I had a player in my group suggest using biofiber as an armor modification. My search fu did not turn up too much other than other people had ideas for the same thing.

So how much do you think it would cost to implement such a system into a decent suit of armor (like full body armor?)


What we had come up with was basically you buy the biofiber at the force you want and get enough to cover your armor (from the inside if you are smart) and then have to buy a nutrient package and keep that attached to it.

The cost for biofiber is force*100 per sq meter with a max of 10 force.

Now.... How many sq meters of biofiber would it take to be effective? Also how much would a nutrition system cost for upkeep? Would it be force dependent?

We wanted to know because we wanted a chance to be survivable against a mage without having to have magical backup all the time (our group does not always like to play mages and it helps with the rarity factor.)

First off Biofiber is only a protection against astral forms, not spells.
Remember spells cast on the astral plane NEVER EVER pass over into the physical plane. It is not possible.

Secondly the book says
"Biofiber is notoriously sensitive and difficult to maintain"
So I don't think it stand up to armor. You could say line the inside of a truck but all it really does is act as a wall to stop them from entering

<cough> I hate to burst your bubble, man, but biofiber hasnae been introduced in SR4 just yet.

This is not the biofiber you are looking for.

Seriously, color my face red. I completely blanked on that. Good catch.

Better get a ghillie suit made of awakened ivy.

Y'know, when I saw the title of thi thread the only thing I could think of was...

"What, you mean, like... Cotton? Linen? Any cloth woven from once living stuff... silk even? What are we excluding here, rayon and nylon and the like?'


Silly me, I forgot about the awakened plants or whatever to keep astral forms at bay....

you might be able to pull off a biofiber shield... not as much flexibility required for that. fairly uniform shape and all.

I dunno. It's not about casting spells at a person, but casting spells at a person's aura. That extends about an inch (maybe an inch or two, I forget) around the body, regardless of body armor. I don't think biofiber would prevent a properly targeted spell from hitting the person, though it might make his aura harder to target.

but your astral would be through the roof, which is useless. then again since biofiber is always astrally active, couldnt a mage just target it with say a ignite and then light you on fire? seemws like it does more harm then good.

If biofiber is defeated by ignite (which I argue it can be) then it has served its purpose for detecting astral intrusion. Mind you the ignite would be in astral space, and thus not affect anything that was not dual natured.

I'd also say that corps, like their real modern day counterparts, do lots of stupid stuff because they believe it works regardless of whether it actually does.

Yeah, it wasn't the physical nature of the biofiber I was interested in, as much as wether or not an astral being can move a dual natured being around. I guess it's not possible, since it would open up too many weird scenarios.
If interaction between dual-natured things and astral entities worked that way, that would enable a dual-natured bullet as well (like a capsule round filled with dual-natured bacteria or something).
I'm definetly not going to include this in my campaign, but it's an interesting idea. (intersting because it would let astral beings move dual-natured stuff around like a poltergeist)

Should this actually somehow work, biofiber is extremely expensive. You'd be better off stapling kittens to your armour jacket. Might need a fair few, though.

Are you saying awakened kittens would be economically viable?

Well, the argument here was that biofiber would block astral sight and therefore spellcasting LOS. If you were entirely encased in kittens, their auras would probably do the job just as well.

If you need an astral form rather than just an aura, then you're going to be hunting pregnant blackberry cats for the next little while.

I think a devilrat-suit would be somewhat easier accomplished, what with devilrats being a more common pest in Seattle. It's probably not a good way of making new friends though.

Mammal armor? Ewww.

Look, they're vertebrates. Under enough stress, they'll die. Which will also be a gap in your armor.

What you do is you make a large clear plastic/flexiglass/polymer suit that A: you can move around in somewhat freely and B: Can hold jello.

Once you're completely satisfied with the suit you empty out the jello and fill it with a Slime Mold. Its fungi, it's living, no bones to break. Its in an airtight seal so no bad smell.

You cast 'Nutrition' and 'Hydrate' on it every couple days, maybe 'Oxygenate' as well. You don't even have to drain it out of the suit to feed it.

Need it dual-natured? Only one problem! There's an Awakened Slime Mold in the California Free State sourcebook. The problem is that it eats through most polymers and can dissolve human flesh.

Never wear an Awakened Slime Mold if your suit might take melee damage!

that's how we've handled it. the most memorable example was when we had a team flying around in a completely warded helicopter. an astral-form air spirit flew up to intercept and got caught in the blades. the spirit got whipped around a few times (ever see that video of the cat getting caught on the fan?) and then got tossed away, no harm done on either side.