Armor – How it Works

At the beginning of the war, nearly all actual fighting was engaged in by the forces of Celestia’s Royal Guard and the Zebra Caesar’s elite Praetorian Guard – professional military units with histories stretching back literally thousands of years. The armors used by both sides were practically works of art; highly stylized, extremely protective and expensive to produce, making use of rare metals, ancient magics and difficult crafting techniques, they were covered in protective enchantments or talismans that granted their wearers enhanced speed and ability in battle.

Modern warfare tactics changed armor forever, rendering the expensive to produce armors all-but obsolete in the face of superior numbers and the advent of firearms. Modern armor was no longer designed to block a melee blow; instead it needed to provide the maximum of protection against bullets and energy beams while still being light and easy to move in and, above all, mass producible.

And so, modern armor was born – designed to degrade easily in order to counter the forces applied to it, cheap enough that replacing the damaged parts of it was easier than repairing it. The majority of modern armors are modular, designed only to cover the important parts of the wearer – the torso and head – leaving the rest uncovered to maximize mobility. This is why barding is generally separated into helmets and bardings – helmets were generally produced separately, while the barding meant for the torso was generally produced as a single unit, rather than the distinctly modular designs seen worn by the royal guard.

Ponies wearing armor may subtract their armor’s DT value from any damage dealt to a location that armor protects. If the damage is from an armor piercing weapon, remember to account for the amount of DT its attacks ignore.

Armor Degradation

The armor of the modern era isn’t designed to outlast the wearer; in fact, it was designed to be destroyed in their stead. To represent this fact, armor degrades. This is an optional rule, designed to make things more difficult for players long-term as they continue to experience combat without time to repair. It works well in tandem with the (also optional) weapon degradation rules.

Whenever a character takes damage from an attack that is greater than their armor’s DT in a location, that armor’s DT is lowered by 1 in that location. If the DT of armor or clothing in an area hit by an attack is already 0, then the armor or clothing is destroyed (or otherwise ruined) by that attack.

If you’re wearing multiple sets of armor, you should be aware of a couple of things. First, DT provided does not stack – the armor with the highest value is the only one that counts. In terms of degradation, if the higher value armor is degraded, all other armors worn in that location are also degraded.

“Natural” armor, such as from perks that grant DT, does not degrade. Natural DT, unlike secondary layers of armor, DOES stack – you can add your character’s natural DT to whatever other armor they’re wearing for the purposes of reducing damage. Non-natural armor is always considered penetrated first before natural armor is considered.

Repairing armor that has degraded requires some sort of raw material – usually in the form of other damaged sets of armor. If you’re using one set of armor to repair another, you may add 10% of the scrapped armor’s DT value to the degraded armor being repaired for every 10 ranks of repair your repairing character possesses, to a maximum of the degraded armor’s full DT value (rounded down, minimum 1 point of DT if the armor is ruined or your skill rank is less than 10). This process takes 10 minutes for every point of DT being restored, or 30 minutes per point if the armor is medium or heavy barding, and destroys the armor being cannibalized for parts. Powered bardings cannot be repaired except by magical means (such as repair talismans or spells), or by cannibalizing parts from the same type of powered barding.

Repairs can also be made using more basic raw materials such as leather or scrap metal – such items allow you to restore 1DT per unit of weight of the raw material used, up to the base armor’s maximum. This process requires a repair skill rank of at least 25, and you must use materials similar to what the armor is composed of – you can’t repair steel plating with fabric. The time expended is roughly the same as when using other armors to repair.

Built-in repair talismans, such as you’ll find in all powered armor suits that haven’t been stripped of their electronics, repair 2 DT to each location (this can also affect the helmet if the suit is completely assembled) per unit of scrap metal and scrap electronics they are fed. Standard repair talismans repair 1DT every 30 seconds. Over-charged versions may have an accelerated rate, but they’re not common (and would be quite costly if you into one as a result – in the neighborhood of 25000-30000 caps). These talismans have a small internal compartment for raw materials to be stored; most can store up to three units for use in immediate repair during combat. The repair talismans themselves will be destroyed if the armor is damaged such that its DT falls below 25% of its maximum (round down, as normal). Only a unicorn with sufficiently advanced magic can restore them at that point; it is usually easier to replace them.

Repairing clothes and cloth-bardings may also require that your characters possess a needle and thread, and metal armors will require tools like a hammer and anvil to properly repair. Appropriate tools are always necessary to repair using raw materials, and usually but not always necessary for repairing using existing barding.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 894