Armor

Armor technology has kept pace with weapons development, providing unprecedented levels of protection.

Energy vs. Kinetic

Each type of armor has an Armor Value (AV) with two ratings — energy and kinetic — representing the protection it applies against the respective type of attack. These are listed in the format of “energy armor/kinetic armor.” For example, an item with listed armor “5/10” provides 5 points of armor against energy-based attacks and 10 points of armor against kinetic attacks.

Energy armor protects against beam weapons (laser, microwave, particle beam, etc.), plasma, fire, and high-energy explosives. Armor that protects against this damage is made of material that reflects or diffuses such energy, dissipates and transfers heat, or ablates.

Kinetic armor protects against the transfer of damaging energy when an object in motion (a fist, knife, club, or bullet, for example) impacts with another object (the target). Most melee and firearms attacks inflict kinetic damage, as would a rolling boulder, swinging pendulum, or explosion-driven fragments. Kinetic armors include impact-resistant plates, shear-thickening liquid and gels that harden upon impact, and ballistic and cut-proof fiber weaves.

Armor Value

When you are hit in combat, subtract your AV from the damage applied. Use the AV rating appropriate to the type of attack. Attacks that are armor-piercing reduce your AV by half.

Layering Armor

You can wear multiple layers of armor, adding the ratings together, but it is cumbersome. Apply a −20 modifier to all physical actions for each additional armor layer worn. If the total of either AV rating (when layering) exceeds your SOM, apply an additional −20 modifier and reduce your Movement Rate by half, as you are overburdened. If the AV exceeds your Durability, you are too encumbered to move.

The armor inherent to a synthmorph’s or other shell’s frame counts as the first item towards layering. Shells are not designed to wear armor; any armor layered upon them may need to be specially designed to fit their form (perhaps requiring a nanofab Program Test or increasing the Complexity by one step).

Items listed with a + before their AV are either accessories or light enough that they do not count as additional armor layers, they simply add their armor bonus. At the GM’s discretion, excessive use of such bonus armor may inflict the same −20 modifier as layering armor.

Armor Visibility

Any armor with an AV of 11 or more is obvious and visible and will raise questions or draw the attention of police in most habitats. Lower AVs are considered concealable, receiving a +30 bonus to Infiltrate skill to hide them from visual perception, with the exception of some bulky or obvious items such as vacsuits, dermal armor, scale ware, and activated crash suits.

Armor Ware

Bioweave: The morph’s dermal layers are laced with spidersilk fibers, providing protection without changing the appearance, texture, or sensitivity of the skin.

Dermal Armor: The morph is equipped with a dense layer of ballistic fibers and flexible subdermal plates. This does not reduce mobility, but it does make the skin smoother and less flexible (except at the joints), and the plated areas are visibly raised. The morph’s touch-based perception suffers a −20 modifier.

Heavy Combat Armor: These bulky and noticeable armor plates protect against heavy weaponry for serious combat operations. The shell’s mobility systems and power output are also modified to handle the extra mass.

Industrial Armor: This armor is designed to protect shells from collisions, extreme weather, industrial accidents, and similar wear-and-tear.

Light Combat Armor: This light plating is common for shells used in security and policing duties.

Scale/Carapace: As dermal armor, but combined with hard but flexible external chitinous scales and/or plates, modeled on arthropod exoskeletons. This armor is obvious and the skin has the appearance of a crocodile, insect, pangolin, snake, or similarly armored creature.

Armor Gear

Modern armor materials in Eclipse Phase include spidersilk weaves, crystalline-grown plates, shock-absorbing fullerenes, diamond coatings, self-repairing ablative materials, and shear-resistant fluids that harden against impacts. These materials protect against (armorpiercing) bullets and kinetic impacts as well as bladed weapons and piercing, sharp objects. They also insulate against both the explosive heating of energy weapons and electrical shocks. While such armor protects against bullets, the layers simply catch the bullet and redistribute its kinetic energy across the body, which can still result in severe blunt force trauma.

Armor Clothing: Resilient fibers and fullerenes are interwoven with normal smart materials to provide a subtle level of security. Such garments are indistinguishable from regular smart clothing and come in all styles and designs.

Armor Coat: Like armor clothing, this slightly bulkier coat provides a layer of discreet protection with smart material fabrics.

Armor Vest: Armor vests protect the body’s vital areas. Light vests cover the abdomen and torso and can be concealed under other clothing. Heavy vests are bulkier and obvious, protecting the neck with a rigid collar, and even providing wrap-under protection for the groin.

Ballistic Shield: This heavy shield is essentially a portable barrier equipped with floodlights. It requires both hands to carry.

Body Armor: These high performance armor outfits, typically worn by security and police forces, protect the wearer from head to toe. The integrated armor vest, helmet, gauntlets, and limb guards are form-fitting, flexible, and non-restrictive. The suit includes a built-in ecto, cameras, and health monitors.

Combat Armor: A tougher version of body armor worn by soldiers, this suit is environmentally sealed with climate control to protect the wearer from hostile environments and chemicals with 1 hour of air.

Crash Suit: Designed for industrial workplace safety and protection from accidental zero-g collisions, crash suits are also favored by sports enthusiasts and explorers. The basic jumpsuit offers comfortable protection, but in more hazardous circumstances the suit can be activated with an electronic signal, so that elastic polymers stiffen and form rigid impact protection for vital areas.

Helmet: Helmets come in various open and closed styles, all protecting the head. If targeted with a called shot, helmets have AV 4/10. Helmets are already included with body armor, combat armor, and all suits (use that armor’s full AV against called head shots).

Riot Shield: Used for mob suppression, riots shields are lightweight, tough, and can be set to electrify on command, (treat as a melee shock attack).

Second Skin: This lightweight bodysuit, woven from spider silks and fullerenes, is typically worn as an underlayer, though some athletes use it as a uniform.