Deflector Screens
A deflector screen is an invisible barrier that impedes the passage of all matter, particle radiation (including neutrons, but not gamma or x-rays), and other affectors.
Light and all other electromagnetic radiation can pass through without hindrance, including thermal radiation, laser beams, radar, radio waves, microwaves, and gamma and x-rays.
Sound will be muted and dull – apply a -2 to Awareness for hearing things on the other side of a deflector screen.
High energy impacts will produce a visible flash in an atmosphere or fluid environment, as will interactions with strong affector fields.
Deflectors have the same armor score for any attack they are effective against – there are not different scores for mechanical, burning, arc, and radiation damage.
The Armor Piercing score of material attacks apply normally, but the Armor Piercing score of disruptors and other affector-based attacks are negated and are treated as +0.
Sufficient damage can cause a deflector to be weakened or collapse.
For Injury Scores of more than +12, the deflector screen's Armor Score is reduced by Injury Score - 12.
Once the screen reaches Injury Score +16, it flickers off and provides no further protection.
Unlike normal armor, injuries to the screen do not increase Activation.
The deflector screen will regenerate with time and energy. If the screen has not collapsed the regeneration is applied as it occurs. Otherwise, the screen can only be re-activated once it has fully regenerated back to full strength.
All listed deflector screens regenerate Injury Score +11 every combat round, and draw 100 times their resting power while doing so.
Listed deflector screens store enough energy internally to last for 180 kiloseconds (2 days).
Customizing Deflector Screens
Deflector screens can be made for characters of different sizes. Row shift the power, mass, and price by twice the difference in Size, and the injury thresholds by the Size difference.
Deflector screens can be made stronger or weaker. Every Row Shift to Power, Mass, and Price adds the Row Shift to Armor Score and subtracts it from Injury Susceptibility without chaning the shape or Size (for example, a +2 Row Shift will increase Armor Score by 2 and decrease Injury Susceptibility by 2).
Screens can be made of different "types" of deflectors that can trade strength for toughness. Any of these screens can add or subtract up to 3 to both Armor Score and Injury Susceptibility, reflecting screens that are extremely strong and rigid but brittle, or less strong but tough and resilient.
Deflector Shields
One of the most basic configurations of the deflector for personal defense is as a simple screen you hold in front of you and interpose between attacks and yourself, like a shield. This form of defense is used by all cultures who have access to Antecessor technology. Use the normal rules for shields when using a deflector shield.
Shields that are scaled up using the usual rules for increasing the Size of shields can be used as portable barriers. The basic Size +0 shields listed below are assumed to be one meter in diameter – although those made for humans are usually 1.5 meters high by 0.7 meters wide (which can be rotated to any orientation desired by the user, just by turning the shield generator, as you would expect). These dimensions are row shifted by the change in Size, and can be altered when the shield is manufactured to provide other dimensions that maintain the same area.
Description | Def (Size 0) | Protects | Armor Score | Injury Susc. | Bulk | Pen (size 0) | Wound | Power | Mass | Price | WSize | WLen | |
Light Dfl. Shield | +5/+1 | 3+{7} | +10 | +4¼ | +4½ | +½ RS | +3 | 20 W | 0.4 | 30 | +0 | +½ | Medium Dfl. Shield | +5/+1 | 3+{7} | +12 | +2¼ | +4½ | +1½ RS | +3 | 40 W | 0.8 | 60 | +½ | +½ | Heavy Dfl. Shield | +5/+1 | 3+{7} | +14 | +¼ | +4½ | +2 RS | +3 | 70 W | 1.5 | 100 | +1½ | +½ |
Squirm Deflector Shields
Squirms have deflector shields that can project the deflector disk up to 3 meters in front of the generator. Adjusting the distance from the shield generator to the deflector disk takes an action.
The Squirm use aperture ports much like the Gummis, to allow their weapons to shoot through their shields.
Deflector Shells
Deflector shells are one of the simplest applications of deflector technology.
When activated, a spherical deflector bubble appears around the deflector shell generator. The bubble will extend to the surface of anything solid in its way as it is formed, and then stop.
