spartans in halo - thoughts on shields please

[soulman]

My mind was on Halo today, and i just wanted to throw ideas at you and see what people think..

for people that don`t have a 360 ( shame on you ) a spartan is a super soldier, wearing full body armour, and a force field around him, which gets weaker with multi hits but does rechange..

so for game terms a armour of 3+ would be good to show the armour worn, and strength of the super soldier, but what about the force field..?

do we look at it like a " dodge save " page 17 of main book,
armour / shield
so a spartan looks like this 3+/ 3+

Or maybe give him two save rolls, one for the shield and one for the armour, or treat the two abilites like " PARRY " with a re-roll...?

I also like the idea that on a roll on 6+ on the shield save you lose the shields for the rest of the turn, and only have armour to protect you for the rest of the turn..?

spartans do have tough armour but its the shield which does alot of the work... in SST is they a shields rule at all....?

Thanks for reading and your input

 

[hithero]

Why not just reduce the armour save during a turn for every succesful fire action against it, until you reach, say 5+, when normal armour kicks in. At the start of a new turn the armour value starts at its maximum again.

 

[soulman]

Hi H, yes another idea.. well done H, alittle record keeping, but a good one.. Thanks for reading and first too add input.

I don`t think many tabletop gamers play video games..!!!

 

[Paladin]

IIRC, SST had two versions. One worked kind of like countermeasures. If the def. roll succeeded the shot was blocked. The other forces the succesful attack to be rerolled - which depending on the attack was of no use.

Shield - it depends on if you want it to be "active" and block/allow the attack to hit completely or work with an absorbing style. If it absorbs damage I'd consider applying a negative to the damage roll. It works essentially the same, it just skips the extra die roll as it's a mod to the initial attack. If the reduced damage is below the target it's blocked. If it's below the kill apply the normal armor. After absorbing X damage it needs to reset. Or recharges X every round it's not been used - more math, but closer to the game.

Less bookkeeping - just give it an extra armor check or dodge to avoid the incoming fire.

 

[Rabidchild]

Interesting concept there soulman, I like it. I would go for something without book keeping longer than an action.

Ok, I started writing a long explanation for trait that used a good dodge save that was reduced each time it was used. But then I had a better idea:

Weaken the dodge save a bit and make a trait that allows the Spartan to take both saves rather than just pick one.

Spartan: 3+/5+ Traits: Shield

New Trait:
Shield: The dodge trait possessed by this model is the result of an energy shield. This model may attempt an armor save and a dodge save against each attack die that scores a hit.

This works well with the existing rules, allowing Kill results and weapons with the Piercing trait to reduce or eliminate the armor save.

 

[soulman]

yes rabid, i want to remove book keeping, so i do think two rolls..

First is SHIELD, piercing does not work against it

Then if you get passed the shield its..

ARMOUR, piercing does work against it...

so

SPARTAN
MOVE : 6"
CC : 2D6+1
TARGET : 4+
KILL : 8+
ARMOUR 3+ / SHIELD 3+

TRAITS : INDEPENDENT - ELITE TRAINING - FANATIC

SPECIAL
SHIELDS : on a save of a 6, you lose the shields for your next turn only

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

What I've been poking around with is making it a multihit model, with a special rule/trait that allows it to take a ready action to regain lost hit points. Easy to keep track of, and gives a better feel for the game in that models will really need to take cover to recharge their shields.