armor +3 or +4 in ICRPG grants damage reduction 2 and so on. Just as the maximum armor you can have in the basic rules is +10 (ICRPG Core 2e, p. 26), the maximum amount of damage reduction from gear, loot, spells, and powers you can pile up is +6, what makes you virtually immune to normal Effort from basic work and weapons.
(Remember to give really tough and strong monsters a bonus on Weapon Effort if your characters have really good armor.)
Some pieces of gear, loot, spells, and powers might grant a certain amount of damage reduction or they might make more sense increase the character’s chances of avoiding damage altogether – a shield, for example, might not grant armor, but provide +2 bonus on defense rolls (see below).
Creatures, when deemed powerful enough, should also have some damage reduction – usually one-half of its bonus to CON rolls, if applicable. Only provide really powerful creatures with damage reduction. Minor opponents, even if they “wear armor” should not have damage reduction (the TARGET already encompasses how hard they are to hit and damage).
Revised Gear and Loot
Common Armor: Armor +1. One extra piece to add to your starting Armor . Remember as you gather more Armor items, a maximum of +6 Armor from items is all you can wear. This does NOT include Armor gained from your STAT. (ICRPG, p. 26)
Common Shield: Defense +2. Sure, it uses up a hand, weighs a ton, and makes a bunch of noise, but it sure can take a beating. Common Shields can be sacrificed to absorb HALF of one attack against you (before considering the damage reduction from your Armor ). This destroys the shield. (ICRPG, p. 26)
Shield Gloves. Add one-half your CON to Armor (round up). (ICRPG, p. 33)
Aegis of Stars. Armor (Tower Shield), +2 Armor (damage reduction) and +4 on Defense rolls ATTEMPTS , can automatically Block any ONE Attack against you each round without need for a roll, no undead creatures may come within CLOSE range of this artifact. (ICRPG, p. 58)
Mithril Vest. Armor, add +2 to all defense rolls as weapons bounce off your protection.
Defense Rolls
In this awesome variant, the GM never rolls for monsters to hit player characters. When a hero is attacked, the player might come up immediately with a good way to avoid damage in the narrative. If the GM considers the description valid in the narrative, a simple ATTEMPT with the most appropriate stat for the situation vs. the current TARGET .
The exact stat you’ll use depends on the fiction and circumstances. Sometimes you’ll use Strength to block or parry, Dexterity to dodge and wave out of harm’s way, Intelligence to position yourself in a smart way so that the danger misses you, Wisdom to have some sort of intuition about where the attack is going to hit, or even Charisma to make your opponent feel empathy for you! (Be creative but remember – if your choice is considered impossible by the GM, it automatically fails!)
These circumstances might make your ATTEMPT easy or hard. It might be a normal task to block the raider’s axe (a Strength defense roll) but easy to get out of the way (a Dexterity defense roll), hard to position yourself fast enough behind one of its allies (an Intelligence defense roll), and impossible to charm him with your innocence (a Charisma defense roll). Also, the relative power (modifiers) of a creature’s attack might change the TARGET, making an ATTEMPT easy or hard.
orkcol
#34
@Nimlouth I see you use Physique as a stat, do you change any of the others or just str +dex?
Nimlouth
#37
I don’t see why you couldn’t use basic effort for the same effect 
Also, I don’t think that a dedicated effort type only for damage absortion would do the job very well, but I might try this later
Like, I roll d20, I hit and then you roll your effort vs. my armor’s effort? 
Do give me news if it works or not! I like the idea but I never tried it myself!