Blunt trauma

[Qcumber]

I am working on a set of house rules to merge blunt trauma (B379) and edge protection rules (LT102) and would appreciate any comments.

Option 1:

Double the DR of all armours vs cut/crush but apply a divisor for any damage that fails to penetrate; 2 for flexible, 3 for semi-flexible (e.g. scale), 4 for rigid. The resulting damage is blunt trauma caused by deformation of flexible armour or transmission of the impact through rigid armour. Any damage that penetrates (exceeds DRx2) apply wounding modifiers as per basic rules (B378); i.e. subtract base DR and apply wounding modifier. This makes armour very good at distributing the blow until it actually deforms or cuts the armour; most hits will inflict 1-2 points of blunt trauma, but a powerful blow will rip through for devastating effect. It also emphasises the superiority of impaling weapons at penetrating armour. Here are some worked examples:

All armours below have base DR 5, 10 vs cut/crush attacks; a comparison with RAW is also shown (B378; LT102).

Heavy mail, (blunt trauma divisor = 2)
2 cutting/crush damage = 1 blunt trauma (2/2=1); RAW 0 cut/0 crush
5 cutting/crush damage = 2 blunt trauma (5/2=2); RAW 0 cut/2 crush
9 cutting/crush damage = 4 blunt trauma (9/2=4); RAW 4 blunt trauma/6 crush

Heavy Scale, (blunt trauma divisor = 3)
2 cutting/crush damage = 0 blunt trauma (2/3=0); RAW 0 cut/0 crush
5 cutting/crush damage = 1 blunt trauma (5/3=1); RAW 0 cut/1 crush
9 cutting/crush damage = 3 blunt trauma (9/3=3); RAW 4 blunt trauma/5 crush

Plate, (blunt trauma divisor = 4)
2 cutting/crush damage = 0 blunt trauma (2/4=0); RAW 0 cut/0 crush
5 cutting/crush damage = 1 blunt trauma (5/4=1); RAW 0 cut/0 crush
9 cutting/crush damage = 2 blunt trauma (9/4=2); RAW 4 blunt trauma/4 crush

Any armour with base DR 5
12 cutting/crushing damage = 10 cut/7 crush (12-5=7; 7x1.5=10.5); RAW 10 cut/7 crush

[DanHoward]

This is on the right track. Will need some playtesting to see if it needs tweaking.

[Qcumber]

Another idea on the same theme:

Option 2:

Blunt trauma (BT) as above but calculate penetrating damage from DRx2 and add the results to the BT to calculate total damage. Makes armour more effective against swung weapons and further emphasises the need to target chinks or gaps in order to make a killing blow. This does require a bit more maths to calculate though.

12 cutting/crushing damage
DR5 flexible:
= 8 cut/7 crush (12-10=2; 10/2=5; 2x1.5=3; 5+3=8); RAW 10 cut/7 crush
DR5 semi-flexible:
= 6 cut/5 crush (12-10=2; 10/3=3; 2x1.5=3; 3+3=6); RAW 10 cut/7 crush
DR5 rigid
= 5 cut/4 crush (12-10=2; 10/4=2; 2x1.5=3; 2+3=5); RAW 10 cut/7 crush

[starslayer]

This is an awesome rule; expanding on this to somehow increasing the armour divisor for VERY TOUGH armour may also fix the high tech/ultra-tech problem problem of:
Hit, no damage
hit, no damage
hit, completely obliterated

Say having every 10 DR increase the damage divisor by 1; So.

DR 105 battlesuit; provides DR 210 protection, with a divisor of 14

DR 35 flexible combat armor; provides DR 70 protection, with divisor of 5

DR 17 TL6 superheavy plate; provides DR 34 protection, with divisor 5

[Qcumber]

Originally Posted by starslayer

This is an awesome rule; expanding on this to somehow increasing the armour divisor for VERY TOUGH armour may also fix the high tech/ultra-tech problem problem of:
Hit, no damage
hit, no damage
hit, completely obliterated

Thanks. It's a work in progress at the moment. I hadn't given any thought to advanced armour types. I guess it depends upon on what hits you. If it is matter-based and has momentum then the impact related damage should be progressive unless the armour has inertia suppression. With energy based weapons then armour ablation might be more appropriate.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Qcumber

Thanks. It's a work in progress at the moment. I hadn't given any thought to advanced armour types. I guess it depends upon on what hits you. If it is matter-based and has momentum then the impact related damage should be progressive unless the armour has inertia suppression. With energy based weapons then armour ablation might be more appropriate.

All armour has at least some inertia suppression. A half inch of ceramic plates suspended in a matrix of epoxy and high end rubbers has more then 14 gague steel, and 2 inches of form fitting strength augmenting self-powered composite hybrid materials has even more inertial suppression then that.

[Qcumber]

Option 3:

Another idea based on the theme above:

Any cut/crush damage that exceeds base DR, but is less than DRx2, is considered crushing (blunt trauma); as with RAW in LT. However, apply a divisor of 2 for rigid and 2/3 (round to nearest) for semi-flexible (e.g. scale); no divisor for flexible armour. Any damage that penetrates (exceeds DRx2) apply wounding modifiers as per basic rules (B378) but then add this to the blunt trauma.

This would replace the modifier for crushing damage versus mail and scale.

e.g. 12 points from sword/axe

Heavy mail DR5: 8 da (DR5x2=10; 12-10=(2x1.5=3 cut); 10-5=5 crush; 3+5=8)
Heavy scale DR5: 6 da (DR5x2=10; 12-10=(2x1.5=3 cut); 10-5=(5x2)/3=3 crush; 3+3=6)
Heavy segmented plate DR5: 5 da (DR5x2=10; 12-10=(2x1.5=3 cut); 10-5=5/2=2 crush; 2+3=5)

e.g. 9 points from sword/axe/mace

Heavy mail DR5: 4 da (DR5x2=10; 9-5=4 crush)
Heavy scale DR5: 3 da (DR5x2=10; 9-5=(4x2/3=3 crush)
Heavy segmented plate DR5: 2 da (DR5x2=10; 9-5=4/2=2)