Archaic Inertia Armors

Archaic armors arecompletely outclassed by the high-tech weaponry common on the Frontier. Usually the only situations where such armors might be encountered would be ceremonial occasions (worn by royal guardsmen for a state parade) or in entertainment facilities (worn by actors, historical reenactors, etc.). [1]

However, archaic armor have been encountered on various low-tech planets such as Volturnus and Starmist by explorers. In survival situations, a few simpler types can be fashioned by trained Environmental specialists.

Effects. Archaic armors will reduce damage from melee and archaic missile weapons by half and trim all other inertial damage by one-forth. The types available include fur hides/light leather, studded leather, chain/scale/ring mail, brigandine/splint/platemail, and full plate.

Costs. The price in parentheses represents the cost on Frontier worlds to buy these armors from specialty craftsmen; they are not widely available, must be specially ordered by the buyer and are priced accordingly.

Furs, Hides and Light Leather Armor. Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 5. Mass: 5 kilograms. Cost: 20-50 Credits. Note: Hide, leather or plant fiber armor may be made by Environmentalists using the "Making Tools / Weapons" subskill if the right materials (wood,l eather, etc.) can be found.

Leather and Studded Leather. Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 10. Mass: 8 kilograms. Cost: (25-100 Credits).

Chain, Scale and Ring Mail. Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 15. Mass: 15 kilograms. Cost: (200-600 Credits). Note, this type of armor makes the wearer more vulnerable to electrical attacks, +25 percent damage/effect.

Brigandine, Splint and Platemail. Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 20. Mass: 20 kilograms. Cost: (500-1,000 Credits). Note, this type of armor makes the wearer more vulnerable to electrical attacks, +50 percent damage/effect.

Full Plate Armor. Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 25. Mass: 25 kilograms. Cost: (2,000+ Credits). Note, this type of armor makes the wearer more vulnerable to electrical attacks, +50 percent damage/effect.

Asbestos Suit

Asbestos Suit. This is a fireproof garment – it is not really made from asbestos but rather from advanced materials – that that covers a character’s entire body, including the head and extremities. It is often used by firefighters but protects against incendiary weapons, though a character would also need a breathing mask and googles to receive full protection from heat and smoke. It offers 100 points of fire damage protection. For every 10 points of damage, the wearer takes one point. It weighs 3 kilograms and costs 500 Credits. [1]

Chillsuit

Chillsuit. This outfit protects the wearer from conditions of extreme cold. It consists of a close-fitting suit of thin, insulating material that completely covers the wearer’s head and body. It comes with dome-like goggles and a special heat-retaining filter for breathing. It can be worn under defensive suits and does not interfere with defensive screens. It uses energy depending upon thepower setting which also determines the level of protection.

The Injury from Cold Table provides the rates at which characters wearing normal clothing or a chillsuit (at various settings) will lose Stamina points when exposed to different levels of cold. Unless stated otherwise, rates of loss are per hour. The table assumes dry conditions with fairly still air. Rain, wind, etc., will lower the effective temperature dramatically. For purposes of curing, this injury counts as a wound.

A chillsuit offers no protection other than from the cold, but it can be worn under most other defensive suits and will not interfere with defense screens. A gas mask or breathing mask should probably be worn with a chillsuit to increase its effectiveness. Infrared, sun or other goggles can also be worn.

Mass: 1 kilogram plus power source. Cost: 400 Credits.[1]

Other Fan-Created Armors

Duraweave. Lighter and more flexible than Kevlar, duraweave reduces the damage by projectile and gyrojet weapons by half. Th elight suit offers 15 points of defense while the heavy suit offers 25.  It is nearly indistinguishable from normal fabric.[1]

Fiber Armor. The primitive forebears of the advanced ballistic fibers used in skeinsuits, Fiber armor suits are still found in use on small or low-tech Frontier colonies, among criminals and pirates, and members of militant cults.  It will reduce damage from projectile and gyrojet weapons by half and will reduce all other inertial damage by one-fourth. The light suit offers 10 points of defense; the medium suit offers 20 points; and the reinforced flak suit provides 30 points of defense.[2]

Flak Armor. Madeof hardened plasti-steel armored pieces, flak armor is more effective against projectiles and explosives than a skeinsuit. It absorbs three-fourths of all inertia damage, up to 60 points, while the wearer only takes one-fourth of the damage.

