shields, new toys Options

[pestulens]

Shields
A new technology I was thinking of adding to Shadorun. These are inspired by Dune and intended to perform a number of functions
1 obviously to make combat less deadly
2 to increase the desirability of melee
3 to create a more swashbuckling feel.
This may not be appropriate for your game, I want to know how well you think I have done what I set out to do.

The basic mechanics are ripped of rather shamelessly from Fading Suns (I am also considering converting that setting to SR4 if Redbrick doesn’t get 3rd edition out soon).
Shield cores project an energy field around the body. This fallows the bioelectric field much like a skinlink and extends out about one inch form the skin so it cannot be used with thick clothing or armor. Armors designed to be easily hidden can be warn under a shield, obvious armors cannot.
Shields are usually inactive and only activate when they detect a significant amount of kinetic energy directed at them. All shields are rated for a minimum damage they can take, usually 5. When the modified DV of an attack exceeds this the shield activates and provides hardened armor equal to it’s rating, usually 10. AP dos not normally effect this but some attacks (most of those that half armor) are particularly effective and so get there AP. The shield runs off a battery and can only activate a limited number of times before it must be recharged. The basic shield can be used 10 times.
Shields can also be useful in situations witch they where not strictly speaking designed for but are not always. If the wearer faces a broad area impact (falling of a building for example) they must roll 2 dice, if they get at least one hit and no ones they are fine, if they do not they are in trouble. If they just fail than the shield still activates but then burns out and will not function for a number of combat rounds equal to the damage it absorbs. If they role a 1 on one of the dice than the shield dos not activate this turn. These results are independent (a shield may fail to activate and still work next turn). If they role two ones than the shield is dead and must be repaired or replaced. These rules also come into play if the warier is attacked from many directions at once, in such a sinareo it is the number of attacks, not the damage, witch determines the time for witch the shield will stop functioning. This applies to auto fire attacks of 6 or more rounds.

The existence of this technology has lead to some new fighting teckneaks. The attacker in melee may choose to hold back there successes and strength from the damage in order to slip under the shield, attackers using firearms cannot.
It is also common to try to hit the warrior many times in rapid succession to drain the shield quickly, if declared ahead of time a melee attacker who’s base DV would activate the shield can drain an extra charge for every two net hits they gained on there attack test.

[Tarantula]

Spellcheck, please.

[Crusher Bob]

There will all sorts of rules fallout. I'd guess that dart guns and similar that deliver drugs would become more popular, since they should not be powerful enough to set the shield off. There would also be plenty of weapons designed specifically to defeat shielded opponents. For example a shotgun shell on a stick. You poke the stick though the shield, up against the target, then fire the shotgun shell.

[l33tpenguin]

If you are basing the shield design off of the shields used in Dune, nearly any kinetic attack will activate the shield, the shield would react to dart guns, thrown objects, even swinging a weapon. Shield combat in Dune was deadly close quarters combat in which one attempted to get their opponent into a compromising situation where a blade could be slowly pressed through the shield. Special dart like weapons were even designed to penetrate shields, they would rapidly approach then drop to extremely low speeds to penetrate the shield.
If the shield is reacting to kinetic energy, this would not, however, protect the wearer from other forms of ranged attack. This type of shield would also have no effect on sonic, laser and electrical weapons as they deliver their lethality through forms of energy other than kinetic. Grenades would still be dangerous, while the kinetic energy from the fragmented pieces of the grenade would be absorbed, the victim would still be subject to thermal and sonic damage.

edits....

[odinson]

The rules could probably be streamlined a bit. The good thing about SR4 is that all the rules are pretty simple and don't have a lot of if-thens in them. I would probably not worry about having charges, and not link the activation to a DV because then you would have to worry about things like burst fire, weapons thrown from trolls, different ammo types. Also the attacks that are half impact should probably still be blocked. Maybe something like this would work.

Shield: Any incoming projectile bullets of heavy pistol or bigger guns will activate the shield. Shield provides hardened armour equal to it's rating against the attack. This hardened armour stacks with other forms of armour, but is incompatible with any worn armour bulkier than armoured clothing.

If you were interested in something that gave them the chance of failing in the middle of the run you could throw in something like this:

When using the shield treat 2's as 1's for the purpose of determining glitches on damage resistance tests. If there is a glitch the shield will not work for 1d10 rounds. On a critical glitch the shield fails until it can be repaired.

I've always found that a glitch rarely comes up and counting 2's as ones would make this happen often enough to make a runner not rely solely on the shield.

[Tarantula]

Woah Woah Woah. d10?!?!

Make it 2d6.

[odinson]

sorry, yeah 2d6. I just came back from a long game of warhamer so i'm still seeing d10's.

Or something like 1d6 + 1d6 for every die that is above your midway point. So a dicepool of 6 and 5 1's would net you 3d6.

[Dancer]

Way, way beyond Shadowrun's normal tech level. This would seriously disrupt the tone/immersion of the game to me. If I wanted to make to make melee more important I would handwave fullerene-based body armor that will stop normal bullets and needs to be cut with monoedged weapons, rather than use nebulous magitech 'shields'.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

[Ryu]

You´ll want to simplify this to standard layering rules. So you could have "light shields" with lower armor ratings as boni and "heavy shields" that are really full-body shield-suits. Doing it your way pushes armor-tech beyond weapon-tech, and that makes for long combats.

[pestulens]

This dose tend to produce the 'duel to the death with sowing needless' affect, ie long combats. I did say that thees would change the tone of the game. the other thing thees do is make surprise no longer just win

[hyzmarca]

Lets keep things simple.

Put it in line with the Deflect spell by having it add its rating in dodge dice against ranged attacks. This makes bullet dodging much more likely and makes melee viable again. This doesn't change ranged combat very much, but makes hitting more difficult. It essentially puts the two forms of combat on equal footing.

Put it in Line with the Bullet Barrier/Bullet Armor spell. Adds its rating to the armor rating of the character, but only against ranged attacks. This method encourages melee and avoids various workarounds like dart guns, since it works against all ranged attacks. It is very powerful if it is hardened and would greatly reduce ranged combat if that were the case.

Put it in line with standard armor. It simply adds its rating to the character's Ballistic armor rating. This method has various workarounds, as stated before. Weapons that attack impact armor will be preferred.