MOVED
Some people thought the checkers were looking for fail spots, when in actuality they were looking for passing spots. Simple matter of communication. Might I suggest next year the checkers mumble pass fail as they run the calipers over the armor so the owners know what's up?
That's essentially what I was doing, and I don't know of any other checkers that were trying to fail passing armor. Sometimes I had to check a piece six, seven, eight times to find a single passing place.
Look, if we wanted to fail armor, I could have easily failed 90% of the leather I checked. Going by the letter of the MOA, I could have simply put the calipers on one place, and when it read less than 3/16", said "FAIL" and moved on to the next piece or person. And I bet you green American money I can find a thin spot on damned near every piece of leather I touch.
This year, we came into check with the idea that we'd check a couple places, and, if it was clear that the leather used was actually 9 to 11 ounce stuff, we'd fail the piece. About five people into armor check on Monday morning, it became painfully obvious that damned near nobody in Dagorhir is building leather armor from leather that is actually 3/16" thick. I saw readings on the calipers of 5/32" and 11/64" WAAAAAAAY more than I ever saw them reading 3/16" or greater. If we'd kept doing what we started off wanting to do, we'd have failed at least half the armor we checked.
As it ended up working, we'd check and check and check and check until we found one or two places that were thicker than average, and gave us 3/16". For example, there was a guy who showed up wearing a lamellar skirt made from Tandy's pre-punched scales: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/44228-25.aspx
Says right there that they're made from 9-10oz leather. I KNOW this, and I knew what they were as soon as I saw them. But, in the interests of getting armor on the field and reducing butthurt, I checked ten scales on that guy's skirt until I found a thick one, and passed it.
And, let me tell you, my morning would have gone a hell of a lot faster if I'd simply failed stuff that measured below spec. So anyone trying to argue that we were looking to fail armor can suck it.
(Lawful Neutral OCD) **** That! Seriously? Follow that goddamned rules. I don't give a **** if people get butt hurt. The dude who checked my armor **** bricks because it was so ****ing thick he looked at it and knew it passed. If you can't afford to build passing armor YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO HAVE ARMOR! Get this **** off the field. The only way we will have people building real armor is to enforce the rules. If you want to change the rules fine, I will not complain. But as it stands **** getting more armor on the field and start getting LEGAL armor on the field.
You know how hard it is to add a layer of thiner leather to make Legal thickness? NOT HARD. I Agonize over every inch of my armor to make sure it passes. I'm offended that people get a pass on their ****ty armor because people don't want to fail it.
I'll run armor check next year, **** on it. It's about time we start following the rules of our own game. This p**** footed bull**** needs to stop. Rag is our Superbowl, come with your game face, and legal gear or get the **** out.
Edit: Please imagine this whole rant as being screamed with a mouth full of blood and Rage Foam.
