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Old 12-16-2007, 10:42 AM   #1
Bruno
 
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Default Breakable Gadgets granting DR?

My husband pointed out something interesting with the Dreadnought template in GURPS Supers: The Armored Shell ability gives DR 60, but has the gadget limitation of Breakable, DR 25.

I'm a little puzzled how this works.

Normally the DR of a breakable Gadget only applies when someone is attacking the gadget. Does the Armored Shell get attacked whenever the player gets attacked, or does it still need to be specifically targeted? Should this actually be "Breakable: DR over 25, -0%"? My mind boggles.
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Old 12-16-2007, 11:25 AM   #2
ravenfish
 
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Default Re: Breakable Gadgets granting DR?

I'd say that, barring any other information, it works as a standard gadget- takes no damage unless specifically targeted, but can be targeted. No, this isn't very realistic- but then, neither is normal armour not taking damage when you are hit.
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Old 12-16-2007, 12:34 PM   #3
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Breakable Gadgets granting DR?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
My husband pointed out something interesting with the Dreadnought template in GURPS Supers: The Armored Shell ability gives DR 60, but has the gadget limitation of Breakable, DR 25.

I'm a little puzzled how this works.

Normally the DR of a breakable Gadget only applies when someone is attacking the gadget. Does the Armored Shell get attacked whenever the player gets attacked, or does it still need to be specifically targeted? Should this actually be "Breakable: DR over 25, -0%"? My mind boggles.
It says

Breakable, DR 25, SM 0, -30%

which is the correct sum for DR 25 and SM 0. If you counted it as DR 60, the sum would be -25%. That is, you still could target the armor and make it stop working as armor, but it would be a lot harder to inflict actual damage on it.

If you counted it as DR 60, then presumably you would do the same for all the other abiities of the Armor power, changing all their costs.

One way to take this, I suppose, is that the armor gives the wearer DR 60, but only has DR 25 to withstand attacks against its own structure. This could work if you take it that the other DR 35 comes from the armor giving "cover DR" based on its HP. Assuming the armor itself is homogenous, that has it weighing ca. 91 lbs., which is actually not all that implausible for a suit of powered armor. And it tells you how much penetrating damage it takes to wreck the armor, too.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 12-16-2007, 12:55 PM   #4
Kromm
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Default Re: Breakable Gadgets granting DR?

Consider a suit of armor that consists of small metal plates laced together with cords. If you just wail on the wearer, you'll smack the plates and that's that. If you take the penalty to target the cords, you can trash the suit of armor by overcoming considerably less DR than those plates afford.

Consider some tanks that have fairly awesome DR from the front, and that aren't bad from all the other sides, but that have mostly unarmored air intakes, fuel bladders, etc. You can kill such a tank with means that couldn't cut or blast through the tank's armor per se.

Both of these things exist in real life.

Sometimes, protection is designed around the premise that most attacks will come from distances or angles that make it impossible to target weak areas . . . or that the attacker will be bent on killing the occupant instead of his equipment . . . or that the attacker won't know that there are weak areas (some things are Top Secret for a reason). Less often, the urge to cut costs or save on manufacturing time means that things are engineered with deliberate flaws that are deemed "acceptable risks." And of course lemons exist. It isn't all that weird that armor could offer, say, DR 100 but be destroyed like a DR 10, HP 10 item.

I should add that you can avoid such crummy construction: match your DRs, or simply don't take Breakable. The rules don't require you to have weaknesses. But if you build armor with such, it isn't especially "broken."
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Old 12-16-2007, 01:57 PM   #5
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Breakable Gadgets granting DR?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm
Consider a suit of armor that consists of small metal plates laced together with cords. If you just wail on the wearer, you'll smack the plates and that's that. If you take the penalty to target the cords, you can trash the suit of armor by overcoming considerably less DR than those plates afford.
Then there are those silly suits of power armour with exposed exterior cables. No real penalty there.
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