Armor Layering

[Esoomian]

You've got to remember the Empire doesn't necessary have the best of everything. All of their things are mass produced and things like the enforcers or the mandalorian combat armour would be difficult to produce or maintain.

You may have 8d in armour and a gun that does 8d damage (or something just as stupidly powerful) but for the money you spent on it I can probably get a tie fighter...

Can you say strafing run?

[Loc Taal]

I agree that overly powerful weapons (and armor) should be very difficult to come by. They throw off the balance of the game too much and allow characters to depend on their equipment more than depending on their own skill and wits to overcome their enemies.
_________________
"Mind what you have learned. Save you it can." --Yoda

The original RANCOR PIT archive

[Rathe Ehtar]

Icebrand wrote

[Volo Enrunk]

i all together took the smasker armor out of my game +2d to str and you could modify it up to +3d+2 add that to my campaigns cybed up b-hunter with a 6d str um no sorry my chars need to know they can be hurt now does he have a good armour yes. mod corellian huntsuit if i remember right no dex he's moded it up 3 times so its 3d+2 now i think and he's got lots of gagets on it too. but mandalorian armour isn't all like boba fetts his is 4d 3d with tons of stuff on it. jodo kast has/(had) mandalorian armour too his was 2d 1d with no dex penalty and a nice sensor package if i remember right you can't find mandalorian armour much after the movies cuz mandalore is no more. boba's armour i wouldn't even call mandalorian i'd say it looks like mandalorian but i don't think underneath all that it really is. i'd say its a custom job or its layered and besides acording to the books boba pretty much took jodo kast out for having the armour and not having earned it so you could use that as a twist want madalorian armour? SURE. (enter boba fett... ((my boba doesn't have stats))you die.)
_________________
Sabbac anyone?

[Rathe Ehtar]

Boba Fett's armor is HIGHLY modified from the original suit. It stands to reason, that it doesn't count as being Mandalorian armor after all the modifications. It's stats are more than the rules would allow, yet there they are. Smasher armor is not good. It's +1D to phy/en and adds +2D to strenght when fighting and lifting, not good for MOGs. In my games, it's not banned, just reeeaaalllyy hard to find.
_________________
"I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings." -Max Payne

"I don't buy that cluck like a dog, bark like a chicken stuff." -Col. Jack O'Neill

[Crell Damar]

Smasher armor is REEEEEALLLY hard to find... it can only be purchased in one sector in the galaxy.
_________________
"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times... before the Empire. "

Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Ragnar]

I should know best...every time i get smasher armor i lose it...i finally managed to re-acquire some, but i don't use it much cause if i do i know i'll just lose it.

[Ray]

The "Survival Expert" in the Scout game I'm in got to use his Smasher Armour recently...

Too bad there were a bunch of slavers on station that also used 'em, and he got mistaken for them.

That's why I keep with the more standard body armour and StarSlasher Carbine. Everyone uses it, so I'm more often mistaken for everyone.

[garhkal]

I am with Volar. No stacking of armor. And wearing something over another suit will get you dex penalties.... 1d worth imo.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[KageRyu]

Well, since this thread has been resurected, I might as well add my two cents.
• Stacking Armor: Stacking armor, whether it has a Dex penalty or not, should incur an additional penalty based on the layers of armor. Why you ask? well, this is a 2 pronged answer. 1) for the GMs sake to help maintain game balance and prevent munchkanism in players by stacking armor to obtain super-invulnerable protection. 2) Because even non-dex penalizing armor is flexible by distributing it's mass and achieving moveable and flexible areas to compensate for possible weight and restriction of movement, when you add extra layers they may not be physically compatible, serving to hinder vital joints or inhibit movement because the layers chafe. I recommend imposing a cummulative Dex penalty of -1, exponentially based on the number of layers (second layer -1, third layer is another -2 totalling -3, fourth layer is another -4 which totals to -7 when added to layers 1 and two). I feel this is reasonable, and reflects the fact that you can only wear so much. Anyone who doubts, try this experiment: go put on every pair of pants in your closet! I also suggest, but this is optional, reducing the effectiveness of extra layers (The rules for combined actions can be adapted to this oddly). Keep in mind, based on the combined actions chart, and weapons listings for vehicles, a full 1D increase is exponentional (twice as tough, durable, strong as the previous rating).

• As for Mandalorian armor...yes it is uber tough, but it was mentioned in sources long ago the Mandalorians had special manufacturing and refinement processes for metals resulting in what was called by some "Mandalorian Iron". Basically, only the Mandalorians knew how to do this, so the armor should be extremely rare, bordering on Unique! Why? Well, House Mandaloria fell to the Jedi, and with it all of it's secrets were lost. What remained was plundered by grave robbers, pirates, and rogues. Much has probably been destroyed over the time since.

• As for any Uber-Armor, if it is in the game, keep it rare. Alow NPCs to be similarly equiped to threaten the PCs. There are lots of attacks that Armor may not help against. Don't let a piece of technology throw off game balance. Worst comes to worst, an NPC sees a character walking through a hail of HR blaster fire unscathed, the NPC could decide to turn that anti-walker missile on him!

I do, however, feel that too many GMs place too great a focus on combat, so players tend to neglect other skills and try to Uber up in every way possible.
_________________
"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Lord Ben]

I've always ruled that 6D+2 heavy blaster pistols are merely mass-produced modified 5D blaster pistols. IE, no upgrading it to 8D+1, same with the uber body armor.

[Argamoth]

I'd alow a bit of modification of armor, but the PC would need to obtain the right equipment to make it better. (like as, having lots of credits and good connections) Repairing the armor when it gets damaged helps too.

As for stacking layers or armor, I pretty much agree with most of the people: dex penalties.

[netjedi]

I allow some armor stacking in my D6 games. I allow for armored or resistive cloathing and a type of harder armor. Most players have it set up so they buy or start with an action jumpsuit and a blast vest. in those cases I allow it. I would not allow two hard armors together like a blast vest and a corellian hunt suit etc.
_________________
"Dig it. Who's the man? I'm the man. I'm a bad man. How bad? Real bad. I'm a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness." The Evil Midnight Bomber

Wanted Poster

[KageRyu]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the better armors (those without Dex penalties, or those with higher protection values, or special features) tend to be more rare and more expensive (sometimes needing custom tailoring, and costum modifications). Those armors should not be readily available to starting players without good cause. Also, the GM can control and restrict access to such Items through their rarity. A good note (supprising I have not seen it in any of the sourcebooks) is this: Asign a shop, store, merchant, or contact an access rating in D. Whenever a player wishes to see if certain Item is available from said source, roll the D with his target number being directly related to the rarity of the Item (readily available items are easy, while rare Items should be difficult at best).
_________________
"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[garhkal]

That is something Sparks loves doing. When we have, what are refered to as Seminars or Interactives (basically a LARP/TT mix), we have the availability and code (F,R,X) rank to a streetwise diff to locate. Like a 3R would be say, 18. A 4,F would be 16, while a 4R would be 24.... (not the exact numers but a general gist).
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!