Notes from Aria

I pulled out one of my favourite unplayed games, Aria, for some reading fun. Here are some notes that people may find interested or relevant:

* Traditional AD&D "leather armor" is cuirbouille, or leather boiled in oil. It shares the same etymology as the 'cuirass'.

* Aria uses an "encumbrance multiplier" to translate weight into D&D style encumbrance. The boxspring for my bed has a low weight, but high encumbrance multiplier; a sack of ball bearings is the opposite.

* Included in the armor chart for each type is it's "fit tolerance", representing how much physical variation one can have and still wear a given suit of armor. Plate has a low fit tolerance (as Sigurd knows!) and Ring Mail is among the highest. Interestingly, leather armor (cuirbouille) also has a low fit tolerance, since the boiling treatment makes it rigid. Aria, in all it's detail-loving glory, has scores for height, frame, and physique that tie into the fit tolerance: Conan probably won't be fitting into a suit of Plate armor made for Arwen any more than Sigurd would.

* Weapons have both a reach and speed score. Gary would be proud! Each weapon type lists its attack modes: maces "crush", hand axes "chop", knives "stab" and "slash". Many weapons have multiple attack modes. Armors are rated in their defense versus each mode (crush/chop/slash/thrust, etc).