1.12.4.3 Head armour

The following types of armour or clothing are worn on the head.

As well as the same attributes as Body armour, all items of Head Armour are rated with an PE penalty. Wearing Head armour reduces the character's ability to see and hear, and so the character gets a penalty on all dice rolls that involve PE.

Type Cost Weight Protection value (Head) Protection value (Eyes) Protection value (Throat) PE penalty Equipment size
Cloth hood/hat 2d 0.5 kg 1 0 1 -1/2 W/M
Leather hood/hat 6d 1 kg 2 0 1 -1/2 W/M
Wood/leather helmet 1s 1.5 kg 4 0 2 -1 W/M
Open metal helmet 3s 2.5 kg 6 0 3 -1 W/M
Open metal helmet with guards 6s 3.5 kg 8 2 6 -1 W/M
Closed metal helmet 10s 5 kg 10 8 10 -3 W/M
Visored metal helmet 25s 5 kg 12/8 8/0 12/8 -3/-1 W/M

Metal helmets are usually made from steel. They may be made from other materials, which affects their cost, weight and protection.

The different types of armour/clothing are described below:

Cloth hood/hat: This type of head adornment provides little protection against weapons, but does keep out the elements and may be fashionable.

Leather hood/hat: This is a thicker hood or hat made from leather or furs. As well as keeping out the elements, it provides more protection against blows.

Leather/wood helmet: This is a hard wood or cuirboilli helmet, covering the character's head but not his face. It may or may not have horns.

Open metal helmet: This is a metal helmet, covering the character's head but not his face. The helmet may optionally have a helmet plume.

Open metal helmet with guards: This is an open helmet but improved with added metal cheek protectors, neck protection and/or nasal guard.

Closed metal helmet: This is a full metal helmet, covering all the character's head and face. The character sees out through an eye slit and breathes through air holes.

Visored helmet: This is a knight's helmet, a full helmet with a face plate or visor that can be worn up or down. When the face plate is down, the helmet functions like a closed helmet with the character getting full face protection but having to see through eye slits. With the visor up, the character can see better but has less protection.