In Star Wars (under my heavily house-ruled version), weapon damage,
strength
(used for damage resistance) and armour are all rated in D6s.
Strength codes are usually in the 2D6 - 4D6 region; 2D6 for a typical NPC
(e.g. a stormtrooper), and at the other end of the scale, 5D6 for a PC
Wookiee. Sub-2D Strength codes are rare.
A typical blaster bolt does 4D6 damage. A light blaster bolt does 3D6+1
damage, a heavy blaster bolt 5D6.
Let's also define some things that do 1D6 damage:
Being kicked by C-3P0.
Someone throwing half a brick at you.
A glancing blow from a sword (that is, one that you'd probably expect to
glance off armour if you were wearing any.)
A shower of debris from a nearby explosion. (Nuisance/flavour damage, if
the GM decided to apply it.)
Armour is usually rated at around 1D6. Even 2D6 of armour is rare.
Armour subtracts its rating from the incoming damage, and the remainder,
if
any, is applied against Strength.
Even if damage leaks through armour, if the damage roll is less than half
your Strength roll you suffer no game effect. Wookiees can shrug off quite
heavy damage.
So:
There's two ways you could handle the effects of armour;
1. Reduce the incoming damage by the armour rating, one dice cancels out
one
dice, and roll the remainder, if any, against strength.
Results:
1D6 armour is 100% reliable at soaking up 1D6 damage. In fact, because
results of less than 1D are ignored, it will also 100% reliably block
incoming damage of up to 1D6+2
Resolving damage is slightly quicker, because you have less dice to
roll,
and sometimes no dice to roll at all.
Armoured characters can expose themselves to minor damage with complete
impunity, and it doesn't slow the game down if they do. e.g. They are
immune to 'Nuisance damage' in a dangerous environment.
1D6 armour is 100% certain to allow increasing amounts of damage to leak
through in the case of 2D6 or more of incoming damage.
2. Roll the damage, roll the armour. Subtract one from t'other. If any
damage leaks past the armour, it's applied against strength.
Results:
1D6 armour is on average 50% reliable at soaking up 1D6 damage.
Resolving damage is slowed a bit because damage resolution is now a
2-step
process.
Armoured characters are still better off than non-armoured characters,
but
they could theoretically end up having to roll dozens of dice to deal
with
'nuisance damage', slowing the game down. And a kick from C-3P0 or a
thrown half-brick could stun, wound or KO an armoured stormtrooper.
1D6 armour could theoretically block up to 6D6 damage without any damage
leakage.
1D6 damage from a kick by C3P0 (or a thrown half-brick, etc.) could
theoretically wound or KO an armoured spacetrooper, who wear armour
rated
at 3D6. It fact, it could certainly 'pierce' it and affect the fellow
inside; 1 or more points of damage leaking through is a 21/1,296 = about
a
1.6% chance. Think of the Michelin-man-looking diving suit worn by one
of
the baddies in one of the James Bond movies for an non-Star Wars example
of 3D6 of armour.
My question is:
Would you prefer to play under option 1 or option 2? Bearing in mind
it's
a Space Opera game? 2 may be a bit more realistic, but it is also
somewhat
slower. And IS it more realistic? I'm not sure it is. And also, it's
Star
Wars; realism isn't really that major a concern. Speed of resolution and
drama are also important. And in Star Wars, damage codes as low as 1D
are
rare, so most of the time armour doesn't make much practical difference
anyway. Most of the time, you face 3D6 or 4D6 damage leakage under
either
system, and the expected result is a wound.
My preference, as GM, is for option 1, both for the speed benefits, and
also because there are rare occasioans where armour actually is reliably
useful, which it never is under option 2.
I admit I'm stating things in a way that is likely to bias answers in
the direction I personally prefer - so do please allow for that when
answering :-) Nevertheless, what do you rest of you lurking hordes
think?
--
Simon Smith The idea of an uncrackable digital rights management
(DRM) scheme is fundamentally flawed. Encryption is
about A sending information to B while ensuring that
C cannot read it. In DRM, B and C are the same person.
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