How long to don armor?

By seanpp, in Dark Heresy Second Edition Beta

Posted at

How long does it take for a character to put on their armor?

This is a question that's come up before & I'm interested in getting others take on it. It's a mundane question until you're putting on your armor in tactical and it matters.

One might initially be thinking, "Don't you just...put on a cloak in seconds?" Perhaps, but one would assume an armored cloak or vest needs fasteners to stay in place during combat maneuvers and while taking fire - those fasteners might take 20 seconds, 60 seconds or 180 seconds...which is pretty fast...but, of course, is 4 combat Rounds, 20 combat Rounds & 60 combat Rounds, respectively.

Imperial Guard Flak Armor?

Enforcer Light Carapace?

Light Power Armor?

Flak Cloak?

Flak Vest?

Armored Bodyglove?

Heavy Leathers?

Chainmail Suit?

Feudal World Plate?

Any other kinds of armor that I haven't listed but others have opinions on?

Posted at

IG Flak Armour: 2-5 mins

Enforcer light Carapace: 5+ mins

Light Power Armour: 15+ mins

Flak Cloak and Vest: <1 min

Armoured Bodyglove: 2-5 mins

Heavy Leathers: 2-5 mins

Chainmail Suit: 5-10 mins

Feudal Full Plate: 15+ mins alone, 10 with help

Thats hastily putting them on, not really paying attention to fit and gear stoarge.

Posted at

Appreciate the help segara82.

Using that input, here's what I decided on:

If hurrying, this is the time it takes to don armor:

Imperial Guard Flak Armor : 5 minutes

This is a single suit of ballistic armor (tho boots & head-piece are separate) but involves multiple layers that strap and fasten around various parts of the body.
Boots : It includes boots, which has armor built-in, but they are separate from the suit. To just put on & lace up the boots it’ll take 60 seconds & afford 1 AP to the legs. (Which reflects same armor but much less coverage than the suit.)
Head-piece : Note that the “Flak Helmet” is 2 AP and this one with the IG suit is 4 AP. That’s because it is both better armor and better coverage. Unlike the Flak Helmet, it covers most of the face and it’s integrated with the suit, thereby affording better coverage to the throat region. It can be detached from the suit, but it can’t be just “put on” and “taken off” like a helmet. The head-piece can’t be donned without the suit, because it's made to fit into and attach to the body suit - which, unlike the Flak Helmet, is what affords the excellent coverage.
Attaching/Detaching the integrated head-piece from the suit takes 30 seconds if you’re not wearing the suit at the time – double that if you’re wearing the suit at the time.
Donning just the bottom half of IG Flak Armor suit can be done, but takes three minutes to don both pants and boots. Having the top half of the suit hanging there (head-piece cannot be attached while it's hanging there) reduces character’s agility by 5.
Enforcer Light Carapace : 7 minutes
It’s a suit with integrated head-piece. Due to the interlocking nature of the various pieces, the whole thing must be worn or none of it. Head-piece attaching/detaching times are the same for IG Flak Armor above.
Armoured Bodyglove : 2 minutes
It's a one-piece (not including head-sock) very-skin-tight glove but this armored version is notably thicker than the simple "neoprene" version. That makes it a bit hard to work with - think of a wet wetsuit - which is where most of the time goes in donning it (and 2 minutes is actually pretty quick). Head-sock is a separate piece & completely covers the face save for eyeholes.
Head-sock - Part of the head-sock is tucked underneath the body portion of the glove. If one is just wearing the bodysuit, but then wants to put on the head-sock - that takes 20 seconds to don.
All Flak Cloaks : 1.5 minutes
This is more than a “coat”, or else the lower portion of it would flap around significantly during combat operations. There are a series of straps on the legs that make it fit like more like secured pants – but appearance-wise, it looks like a cloak…and hence the name.
Flak Vest : 30 seconds
Heavy Leathers : 1 minute
There really aren't any straps to mess with &, as a result, it doesn't really stay in place during combat operations very well...which contributes to the low AP.
Light Power Armor : 20 minutes; 15 minutes with help.
Posted at

For actual times I would go with the above. For gaming purposes though, in structured time, I would allow a player to don any kind of "Vest", Cloak or Coat in one round of structured time. Said character could add a Helmet as a Second full round option.

Otherwise it's not possible in combat.

Posted at

Appreciate your input Radwraith.

I'm looking at two factors for Armor Protection - both how resistant the material is to attack and the coverage of the item. These items have to stay in place during combat operations, including running and diving, or else their AP should be reduced for the item flapping or sliding all over the place.

To wit, a Flak Vest could certainly be "thrown" over the head in a 5 second combat round - but is it then going to stay in place in the middle of a sword fight, as it flaps around unfastened?

I think that term "cloak" is misleading, because it implies a jacket you just throw on. I have a duster jacket that could also be called a "Cloak" and if I ran or dived in that duster the leg flaps would be all over the place, leaving my legs & even waist exposed often. I've seen dusters/cloaks with leg straps - and that's what I think we're talking about with the armor being terms a "cloak", except the armor leg straps would need to be not for fashion, but secure like the straps on a Flak Vest.

If a player really wants to just throw a Flak Vest over his head and ignore the straps, then I'd reduce the Vest from it's normal 3 down to 1 or 2, because of the reduced coverage as it slides/flaps around.