| From: | Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Big Time armor |
| Date: | Tue, 5 Apr 1994 10:24:50 -0500 |
> I still don't see it as being as much of an oversight. A bullet striking a
>bullet-proof vest still does a lot of damage from the impact.
Yes, but a bulletproof vest is soft armor. Heavy/Security armors are hard
armor, minimising (if not completely eliminating) blunt trauma.
> The armor lessens the
>damage, but if you're frail, ie a body of 1, the damage is still potentially
>lethal. You're body just isn't capable of resisting the impact. Remember,
>a body of 1 is extremely frail and weak.
But not so frail and weak that they should have the same chance of dying from
an attack whether they're nude or wearing hard armor.
> The only place I see a problem is with small arms against heavy armor- where
>common sense suggests that the armor should stop enough of the bullet's impact
>to lessen the damage, despite the body.
Like, for instance, the Streetline Special vs. Full Heavy which you seem to
be saying _should_ kill the Body 1 character inside the Full Heavy...
> But then again, who fires light
>weapons at heavy armor?
People who left the elephant guns at home. Low-end gangers who can't afford
anything better. "Respectable" citizens who want to carry the smallest
weapon they can find. In short, anyone lacking either the resources or the
desire to carry heavy weapons on a regular basis (which should be just about
everyone - Lone Star frowns on people carrying heavy weapons, you know...).
> Remember, all armor really does is keep the bullet from penetrating, and
>absorb some of the impact. A tough man is more likely to walk away from a
>gunshot wound than a weak one. But there's still damage to deal with, and the
>physically weak are still often SOL.
You still seem to be thinking primarily in terms of soft armors - armored
clothing (3/0) is the only 'pure' soft armor in SR; everything else has plates
in it, while the Heavy and Security armors _are_ plates with a little
ballistic cloth to hold them together. By my normal way of dealing with
armor>Power, 'pure' soft armor would only give an extra Body die against guns
with a Power of 2 or less. With the extrapolation from the vehicle rules, it
would give 1 extra Body - and a Body 1 character will _still_ probably die
from the blunt trauma, _but_ it will be (at least a little) less likely than
with no armor at all. And, quite simply, I can't believe that there is
_anyone_ so weak or so frail that they're just as likely to die from blunt
trauma as they are from taking the bullet directly.
esper@***.umn.edu
