# Armour of the Powder Age
*The Black Powder Armory, Firearms, Blades, and Armour for Exodus NDS, 1400 to 1938. Source: https://exodusnds.com/sourcebooks/black-powder-armory/armour-of-the-powder-age*
Armour did not vanish when the gun arrived. It got thicker, then shorter, then it was a breastplate and a helmet, and by 1700 most soldiers wore neither. This chapter covers what was still worn, and what came back in the trenches of 1915.
The rules are those of *The Armourer*, and they are complete here.
**Resistance** is added to the wearer's Resistance. No armour adds more than +3. **Melee Defense** and **Ranged Defense** add Bane Dice to attacks of that kind.
**Deflecting X (type)**: attacks of that damage type add X Bane Dice. Deflecting from all sources does not stack above 2.
**Vulnerable X (type)**: against attacks of that type, reduce this armour's Resistance bonus by X, to a minimum of 0. Resistance from Might is never reduced. Natural attacks do not trigger Vulnerable.
**Cumbersome X** on armour: the wearer needs Might X, or adds Bane Dice equal to the shortfall to every physical check. Add the full rating as Bane Dice to Stealth and to swimming.
**Helm X**: reduce Critical Injury rolls against the wearer by X times 10.
Every firearm in this book deals **Ballistic** damage.
## Older Armour Against Firearms
A table using *The Armourer* alongside this book applies one rule.
**Armour made before the gun is Vulnerable 1 (Ballistic).** This covers every medieval body armour in *The Armourer* with a Resistance bonus of +2 or more: brigandine, mail, scale, lamellar, coat of plates, half-plate, and full plate. The padded jack and the leather jerkin are unaffected; they were never going to stop a ball.
This is why the knight's harness was put away. It is one more Vulnerable, on armour that already had one.
A sailor going overboard in a cuirass drowns. On a ship, most people wear a coat.
##### Buff Coat
Buff jerkin, elk-hide coat
+1
0
0
2
150
Common
1400
Deflecting 1 (Cutting)
A thick coat of oil-tanned hide. It turns a sword cut and does nothing for a ball. Cavalry wore it alone once the cuirass became too heavy to be worth it.
##### Munition Cuirass
Breast and back, pikeman's corslet
+2
0
0
3
300
Military
1400
Deflecting 1 (Cutting), Deflecting 1 (Thrusting), Vulnerable 1 (Ballistic), Cumbersome 2
A plain breastplate and backplate from the arsenal. It stops a blade and a pike. A musket ball goes through it: **Vulnerable 1 (Ballistic)**.
##### Proofed Cuirass
Pistol-proof cuirass, cuirassier's breastplate
+2
0
0
4
900
Rare
1400
Deflecting 1 (Cutting), Deflecting 1 (Thrusting), Deflecting 1 (Ballistic), Cumbersome 2
A thicker breastplate tested by firing a pistol at it. The dent left by the proof shot is the maker's guarantee. It is the only armour of the period that deflects Ballistic attacks, and it is heavy and three times the price.
##### Three-Quarter Armour
Cuirassier armour, lobster armour
+3
0
0
6
1400
Rare
1400
Deflecting 2 (Cutting), Deflecting 1 (Thrusting), Vulnerable 1 (Crushing), Vulnerable 1 (Ballistic), Cumbersome 3
Plate from the helmet to the knee, the last full armour worn in war. It is superb against steel and it is the reason pistols were carried in pairs: it has two Vulnerables, and a ball finds one of them.
##### Pot Helmet
Morion, lobster-tail pot, cabasset, zischagge
+0
0
0
1
60
Common
1400
Helm 1
An open steel helmet. **Helm 1**: reduce Critical Injury rolls against the wearer by 10.
##### Silk Vest
Bulletproof waistcoat, Zeglen vest
+1
0
0
1
800
Rare
1840
Concealable 2, Deflecting 1 (Ballistic)
Many layers of tightly woven silk, sold from the 1880s to men who expected to be shot at close range. It works against the slow, soft bullets of the time.
##### Steel Trench Helmet
Brodie helmet, Adrian helmet, Stahlhelm
+0
0
0
1
40
Military
1840
Helm 1
A pressed steel helmet issued from 1915 against shrapnel. **Helm 1**. This is the Steel Helmet of *The Armourer*.
##### Trench Armour
Brewster body shield, Sappenpanzer, sentry armour
+3
0
0
7
1200
Military
1840
Deflecting 1 (Ballistic), Deflecting 1 (Blast), Cumbersome 4
Articulated steel plates for sentries and machine-gun crews, from 1916. It needs Might 4, and nobody advances in it.
##### Boilerplate
Ploughshare armour, bushranger's armour
+2
0
0
8
100
Rare
1840
Deflecting 2 (Ballistic), Cumbersome 4
Armour beaten from plough mouldboards or boiler plate by a blacksmith. It stops pistol and rifle fire on the chest and head. It needs Might 4, and it does not cover the legs: an attacker may aim low, adding 2 Bane Dice and ignoring the armour entirely.