• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

Armor

The Slipstream is not a safe place; wildlife attacks are common and law enforcement or military presence sporadic, which has caused nearly all lands save Tsuxia to give up on weapons control past requiring visitors to carry openly and keep safeties bound. This of course causes fights to turn serious pretty quickly, which makes armor a necessity.

Textiles through the Slipstream take full advantage of any synergy that might exist between alpine, hybrid and deep environments: as a result fibers that would otherwise require advanced manufacturing and large amounts of hydrocarbons can simply be spun with barely more processing than linen or cotton require.

Armor gives extra Threshold to a character according to its armor value; it may also give a bonus of 1 to defense rolls against melee or ranged attacks.

Environmental effects such as fire, miasma, extreme cold and so on can be replicated by some sprayers.

Stomp suits confer environmental resistance based on their quality rating; their endurance rating indicates their air and possibly water supply, when the supply is exhausted environmental resistance drops to none.

Anything expressly designed as armor will eventually cause fatigue to anyone who isn't trained in its use; medium and heavy armor will cause fatigue regardless, but do so much more quickly to untrained users. Armor can be custom-tailored to reduce this effect for the character the armor is being tailored to.

Motorized armor exists; linear motors built into a frame connected to the the legs and back allow for an effective negation of the suit's weight as long as they are powered, which allows for wearing heavy armor for an extended period of time without fatingue. They confer no other advantage (and are generally a very bad thing to be caught in when they are unpowered), so it's very rare to see motorized armor outside of specialized heavy stomp suits. Linear motors are generally not precise enough to work with shoulder joints, so motorized armor that also confers strength bonuses is limited to custom-built experimental suits. Either way, motorized armor is slow and unwieldy.

Shields

Shields work as mobile cover in firefights, and tools to parry a blow in melee fights. Defense bonuses due to shields are removed from the damage calculation if the blow hits, since the shield has effectively been bypassed. Light shields give a bonus of 1, medium shields give a bonus of 2, and heavy or tower shields and partial cover gives a bonus of 4. Full cover gives a bonus of 8, but cannot be fired through.

Like armor, medium and heavy shields will eventually cause fatigue to anyone who isn't trained in their use; heavy shields will cause fatigue regardless, but do so much more quickly to untrained users.