So my group is playing 2nd Edition, we just finished Dreamchipper last night, and it went really well but I have a couple questions I wanted to look up. Hoping some people more familiar with the older rules can help me out(though I'm still looking through the books, so I'll post if I find the answers myself).

1. I've seen reference to a Dodge Pool, and while I know that was a thing from 1E, 2E looks like it just uses dice from your Combat Pool that you allocate to defence at the beginning of a turn. Is there an actual Dodge Pool somewhere I missed and if so how is it calculated, or is this just an anachronism from 1st Edition?

2. So, combat is quick and dangerous, obviously. But it seems that having good armour is essential to not getting pasted instantly. In the Street Samurai Catalogue, there's listed Form Fitting Body Armour, which goes underneath other clothes. However, it says it is "Not usable with any other form of Body Arnour". But it doesn't specify what "Body Arnour" is. Does it mean all types of armour, full body armour suits like Security Armour, or just armour in general? We ask because obviously we're trying to to find ways of not dying from lead poisoning.

Any and all help you guys can provide is much appreciated!

1. Dodge Pool was rolled into the Combat Pool for 2nd ed so yeah, it's a hold over from 1st ed. Dream Chipper, if I recall, is a 1st ed adventure but since it doesn't list any actual gear stats, it is pretty easy to convert to 2nd ed. Just the Dice Pools change.

2. In one of the editions form fitting body armor becomes usable with other armor but I can't remember when that happens. Street Samurai Catalogue is a 1st ed book and there was some sort of conversion info for it for 2nd ed but again, don't where that is or what it said so perhaps someone else can clarify that.
I know in general, that unless something said it +1 Ballistic or +1 Impact, you couldn't stack the armor types, just the highest value counted.

Thanks, that helps. I got pointed to a couple other sources that might help too, so much appreciated. I'll be talking with my table to see if we want to play with any House rules going forward.

Form Fitting Body Armor came out in the SR1 Street Samurai Catalogue, which was updated to SR2 but I don't think anything changed except converting the Damage Codes and such for the new edition. To my knowledge, stacking armor was made official in SR3 (you could wear more than one piece of armor but took penalties to skills), and Form-Fitting Body Armor was updated to SR3 in Cannon Companion so that not only could it be worn with other armor, it didn't add penalties.

If you are interested in using SR3's layering armor, it works like this. You take the full value of the highest piece of armor you are wearing, and half the value of the next piece. (So adding a Lined Coat of 4/2 over a Armor Jacket of 5/3 will give you a 7/4, or 5/3 plus 2/1). To calculate the penalty, take the full value of all ballistic armor worn and compare it to the character's modified Quickness. For every point you exceed your Quickness, you take a penalty to all Quickness related skills, and Quickness related tests. You also reduce your Quickness by that amount to calculate your movement speed.

Using the previous example of a guy wearing the Armor Jacket (5/3) and Lined Coat (4/2), assuming he was a Street Sam with a Quickness 7, his armor rating would be 7/4 and his TN mod to all Quickness-related tests and skills would be +2, and he would move as if he had a Quickness of 5.

The text is vague but my group played that helmets and riot shields weren't a part of that calculation, since they were bonuses. We also allowed characters to layer more than two pieces of armor, but that was us.

Form Fitting Body Armor as per Cannon Companion could be layered with other armor, but didn't add in to the armor total for penalties, so the full Form Fit of 4/1 basically added two points of Ballistic armor and didn't increase the penalties. Although I think by the rules if you had a Quickness of 4 and were wearing a Armor Jacket (5/3) you had no penalties (no penalties for wearing one piece of armor). But if you put on Form Fit under it, even though it wasn't added in, you would still be over your Quickness with your ballistic rating and have a +1 to Quickness stuff.

The best way to survive getting shot it to not get shot. Taking cover, using stealth, putting a lot of TN mods on your enemy and minimizing your own are all good ways to make combat more survivable.