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Message no. 1
From: sfeley@*****.com (Stephen Eley)
Subject: SR4: Any fixes for armor?
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:31:55 -0500
Hi all,

Okay, so my campaign is in SR4 now. The group had serious problems
with SR3 -- they're experienced roleplayers but SR newbies, and had
real issues with combat pacing. SR4's working a lot better for us.
This is our experience. I really don't want to turn this thread into
a debate, please.

But there is one SR4 aspect that continually irks my players, and
that's armor. We've got some stat-munchers in the crew, and it took
them no time at all to realize that the "damage-to-armor" equation was
seriously unbalanced: the way the probabilities work out, it takes 3
points of armor to have a fair shot at neutralizing 1 point of damage.
This makes ammo like gel rounds and flechettes (+2 damage, -2 AP on
impact armor) overpowered, because the increase in damage more than
makes up for the armor boost. My players keep bugging me about it.

So I'll ask here: anyone have any good house rules dealing with armor?
Simply subtracting damage points seems a bit much, but I don't have
any other clever ideas just yet. I'm interested in whether other
folks perceive a problem, and what you're all doing about it. Thanks
in advance.


--
Have Fun,
Steve Eley (sfeley@*****.com)
ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
http://www.escapepod.info
Message no. 2
From: raymacey@*****.com (Ray Macey)
Subject: SR4: Any fixes for armor?
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 18:29:29 +1000
On 12/14/05, Stephen Eley <sfeley@*****.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> But there is one SR4 aspect that continually irks my players, and
> that's armor.

Though I don't have any house rules for it (no campaign yet), I think
the problem is with the ammo mods, rather than the armour itself. I'd
suggest it's probably better to tone down the modifications that the
various ammo types give (even if it does make them less varied) than
to fiddle with armour directly

--
http://cyron.id.au
Message no. 3
From: gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: SR4: Any fixes for armor?
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:34:38 +0100
According to Stephen Eley, on 14-12-05 04:31 the word on the street was...

> So I'll ask here: anyone have any good house rules dealing with armor?

The easiest one I can think of is to adjust the armor ratings (doubling
them, for example). However, this has the problem that armor becomes
king -- you don't need to put any points in Body, you just wear the
heaviest armor you can get hold of.

TBH, I don't really see it as a problem. Armor made a bit too much of a
difference in SRII and SR3, I feel, so it's probably good that it's not
as effective in SR4.

--
Gurth@******.nl - Stone Age: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Please do not read the lyrics whilst listening to the recordings.
-> Former NAGEE Editor & ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Site: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UB+ P(+) L++ E W++(--) N o? K w-- O
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Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 4
From: zebulingod@*****.com (Zebulin M)
Subject: SR4: Any fixes for armor?
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:38:55 -0800
On 12/13/05, Stephen Eley <sfeley@*****.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> <SNIP>

But there is one SR4 aspect that continually irks my players, and
> that's armor. We've got some stat-munchers in the crew, and it took
> them no time at all to realize that the "damage-to-armor" equation was
> seriously unbalanced: the way the probabilities work out, it takes 3
> points of armor to have a fair shot at neutralizing 1 point of damage.
> This makes ammo like gel rounds and flechettes (+2 damage, -2 AP on
> impact armor) overpowered, because the increase in damage more than
> makes up for the armor boost. My players keep bugging me about it.
>
> So I'll ask here: anyone have any good house rules dealing with armor?
> Simply subtracting damage points seems a bit much, but I don't have
> any other clever ideas just yet. I'm interested in whether other
> folks perceive a problem, and what you're all doing about it. Thanks
> in advance.


Actually, we've come up with a house rule which might help:

The first "hit" only means you *hit* and doesn't add to the rest for staging
purposes. For example, say:

Timmy the Terrorist rolls 8 dice and gets 4 "hits" on his attack test.
Peter the Pedestrian rolls 4 dice and doesn't get any hits.

Timmy is using an Ares Predator (5P, I think) and so with his hits, he
would now stage up to 8P (not 9P cause the first "hit" only verifies that
you did hit).

That make sense?

Zebulin

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