Space armor in d20: how would you do it?

[Turanil]

Well, in regular d20 heroic fantasy, wearing an armor provides a bonus to your AC. When your opponents makes an attack roll higher than your AC, you are wounded. Okay, we all well know that principle. But now, with futuristic armors it raises a question:

Space Suit and Space Combat Armor in d20 Future provide not only an AC bonus ("equipment bonus to Defense"), but also enable to operate in the void of space. The latter means that the armor is completely sealed. That, in turn, obviously means that for the wearer to be wounded by a successful attack roll, requires the weapon (be it a laser sword, bullet, rocket, or an energy discharge) breaches through the armor thus damaging it. In such case, I don't care that the armor still affords the same AC bonus, BUT obviously the armor isn't sealed anymore and thus cannot protect anymore the wearer from the void of space (cold, depressurization, etc.).

Hoping you understand what I try to point out, I would like to know what you would do: give HP to the armor and the character loses his own HP only when the armor has lost all of its hit-points (thus being not a sealed space suit anymore)?

 

[MonsterMash]

I think that if it is a sealed and self contained environment then the space suit would have HP and when these were gone not only would the wearer recieve weapons damage, but potentially environmental damage - try surviving in a vaccum without one! Possibly I'd allow there to be non-lethal damage prior to the suit breaching so that a character could be knocked out by the impact before the suit was actually breached.

 

[Turanil]

Possibly I'd allow there to be non-lethal damage prior to the suit breaching so that a character could be knocked out by the impact before the suit was actually breached.

I like this idea. Lets say that as long as the Space Suit or Space Combat Armor is not breached, the character gets non-lethal damage instead of normal damage.

Now as to the space armor itself. Maybe it can have hardness. If the the damage dealt by the attack doesn't exceed this hardness, the armor is not damaged yet the wearer suffers non-lethal damage (instead of normal damage). On the other hand, if the damage done exceeds the hardness, the armor is breached (and character suffers normal damage for that portion of the damage in excess of the armor's hardness). Now, whether the armor has many hit-points or few, I guess that a mere 1 point of breaching damage is enough for having the armor leak air, pressure, and heat. Hum, yet other aspects to the problem to think about...

Maybe: Any attack that deal damage in excess of hardness. The excess points of damage become the number of points of environmental damage the character automatically suffers each following round. Now, the character could have some equipment enabling fast repairs on the armor itself. Some "Jury Rig" may also be allowed, as when Worf battling borgs on the hull of the Enterprise got his space-suit breached. Mmmmh... enough Enworld for today, I think I am going to see this movie once again NOW.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Youve also got to expect that in a wartorn distant future (assumption on my part!) that they would develop a space suit capable of self-healing from a breach (they have a primitive form of this for todays Humvees and some other vehicles in case the tires go flat). Giving the suit HP is a nice way to simulate when the suit has become incapable of healing itself. Also, this assumes ballistic weapons. A laser would tend to burn through the suit, but (again assuming) if lasers are a common weapon that would be brought into play against a space suit wearing PC then there would probably be some sort of light dispersion or reflective quality to the suit that would prevent or minimize the occurence of suit-breach from concentrated light or energy weapons.

 

[glenmac]

The damage a character recieves from any impact could also be consider the force of the armor buffetting the character around. Severe vibrations shaking through the characters bones. I remember banging my head in the driver's compartment of my armored personel carrier while doing maintenance and wearing soft cap. I imagine that similar banging about could happen in this type of futuristic armor.

Perhaps an MAS penalty could be given for damaged armor in severe environmental conditions also. This represents the increased potential for bad things to happen when armor or environmental suits are penetrated. Makes me think of Total Recal, when the suits are breached on Mars.

 

[Gomez]

You might consider giving a space suit a save when ever it is damaged. If it makes the save then it's self sealing mechanism works and there is no breach in the armor. If not then you have a breach and bad news for the wearer. It would be fun having the wearing frantically trying to patch it himself as he takes damage from decompression each round. Of coarse the higher the tech level of the suit the better it's save modifier.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Well, the first thing I would do is abandon HPS in favor of Wound and Vitality Points. Then you don't have to worry about the age-old debate: do hps represnet wounds or fatigue? A hit is a hit and, unless it is a crit, the character is simply fatigued/bruised by the combat.

I agree with Gomez, as well, about the armor save. Give each armor suit a MDT. Whenever a character takes damage above that level, the armor has to make a save or there is a breach. Self-sealing armor would be a key upgrade for higher tech levels.

 

[Cergorach]

First question that i would want to ask is what rules set are you using? Standard D&D, D20 Modern/Future? Spycraft/Stargate?

Second question that i would want to ask is do you want to keep the rules for armor in space within the rules set that your going to use and do you want to keep the 'feeling' of those rules. If not, what's more important, 'realism' or keeping the rules complexity to a minimum?

 

[Turanil]

First question that i would want to ask is what rules set are you using? Standard D&D, D20 Modern/Future? Spycraft/Stargate?

I envision this for D20 Modern/Future. However, the principle should also work with D&D 3.5, provided you would bring a technological space-suit in a D&D setting, rather than creating a magical armor that don't require realism since magic is involved.

Second question that i would want to ask is do you want to keep the rules for armor in space within the rules set that your going to use and do you want to keep the 'feeling' of those rules. If not, what's more important, 'realism' or keeping the rules complexity to a minimum?

D20 Modern/Future is oblivious of this problem. As such, keeping the rules complexity to a minimum would be of simply still remaining oblivious of it. But I would like to have a simple game mechanic that reflects the fact that a single small hole in a Space Suit will inevitably lead to bad consequences (in the void of space), while a hole in a normal armor for someone on a livable planet won't prevent the armor to protect the wearer normally.


There is many interesting suggestions above. Nonetheless, continue to give your suggestions please, even if they are similar to something already proposed, so I may see where lies the consensus.

 

[argo]

First off a hit that deals HP damage doesn't have to actually penetrate the armor since HP damage can represent heroic near-misses or ... yadda yadda yadda you've heard all this before.

Secondly I like the idea posted above that a space suit/armor designed for combat will have at least limited capacity to repair itself or seal breaches. Fits very well into a lot of military sci-fi.

But tracking HP for a character's suit seems bothersome to me. So probably the way I would handle it is to assign the suit a damage threshold (for ease of use this could be the same as the wearer's massive damage threshold if you are using that rule) and any hit that deals that much damage also breaches the environmental seal, no saving throw. Flavor wise this works prety much the same way it does to describe non-massive hits versus massive hits against a character: one is a deflected near hit or ablated by outer plating and the other is a solid hit that drills right through.

This also sets you up for that cool scene so common in military sci-fi where the space marine who took a hit has to frantically race to pull a patch out of his equipment belt and slap it on the breach before he totally looses it. To do this I would say that a suit breached by a massive hit does not immedaetly suffer explosive decompression but rather the breach is small enough that it will take a short time to loose atmosphere in the suit: maybe a flat 1 round or maybe 1d4 rounds. Applying a patch is a full-round action and even if you get it on in time the suit still looses half its remaining oxygen supply.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Later.