• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Equipment This section deals with updating the armor and weapon rules in the ORE to cope with the technological advance of spacefaring civilizations. By way of introduction, the fundamental rules for these haven’t changed much. Weapons still hurt people, and armor still keeps them from being hurt. What has changed is the context. REIGN, rules-as-written, is designed for roleplaying in a fantasy world of chainmail and battleaxes. This supplement, on the other hand, provides the tools for setting a campaign in a universe of meson rifles and carbon nano-weave. It’s therefore important, especially for the GM, to take a second and think about the balance of power you want for your game. Superior Firepower As gunpowder ushered in the beginning of the end for the age of heavy armor on the battlefield, the onset of even more sophisticated arms was its final bookend. Soldiers equipped with directed energy weapons and advanced, micro-explosive munitions could chew through armored battalions with little resistance. Only the heaviest, most immobile armor stands a chance against firepower that such magnitude. For the rest, the only sure defense is not getting shot in the first place. Miracle Armor Breakthroughs in nanotechnology and high energy chemistry lead to a renaissance in materials science, and its discoveries inevitably filtered down to the battlefield. Flimsy padded cloth and bulky plating were rapidly supplanted by self-repairing plastics and high- tensile fibers, strong as diamonds and light as Egyptian cotton. A fighter could be all-but impervious to attack without sacrificing mobility. In this environment, battles are won through subterfuge and at close range, where armor can be stripped off or pierced with high penetration, short range weapons. Arms Race Over centuries, the march of progress has kept the theaters of attack and defense at uneasy equilibrium. When one-side surges ahead, the other quickly matches it step for step. Handheld lasers gave way to refractive coating. Refractive coating gave way to particle beams. Particle beams gave way to monopole fiber, and so on and so on. When neither side has the clear scientific advantage, tactics and grit rule the day. These are just some approaches that you can take to warfare in a science-fiction universe. The following sections provide the structural framework on which to build your own original approach for armor and weapons. Armor The fundamental rules for armor haven’t changed much from REIGN. Each point of Armor Rating, or AR, covering a character’s Hit Location will cancel one point of Shock and one point of Killing from damaging that location. Rules for weight and encumbrance also haven’t changed from REIGN. As the AR of a piece of armor increases, so too does its weight, going from Light (L) to Medium (M) and Heavy (H), with the latter two making it harder, or indeed impossible, for a character to successfully use certain skills. Armor Type Locations Covered AR Weight Hard hat, motorcycle helmet 10 1 L Flak helmet, riot helm with tempered face shield 10 2 L Bomb-squad mask, reinforced EVA head unit 10 3 M Protective rubber and plastic padding 1-9 1 M Bullet proof parka 3-9 2 M Carbon fiber body shell 1-10 2 H Hardened ½-inch tungsten-steel chest plate 7-9 3 M Full body ablative slat armor 1-10 3 H Articulated bomb-squad gloves 4 and 6 3 M Steel-toed boots 1-2 1 L Reminder: torso armor doesn’t protect you from damage that filters into your torso from limbs that are filled with Killing. Specialized Armor Another way to approach armor is to restrict its effectiveness to certain threats. A coat made of woven carbon nanotubes may be effective against projectiles and knives, but rubbish against laser beams; conversely lasers are helpless against reflective surfaces, which in turn can be shattered easily by physical impacts. This, of course, can make dealing with armor more complex, as you need to either keep good notes or learn to internalize your options. To make your life easier, specialized armor can be an All-or-Nothing equation: armor designed to protect against a specific threat does so with 100% effectiveness, but is useless otherwise. Just remember that armor in the ORE can be a powerful tool. A well-clad foe can frustrate a party of player characters through sheer attrition, and in general it slows down the pace of combat. This may be desirable, as otherwise the ORE can be unforgivingly brutal. As in all things related to running a roleplaying game, be judicious. Weapons Offensive equipment is a bigger departure from vanilla-REIGN, for one major reason: guns. Guns change pretty much everything. We’re not going get real gritty here when it comes to different kinds of guns, because when the target execution of this supplement is “any sort of sci-fi universe”, doing so limits more than it exposits. Insofar as firearms are concerned, there are only a couple things to note. Broadly, firearms are classified as either handguns, which can be fired one-handed, or rifles, which generally require both hands. There’s some in between (a shotgun normally falls into the category of a rifle, but if it’s been sawn-off it acts as a handgun). Secondly, weapons, especially guns, have three new factors: Penetration, Spray and Ammunition Penetration A weapon with Penetration ignores AR equal to its rating. So a weapon with Penetration-2 will go right through a Hit Location clad in AR2, and will treat AR3 as if it were AR1. Spray Spray describes a weapon that can fire a large number of shots, such as a shotgun, or in rapid succession, such as an automatic weapon. It could also describe a weapon that simply douses an area with a messy swath of harm, like a flamethrower. A weapon’s Spray rating has two effects. First, it adds its rating in dice to the attack pool. This means that a weapon with lots of Spray is dangerous even in the hands of a total amateur. Second, the Spray rating determines how many extra Sets you’re allowed to count as attacks, without needing to rely on Multiple Actions. To bring these together as an example, let’s imagine a weapon with Spray-2. Each time you attack with this weapon, you add +2d to your dice pool, and can claim up to 3 Sets as attacks. Pretty nasty stuff. To offset this, Spray weapons are often limited by Ammunition Ammunition It’s not super important to track how many shots you have left on a weapon, unless it actually is. This is sort of a judgement call on the GM’s part. A minor sidearm might be treated as if it had unlimited ammo, while heavy artillery with lots Penetration and Spray will have its uses limited to rein it in a little bit. We don’t suggest you track individual bullet consumption, just the frequency with which you can launch an attack. Weapons (continued) Reloading As with ammo, it’s not strictly necessary to enforce reload times on a firearm, but it can be helpful in keeping a powerful armament in check. It generally takes a full turn to reload a weapon, which can be mitigated by going for Multiple Actions and trying to get two Coordination + Firearms sets, one for the reload and another for the shot. Range A weapon’s range is handled in three increments. Short is about 50 feet. Medium is about the distance at which you can recognize someone’s features, up to about 250 feet. Long is as far as you can see someone and make out their individual limbs, so about 500 feet. However, these are the maximum ranges for a firearm. The distance at which you, the character, are personably able to shoot accurately is based on your Coordination. At Short Range, you are accurate at about ten feet per die. At Medium Range, 50 feet; at Long Range, 100 feet. These measurements are as granular as we feel it’s necessary to go. If you want more detail, you can stipulate specific ranges for each piece of your arsenal; if you want less, "If you see it, you can shoot it" works just as well. What Kind of Weapons? Star Trek has phasers and disruptors. Star Wars uses blasters and lightsabers. Dune describes lasguns and knives, and plenty of settings still rely on good old fashioned lead bullets. What about you? The list of weapons that follows is largely suggestive, and is meant to establish a framework that a GM can customize to his needs. Do you want beam weapons that vaporize targets on contact, or plasma pulse guns that inflict damage one burn at a time? It's entirely up to you, and dependent on the kind of battlefield you want to envision. There's even plenty of room for close-quarters combat, as the aforementioned Star Wars and Dune lay out. It may require you to contrive a reason why a fighter would holster his blaster and draw his blade, but that's the beauty of science-fiction: a plausible explanation can pave the road to an impossible destination. Weapons (continued) Melee Weapon Damage Melee Weapon Damage Bite (Human) 1 Shock Thermal Axe W+1 in Killing, +2 Shock Punch, Kick, Headbut, etc W in Shock Mono-atomic edged Sword W+2 in Killing Whip or Chain W in Shock Plasma Saber W+2 in Killing, Pen-1 Table Leg W+1 in Shock High-Frequency Knife W in Killing, Pen-2 Glass Bottle W+1 in Shock Exotic Fang Knife* W+1 in Killing Brass Knuckle Punch W+1 in Shock Quantum Field Knife W+1 in Killing Knife W in Shock +1 Killing Chainsaw* W+1 in SK Large Knife or Short Sword W in Killing Broken Rafter** W+3 in Shock Utility Hatchet W in Killing Drill-tipped Spear W in SK, Pen-2 Baseball Bat W+2 in Shock Great Sword** W in SK, +1 Killing Crowbar W+2 in Shock Great Battleaxe** W in SK, +1 Killing Pipe Wrench W in Killing +1 Shock Great Maul** W in SK, +1 Killing Sword W+1 in Killing Axe or Polearm W+1 in Killing *Limited uses due to fragility or fuel Spear W+1 in Killing **Requires 4d in Body to wield Ranged Weapon Damage Type Range Notes/Features Thrown Stone W in Shock Short Shuriken W in Shock +1 Killing Short Thrown melee weapon W in Shock Short Sling shot W+1 in Shock Short Javelin W in Killing Medium Hunting crossbow W in Killing Medium Longbow W in Killing Long Tactical crossbow W+1 Killing Long Slow-1, Penetration-1 Compound bow W in Killing +1 Shock Long Conventional Projectile Pistol W in Killing Handgun Medium Conv.

Load more

  6

Copy Link