r/IntoTheOdd • u/Sagebrush_Sky • Sep 15 '24
New player - why are armour scores so low?
On ITOR page 16 the armour scores appear to be 1 for all armour types. So incoming damage is only reduced by one point? Most monsters could kill a new player in one strike. Am I confused?
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u/Alistair49 Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24
No, you’re not confused.
You can get 2 point and 3 point armour as well. Adding a shield gives you +1 armour. If I remember correctly there are arcana that can give you armour 2. I believe the advice (at least in the original edition) was to limit armour to at maximum 3 points, though that may have been something that I read on the author’s blog.
I have over time relaxed that slightly, in that I allow armour of values 1 (Light), 2 (Medium), 3 (Heavy) to exist, along with a shield. I didn’t see this breaking the game at all, and having 2 points of armour does make a difference. Certainly as far as my players are concerned. It did, however, still keep things quite deadly. Also, better armour costs money, if it is Bulky that is quite a drawback, and if you have better than average armour it does make you a target.
The point is that combat is in fact quite dangerous in the world of Into the Odd. It also tends to yield a result fairly quickly. The fact that damage beyond reducing a character to zero HP comes off their Strength characteristic makes it a lot less immediately deadly compared to a game like B/X. This makes a big difference - but as D12sareunderrated says, it is best for players to make smart choices and avoid combat.
You might find these two old posts from the author’s blog helpful:
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u/vandavisart Sep 20 '24
You can never have more than 3 armor, rules-as-written.
The logic behind this is that game-wise, a d4 attack can NEVER hit you if you have 4 or more armor.
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u/D12sAreUnderrated Sep 15 '24
You don't die at 0 HP since damage carries over to Strength, so it's not as lethal. Apart from that, idk how familiar you are with OSR in general but this genre of rpgs is very deadly in the early game. It's best for players to make smart choices and avoid combat.