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Armor in Anarchy

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adambeyoncelowe:

--- Quote from: zellak on ---The last edition i played before SRA was 3rd.....

Also i am not happy with the firearms defence and was thinking of changing it to Agility + cover  ( light cover +2 / heavy cover +4 ).....i am planning on playtesting a firefight solo to see how bad this really is. 

Agility + Logic seems wrong somehow.

--- End quote ---
I had that reaction too, but it's because Logic encompasses Intuition now, while Agility already encompasses Reaction. So think of it as Agility + Intuition instead, if that helps.

Because the rules are close enough to SR4-5, our prior expectations can get in the way (but you get used to it with time, too). It's like the uncanny valley of RPG crunch.

At our table, I also rule that you can roll your melee combat pool as a parry/block or perhaps even another dice pool if it makes sense. E.g., Agility + Athletics might work. That works well so far.

Back to the topic at hand, one alternative rule to deal with armour is this:

1. Defenders don't roll for defence. The threshold for any attack is (opponent's ([AGI + LOG]/3). If the attacker meets it, they hit. Net hits add extra damage as usual.
2. The target rolls STR + Armour as Damage Reduction. A glitch reduces the target's armour by one.
3. Modified DV - DR hits get applied to the relevant Condition Monitor.

Really, there's only one of two ways I'd do it: roll DR or roll defence, but never both. Whichever pool you're not rolling gets divided by 3 instead.

If you wanted, you could even give the target the choice of whether to roll defence or soak on each attack. That gives you more tactical choice but could hold things up if people are indecisive.

That said, we've not had any issue with armour as extra circles so far. In most cases, players start panicking when they take any amount of armour damage, because they know it'll be their Condition Monitor next, so they're encouraged to speed things up.

And NPCs can just surrender or flee when the GM feels like it -- they don't need to fight to the death, which would be far more unrealistic in most cases than ablative armour anyway.

The rules already have ways to speed up combat -- such as doubling DVs across the board, which is lethal but very fast. With Plot Points and Edge, you don't need to worry about TPKs too much, either.

But the good thing about Anarchy is that you can mix it up and try new things, so go nuts!

Lipe82:
Sorry to necropost, but I have been preparing a game recently and this post came to mind.

On top of all the cool suggestions in this thread, I did think about...

--- Quote from: Tecumseh on ---Some alternative armor ideas.
--- End quote ---

IDEA: Armor reduces DAMAGE CODE.
LOGIC: Armor protects against the gun, leaving the bulk of damage to the attacker's talent.
It's basically an auto-soak, but net successes would dictate how strong the attack was instead of gunpower alone.
Initially I thought Light 2, Medium 3, Heavy 4; so an Ares Predator (6P) would deal 4P, 3P or 2P respectively (plus net successes as usual), applied straight into the CM.
ARMOR DAMAGE: upon P hit, target rolls a glitch die; glitch means the armor became one grade lower, until broken/fubar; ignore Armor hitboxes completely.

Less bookkeeping, no extra rolls, combat favors attack over defence. May need to adjust armor values.
All feedback is most welcome.

Tecumseh:
Ha, I've been rereading this thread too. I joined an Anarchy game in mid-February and I found myself revisiting this to remind myself what I used to know/think. The game only lasted a month, as generally happens.

Yes, what you're describing is pretty much the same as my Method #2.

The one thing I debate is the best armor:soak ratio. I suggested 3:1, which is what you have here. I can think of arguments for other ratios, but I suppose a lot of it comes down to personal preference about how effective you want armor to be and what sort of balance you like to maintain between offense and defense.

Another possibility is to borrow an idea from 4E and have there be a comparison between the armor rating and the base weapon damage to determine whether the resulting damage is Stun or Physical. Right now in Anarchy all damage erodes armor equally, and after the armor is gone the damage goes to the appropriate Condition Monitor. 

For example, what if we say Light 4, Medium 6, Heavy 8. Then compare those armor ratings to the base weapon damage (before net hits). If the Armor is equal to the incoming damage rating, it converts it from Physical to Stun. That means Light armor will mostly be to defend against melee attacks, while Medium armor could stop pistols, and Heavy armor could soak an assault rifle but not a sniper rifle. Damage could be based on net hits and go straight to the condition monitor determined by the comparison. So you're still getting hit, and you're still taking damage, but maybe a less-lethal type of damage that's easier to endure. Or add net hits to the comparison if you want more Physical damage to encourage folks to retreat more quickly.

Just spitballing.

Lipe82:
I guess the only slightly different aspect here would be the actual ratings.

I don't like the idea of someone willingly striding under heavy fire like they're Black Panther impervious (or Chrome Bison impervious). The idea of glitch die on hit degrading the type of armor also makes it less safe.

On another topic, but for this same game - I've been trying to think ways to make do with less rolling. I already use target hits instead of contested roll against the player's pool on skills; I'm trying to figure out a way to make defense a static number you need to beat as well. Maybe that deserves its own post.

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