Message no. 1

From:	David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG>
Subject:	Barriers, Vehicles, Structures, Hardened Armor and Heavy Weapons
Date:	Thu, 22 Jan 1998 09:28:07 -0700

After being inspired by Bull I've been working on the following house
rule for awhile. I think its finally done. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Barriers, Vehicles, Structures, Hardened Armor and Heavy Weapons:
Shadowrun's rules for attacking vehicles and barriers are
confusing, to say the least. Also it is way to easy for "brick"
characters to resist damage from heavy weapons. The following rules
are an attempt to fix that, while maintaining playability and game balance.

Attacks:
There are two categories of attacks, Standard Attacks and Heavy
Weapon Attacks. Hand-to-hand, melee, projectile, and firearm attacks
are considered Standard Attacks. Heavy weapon, rocket, missile and
explosive attacks (but not grenades) are considered Heavy Weapon Attacks.

Targets:
There are two types of targets, Standard Targets and Hard
Targets. People and critters are Standard Targets. Barriers,
structures, vehicles and critters with the power Hardened Defense are
Hard Targets.

Armor:
There are two types of armor, Standard Armor and Hardened Armor.
Typical body armor is Standard Armor. Vehicle armor, re-enforced
structures and barriers, military body armor, and critters with the
power Hardened Armor, are Hardened Armors.

Putting It All Together:
When a Standard Target, with or without Standard Armor, is
attacked by a Standard Attack, use the rules as is.
Heavy Weapon Attacks reduce the number of damage resistance dice
of Standard Targets by half.
Heavy Weapon Attacks reduce the effectiveness of Standard Armor by half.
Hard Targets reduce the damage from Standard Attacks by half.
Hardened Armor reduces the Power of Standard Attacks by half and
negates beneficial special effects of Standard Attacks. If the base
Power of a Standard Attack is lower than the Hardened Armor's rating,
the attack has no effect.
All of the above adjustments are made before other modifiers
(such as ammo effects) and before damage is resisted. Round all
fractions down.

Magaga drives by in an armored personnel carrier (Hard Target).
Sam shoots the APC with a 9D pistol (Standard Weapon), loaded with
armor-piercing ammo. The power and damage of the pistol are reduced
by half (from 9D to 4M). The armor-piercing effect of Sam's ammo has
no affect against the tank. The APC's armor (Hardened) of 8 is
subtracted from the power of the attack, reducing it to 0.

Sam fires an anti-vehicle rocket (Heavy Weapon) at Fred (Standard
Target) and hits. Fred has a Body of 5 and is wearing Standard Armor
with an impact rating of 3. When resisting damage Fred only gets to
apply half his body (2) and half his armor (1). The effectiveness of
Fred's armor is cut in half again because the attack is armor
piercing (I consider anti-vehicle rockets to be armor-piercing),
reducing his armor to 0 for the damage resistance test.

-David
--
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep."
--
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
email: dbuehrer@****.org