[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

If you're not literal minded about it, that just means the impaling shot will transfer some energy in, not that it literally penetrates. Given some of that almost always happens (which is why bruising and cracked ribs frequently result at close ranges) I don't see that as a big problem.

THe problem is that it is trannsfering too much energy. The major advantage of ballasitc armor is that it spread out the enrgy over a wider area, resulting in much less serious injury. If the armor doesn"t get penetrated, the victim isn't going to die. Sure, there will be some brusing, and in exterme cases a cracked rib or two, but as long as the armor isn't penetrated, not much is getting through, perhaps a D4.

Well, often its the opposite; ballistic armor (especially without plates) should be really _poor_ at stopping most non-ballistic attacks.

True. I was thinking in terms of firearms. The reverse could hold true for other types of attack.

Really, part of the problem is that damage values to living things aren't quite the same as to inanimate objects, and "structured" objects (those with working bits) are somewhere inbetween.

Yup. Addtionally, "damage value" has two other problems.

First, it reflect both penetrating power and disruption of tissue. So something that can punch through armor also does a lot of structural damage (something that isn't always true).

Secondly, is that with the way hit point work, damage is handle by attrition, where more realistically it is more a factor of just what part/organ was fdamaged rather than a running total.

For instance, you can shoot right through most cars with a 30-06 and the only effect the damage will have is against the vehicles resale value, waterproofing, and wind resistance. Start shooting through the engine block and one or two hits will cause any vehicle to eventually stop working.


That's hard to reflect with BRP. Maybe a Luck roll could be one option. If the driver makes the Luck roll, then damage is only cosmetic? TO reflect the effect of overkill, we could alter the LUCK roll by how much damage the attack inflicts. So something that does more damage that the vehicles HP in one attack might roll against POWx3% or just half the LUCK roll.