This will stick the bubble to the surface with considerable force.
If the screen generator is not being worn, the bubble will act as a barrier rather than armor – blunt trauma never applies. Otherwise, momentum from impacts get transferred to the generator, which may cause bruises and other blunt trauma if it is worn and it recoils from a blow.
If the bubble does not encounter solid matter, it will form a complete sphere. In air, it can levitate if a synched repulsor field is used to keep it up. Otherwise, it will fall – flying will support you within the bubble but you cannot keep the bubble from falling by trying to fly. In water, it will float if it has air in it, sink if it contains little to no air but does have heavy ballast, or be neutrally buoyant if it contains only water and living beings. If the bubble comes to rest on a solid surface, it will roll downhill. The surface is frictionless – anyone in the bubble will not be able to stand on its surface or get any kind of grip or purchase. If the bubble collides with anything (such as the ground, at the end of the fall), the occupants will take collision damage from colliding with the bubble.
The listed shell's bubble is Size +2, with a 2 meter diameter. If you are shooting at someone in a deflector shell bubble, a miss by the difference in the shell size and the target size or less still strikes the bubble and may damage it.
If the bubble forms with someone part-way through the screen's surface, they will become trapped. They can move around on the surface of the bubble, but will have difficulty pulling free. Treat this as a grapple with Brawn of shield's Armor Score - 5 and an effective Size the lower of the bubble's Size and the victim's Size. An appendage trapped within the bubble with enough reach might be able to switch the generator off. Otherwise, the bubble only adheres to the outer surface so wriggling out of your clothes – if you were wearing clothes over the area enclosed – may help your escape. This gives you +4 to your escape attempt. Gummis can spend a few minutes to re-arrange their zoids so that only a few skin zooids remain stuck; escape is automatic (they can also stretch out their elastic bodies to reach the generator power switch, or re-arrange their zoids for a longer limb to power down the screen).
Gummi-Tech aperture ports work with deflector shells, if you need an opening in the bubble.
Description | Protects | Armor Score | Injury Susc. | Blunt | Power | Mass | Price | Activation | |
Light Deflector Shell | 1-10 | +10 | +1 | +9 | 200 W | 4.5 | 300 | | Medium Deflector Shell | 1-10 | +12 | -1 | +9 | 450 W | 8 | 600 | | Heavy Deflector Shell | 1-10 | +14 | -3 | +9 | 800 W | 18 | 1.2 k | |
Gummi-Tech Deflectors
The Gummis developed sophisticated deflectors during their war with the Squirm. They and their entrained allies commonly use these deflectors when physical protection is necessary.
Description | Protects | Armor Score | Injury Susc. | Blunt | Power | Mass | Price | Activation | |
Tweechi Light Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +8 | +6½ | +7½ | 12 W | 1.2 | 35 | | Tweechi Medium Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +10 | +4½ | +7½ | 20 W | 2 | 60 | | Tweechi Heavy Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +12 | +2½ | +7½ | 40 W | 4 | 120 | | Light Deflector Web | 1-10 | +8 | +5 | +9 | 30 W | 3 | 80 | | Medium Deflector Web | 1-10 | +10 | +3 | +9 | 60 W | 6 | 180 | | Heavy Deflector Web | 1-10 | +12 | +1 | +9 | 120 W | 12 | 350 | | Pirang Light Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +8 | +4½ | +9½ | 40 W | 4 | 120 | | Pirang Medium Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +10 | +2½ | +9½ | 80 W | 8 | 250 | | Pirang Heavy Dfl. Web | 1-10 | +12 | +½ | +9½ | 150 W | 15 | 450 | |
- Deflector Web: A mesh of deflector screen generators that surrounds the body. The generators mutually reinforce each other, providing a flexible barrier that becomes momentarily rigid when struck while allowing damage to be shared among the entire web. The user wears special boots that allow the screen to pass through the soles so that they can walk normally. Gloves in the web allow the screen to be turned off at the finger pads and palms (or equivalent gripping surface, for non-Humans) so that items can be grasped (this will give an Activation of 4 to shots that hit the arm or equivalent body part). Weapons will require web covering with a port for their aperture to allow them to shoot out of the screen without being affected by the screen (the port gives an activation of 3 for shots that hit the weapon).
