Does armor have less protection against lasers?

[Kravell]

Does regular armor have less protection versus lasers? I can't find what effect lasers have when used against normal armor.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

No difference, unless stated otherwise. E.g. Reflec has AV 10 vs. Lasers only.

 

[Kravell]

Thanks. That is weird. Why have special laser armor at all if regular armor works? Just layer it I suppose?

 

[Anonymous]

Anti-laser armor works better against lasers. Reflec's quite lightweight as well.

They've got so many lasers that one has to assume that their regular armor is designed with lasers in mind.

One also has to wonder if lasers actually are better at penetrating armor or whether that's just a sci-fi trope?

So far the industrial lasers we have, which are far larger than can be carried on a vehicle, don't punch through steel any quicker than a tank gun. I couldn't tell you whether's that due to current laser technology, or something about lasers themselves.

 

[NOLATrav]

Don't have books to hand but yes, I believe Reflec is the only armor that stacks with, for example, Cloth. There may be others in the CSC I'm not aware of.

 

[Condottiere]

Reflec wouid be indicative of light dispersing on contact, though I think it's been retconned to disperse heat through the fabric, which would deal better with ecks ray variants, assuming those are still canon.

Ablat is clearly absorption and evaporation.

 

[Garran]

There are various anti-energy armors in the CSC. Their advantage in each case is that they're relatively cheap compared to general-purpose armors. Their disadvantage is that they're not much good against non-energy attacks (or energy attacks of the wrong type).

 

[Condottiere]

Laser sniping has to be a legitimate concern.

 

[Anonymous]

Laser sniping has to be a legitimate concern.

True. This is how some current systems are used.

They aren't implemented this way in Mongoose Traveller however. There's no special "ignore the armored parts" rule for aiming with a laser byeond the regular rules that apply to all weapons

 

[Condottiere]

Despite it's fantasy element, ShadowRun tends to think these things through.

As a civilian, in an urban area, walking around with reflect armour would be considered suspicious; I'd incorporate it in my greatcoat.