As a storyteller I always find WOD Treatment of armor leaves something to be desired. In games when armor is important to combat I implement the following system.
Please take this with a grain of salt as it is a house rules system. I have put quite a bit of work into play-testing to ensure that it is balanced however.
Armor is treated similar to health, in that it has 'levels' instead of a rating. To represent the various means of wear/effectiveness I write it up as follows.
**Trauma Plate**
Coverage - Torso
Dex Penalty - (-1)
Soak - Bashing/Lethal*
Soak - OOOO //Treated as added dice to the soak roll
Deflect - O //Any pre-soak damage below this threshold is deflected and does not
need to Be Soaked
Break - OOOO //Any Damage above this threshold results in a temporary *break point*
being added to the armor in question. When a piece of armor has no more break points
available to take damage it is considered beyond repair.**
ARMOR CAN BE BROKEN OUTRIGHT IF THE DAMAGE DEALT BY A SINGLE ATTACK IS EQUAL TO 4X IT'S BREAK RATING +1
I should also note that with this system I employ each break point on a piece of armor increases the Difficulty of soak rolls by +1 (this represents that the armor is damaged but less effective). Break damage also increases the difficulty of repair rolls to a piece of armor by +1 for each level. (Base Difficulty 6). Each break point requires 3 or more successes on a DEX + CRAFTS or DEX + REPAIR roll to be fixed.
I would strongly encourage anyone using this system to avoid applying any other penalties to damaged armor. The soak roll difficuly is there to reflect all the aspects of using broken armor. Weak spots, hindered movement, etc are all taken into account by this modifier.
*Damage is treated in the same way as health in this respect (Bashing = / | Lethal = X) A piece of armor always soaks the most traumatic damage by default. However; lesser damage is soaked at a -1 difficulty.
EXAMPLE:
A Fetish Helmet that soaks Bashing/Lethal/Aggravated soaks *Aggravated* damage by
default. Soak rolls are made at the standard difficulty of **6**. *Lethal* and
*Bashing* rolls are made at difficulty **5**
**Armor that is broken beyond repair can still be effective...but is usually more of a hinderane. In the example provided, a character wearing that armor would have the following stats in combat.
Dex: -1
Soak: Base +2
Difficulty: 9
At difficulty 9 it will be nearly impossible for a character to stay competitive. This encourages your players to keep their gear in good shape and to not get too comfortable with what they are wearing. It also encourages you as a storyteller to keep things interesting by offering exotic new gear with high break ratings and other features.
In regards to your statement regarding pen v. wall v. hammer .v wall a soak roll by very nature takes into account more than just durability. Consider the dice pool involved in a soak roll...
Stamina
Armor
Powers
Items +
--------
Soak Pool
It's a lot to consider for one roll. White Wolf made/makes storytelling games. The ambiguity is there for you as a storyteller to make things awesome. Or for you as a player to put in work.
If a soak roll barely fails you have the option as the storyteller to leave the character vulnerable or just a bit off balance.
If a soak roll passes dazzlingly you can boost your player's morale by playing it up in the narrative. Maybe the character's stance/posture/appearance all combined to make a War Hammer glancing off his breastplate ring across the battle ground and intimidating nearby enemies?
That's the key difference between Storytelling Games and Dungeon Mastering...Storytelling games lack in hard edged rules and systems but they make up for it in awesome potential for narrative and character development. WOD makes games that go beyond 'Swish, Click' "Where's my treasure."
