How obvious is a 'collapsed' TL 11 Cybersuit?

[Jasonft]

I have a character in a 500 point supers game. This character saved up a crapload of money and bought a Cybersuit straight out of the Ultra Tech book from a friendly gadgeteer. Said Cybersuit has the size/ form changing abilities built in, to the limits of what TL 11 can give in that book.

I would quote page numbers but my copy of UT isn't handy today.

Question: According to the description in the book it sounds like the Cybersuit could make itself look (somewhat) like normal clothes, in this case a really nice MIB looking business suit. How hard is it for someone to tell that he is wearing Power Armor when it is in this 'non-combat' mode?

If possible I would like to have it worn all the time as the character is paranoid, but if it is readily identifiable as armor that kind of defeats the purpose. Carrying it as a briefcase is annoying but doable - he just feels safer wearing it that carrying it.

Thoughts anyone?

[Plasmabunny]

Morphwear allows it to look like any sort of clothing, including skimpy clothing by turning transparent in places. So you can hide it no problem. That being said, it weighs 30 lbs, so it's a bit bulky even if it looks normal.

[Mr Frost]

Originally Posted by Plasmabunny

...That being said, it weighs 30 lbs, so it's a bit bulky even if it looks normal.

My thinking would be to have the suit mimic flesh if possible and wear suitable sized clothing over it ; it could do double duty as a disguise kit for the enterprising paranoid about town :D

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Plasmabunny

Morphwear allows it to look like any sort of clothing, including skimpy clothing by turning transparent in places. So you can hide it no problem. That being said, it weighs 30 lbs, so it's a bit bulky even if it looks normal.

By definition Morphwear can look like a full suit of regular clothing. Besides issues of touch and texture I think the big question is its' (unstated) density. In any form it's going to weigh 50 lbs (unless we're talking about the 30 lb Civilian suit).

If it's made of materials 10x as dense as normal cloth it might well be n more bulky than regular clothes. If it's not that dense it might be quite bulky.

Are you sure you can't upgrade to a 20 lb Nanosuit? :)

[Jasonft]

So looking like a normal if somewhat bulky business suit is okay? This is kind of what I thought, but I wanted to be sure. If they think it is armor cloth I can live with that.

I do find it somewhat hard to believe that a trained observer like a police officer would not be able to spot the armor in collapsed form though. What sort of skill check and what sort of modifiers would you use as GM to spot the armor for what it actually is?

I should note that in the game world such armor is both extremely rare and hideously expensive. On the other hand it is known to exist and the PCs have drawn quite a bit of media attention and have met a few people who could afford (or make) such themselves. Somebody will have been able to spot it, and in character I would like to know how hard that feat is.

[PTTG]

The suit would probably make a normal person look slightly overweight to someone who doesn't know what morphware power armor looks like. The untrained observer might be able to notice that the person walking around is unaccustomed to the weight or otherwise not moving like someone with that weight would, (or simply doesn't have facial fat).

All in all, I'd start out with the same observation penalties that standard concealable vests have, then probably give a small bonus or penalty based mostly on if you want people spotting the armor to play a significant role in the story.

[spacemonkey]

Suit weight doesn't count towards encumbrance, even if the extra strength is turned off to avoid having to use battlesuit skill.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

Suit weight doesn't count towards encumbrance, even if the extra strength is turned off to avoid having to use battlesuit skill.

Right, but any sort of visible padding or extra mass will change someone's gait. If someone looks fat, or even slightly overweight, but doesn't walk as though they're carrying real fat and real weight, a very observant but not prescient cop could spot it.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Right, but any sort of visible padding or extra mass will change someone's gait. If someone looks fat, or even slightly overweight, but doesn't walk as though they're carrying real fat and real weight, a very observant but not prescient cop could spot it.

They will be carrying real weight. The only issue could be having more flexibility than a obese person does, but that's not really immediately noticeable in someone just walking.

[chandley]

Note that the Cybersuit is described as "skin-tight vacc suit with a small backpack", and the morphwear option explicitly calls out a cocktail dress as an option. It isnt bulky. Clearly, the material is very dense.

In the "not sealed and only gives 1/2 DR" clothing mimicking state of morphwear, I'd require a successful Per-based Armoury (Battlesuit)/TL11 roll, taking range penalties, to notice (a skill that might be pretty hard to come by in a non-TL11 word such as the OP's, but Expert Skill (Military) with a TL penalty might fly). Search works too. All of those options could be opposed by Holdout, per Low-Tech p.102, and IQ-Based Sewing (dont need Armoury, the suit can change itself), could give a bonus to holdout as described there. I would not penalize the holdout roll for DR.

In it's sealed form, same skills apply, but only a success on a holdout/sewing roll will prevent it from looking like obvious armor (meaning no need for a roll to notice on a failure). I would not penalize the Holdout roll by DR/3, or any other divisor. The suit is skin tight, if you can succeed at hiding it or altering it to look like clothes (you succeed on your roll), it looks like clothing to anything but a tactile search.

That is basically what I would rule as a GM though, the RAW would be Holdout at -13 to conceal DR 40 flexible armor. Maybe +5 for having cutting edge TL11 tool for concealing armor (morphwear), giving a total of Holdout -8, offset with IQ-based Sewing. Really, UT needs a supplement to bring in some of the optional rules from Low-tech, but adjusted for the better materials available, so penalties are not DR based.