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pragma
In SR5 p. 169 we find the rules for armor stacking and specialized protection. The stacking rules state that only the strongest layer of armor matters but doesn't impose a penalty for wearing multiple layers.

I think this means that you can get around the capacity limit for specialized protection in armor by wearing multiple layers of armor with the same capacity but different modifications. e.g. wearing armor clothing with full capacity non-conductivity over armor clothing with full capacity fire resistance.

Depending on how you read the phrase "the highest armor piece applies for determining armor. All the other pieces do nothing but add a lot of bulk ..." the arrangement I described could have different armor ratings:

The armor rating is definitely going to be 6 -- both articles have the same armor rating. But both the fire resistance or non-conductivity can be 6 or 0 depending on which layer of the tied armors is applied. (Even without the ambiguity of a tied armor value, you can imagine a situation where a lower armor article that's highly fire resistant is preferable to a higher armor article -- normal clothes with non-conductivity 6 over actioneer clothes, for instance.)

In the charitable interpretation, our two-popped collar runner has armor 6, non-conductivity 6, fire resist 6. Fine, but there's nothing stopping him (other than a reasonable GM fiat) from wearing 6 layers of clothes to achieve all elemental armor at once. In the non-charitable read we're presented with a simulation problem where non-conductivity stops mattering because you put a fire blanket on top, which chafes at my physics sense. You can also get corner cases where it's beneficial to strip off layers of armor to get different protections, which I find weird.

The easy house rule fix that sprang to mind is just adding a -1 penalty for each layer of armor beyond the first in the same way that there are penalties for too high of a +armor modifier. But I haven't rigorously critiqued it.

Let me know your opinions!
phlapjack77
In another thread that I can't find at the moment, Bull stated that even if you don't get the actual armor protection from bonus armor items, you can still get the effects of the special protections in the armor. So if you layer armors, even if you don't get the armor protection, you should still get the special protection.

I think this is a bad ruling, btw.

The "one armor" thing is too gamist to my sensibilities. I'd allow a character to wear as much armor as they want, and get full bonuses. But AGI/REA penalties would start piling up quickly, maybe even the new fatigue rules would apply.
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