Re: [HOE] Revised Power Armor Rules... [LONG]

[toadpooka@juno.com]

I came up with a few rules for this, but they require some bending and
twisting of the original junker rules.  Overall, though, they work out
well.

First, you have to have a suit that can fit the wearer.  Allot 64 slots
of dead space for a human body.  I had a scrawny junker build one of
these...that way, very few people can steal it.

Second, figure out the armor level you want, as normal.

Now, it gets kinda weird...
I figured that since the suit moves wherever the wearer moves, the wearer
would be limited by a big and bulky suit.  While in the suit, the
wearer's Nimbleness, Deftness and Quickness are limited to the suit's
Quickness (based on its Frame, page 62).  So if you want to be able to
shoot and fight, you'll need Reflexes and Agility.

The suit is also very heavy, most likely.  A normal human probably
wouldn't be able to move that weight at all.  But the suit could, if you
give it Super Strength.  Here's another little rules patch.  This should
probably be the last part you do.  Figure the weight of the suit by
totalling up the average weights of all the components involved (you'll
have to guess a little, since you don't know how many components Super
Strength will eat up).  We've got rules for how much a given Strength can
carry, but those aren't taking the weight of the character into
consideration.  Example: a Heavy load for a man with d10 Strength is 200
lbs.  But a 200 lb man with a d10 Strength isn't encumbered at all.  So
we need to make up what someone's maximum weight can be with a given
Strength.  Multiply the modifiers in the Loads chart (page 85, main book)
by 10 to get this.  So a suit/character with d10 Strength has no Load as
long as it weighs 300 lbs or less.  Boost the Strength of the suit with
Super Strength so it can hold its own weight and so the character can
"Hulk Smash" while he's in it.

The Speed issue is another thing.  I don't like the fact that Locomotion
only covers moving like a vehicle.  It makes some things really annoying.
 I figured out a slot cost for having a device move with a Pace equal to
its Nimbleness.  Use Locomotion; it will be 15% of the Frame's slots. 
Drain will be 1+half the Frame size per hour, and the device (and hence,
the wearer) can move equal to the device's Nimbleness.  This way, you
won't have to figure Acceleration and driving phases every combat, the
suit can stop on a dime, like a person, but it would move a lot slower
than a vehicle with the same number of slots devoted to speed.
Almost any other power can be integrated into the suit.  One that I built
had a separate helmet with Targeting scopes and nightvision.  A weapon
could be mounted on the right arm and it would be stabilized as per
Targeting.  The suit ended up being Frame 8, I think, but wasn't too
overpowering.

As for damaging the quit, my rule for junker armor is that the suit takes
damage in Durability equal to what it lets the character take.  Look at
it as the Armor level protecting not only the character, but also the
mechanisms that give it the power.  So your junker will be continually
making repairs to his suit, but it'll probably be worth it.

In the end, it's horrendously expensive to build and probably to
maintain, take a lot of powers to work, but probably not everyone should
have a suit like this.

On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 10:55:16 EDT JSilver545@aol.com writes:
>  My junker wants to create his own power armor, and this message 
> thread is  the first I've even heard of it already existing. I've got
'Junkman 
> Cometh'.  Is there a place or book I should be looking in for more
info? Also, 
> is there  anywhere a good reference or step-by-step (even in the
archives) 
> about junker  creation of power armor?

From Whom It May Concern,
Rich Ranallo

"There will be no Year 2000.  At least, not as we know it."
-Hunter S. Thompson

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