Partial coverage Limits for RDef armor

[Stelknecht]

Hi folks. This may be cheese, but cheese is delicious, and it's mostly just for my own entertainment anyhow. 

I'm trying to create a suit of Iron-man-esque armor in modular pieces, helmet, breastplate, etc, with powers built into each piece. So, fr'instance, the gauntlets might have an EB, and a HKA, be a difficult to replace OIF, real armor, mass, and covering only the hands/forearms with RDef. 

That last part is where I can't find anything. I did look extensively, and all I could come up with for partial coverage was for bases, which was about facing arcs, rather than hit locations. 

What do you think would be reasonable limits for RPD/RPD bought "Covering only the head"? or torso, etc. 

 

If you're still reading, what I was thinking about was fun gaming wherein the big-bad fires his pulson cannon at our armored hero, and aims for his gauntlets, noting that they (obvious focus) are the source of his Concussion busters, destroying them, and putting our hero in a pickle. 

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. 

 

Stel!

[clnicholsusa]

It depends on how the GM is running the game. If the GM uses hit locations for every attack, there should be specific disadvantages for 'only covers location X'. Otherwise, you may need some sort of 'activation' type roll to indicate whether or not the armore on the left 'pilk' is struck by the bad guys 'frammis gun'. Alternately, each piece could contribute X armor to the whole and when the GM has the big bad smash the left 'pilk' with his self-targeting, homing, frammis blasts (coming from the baddy's eyes and performing angular cork-screw motions to track the target) the total defense drops by the amount provided by the left 'pilk'.

So, there are various methods to build this, but the appropriate one is dependent on the GM.

 

[dmjalund]

I’d like to see rules about sectional body armour vs Area Affect attacks

[Ockham's Spoon]

There are standard limitations for partial coverage of armor listed in the 6e2 rule book on page 212 which essentially gives you an equivalent activation roll for partial armor.  As a GM I would probably grant a slightly lower limitation to a helmet than for armored boots though; even if the odds of hitting each location are similar, protection from a head shot is more valuable than protecting your feet if you are allowing hit locations.

 

I don't know if there are any official rules on sectional armor and area affect attacks, but I would probably figure out the percentage of the body the armor covered and give them that percentage of the armor for defense.  So if Halfjack has 10 rPD/rED armor on half his body (Act 11-) then he would get 5 rPD/rED vs. an explosion.  I might allow for an abort to a defensive action to get more benefit, so Halfjack could turn sideways so his armored half took the brunt of the explosion. 

[Stelknecht]

Thanks Occam's spoon. I think that's it right there

[Stelknecht]

Here's the character in question; he's just a sort of testbed for a concept, so it's just his "powers".

Cost	Power	END
	Gauntlets, all slots Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
8	1) Boron Carbide Filament Plate : Resistant Protection (16 PD/8 ED) (Impermeable) (36 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Only covers hit areas 6, 7, 8 (Hands and Arms); -1 1/2), Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
21	2) Concussion Busters: Blast 10d6, Double Knockback (+1/2) (75 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Limited Range (-1/4), Unified Power (Gauntlets; -1/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	7
23	3) Concussion Shield: Barrier 20 PD/10 ED, 0 BODY (up to 1m long, 2m tall, and 1/2m thick), Dismissable, Non-Anchored, Opaque Sight Group (74 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Limited Power Power loses about a fourth of its effectiveness (Front facing only; -1/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	7
	Helmet, all slots Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
10	1) Rigid Cerametal Bonded Alloy Shell: Resistant Protection (20 PD/10 ED) (45 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Covers only areas 3, 4, 5. Head; -1 1/2), Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
3	2) Polarized Lenses: Sight Group Flash Defense (8 points) (8 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
1	3) Laser Rangefinder: Absolute Range Sense (3 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
1	4) Built in Clock: Absolute Time Sense (3 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
1	5) GPS: Bump Of Direction (3 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
2	6) LLTV: Nightvision (5 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
3	7) Communicators: Radio Perception/Transmission (Radio Group) (10 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
7	? Radar Array: Radar (Radio Group), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees) (20 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
	Breastplate, all slots Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
1	1) Just Damn Heavy: Knockback Resistance -4m (4 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
13	2) Flexisteel ultraresin ceralloy plates: Resistant Protection (25 PD/10 ED) (54 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Covers areas 9-14 (All torso, thighs); -1), Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
5	3) Life support Systems: Life Support (Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing) (15 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
7	4) Powered Demihydralic mobility enhancers: +20 STR (20 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	4
3	5) Reflex Enhancers: +1 SPD (10 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
12	6) Back mounted SCOBA Pebble bed nuclear reactor: Endurance Reserve (120 END, 8 REC) (36 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
	Boots, all slots Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)
9	1) Resistant Protection (15 PD/8 ED) (36 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Covers only areas 15-18 (legs and feet); -1), Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	0
3	2) Boot Jets: Flight 10m (10 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1*), OIF Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Real Armor (-1/4*)	1
133	Total Powers Cost   The thing I still question is "A Breakable Focus that provides PD or ED to the character in any way (such as Resistant Protection or other Defense powers) can use whichever defense is higher (its own or the one it provides to the character) to protect itself from damage" coupled with "A Durable Breakable Focus has double its normal PD and ED. Durable, like Unbreakable, is free; it doesn’t cost a character extra points."   I get that any body that gets through the DEF provided to the character will break a power; that's implicit in this build. But does the item have 2x that DEF if targeted separately? If I were GM for this build, I'd say that even for a durable foci, it has only the DEF it provides the character.    If you have opinions on how strong-smelling this cheese is, please let me know. Other thoughts welcome. I love armored heroes, but I want them to be able to lose things in battle (rather than the standard "Your briefcase with your power armor is missing, and you see a man in a hoodie running away as fast as he can!") trope of temporarily inconveniencing the OIF builder.    Thanks for reading. Stel!

 

[Stelknecht]

And I just now realized expendable can't apply to armor foci; please pretend I'm not an idiot, and ignore that part. Some days I feel brighter than others. 

[doccowie]

In terms of "cheese", I suspect that OIF, Real Armour, and Normal Mass is laying it on a bit thick, even allowing for removal of expendability.

You are looking at base 1 3/4 limitation, which is basically telling the GM that this power will be about a third as useful as one without the limitations (OK, 4/11 as useful :-)

So, for this to be worth the limitations, every single power should be unavailable to you (for whatever reason) say, half the time; and less useful than anticipated at others. Is that what you are looking for? (With armour that is particularly risky.)

I think the "normal mass" is the stand out issue - how does that limit you? Why is it worth -1 limitation in the campaign? 

Real armour at -1/4 allows for it to be broken etc, and is usually OK  (in fact given the hassle it causes it may be worth more than that - it basically allows the GM to mess with you in a whole bunch of ways that characters who use "superhero" armour don't have to put up with.)

 

[Stelknecht]

So limburger? 

Couldn't agree more. I did extrapolate weights from the table on 212, and it weighs in at 350kg. If the breastplate loses either the STR boost or the END reserve, he's basically a turtle, and the END reserve is the first thing to go if anything penetrates armor. Possibly lay on the floor and fire hand cannons, occasionally, although that'd be out if the power was. Some other fun thoughts might be requiring a forklift or a pickup truck to move it if not wearing it, or not being able to pick up more than just the helmet and gauntlets at one time if the pieces are separated. I did think it'd be a fun enemy for the players, though, or maybe an NPC who seems mighty, but ... just doesn't make it. Thanks for your thoughts!