Building Power Armor

[Mike W]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Not sure I want to let him go down to just "SS: Power armor engineering" without more of the base skills. And he wants to buy the other stuff, which is just as well since the team isn't that heavy on skills to begin with, and they keep running into situations where those skills would be useful. For instance, they have a base, but it's pretty bare bones because none of them know how to do the fancy stuff like AI computers, automated lasers, and an X-Men style danger room. They want the stuff, but it's a secret base and they want to do the work themselves, they just don't know how yet. They were also hoping to track the Russian Mobsters who are using a new form of power armor(I pulled out the Credit Card Soldiers from waaaay back in Thor and modified the armor slightly so that the technical stuff made more sense), but none of them had the skills to build a tracking device.

[Dauntless]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Well, if you're trying to do this realistically, it'd be almost impossible for one man to invent the armor all by himself. The level of skills required would be staggering.

 

For the most part though, I'd boil down the skill set as follows:

 

Physics, Classical- Prerequisite for the design of most of the systems. Covers optics, ballistics, wave equations (sound), aerodynamics and others.

Physics, Quantum- Necessary for any nanotechnology on the scale of several molecules or smaller, as well as quantum computation. Comes in handy for developing some energy powers (zero-point energy, new transistors/gates, or lasers)

Material Science- To come up with the physical material with the required properties (i.e. carbon nanotubes, metallic glass)

Electrical Engineering- to be able to implement and understand the logical circuitry required

Mechanical Engineering- To actually design the components together into a cohesive whole.

Cognitive Neuroscience- any neural interface technologies will need this

Computer Science/Engineer or Systems Analyst- to design the computer system to run the armor as well as the necessary software to run it.

 

High levels of mathematics would be crucial. I'm not just talking Calc 3 and Diff Eq. I'm talking stochastic analysis, number theory, modern algebra (groups, lies, vector spaces), matrix theory, graph theory and others. The cognitive neuroscience also implies a mastery of biology and chemistry as well. Material science technology is a blend of physics and chemistry.

[KA.]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

I think I would go a compromise route.

To actually design and build powered armor would require a huge array of skills, many of which would never be used again.

 

On the other hand, you want this character to grow, and end up with both a set of Armor, and a reasonably impressive set of Skills.

On the third hand you may not want to end up with a character who should, realistically, be able to build basically any weapon in the universe, based on his skill set, including suits of power armor for all his teammates, friends, DNPC's, etc.

 

So, on to the compromise solution, as suggested in previous posts.

 

Have him, and the team if you want to run it that way, go on a "quest".

 

Iron Man remembers that, many years ago, he had to leave a prototype suit of Armor behind in some dangerous location. It was radioactive, stuck in lava, whatever, and at the time he had to abandon it because some major crisis was going on, and he had better suits back at Stark Industries.

Since it was crude (by his standards) and he had removed the weapons systems, he saw no reason to go back after it, so it still is buried where he left it.

If the character wants to retrieve it, Iron Man will provide the codes necessary to activate it.

That character will end up with a decent set of Power Armor.

Armor, Flight, Life Support, etc.

He will have to design his own weapons, or at least modify weapons he has, to work with the suit.

That way the character can grow by adding new Skills, and the suit will become more powerful over time.

 

KA.

[Zed-F]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

On the third hand

That would be the gripping hand.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

An excellent compromise method, KA, and one which justifies a PC being skilled enough to modify a suit of powered armor but not needing a list of Skills as long as the player's arm.

[Mike W]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Major thanks to KA and Dauntless, you've hit on what I needed. Rep shall be forthcoming.

[KA.]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Major thanks to KA and Dauntless' date=' you've hit on what I needed. Rep shall be forthcoming.[/quote']

 

Always glad to help!

 

KA.

[Mike W]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

You know, now that I think about it. I believe there are some older Iron Man suits that wound up in Manhattan Sound after the New York offices were destroyed. Part of his old "collection".

[Wanderer]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Alternatively, if you aren't fixed on the Powered Armor as metal shell SFX, but are wishing to try for the techno-organic or nanotech hybrid (Guyver, Engineer), you can always rule that the character got "infected" with the nanotech batch for whatever reasons; classic ideas: was the experiment subject, was a friend or relative of the inventor, it was shipped to him by accident, he was around when the baddies stormed the laboratory. Anime and manga Powered Armor marvels use them all the time: Guyver, Moldiver, Hurricane Polymar, Gordian, Mazinsaga...

[Mike W]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Interesting ideas, but the player seems set on the classic power armor idea, and given the original concept of the character, I'd like to stay in that vein as well. I mean, the guy basically started off as an overweight but stubborn wanna be hero who, like the comic shop owning geek that he is, had amassed enough "memorabilia" that he could actually strap it all on and try to play hero himself. Having been through a lot of trials, he's no longer a wanna be, but I think the character would lose something if he actually picked up innate powers along the way and the player seems to be thinking along the same lines.

[Ki-rin]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

OK, I'm embarassed.

 

*small voice* ...what is Champions:NM...?

[CDad]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Wasn't it the Champions Universe using Fuzion rules?

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Building Power Armor

 

Wasn't it the Champions Universe using Fuzion rules?

 

Not exactly. It was the Superhero Setting for Fuzion, yes, and it had similiarities to the Champions Universe, but it was different. The names got reused a lot, but origins, power levels and sometimes even power sets got changed (not always by a lot, mind).

 

It was pretty good, actually; it had rationales and reasons, but it still stuck to pretty middle ground in terms of subgenre.