Armor
With so many weapons and super-powered attacks around, characters may need armor to protect them. Some heroes are innately tough enough to stand up to a lot of punishment, while others rely on their high Dodge and Parry ranks. Others choose to wear armor, ranging from ancient metal armors to modern composites or ultra-modern battlesuits.
Armor provides a Protection effect, a replacement for Stamina when determining Toughness. Like other equipment, armor does not stack with other armor or effect bonuses, only the highest bonus applies, one of the reasons why tough heroes rarely, if ever, wear armor. Toughness, even that granted by armor, is limited by your series' power level.
Armor has the following traits:
Category: Armors are categorized as archaic (ancient styles of armor like chain- and plate-mail), modern (typically bulletproof composites and synthetics), and shields (requiring some active use to protect against attacks).
Effect: The effect of most armor is Protection, sometimes with the Impervious modifier. Shields provide a sort of mobile cover (see Cover in Gameplay Rules), granting Enhanced Defense: Dodge and Enhanced Defense: Parry.
Cost: This is the armor's cost in points. Characters pay this cost from their equipment points to have the armor of this type as part of their regular equipment.
Table: Armor
| Archaic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Armor | Effect | Cost |
| Leather | Protection 1 | 1 |
| Chain-mail | Protection 3 | 3 |
| Plate-mail | Protection 5 | 5 |
| Full-plate | Protection 6 | 6 |
| Modern | ||
|---|---|---|
| Armor | Effect | Cost |
| Undercover shirt | Protection 2, Limited to Ballistic, Subtle | 2 |
| Bulletproof vest | Protection 4, Limited to Ballistic, Subtle | 3 |
| Shields | ||
|---|---|---|
| Item | Effect | Cost |
| Small shield | +1 Active Defenses | 2 |
| Medium shield | +2 Active Defenses | 4 |
| Large shield | +3 Active Defenses | 6 |
Archaic Armor
Some characters in superheroic settings still wear ancient or archaic armor, either because they are from a place or time where such armor is common or because it is tied to their motif or powers in some way.
Leather: This can be archaic plates of boiled leather or a modern heavy leather jacket.
Chain-mail: A shirt of heavy metal chain, often with a coif (hood) to cover the wearer's head.
Plate-mail: This is chain-mail augmented with a metal breastplate, greaves (leg-guards) and arm-guards.
Full-plate: A full (and heavy!) suit of articulated metal plates, like that worn by medieval knights.
Modern Armor
Modern body armor is common among superheroes and villains, but even more so among people like police officers, soldiers, criminal agents, and so forth.
Undercover shirt: A thin shirt of ballistic armor that can be worn under street clothes.
Bulletproof vest: A heavier vest of ballistic armor worn by police officers and soldiers.
Shields
Under the Hood: Super-Shields
Just as power armor is a device version of otherwise ordinary equipment armor, some heroes (and, less often, villains) have shield devices providing them with greater benefits than an ordinary shield.
A shield device may provide Enhanced Dodge and Parry defenses like a mundane shield, or it can grant ranks of Protection (which do stack with other effects, since they're not from equipment), perhaps even Impervious Protection for a "bulletproof" or "indestructible" shield. Such benefits are typically Sustained in duration, requiring some action on the shield-wielder's part.
A super-shield might even be useful as a weapon, providing a Damage effect, probably Strength-based. This is best handled as an Alternate Effect of the shield, meaning you can't use it both offensively and defensively at the same time! A hero able to hurl a shield at foes can even have a Ranged Damage effect with it.
Small shield: A small hand shield large enough to cover the wearer's forearm.
Medium shield: A larger shield covering almost the entire arm, able to shield a large portion of the torso.
Large shield: A "kite" shield able to cover more than half of the wielder's body.