Custom Armor Inquiry

[Hridvaldyr]

I have question for an armor piece I am beginning work on, mainly what kind of armor it would count as in the rules.

I am sure a vast majority of the community here has read/watched A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and recall the character Rattleshirt, the Lord of Bones.



I am aiming to make what could best be described as a bone brigandine from the bones in pork chops and ribs (boiled and bleached for sanitation purposes, of course). The bones will be tied together with leather ties and likely tied/buckled around the waist to doublet or or jerkin.

Would the bone brigandine just count as the leather it is tied to, or could it be counted as chainmail for whatever I would be using it for? I am planning to make the brigandine and possibly pauldrons and/or bracers. If the bones count as nothing beyond leather, and simply be cosmetic, then it would mean I would be collecting much less in the way of bones.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Skål

[Derian]

From a legality standpoint alone, bones do not count as armor. If you were to make something like this, the leather underneath the bones would need to be at least 12 oz. thick in order to count as armor.

From a sanity/safety standpoint: do not do this. Cooked bones (especially after boiling them as you noted) become very, very brittle. They would be very likely to snap and/or shatter during combat potentially leading to injury. Even if no one were to be hurt, you'd almost assuredly get your new armor ruined within a day of hard fighting. I wouldn't personally allow something like this on the field.

All that said, that shirt looks rad as hell. I would say go ahead and make it as you plan (with thinner than armor thickness leather, perhaps), but use it as a garb piece for nightlife and keep it away from actual fighting.