Adapting The Morrow Project to GURPS

[midnight77]

So, for those who don't know, The Morrow Project was an old RPG where your characters were frozen in the late 70s-1989 to be awoken 3-5 years after a nuclear war to help rebuild the US. Unfortunately, there was an accident and the project fails to awaken its members, allowing for you to be awoken 150 years later.

I am attempting to do some conversion of this to GURPS. Most is straightforward, but there are several things that I need help on.

The first is one of the weapons: the RH202 20mm cannon doesn't seem to have GURPS stats that I could find. In addition, in the game it comes with both HE and AP rounds that need separate damage values.

Another issue is the Resistweave, which is a form of body armor in coverall form that is resistant to small caliber bullets and knives. I need to know what sort of DR it should have.

Unfortunately, GURPS Vehicles 4e is not out yet, or else I could make the necessary vehicles for the game, so I will have to improvise that as well.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by midnight77

S

The first is one of the weapons: the RH202 20mm cannon doesn't seem to have GURPS stats that I could find. In addition, in the game it comes with both HE and AP rounds that need separate damage values.

Another issue is the Resistweave, which is a form of body armor in coverall form that is resistant to small caliber bullets and knives. I need to know what sort of DR it should have.

Do you have Gurps High Tech? It has multiple 20mm cannons in it and one of them will be close enough to your model.

What do you think is a small caliber bullet? A ST10 human only does 1D-2 Thr/Imp with a Knife (1D with AOA strong). DR 4-6 would handle that.

[HANS]

Originally Posted by midnight77

So, for those who don't know, The Morrow Project was an old RPG where your characters were frozen in the late 70s-1989 to be awoken 3-5 years after a nuclear war to help rebuild the US. Unfortunately, there was an accident and the project fails to awaken its members, allowing for you to be awoken 150 years later.

The first is one of the weapons: the RH202 20mm cannon doesn't seem to have GURPS stats that I could find. In addition, in the game it comes with both HE and AP rounds that need separate damage values.l.

I've written up the V-150 Commando and the Rh202 specifically with The Morrow Project in mind. You can find it in Pyramd 3/53.

Cheers

HANS

[Rupert]

Unfortunately HT does not have any cannon that are directly comparable. However, the Oerlikon Type S' damage and range should be close enough (bump the HE explosive damage to 2d[1d] to reflect modern ammo). Rate of Fire of the Rh202 is 14-17 depending on tuning, etc. Belt size single vs dual feed, etc. vary by mounting, so check the details on those. Other game stats (Acc, Rcl, etc. would be about the same as the Oerlikon)

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

What do you think is a small caliber bullet? A ST10 human only does 1D-2 Thr/Imp with a Knife (1D with AOA strong). DR 4-6 would handle that.

From what I recall†, Resistweave almost completely stops most knife and barehanded damage, is highly resistant to small caliber arms, as well as flame retardant so for a GURPS armor equivalent:

Mix of TL 8 Concealable Vest and DAP limb armor:
DR 8/4 (Piercing & Cutting/Everything), Jacket and pants (8lbs) covers torso and limbs, optional ball cap (1lbs) covers skull, and boots (5lbs).


However, that DR 8 versus cutting has never set well with me*, so personally I'd call it DR 8/4 (Piercing/Everything).


† I actually have The Morrow Project 4e, but I can't remember if the armor was as good in older editions as well. In 4e the resistweave uniforms are practically small arms and melee impervious.

* Mostly because a swung axe should still be crushing bones as easily as a baseball bat or mace, but GURPS has always had kevlar as being super capable of stopping 'larger' cutting damages as well as knife slashes.

[Rolando]

Ultratech will be of help with your conversion

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

However, that DR 8 versus cutting has never set well with me*, so personally I'd call it DR 8/4 (Piercing/Everything).

* Mostly because a swung axe should still be crushing bones as easily as a baseball bat or mace, but GURPS has always had kevlar as being super capable of stopping 'larger' cutting damages as well as knife slashes.