A reflective coating can be added (at an additional 500 Credit cost) that will act as an albedo suit, absorbing 100 points of laser damage. It may be relayered as needed.[3]

Polyplate Armor, Partial. This armor covers all vital areas with hardened polymer plates, formed and molded to the body. The armor is fitted to the character that wears it, but may be altered in a shop or by a character with a repair machinery skill.

Acting like a combination albedo suit and skeinsuit, partial polyplate absorbs half damage from all beam and physical attacks while the other half gets through to the wearer. Once the suit has absorbed 100 points of damage it stops protecting the wearer.

Because of the restricting nature of the plates, characters wearing partial polyplate Armor have a -5 penalty applied to all Dexterity and Reaction Speed checks.

Polyplate Armor, Full. This armor consists of a hardened polymer carapace designed to protect a combatant from harm. Characters wearing this armor take only one-fourth (round down) the damage that should otherwise be applied to them, if that damage comes from a beam weapon or physical/inertial source.  The armor absorbs the remaining three-fourths of damage.

The armor can take 250 points of damage before it stops protecting the wearer. Much more restrictive tha partial polyplate, characters wearing full polyplate armor have a -10 penalty applied to all Dexterity and Reaction Speed checks.

Shipsuit. Used by spacers, a shipsuit consists of a layer of shock-absorbent gel between two layers of skeinweave integrated into a lightweight exoskeleton. Both the gel layer and the exoskeleton compensate fort he effects of high-gee acceleration, allowing for normal manual dexterity and movement under thrust while helping to negate the adverse effects of acceleration.

The layers of skeinweave protect as a military skeinsuit by absorbing one-half of any inertia damage, while the character takes the other half. It absorbs up to 50 points of damage. The shipsuit's built-in exoskeleton provides no additional benefit other than allowing normal movement under thrust.

In the event of decompression, an inflatable hood of clear skeinweave can be pulled up from the back of the suit collar, over the head and back down to the front and sides of the collar, where it can be zipped securely into place. A tank of compressed air at the rear of the suit provides up to ten hours of breathable oxygen. The suit also has a 50 SEU beltpack and uses 1 SEU/turn of operation.[4]

It also offers minimal radiation protection, with a shield rating of 5/5 (see Radiation Poisoning rules).

Shocksuit, defensive. This defense suit offers protection against electric shocks delivered by stunsticks, electrostunners, shock gloves, electric swords, etc. It will even fully protect a character from the effects of an electrical discharge warhead. If the character is forced to make a Stamina check from an electrical-based stun attack (any attack that lists A-S/Gauss as a defense), that energy gets harmlessly dissipated. Each time the suit protects the wearer, it takes one point of damage. After it takes 10 points of damage it is rendered useless.

Shocksuit, offensive. This acts similar to the defensive shocksuit, but it also is powered by a 20 SEU powerclip allowing the wearer to release a corona of electrical energy around him. Any living being touching the character at this time will need to make a Stamina check or fall unconscious unless they are protected by an anti-shock implant, gauss screen or another shocksuit.[5]

Security Skeinsuit. Designed for function over form, security skeinsuits are not camouflaged like a military suit, nor are theydesigned to conceal their existence, such as a civilian suit. They protect against ballistic and melee attacks, with half of the damage affects the wearer while the suit absorbs the other half. The suit continues to help the wearer until it has absorbed 25 points of inertia damage, then is too ripped up/damaged to continue protecting its wearer. 

Stealthskin. Sometimes direct protection against physical or energy damage isn’t as important as just avoiding detection.  The best defense for an attack is simply not to be attacked. Stealthskins are made of a special fiber that makes no noise when it rubs together.

When wearing a Stealthskin, the wearer is permitted to use the Stealth and Concealment subskills of as if he was a Level 1 Environmentalist.  If the character already has the Environmentalist skill, he receives a bonus of +10 percent to both of these skills.

