Armor as dice and Armor Divisors?

[Maz]

I know that there are many threads on armour as dice and that this question has most likely been answered already. But the search engine won't allow me to search for "armor as dice",or at best gives hits on both amor or dice individually. Links are welcome.


Anyway. I know how armour as dice is supposed to work. But I am unsure how armour divisors are supposed to work with it?
In my setting there are both AD(0,5),AD(2),AD(3),AD(5) and even variants between those. So it's going to be very common, for both powered melee weapons and especially for guns.

[Nereidalbel]

Apply the armor divisor first, then convert the effective DR into dice.

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Apply the armor divisor first, then convert the effective DR into dice.

That just seems like a lot of additional calculations to have to do in the middle of a fight. The reason I wanted to use Armor as Dice was exactly to speed up combat by reducing calculations.

With RAW it is ((add together damage dice)-(DR/AD))*(damage type).

So by raw I have to both add a lot of dice, often 5-6 dies. Then divide a DR with a AD. Then subtract those two and then add in damage type (remembering that it varies depending on hit location).


With armor as dice I just have to remove a number of dice from my damage pool, making the damage roll quicker to calculate as there are fewer dice. And then multiply by damage type per hit location.

Having to recalculate the "armor dice" for each attack is a lot of added complexity. Of course you could pre-calculate but that is going to be very cumbersome with so many AD types in the game. Maybe this isn't the way to go for me then.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Maz

Having to recalculate the "armor dice" for each attack is a lot of added complexity. Of course you could pre-calculate but that is going to be very cumbersome with so many AD types in the game. Maybe this isn't the way to go for me then.

Cheat sheets. Figure out what each piece of armor would be against each armor divisor before play begins, and mark that down. The same can be done with standard damage vs DR, as well.

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Cheat sheets. Figure out what each piece of armor would be against each armor divisor before play begins, and mark that down. The same can be done with standard damage vs DR, as well.

Yeah that's what I meant by "too cumbersome". In my setting there are MANY armours with different DR at different locations and some have the ability to boost their DR. And there are a lot of AD-types. so it's going to be a lot of "looking up numbers in a spreadsheet", which is the opposite of speeding up the game. So I think I just have to realise I can't get both all the detail and fast combat.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Maz

the search engine won't allow me to search for "armor as dice",or at best gives hits on both amor or dice individually.

Google is useful for searching forum threads. Wrap quotes around the phrase of interest, and specify just this site with the "site:" keyword.

site:forums.sjgames.com "armor as dice"

You might want to add "armor divisor" as well.

[Lord Azagthoth]

Also take into account the armor hardness.

[Kallatari]

My recommendation is to reverse the premise and have base damage as fixed damage. Convert every 1d of damage to 3.5 damage, getting a fixed damage. Note that on the character sheet beside the weapon so it"s a one-time conversion.

Then, apply the DR to that damage. If there's an AD, apply it to the DR here before applying the damage. Whatever gets through is the penetrating damage. During the game, you convert the penetrating damage into dice to determine the injury.

Example: Your rifle is 5d(2) by RAW. So you convert in advance, and this becomes (5*3.5 =) 17.5, which you only need to do once and note on your character sheet. You hit someone with DR 12 vs bullets. AD brings this down to 6. So penetrating damage becomes 17.5 - 6 = 11.5. The math you have to do in play is here, converting the penetrating damage to dice; 11.5 becomes 3d+1, so for the injury, you roll 3d+1.

My method means only the one conversion at the end, so easier to game than the Armor as Dice. But the end result is the same.

Technically, after you roll, you then add the wounding modifier as applicable to what your rolled. However, I sometimes debate if it should be applied to the penetrating damage first and then you convert... but that's another conversation.

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Kallatari

Example: Your rifle is 5d(2) by RAW. So you convert in advance, and this becomes (5*3.5 =) 17.5, which you only need to do once and note on your character sheet. You hit someone with DR 12 vs bullets. AD brings this down to 6. So penetrating damage becomes 17.5 - 6 = 11.5. The math you have to do in play is here, converting the penetrating damage to dice; 11.5 becomes 3d+1, so for the injury, you roll 3d+1.

This ad even more calculations. My current idea is to just sick to fixed damage. I see no reason to convert it to dies afterwards.

[Lia Valenth]

Why not divide the number of dice of armor by the armor divisor?

For example the attack of 5d(2) against 4d armor would do 5d-(4/2)d = 3d

Just checking the math, 5d(2) averages 17.5 damage and 4d armor is obtained from 14 points of DR. 17.5-(14/2) = 10.5 damage average. 3d average is 10.5 damage. Looks like it might work.

EDIT: this does become a bit complicated with partial armor dice, though not much. Continuing with the 5d(2) example, 4d+3 DR would be 5d-((4/2)d+(3/2)) = 5d - (2+1.5), armor gets to round up to 5d - (2d+2) to give 3d-2.