CT Only: Armor type vs damage type

[jaz0nj4ckal]

Folks,
I want to add a little flair to my armor and weapons in my next game setting, and wanted to know if any of you have experimented with adding different Armor values vs Damage Type? Damage types will be simple Acid, Thermal, etc

The idea is - particular armor will protect better against certain type of damage.

Currently I am giving a bonus to a specific type of damage, but always take a penalty against other types. The idea is - armor that has no penalty is rare or extremely expensive. I am doing the following:

Jack Acid Armor
+1 bonus against Acid
-1 penalty against normal attacks

 

[GypsyComet]

Are those absolutes, or adjustments to the Weapon DMs already in place?

 

[robject]

I kind of like the way you added the particular protection type to the basic armor type. Kind of like a "skills list". Standardize on that (+1 against listed protection(s)) and I think you've got an easy and workable solution that fits in a CT mold.

As far as a negative mod to 'regular' attacks, make that a (DM-1) on the armor itself. Or just another comment. Clarity and flexibility will win.

Jack Armor DM-1; acid DM+1.

 

[jaz0nj4ckal]

Are those absolutes, or adjustments to the Weapon DMs already in place?

I was thinking it would be adjustments to the Weapon DMs already in place.

Since the Jack Acid armor is better at protecting against Acid, but bad at normal damage. While - the normal Jack Armor is good at protecting against normal attacks.

What I need to do is a get a good baseline for penalties against the normal CT armor stats.

 

[jaz0nj4ckal]

I kind of like the way you added the particular protection type to the basic armor type. Kind of like a "skills list". Standardize on that (+1 against listed protection(s)) and I think you've got an easy and workable solution that fits in a CT mold.

As far as a negative mod to 'regular' attacks, make that a (DM-1) on the armor itself. Or just another comment. Clarity and flexibility will win.

Jack Armor DM-1; acid DM+1.

Yeah - I am torn as to if I should include the "DM-1" on normal attacks against the armor. My thinking is - the Jack Acid armor would protect better against acid based weapons, but poor against normal based weapons. The latter would give incentive for players to still get normal Jack armor, since it would use the stats from the book unmodified.

 

[Fovean]

I am confused as to why Jack armor would suffer a penalty against normal attacks when incorporating additional protection against acid or what have you.

Why not just say ' Jack (Acid Improved, +1)' and leave it at that? Cost, TL and availability can mitigate the game balance vs normal Jack. As well as more encumbrance if you see fit, or an ablative nature (only protects against 1D number of attacks for instance).

 

[kilemall]

To answer your question, no, the usual HEAT/HEAP/kinetic/laser/plasma-fusion mix works well for me, haven't felt the need to go into exotic weapons.

T5 does a lot of this, they have special freeze/heat and other effects possible.

I could actually see a use for this outside of weird weapon opponents, for animals packing an acid punch it would be natural for armor makers of that world to design to counter the local fauna. Aliens vs. Marines comes to mind.

Or more in the line of hostile environment gear. That's what I'm postulating Reflec is nowadays, less a specific sprectrum laser deflection and more a superheat diffraction.

The other part is I wouldn't be thinking of acid as a normal attack, more a 'how much armor does it burn through before it starts damaging the character', and not as fast as a normal weapons shot, perhaps inducing the character to wash off the acid or take the armor piece off before the acid gets through.