If a character sustains more than 25 points of personal damage, or is encumbered with gear (carrying more than half his STA score in kilograms) the Stealthskin no longer providest hese bonuses. [6]

Tactical Vest. This vest is designed to hold eight ammunition magazines, helping the character distribute the weight and improving their carrying capacity by 4 kilograms. For example, a character could carry four grenades, two variable timers and one kilogram of Tornadium D-19 with ease.

It also has several straps designed to hang off the bottom of the vest as rigging where pistol-sized weapon holsters can be attached. The back of the vest includes five SEU Power Clips in a network of heavy-duty canvas rigging, all wired together with integrated power routing and buffering to form the equivalent of a standard 100-SEU Power Backpack. 

Built of an extremely durable ballistic material, if worn alone the tactical vest acts as a 25 point skeinsuit, but its effects are not cumulative with a skeinsuit. If worn over another skeinsuit, both of the protective layers will take the same damage. For example: a character is shot for 34 points of damage.  He takes only 17 points, and both his skeinsuit and his tactical vest take 17. 

If worn over an albedo suit, it nullifies the protective nature of that suit.

Riot and Archaic Shields

Unless one is using the ablative damage rules, Star Frontiers™ does not use a hit location system, but there are two ways in which shield use can be represented in game play including in passive defense and active defense.[1]

Passive Defense. If played as a passive defense, a shield is treated as "cover" if the shield-bearer is attacked. Depending on what the shield is made of, the cover modifier will either be for "hard cover" (-20 percent) or "soft cover" (-10 percent).

The cover modifier is only applied if the defender is aware of the attack and actively using the shield for defense. If the target is aware of the attack and defending itself, then the cover modifier is applied to all incoming attacks except those from behind.

Even if the shield cannot stop a bullet, for instance, it obscures the shooter’s view of the target which may cause a miss. If the attacker misses the to-hit roll by an amount that would have hit the target without the shield's modifier, then roll damage as normal and apply that damage to the shield itself.

Example: An attacker needs a 60 percent or less to hit an enemy with a shot from his gyrojet pistol. His to-hit humber becomes 40 after applying the “hard cover”     -20 percent modifier for the defender’s riot shield.

The attacker rolls a 54, which would have hit if the shield had not been used. This means the shot was caught by the shield and it will take damage. The attacker rolls 2d10 and gets a 20 damage result; half of that damage – 10 points – is applied to the shield. Since the riot shield only has 10 pointshit points, it is shattered and useless.

Active Defense. If shields are treated as an active defense, they are used by characters to block attacks directly and can only be used to defend against melee or archaic missile weapons. The shield will only absorb damage if used to successfully block an attack.

A block is successful if the defender rolls below half of his Reaction Speed score. If the shield user is fired upon by missile weapons, the shield will block an attack only if the user rolls under one-tenth of his Reaction Speed score (if successful, the user is able to anticipate the general area of the incoming fire or is simply lucky).

Note that if a shield is used to block an attack by a melee weapon which causes damage by electricity (such as a stunstick or electric sword) a block will have no effect, as the electrical damage will pass right through the shield into the defender.

Costs. If the price is in parentheses this represents the cost on Frontier worlds to buy shields from specialty craftsmen. Since archaic shields are not widely available and must be specially ordered, they are priced accordingly.

Riot Shield.Type: Inertia. Points of Defense: 10. Cover Type: Hard. Mass: 2.5 kilograms. Cost: 50 Credits. Effects: Reduces damage from melee, projectile and gyrojet weapons by half.

Shield (soft). Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 5. Cover Type: Soft. Mass: 2.5 kilograms. Cost: (20-50 Credits). Effects: Reduces damage from melee and archaic missile weapons by one-forth. Soft shields may be made by a character who has the “Making Tools/Weapons” environmental subskill if the right materials (wood, leather, etc.) can be found.

Shield (hard). Type: Archaic Inertia. Points of Defense: 10. Cover Type: Hard. Mass: 5 kilograms. Cost: (50-100 Credits). Effects: Reduces damage from melee and archaic missile weapons by half; reduces all other inertia damage byone-fourth.