Low Tech has an optional rule (I believe called Blunt Trauma and Edged Weapons, but on the forums it often gets referred to as Edge Protection) where cutting damage that doesn't exceed DR by more than twice gets changed to crushing - if you're wearing DR 5 Plate and get hit with an axe for 7 damage, you take 2 crushing rather than 2 cutting. There's some debate on how this should be handled for split DR's (such as mail, which has -2 DR against Crushing) - the option that might work well for you is the one where armor with split DR, such that they provide less protection against crushing, should treat cutting damage that doesn't exceed twice the cutting DR as being crushing, including against the lower crushing DR. In the case of DR 8/4, that means any cutting damage below 17 gets reduced to crushing, but only has to deal with DR 4. That will generally result in an axe having comparable performance to a mace of equal weight against kevlar, rather than being markedly better (as having Kevlar's higher DR only apply against piercing would do) or markedly worse (as just using the cutting DR would do).

[hal]

I picked up all of David Pulver's articles for building armor from TL 0 on up to Ultra-tech levels. They were "EIDETIC MEMORY" articles in three different Pyramid issues:


The upshot is - the magazines are:

Feb 2013 3/52
Nov 2015 3/85
Oct 2016 3/96

Each issue follows the same basic rules where if you know the areas being covered for a 150 lb adult individual, you multiply the material weight per square foot of area covered, multiply the weight by cost factor for the material, and presto, you're done.

The material types include:


TL 6 Hard Steel
TL 6 High-Strength Steel
TL 6 Rubber
TL 7 Ballistic Resin
TL 7 Basic Ceramic
TL 7 Elastic Polymer
TL 7 Fiberglass
TL 7 High-Strength Aluminum
TL 7 Nomex
TL 7 Nylon
TL 7 Plastic
TL 7 Polycarbonate
TL 7 Titanium Alloy
TL 8 Ballistic Polymer
TL 8 Basic Ceramic
TL 8 Elastic Polymer
TL 8 Fiberglass
TL 8 High-Strength Aluminum
TL 8 Improved Ballistic Polymer
TL 8 Improved Ceramic
TL 8 Improved Kevlar
TL 8 Improved Nomex
TL 8 Kevlar
TL 8 Laminated Polycarbonate
TL 8 Nomex
TL 8 Nylon
TL 8 Polycarbonate
TL 8 Polymer Composite
TL 8 Titanium Alloy
TL 8 Titanium Composite
TL 8 Ultra-Strength Steel
TL 9 Arachnoweave
TL 9 Ballistic Polymer
TL 9 Basic Nanoweave
TL 9 Ceramic Nanocomposite
TL 9 Improved Ballistic Polymer
TL 9 Improved Ceramic
TL 9 Improved Kevlar
TL 9 Kevlar
TL 9 Laminated Polycarbonate
TL 9 Laser-Ablative Polymer
TL 9 Magnetic Liquid Armor
TL 9 Polymer Composite
TL 9 Polymer Nanocomposite
TL 9 STF Liquid Armor
TL 9 Titanium Composite
TL 9 Titanium Nanocomposite
TL 9 Ultra-Strength Steel
TL 10 Arachnoweave
TL 10 Basic Nanoweave
TL 10 Ceramic Nanocomposite
TL 10 Laser-Ablative Polymer
TL 10 Magnetic Liquid Armor
TL 10 Polymer Nanocomposite
TL 10 STF Liquid Armor
TL 10 Titanium Nanocomposite

Note: Any armor material colored in blue has the following limitation:

The full DR only applies against piercing and cutting damage. Divide DR (and DR/in) against other damage types by four

Ultimately - you can build ANY armor that you want, from armored gloves, to helmets, to full suits, to even sealed suits with air tanks and the like. Those three articles are by far, tops on my list of favorite Pyramid articles. I did leave out the low tech materials largely because I have other rules for those, but they work VERY well for building armors for Low tech as well.

