Damaging Barriers, Bullets, Blasts, and Slams Options

[252]

Alright, I'm trying to understand by basic SR the ways that different types of damage hurt and destroy the barriers.

Hopefully there is something easier then the book, I'm more confused about blasts then anything else. However I need help in all of the things.

[BitBasher]

could you be a little more specific of examples of what you don;t understand, or examples of thing you would like explained?

That's kind of broad.

[Kagetenshi]

Bullets and bladed melee attacks face twice the barrier rating, as do monowhips. Other than that, power vs. Barrier; if power is at least half, reduce Barrier by one; if more than equal, the barrier fails by however much the section says it does.

~J

[Red Swami]

And don't forget "chunky salsa" for blasts.

Mmmm, salsa....

(Basically, if the power of the blast at the point it hits the barrier is less than the barrier rating, it bounces off and reflects the other way. If some poor joe is caught in the blast both coming and going, the effective powers get added together. Repeat until blast dissipates. Heavens help you if you're in, say, a corridor. Or a metal box. Or a high-powered Blast Barrier spell.)

[RedmondLarry]

252, here are the basics:

First off, normal barriers do not have a Condition Monitor. There is no notion of a Moderate wound or Deadly wound to a barrier. Damage to a barrier is recorded as a reduction of barrier rating (BR).

For all these calculations, we use something called Adjusted Barrier Rating (ABR) (calculated below):

An attack that is too weak (power of attack < half ABR) does nothing. E.g. the strength 1 mage with a normal knife against a concrete wall will not get through during a Combat.

A sufficiently strong attack (power >= half ABR) lowers the BR by 1. E.g. a troll with a Fire Axe against a fire door. Eventually the BR will be reduced enough that the next example applies.

A sufficiently strong attack (power > ABR) lowers the BR by 1 AND breaks a one-half meter (or larger) hole through the barrier. See p. 124 for when it breaks a larger hole.

By standard rules, the Damage Level (Light, Moderate, Serious, Deadly) does not affect the above calculations.

ABR is twice BR for the following types of attacks:
firearms (p. 125)
melee (p. 125)
combat spells (p. 125)
blasts (p. 119)

ABR is equal to BR for the following types of attacks:
elemental manipulation spells (p. 125)

I may be missing some types of attacks, but these are the basics.

A normal door will break open when its BR is reduced by half. A security door will not open until its BR is reduced to 0.

If your barrier is a vehicle that has been stuffed into the mouth of a cave (for example), and is being used as a physical barrier, the vehicle still has a condition monitor. The vehicle will become non functional when it's condition monitor reaches 10 boxes, but it'll still remain a tangled mass of metal and plastic (a barrier) stuck in the cave mouth until the barrier rules indicate you've broken through it. It'll be up to your GM to determine the Barrier Rating of any given vehicle when used this way.

[Dashifen]

Well described OurTeam. I didn't even know that I misunderstood those rules until you explained them so well!

[Method]

[BitBasher]

Because barrier ratings come into play in other areas like vehicle crashes ect.. it would have more than a few ramifications and places that would need to be changed.

[RedmondLarry]