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Old 01-07-2017, 04:28 AM   #1
General Lee
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Somewhere between Cape Horn and Zenith Point
Default Combining and Layering Flexible Armor Against Firearms

Hi everyone!

I was reading this when I decided to check how gurps would deal it - yeah, I did not have it by rote. By the rules in Basic Set: Characters, 4ed, p. 286 armor could be combined in layers, if inner layers are flexible and concealable, adding DR from each other, with penalty of -1 per layer added.

So, in the example explained there, the armor combined (NIJ Ratings IIA+IIIA+~IIIA+~IIIA) would have ~DR 44, tested against a .300 AAC Sellier & Bellot 147 gr FMJ cartridge shot by an AR Rifle -- with muzzle energy roughly equal to "a 7.62x51mm M80 FMJ fired from an M14 at about 400 yards", by which for GURPS means nothing because 400 yards is below half-damage range --, which I estimated it doing 5d+2 of damage (or 20 Hit Points on average), and clearly it fails to protect a wannabe wearer of this armor. Why?

How come 20 Hit Points could blowthough an armor with ~DR44? My immediate answer to that -- IT COULDN'T, according to the rules as it is.

So I come up with this House Rule, against firearms only, layering soft armor would add only 20% of the original DR layer, round down, added to the highest layer DR. So, in the example above, the armor combined would have DR17, easy to a .300BLK, or any other rifle-powered cartridges, to overcome.

So, any ideas, is this the right direction, any comments, would you do it differently?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by General Lee; 01-07-2017 at 04:37 AM.
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