In Sprawl Goons and the Carbon Edition, armour is abstracted and folded into the Dangerous Action Roll as a bonus. Here, I'd like to present an alternative way to handle PC and NPC personal protection.
If a character is wearing body armour, they no longer add a +1 bonus to their combat Action Roll. Instead, if a category of armour is worn on the body location hit by an attack, the Armour Rating is deducted from the damage received by the character.
Example:
Katya Kaiser is running for the cover of a parked R-Cab after taking down a Genexus agent. As she does so, another agent takes aim and fires. She dives, but fails her Action Roll, taking damage from the shot which hits her in the torso for 6 points. Katya is still wearing her spiderweave vest, which is classed as medium armour and reduces the damage by 2. So, Katya slides across the rain-slick asphalt, losing just 4 points of Resilience, rather than 6.
There are now three categories of armour:
• Light (-1 damage)
• Medium (-2 damage)
• Heavy (-3 damage)
[Tanksuits are still classed as vehicles and use the Vehicle Combat rules]
PERSONAL PROTECTION / BODY ARMOUR
Roll 2d6
02. Motorcycle Leathers - Light Armour
03. Arachnoweave Sleeve (figure-hugging second skin) - Light Armour
04. Carbon Fibre Flak Vest - Medium Armour
05. Laser-ablative Fabric (only effective vs lasers) - Heavy Armour vs lasers only
06. Impact Gel Inserts - Medium Armour
07. Ceramic Plate (hard armour shell, in sections) - Heavy Armour
08. Heavy Kevlar Jacket - Heavy Armour
09. Exo-frame (doubles Loadout score until you take it off; +1 Morphology) - Light Armour
10. Coil Suit (light-absorbing, black, myomar body suite; artificial muscle fibres confer +1 to Reaction)
- Medium Armour
11. Flame Retardant Sleeve (thin body sleeve; only one round of fire damage applies) - Light Armour
12. Heavy Leather Overcoat - Medium Armour
Armour CANNOT be layered on one location, the minuses do not stack. Layering also reduces character movement at the GM's discretion.
GMs now have the tools to create more armour variation for their characters. The wearing of differing helmets is now also viable.
Examples:
Steel - Medium Armour (-1 Reaction due to weight)
Added Ballistic Visor - Light Armour to protect the face (2-in-6 chance the visor is struck, rather than the helmet proper)
Kevlar - Medium Armour
Motorcycle Helmet - Light Armour
Ceramic - Heavy Armour
Arachnoweave Bandana - Light Armour
ARMOUR DEGRADATION
Armour can still be Slagged, as per the SG:U rules. Whether that rule is in play or not, no armour is beyond destruction. Any armour will degrade by 1 point when hit, if any damage penetrates and gets through to the wearer. When that armour is rated 0, it becomes useless and must be repaired or replaced.
Any thoughts on this are welcome in the comments below.
