Re: [HoE] [[hoe] armour

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

Deadlander@aol.com wrote:

> i was just wondering if armour was indestructible, i mean how much damage
> does it take to destroy it. my group have given it 20 wound levels, then it
> is destroyed. you can also make a trade armourer roll to repair it, with a
> fair 5 and every raise fixing 1d4 points. does this seem over the top? i cant
> find any rules for how much damage things can take, i.e. kevlar vests and
> battle armour. Any idea people?

HOE doesn't have rules to cover equipment breaking down. DL has reliability and
malfunction rules, but I believe these were taken out to streamline things and
make gameplay a little faster. But not even DL has rules to really cover armor
breaking down due to taking damage.

But other than that, your rules look pretty good! If I were going to adopt
similar rules, I'd scale the "toughness" based on the number of Armor points...
maybe 10 wounds per armor point, or base it on material. A Kevlar vest might take
20 wounds total, a steel breastblate with the same armor value might take 30
wounds.

As for repair... I'd let the PCs repair it, but eventually it would get to the
point where there wouldn't be any point to patching it.  The structural integrity
would be compromised at some point where it would just fall apart and you'd just
have to replace it. I don't know if I'd adopt any hard rules for that, though...
probably play it by ear.  So, for the steel breastplate, for example... "Well,
ok, the bullet holes are patchable, but when those black hats baked you with that
flamethrower, the heat compromised the temper of the steel, and its very brittle
now. When you bang the patches, you notice the steel starting to crack. Halve the
APs, and if it takes another 10 wound levels, it'll fall apart completely."