I would make all armours an ability, not just for "Special items", mainly for settings resistances for doing movement activities, such as swimming, jumping, climbing and running.
Of cause, if a medium or heavy armoured character fell into deep water, they would just drown. I still like to have a certain amount of realism.
cheers
George
>
> It's not a situational modifier, it's just setting the resistance for a conflict. About the only time you need to modify the character's ability is when you've got some sort of player character/player character interaction and you've got no other control over what numbers are being rolled against [1].
>
> A gift of something is only important to character if it becomes an ability, either by spending hero points on it or as a directed improvement. Then they can use it to resolve conflicts or augment with.
>
> If your mail hauberk is so important to your character that it's your most appropriate ability in a particular contest then why wouldn't you use it? Narrate it as you're stabbed and hacked from all sides but your mail stops any serious injury. It lets you take risks you wouldn't otherwise.
>
> [1] As a side note most people are shit at arithmetic. The more you can stop them needing to add up or resorting to a calculator the better. If you're not confident at arithmetic and bundle as much up into setting resistances as possible you can create a table with the resistances pre-cooked to save time and reduce the arithmetic dissonance.
>