Gear: Defenses

Defense Descriptions

  • Description: The name or description of the weapon.

  • Protects: The hit locations and sub-locations covered by the armor or screen.

  • Armor Score: The row shifts to a 2d6 roll that is subtracted from the Penetration of an attack. Many defenses have different protective values against different kins of attacks. Thus, different armor scores may be given for Mech (mechanical, such as smash, pierce, slash, hack, and abrade type damage), Burn (thermal damage), Arc (electric discharges), and Rad (radiation attacks, or any attack that can ignore the properties of chemical bonds and is only resisted by sheer mass). Beam type damage acts against the lower of the Mech and Burn armor scores.

  • Injury Thresholds: Armor and screens can be worn down by repeated blows and penetrations. This is represented in the same way that injury is represented to characters. If the damage exceeds the injury threshold, the armor or screen takes the appropriate injury. Enough injury will collapse the screen or break the armor. Screens can regenerate on their own if they have a power source, armor will need to be repaired to fix the damage. The Fix and Build (armor) skill and a pack fac or garage fac will suffice for patching holes and bonding cracks. Many armor pieces can withstand enough damage that it rarely comes into play. If the wearer keeps his armor in good repair and fixes it (or has it fixed) after battles, those with grayed-out injury thresholds can usually neglect the effects of damage to the armor from common weapons (although a direct hit from an explosive warhead or a tank cannon might break the armor – but by that time the wearer will likely be well past caring).

  • Blunt and Pad: When a powerful blow is absorbed by armor, it can still cause blunt trauma to the tissue behind the armor. This is Smash-type damage with a Wound score equal to the Blunt score of the armor or the Wound score of the attack, whichever is higher. The Penetration value of the blunt trauma will be the Penetration absorbed by the armor row shifted down by twice the difference between the blunt trauma Wound score and the attack's Wound score, and by the Sharp value of the blow (if any). The Pad score then directly subtracts from the blunt trauma penetration.

    The Blunt and Pad scores are most important for flexible armor. If the Blunt and Pad scores are grayed out, they can be neglected for most common attacks. Wide-area attacks such as collisions and contact explosions can still cause significant blunt trauma through even rigid armor. Burn, Abrade, and Arc type damage generally does not cause blunt trauma (although Beam type damage does, even if it acts against the Burn armor score).

  • Power: Screens and energized armor draw power, such as from an SMES. Without power, the screen cannot be activated or the armor has much less protective value.

  • Mass: The mass of the armor or screen in kg.

  • Price: The cost of the armor or screen in Republic dollars ($).

  • Activation: If the 2d6 armor roll comes up less than the activation, the attack bypasses the armor altogether.

Shields have attributes of both defenses and melee weapons, refer to the melee weapons section for a description of the information in the table.

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