Henry VIII's infamous "Cock Armor".
ARMOR:
-Armor (as a Canadian, I can use either spelling- I like the American version these days) was common as soon as people could make the stuff, and has several different "makes" over the years. Even today, soldiers and police officers often wear Kevlar for protection against bullets. For centuries, Heavy Cavalry (heavily-armored horsemen) were the dominant "Hammer" unit of militaries throughout the world. More and more advanced kinds of Armors were built for generations, eventually culminating with knights armored from head to toe with nigh-invulnerable layered, curved metals (to better deflect sword-blows) over top of scale or chainmail. Things had basically accelerated to this point... and then someone came up with the Crossbow.
Use of Crossbows and Rifles as military weapons basically neutralized the power of the armored Knight. See, even the GREATEST Armor could be easily punched through by someone's crossbow, and since the weapons were eventually cheap-ish and common, Knights were defenseless. Various countries thought about banning the weapons, since it made these elite soldiers (usually the richest of the rich landlords, who'd trained for YEARS to perfect their fighting style) completely redundant... but anyone trying to ban Crossbows & Guns would've soon been taking over by the next country who didn't- so eventually, everyone just used guns instead of Knights.
Types of Armor:
-There are tons of different Armor types, with each nation using their own makes and types. Like the Firearms, rather than build each individual one separately, I'll simply say what they are, and give a more generic "Points-Buy" thing to build from. Generally speaking, Heavy Cavalry use the best.
Armor starts at Leather (even a Leather Jacket can help a bit against slashing weapons), and moves to Chainmail & Scale Mail (Chainmail is actually really effective- a friend once whacked me with a large stick while I was draping a piece of chainmail over my arm, and I barely felt it), and finally Full Plate Mail.
Armor Stats: Protection 1-6 (Extras: Impervious 1-7) (1-13 Equipment Points)
Kevlar Stats: Protection 2 (Flaws: Limited to Ballistic Damage)
Maximum Toughness Score: 8
Positives & Negatives:
+ Intimidation Factor: Everyone knows the Heavy Cavalry are the elites, and heavily-armored troops draw an inordinate amount of tactical focus.
+ Sufficient Imperviousness basically renders a Knight immune to the attacks of the lower classes.
- Heavy. Many types of Armor are VERY heavy, and often require assistance to get in and out of.
- Hard to use untrained- unless you've worn Armor before, it can very easily slow you down physically, and even make you a worse fighter and easier to hit. Only a lot of training can let someone wear Full Plate and fight as normal.
- Power Loss: (vs) Modern Weapons. Anything equal to a Crossbow or higher (like a Gun) will completely bypass medieval-style Armor, leaving it's maximum Toughness Bonus of +2 for even Full Plate.
- Power Loss (vs) Effective Weapons. Some weapons are designed purely to damage heavy Armor- Axes are notorious for this. Axe attacks will give the Armor -2 Toughness to opposing saves against damage.
-So the various types of Armor can give a guy a lot of extra toughness, but only to a reasonable amount (+8 seems like the best you should get- even a tough guy with STAMINA 4 shouldn't be able to hit +10 Toughness, which is better than most superhumans). And while Knights and stuff are great, even the best Full Plate will only do so much to help you against a bullethole. The most Impervious Armor can easily withstand a ST 2 guy's +2 weapon unless the dude Power Attacks, too- a very dangerous thing in a medieval fight.