The deflector screen is complete. Unless ports are opened for weapons or the screen is turned off over the user's gripping appendanges, it is impermeable to gases and liquids. This protects the user from poison gases, biological agents, and radioactive contamination, but requires that the user have a SCBA kit to breathe.
Neutron, alpha, and beta radiation cannot get through the screen, but gamma and x-ray radiation is unimpeded.
Turning the field off around the respiratory orifices allows normal breathing, but gives an Activation of 3 to the hit location containing the breathing orifices.
The listed webs assume Tweechi are Size -1½, Gummis are Size +0, and Pirangs are Size +½.
- Aperture Port: A ring-shaped device that creates a "window" in a deflector screen. The screen will not cover the window created by the port. A typical application is to put one around the business end of a weapon to allow it to shoot out of a screen. For a conforming screen like a web, this is automatic. For a fixed screen like a shell or shield, you need to physically place the port in the screen's surface and activate it – once activated, the port can be moved around along the screen's surface but not easily removed. Deactivating the port allows it to be moved away from the surface.
Another common use is to allow access through an activated deflector screen. Large ports can be used as doors, and simply stepped through. Gummis can squeeze through even tiny ports, although it is much faster if the port is larger.
Aperture ports vary in size from just large enough to allow a small pistol to fire through, to big enough to walk through.
An aperture port is rated for the maximum strength (Armor Score) of deflector it can open a hole in. It can open holes in deflectors that are weaker than or equal to its rating, but not stronger.
Mass:
Armor Score Rating
| Diameter
|
1 cm | 2 cm | 3 cm | 5 cm | 7 cm | 10 cm | 20 cm | 30 cm | 50 cm | 100 cm | 100 × 200 cm | +8 | 3 g | 7 g | 10 g | 18 g | 25 g | 40 g | 100 g | 0.15 kg | 0.35 kg | 1 kg | 2 kg | +10 | 6 g | 12 g | 20 g | 35 g | 50 g | 80 g | 0.18 kg | 0.35 kg | 0.7 kg | 2 kg | 4 kg | +12 | 12 g | 25 g | 40 g | 70 g | 0.1 kg | 0.15 kg | 0.4 kg | 0.7 kg | 1.5 kg | 4.5 kg | 8 kg | +14 | 25 g | 45 g | 70 g | 0.12 kg | 0.18 kg | 0.25 kg | 0.7 kg | 1.2 kg | 2.5 kg | 8 kg | 15 kg | +16 | 50 g | 100 g | 0.15 kg | 0.25 kg | 0.4 kg | 0.6 kg | 1.5 kg | 2.5 kg | 5 kg | 15 kg | 30 kg |
Price: $1 × mass in grams.
Zox Deflector Plate
The Sacred Library of the Zox details designs for armor made out of rigid plate-like sections of deflector screens. This is the armor common to the Hierate's combat troops.
Description | Protects | Armor Score | Injury Susc. | Blunt | Power | Mass | Price | Activation | |
Light Dfl. Plate Suit | 1-10 | +10 | +3 | +7 | 60 W | 6 | 180 | 4 | Heavy Dfl. Plate Suit | 1-10 | +12 | +1 | +7 | 100 W | 10 | 350 | 4 |
- Delector Plate Suit: A series of overlapping rigid screen segments, largely conforming to the contours of the Mant's carapace.
Antecessor Deflectors
Antecessor ruins and relics have exhibited all the varieties of deflector screen described here. The Antecessor deflectors, however, have an additional trick that no modern sapient has been able to reproduce – they require no power to keep them activated once formed. The screen still draws power when injured to regenerate itself, but without damage the screen will persist in an activated state indefinitely.
Antecessor deflectors also tend to be more effective for a given size than those of other sapients. Add 2 to the Armor Score and -2 to the Injury Susceptibility (or equivalently, keep the Armor Score and injury threhsolds the same, and decrease the mass by two row shifts).
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