Armor reduces the damage from an attack by its dice value. If a character is hit while wearing armor, roll dice equal to that armor’s value (typically 1-5 dice) and subtract that from the total before dividing by the base dice.
•Hides, leather, padded = 1 dice
•Reinforced leather, plastic = 2 dice
•Chain mail, ballistic plate = 3 dice
•Partial plate = 4 dice
•Full plate = 5 dice
For superior or inferior quality, you could add or subtract from the base. A bronze breastplate might be 5d-3, while alloyed chain mail might be 3d+3.
Armor loses 1 dice each time it is hit.
Modern ballistic armor is designed to protect against firearms, and does so at 3 dice. This goes up or down a dice/Tech level.
Most historical armor was actually designed to counter melee and missile attacks, and is fairly useless vs firearms. Likewise, most modern armor is fabricated vs gunfire and is of limited use against melee weapons.
•Melee armor is –2 dice vs firearms.\ (Which leaves armor 2 d or less a non-factor)
•Ballistic armor is –2 dice vs melee weapons.
•Both do equally well against arrows.
See also Damage