WE NEED POWER ARMOR! Options

[emo samurai]

It would be awesome, but it would destroy the game. But it would be awesome!

[nick012000]

Military-grade hardened armor is powered, and there are rules in Rigger 3 for creating vehicles than can be used to create mecha.

[emo samurai]

Is it REALLY awesome? And adaptable for SR4?

[SL James]

Every time someone makes a thread title in all caps, god kills a kitten.

[Jaid]

actually, SR3 had one kind of powered armor as i recall. i don't think hardened armor was really powered (although it was most likely environmental, but not neccessarily... i think it had to be added in).

but anyways, there was an underwater powered armor. that was it for that.

there were also rules for building vehicles that moved around by walking, and that had arms. you could certainly have built mecha, but with the rules, i don't think you could have made actual powered armor (although a few simple houserules would have solved everything, as i recall... the only difference with the powered armor was that the RAS override wasn't operative, pretty much, i think, and you didn't suffer any penalties for it).

anyways, they seem to have basically planned for the possibility i would say... i mean, what else are you supposed to do with pilot anthroform skill? it's either that, or they intend to make rules for rigging humans with skillwires, and i'm personally leaning towards mecha or mecha-like vehicles.

[edit]

[Hasaku]

I completely forget whose site this is. Regardless, I give you... Teh Awesome!

edit: You're thinking of the JIM suit in SR3. It was basically an anthroform submersible that seating one. Do a search of the Shadowrun forums; you'll find plenty of threads about power armor.

[SL James]

[emo samurai]

God only kills kittens if the capitalization's unwarranted. Which it isn't, since POWER ARMOR IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[Jaid]

in SR4, there is only one vehicle i am aware of that should obviously use the pilot anthroform skill. personally, i consider i unlikely that they put in an entirely separate pilot skill just for the Kanmushi, and therefore presume they intend to expand on the number of drones that would require pilot anthroform.

of course, two other vehicles *may* use the skill (also both drones), as they are defined as "crawlers". of course, if they just mean tracked vehicles (which i personally could also see the description as applying to) then they would presumably be ground vehicles. it's hard to say based on SR4 only, since there are no labelled pictures of the various drones AFAICT. of course, a better knowledge of SR3 than i have might help with the other two drones. the aztechnology crawler, and the GM-Nissan doberman are the two.

in fact, iirc, anthroform is better classified as humanoid in shape, as i understand it... which, if it is meant to mean humanoid, then not even the kanmushi requires pilot anthroform.

basically, what i am saying is that the fact that they have included a skill specifically to pilot anthroforms indicates that they are planning to introduce some anthroform type vehicles at some point.

of course, i could be wrong, mind you.

[Tanka]

[Critias]

[Gothic Rose]

[Bullet Raven]

Why on earth would you want to add mecha to Shadowrun?

[Adarael]

Do you not see his capitals?
They indicate emphasis.

Emphasis implies immediate, overpowering, jaw-clenching NEED.

[Bullet Raven]

couldn't you work out a suit of powered armour using some cyberware rules?

i.e. while you're wearing it your attributes are as if you had cyberlimbs, bone lacing and some headware but you're limited to one initiative pass at a penalty to initiative and take a penalty to all tests involving fine motor control.

You couldn't wear anything under it and it would be more than obvious that you were wearing it to security forces.

and then somebody hacks it and hilarity ensues

[Mr.Platinum]

I do not know if it would ruin the game having power armour.

I KNow it would be extremley hard to get like Mile Spec Armour, and i don't feeli it would unbalance the game but potentially increase the opposition difficulty.

[Bull]

[Ed_209a]

[Ed_209a]

I feel that mature Drone/Rigger technology killed the concept of power armor.

ANthro drones wouldn't have the soft messy part in the middle, so they can be smaller for identical capabilities. With a rigger in residence, you have nearly identical capabilities, with much less exposure to risk. If one drone takes a Panther sabot round, you just jump into another, and let the damaged one keep up as best it can.

[Darkness]

[hyzmarca]

Unless someone really fragged the mana cycle mechwarrior should be an adept discipline. Of course, someone already fragged the mana cycle twice now, halting it for some time in the Fourth World and accelerating it in the Sixth, so it is quite possible.

[Bull]

[PBTHHHHT]

[Mordrid Soud]

One of my players comes up to me one day, "I want power armor.". I say, "sure buddy, here you go.", and in comes the Lone Star T.A.C. unit that has been tracking him since the National Bank of Seattle "incident" consisting of a 3 man point team all wearing power armor. "All you have to do is take it.". Don't feel too bad for him... he never checked for tracers from the bank loot and never moved his safehouse which Lone Star knew about from the Seattle Harbor Master "incident". The fact he was able to pull off the bank job was shear luck combined with a bit of karma. In the end it was his time :) .
I have no problem with power armor in Shadowrun, keeping in mind that it is very expensive, and the only people who could reasonably afford its cost and upkeep would be corps. Keep in mind when I refer to power armor I am not talking 20-50 foot mechs (Those just aren't economically/logistically viable even to me to use in SR).

[Ed_209a]

"All you have to do is take it"

Oh, that is classic. The moment, the line, the setup, oh!

That is the kind of thing GMs long for their entire career.