Been giving some thought to the all or nothing option with armour.
MY THOUGHTS
I don’t fundamentally disagree with the idea that, “if a bullet comes through armour it might as well not have been there” premise. I’m not saying it’s not right but it doesn’t
feel right. If the weapons seriously overmatches the armour there is no doubt - 50 Cal to the chest and your Level III vest isn’t going to do squat. But… it might stop an AK round. It’s not rated for it but the right angle, bit of luck and wham! It came though but the armour did enough of a job to rob it of a significant amount of energy that at least you wake up. In the ER admittedly but awake.
This is perfectly reflected in WW1 where the introduction of helmets saw an immediate increase in head injury cases in the field hospitals. At first it was thought that the men were taking more risks but it turned out that the instead of being killed by a head injury the helmets did their job of turning a lethal wound into a survivable one.
Prior to the introduction of firearms it can be argued that armour always reduced damage - whether that damage is from a muscle powered or even mechanically powered weapon like a crossbow. While generally more susceptible to pointed weapons it’s basically been a battle of armour versus high momentum, low energy attacks. I’d say that most melee and muscle powered weapons have little to no intrinsic armour piercing ability other than by dint of the strength of the wielder and the weapons relative size generating an amount of damage - with rare exceptions for things like estocs, stilettos, picks, hardened steel bodkins or similar weapons specifically designed to penetrate armour. Even then the armour piecing value would be fairly low.
With the arrival of bullets - or slug throwers in Traveller parlance - these older armours find themselves completely outclassed by the extraordinary amounts of energy that bullets and later energy weapons deliver. A mere 22LR delivers as much energy as a 170lb draw longbow for example. While it could be made bullet proof in reality the sheer weight and bulk it added make it impracticable for most. So much so that personal armour disappears for a time before reappearing when aramid type fibres, ceramics and exotic alloys arrive that are capable of dealing with it. Initially this new ballistic armour is flexible but as it is susceptible to blunt force trauma vital areas are further protected by the addition of rigid plates. And, just like pre-firearm armour, as technology advances the amount of coverage of rigid armour increases until once again the fully plate armoured soldier rises to prominence.
However, an oft overlooked advantage of rigid armour is its superior ability to deflect a direct strike by virtue of it the attack not striking at an optimum angle. To be fair, this effect is severely mitigated if the incoming attack significantly overmatches the armour so only a small bonus would be appropriate and even then this would be completely down to luck. But, it could be the difference between buying the next round or buying the farm. This very much mirrors the effect of helmets where a 9mm round blows through one and deflects off another! Arguably flexible armour does this as well but to such a degree less that it can be figured to be part of its armour value.
MY HOUSE RULES (work in progress
)
First we need to clarify some terms
1.
Damage - as rolled on the damage dice.
2.
Armour Value - Armour Value plus any bonus against that type of weapon and any bonus for rigid armour - see
Rigid Armour Bonus below
.
3.
Adjusted Armour Value (aAV) which is the AV minus the AP of the weapon. Note that some weapons may have a negative AP
5.
Effect is basically what happens if the damage is more than the aAV.
6.
Impact is what happens if the damage is less than the aAV.
Armour
Rigid Armour Bonus
All eras of armour - it works equally for TL3 plate vs a sword (however see
Pre-Industrial Armour below) as well as TL12 Combat armour vs a plasma bolt.
Add 1d6 - 3 (minimum 0) temporary AV to the rigid armour’s current Armour Value.
Advanced rule; 1d6 - 4 + (AV/10 round down)
Pre-industrial Armour. All armour up to TL4 has its AV halved (round down) versus projectiles that are not muscle or mechanically powered.
Effect
Melee & Muscle Powered Projectile - incl. crossbow.
Normal Effect > aAV - take that amount of damage.
High Impact - Damage > 1/2 AV. 1D3 damage if flexible armour or head hit. No additional effect if rigid armour. Optional DEX roll to avoid further effect like knockdown or penalty on next attack.
Low Impact - Damage <= 1/2 AV. Armour does it’s job completely.
Projectiles - incl. Lasers
High Effect - Damage > 2 x aAV All armour is ignored - the armour is so overmatched it might as well not have been there
Low Effect - Damage > aAv. Add 1/2 aAV (round down) to damage - the armour had some effect.
Note that there is no
Impact for lasers or other electromagnetic weapon attacks.
High Impact - Damage > 1/2 AV. 1D3 damage if flexible armour or head hit. No additional effect if rigid armour. STR or DEX roll to stay on your feet - whichever is best.
Low Impact - Damage <= 1/2 AV. 1d3 damage if flexible armour
and head hit otherwise no noticeable effect.
WEAPON ARMOUR PIERCING RATINGS
As written the rules in Battefield Dev for AP seem
way overpowered and go a long way to making armour completely redundant - a la Star Wars. The values look more like how much penetration they have on an unarmoured sophont rather than an armoured one!
As a start I’d half all the firearms and laser AP values - rounding down for pistols/smg/carbines and up for rifles. For heavy weapons I’d divide those values by three.
I’d remove all the AP from melee weapons and muscle powered/mechanical projectiles - arguably that’s already figured in their damage dice.
Maybe give a the dagger and cutlass AP1 vs flexible armour.
