Dealing with high DR

Varyon · 03-28-2016, 12:00 PM

From the background you've described, them being functionally immune to small arms fire doesn't really seem too out-there - the OpFor will have to switch to heavier weapons to reliably get through.

That said, the power armor in the books is appropriate for a brand-new suit, not one that's been repaired and rebuilt from scavenged parts. The armor panels of the latter suit may give incomplete coverage (allowing foes to take a penalty to hit unarmored sections, or even allowing for random armor-ignoring hits) or be made of poorer materials (for reduced DR). You could also make them semi-ablative against burn damage, so that foes with lasers can eventually melt through the armor and hit the character.

One thing that may be causing a disconnect is that very few games use the GURPS DR model, simply because "No, your weapon can't hurt him, sucks to be you" is rarely all that fun in a computer game (in a tabletop game, you can figure out other ways to defeat/escape from the foe). At least for Fallout 3 and later (can't speak to the older games), armor gives something more akin to IT:DR - it serves to reduce damage by division rather than subtraction.

03-28-2016, 12:00 PM	#12
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: Dealing with high DR From the background you've described, them being functionally immune to small arms fire doesn't really seem too out-there - the OpFor will have to switch to heavier weapons to reliably get through. That said, the power armor in the books is appropriate for a brand-new suit, not one that's been repaired and rebuilt from scavenged parts. The armor panels of the latter suit may give incomplete coverage (allowing foes to take a penalty to hit unarmored sections, or even allowing for random armor-ignoring hits) or be made of poorer materials (for reduced DR). You could also make them semi-ablative against burn damage, so that foes with lasers can eventually melt through the armor and hit the character. One thing that may be causing a disconnect is that very few games use the GURPS DR model, simply because "No, your weapon can't hurt him, sucks to be you" is rarely all that fun in a computer game (in a tabletop game, you can figure out other ways to defeat/escape from the foe). At least for Fallout 3 and later (can't speak to the older games), armor gives something more akin to IT:DR - it serves to reduce damage by division rather than subtraction.