I was trying to make a "lower end" character and figured it'd be a good time to go back the plain old "armor jacket" instead of the secure ware that my characters have been sporting since that line came out (SR1 SSC?) but then I realized for all the pieces of armor, SecureWare is cheaper than the regular piece, IIRC its one of the SecureVests that is more expensive.

The only reason this seems odd to me is that in most other aspects of the game if two items are identical all regards except one, the piece of equipment that has the higher rating is more expensive.

I checked the weight differences and it seems almost arbitrary. The Secure Clothing weighs less than its generic counterpart, whereas the Secure Jacket weighs more, etc. (Or has more mass, sorry)

I know its only 25 or 50 nuyen in most cases but its been buggin me for a while.

And while I'm griping about the armor, why is a half body of FFBA 1000 , offers 3/1 and has concealability of 11; while the Secure UltraVest costs like 400 , offers 3/2 and has a concealability of 14. The extra 600 goes to partially cover your arms and legs to the knees? Seems like a rip unless you have a detailed house rule for called shots and where they land, or a chart for body placement of where the shot lands. Then it seems like a good trade off.



Thoughts?

To address the question regarding FFBA and an Ultra vest, the big difference is that FFBA doesn't count towards penalties for having more armor than your Quickness attribute.

For example, a lined coat (4/2) with a secure ultravest (3/2) means you need a Quickness of 7 to not have any penalties. With a lined coat and FFBA, you only need a 4 quickness to not have any penalties.

Mal-2

Yeah, I think the securetech/normal prices are swapped, but it's not a big enough problem to worry about.

Mal's exactly on the spot. FFBA doesn't count against anything when stacked, which means it's a free point of ballistic. Personally, I fire, gas, ice and electricity proof it too, so I know that no matter what, I've got 'protection' (it isn't STD proofed... I should fix that.) There's a reason why they call it the shadowrunner's underpants. There's no reason not to wear it.

@ OurGame:

I was thinking something along those lines myself but it still bugged me. It be like if the Pred2 was 50 cheaper than the Pred1. Though I dare say there's more Pred2's out there than the Pred1. Unless theres a Street index difference or a lot of cyber-concious Awakends that like to pack the big guns (then again, who doesn't? )

I just checked the SI and avails of the armors. The SIs seem to vary w/ the same arbitrary differences that the weights do but the avail for SecureWare is generally higher. I dunno about that one. I kinda figured that if something is legal and the Star isn't actively looking for you, you should be able to go to the mall or what have you and pick up what everyou want.

Note that the armor modifications presented in Cannon Companion can't be added to Securetech clothing. This might seem like a good reason why it might cost less...

... except that the book claims it's because of its "ergonomically tailored design". Yet none of the other armored clothing (even the Tres Chic stuff) has this limitation...?

Or the Second Skin stuff, for that matter.

Well, I simply take it to mean SecureWear = no mods but better conceal and wt, so a little cheaper than originals.