In the end - it largely depends upon what it is you want to do with this. For my own Cyberpunk campaign, I created (via these rules) - a "Duster" armored coat. Why? If you pay a certain cost factor to make the armor look like fabric (such as John Wick's three piece suit that was resistant to bullets) - as long as your percentage of max DR was not over a certain level, your armor can look like ordinary clothing - aka FASHIONABLE clothing. For a lesser price, but still more than the utility cost, it can look like ordinary clothing.

So, a duster coat, covering the Shoulders, the arms, the torso, the waist, the abdomen, the upper legs down to the Knees - and you have a piece of armor as described in GURPS terms that is useful.

Looking at Morrow Project 4th edition, Resistweave is rated with a Ballistic value of 7, and non-ballistic value of 4 - effectively, it looks to about about HALF that of its Ballistic value.

Elsewhere in MP 4e, we have it rated against actual armor values (IIA) which by its own standards on the same page, lists it as

"armor is effective against 9mm rounds and .40 S&W FMJ (i.e. medium pistols)."

Here is the rub however: In MP 4e, IIA armor is rated at Ballistic Armor Value (AV) of 10, Non Ballistic AV of 1. Resistweave is rated as being less capable than Armor level IIA by about 30% less, but is 400% better than level IIA armor against non-ballistic weapons.

Level II Armor protects against a .357 Magnum. Level II armor has a Ballistic AV of 12, which makes the Resistweave armor definitely less capable.

In GURPS CLASSIC COPS, level IIA armor is listed as DR 8. Level II armor is listed as DR 10. I've not been able to see comparable "Descriptions of Armor type" DR listed ratings in any 4e books, but were I to compare/contrast weapon damage for specific guns in 3e versus their 4e counterparts, you could probably get a feel for what would be type IIA armor and Type II armor in GURPS 4e

If you use DR .7 x 8, it would appear that the proper DR for Reistweave is likely in the vicinity of about DR 6 (5.6 rounded up). DR of 6/4 would either be DR 1 or DR 2 depending on whether you round up or round down regards to dividing Ballistic DR by 4 for the non-ballistic DR.

Resistweave coveralls are 1.7 kg in weight or about 3.74 lbs overall. It would seem to cover the Shoulders, Torso, Abdomen, legs, and Arms. Were I to use Arachnoweave armor material, I can get you a DR 6 Coverall that covers 85% of the body (ie, doesn't cover the neck, head, or feet) at 3.3 lbs and $4,000 (actual calculated value was $3,960.75). Since the description states that it can utilize a zip on hood, assuming it doesn't cover the face, it would add on an additional $200 in price and cover the skull and neck (but not the face) for an additional .2 lbs (bringing the whole thing up to 3.5 lbs).

If you want more help, let me know - click on my name in the left panel and select "send email to hal".

:)

[hal]

I almost forgot...

David's rules also take into account the fact that not everyone is going to weigh 150 lbs. The rules permit you calculate the armor costs and weights based on a formula involving the weight of the wearer.

When I used my spreadsheet, I forgot to set the weight back to the default 150 lbs. The spreadsheet was calculating stats based on a person who weighed about 210 lbs.

For a 150 lb person, the armor with a DR 6 would weigh 2.8 lbs, and cost $3,300. For a woman who weighed say, 110 lbs - it would cost $2,700 and weigh 2.3 lbs.

Sorry!

[HANS]

Again, the official stats for the Rheinmetall Rh202 and its ammunition are in Pyramid 3/53. The single-feed version in there is the one used in The Morrow Project. That article also details the V-150 Commando, and it even has a boxed text how to convert it into the version in The Morrow Project.
Practically all the other arms, ammunition, explosives, and other equipment are in High-Tech, except for the Stoner weapons, which are in SEALs in Vietnam. The SK-5 hovercraft, by the way, can also be found in SEALs in Vietnam.
In the original The Morrow Project, the protection level of resistweave is specified. It equals DR 14/5 in GURPS.

Cheers

HANS