In Blade if The Iron Throne, also Song of Swords, it actually does have a pretty comprehensive system for that.

You call an attack to an area (say, overhand right) or try to aim for one with ranged weapons, and then 1d6 determines what sub-area of that you hit - for an arm, day, the upper shoulder at one end of the D6 and the hand at the other.

From there it has ratings ranging from gambeson and stiff leather up through renaissance high end plate, with some eclectic stops like brigandine over maille as well. And while you could stay out each part of your body, it’s easier just to have a common sense picture between the players and GM.


If you had a short sleeve maille shirt on over a gambeson, there’s a good chance a one handed sword chop to the shoulder will be ineffective - it's going to be converted to blunt, and almost certainly reduce all but the most crushing blow to a minor bruise - while a pole-hammer has a good chance to break bones, and a good thrust MIGHT make it through.

Your unarmored hand, caught by a slash, is probably going to be a red ruin.

This all gets resolved in two die rolls : Attack vs Defense, Where it Hit