In Mothership, armor is rated in Armor Points (AP). Any damage you suffer is reduced by your current AP. However, if you suffer damage equal to or greater than the Armor’s AP, then the Armor is immediately destroyed.
I’ve been running Mothership for a while, though, and I’ve decided I don’t like this rule. The primary problem is that damage values in the system are high enough that armor is almost always immediately destroyed in the first hit. The intention is almost certainly to crank up the feeling of horror (not even your advanced battle dress can save you now!), but in practice it just feels cheap and kind of confusing. I’ve had multiple players new to the system who become completely baffled the first time they go into a fight, because it just feels as if something is wrong.
I’ve begun using the house rule below in my Mothership games, and we’ve had some pretty good success with it. It maintains the imagery of xenomorphs and nanoplagues slowly ripping their way through a PC’s armor, but it extends the experience over several rounds (which gives really great vibes at the table) without making armor feel pointless.
(And it works the other way, too, with PCs needing to apply significant force over time to cut their way through enemy AP!)
If you use these rules, let me know how it goes! I’m planning to continue tweaking these.
HOUSE RULE: ABLATIVE AP
If a character wearing armor takes damage equal to or greater than their AP value (including Cover), their armor becomes damaged and the AP of the armor is reduced by 1.
The armor is permanently destroyed if its AP is reduced to 0.
ANTI-ARMOR: An anti-armor weapon ignores AP. It automatically reduces AP by 1 on any hit and by an additional 1 point if it deals damage equal to or greater than the character’s AP value. On a critical hit, anti-armor weapons instantly destroy any armor, regardless of its AP value.
REPAIR: Damaged armor can be repaired with appropriate facilities for half the original cost of the armor.
Note: This rule does not apply to Cover. Cover is still immediately destroyed if an attack deals damage equal to or larger than the Cover’s AP rating.
Thoughtful tweak! Thank you. My players were also feeling like Armour should have a bit more endurance.
Honest question: why is this titled Untested Mothership when you say that you have tested this rule?
@QB: Great question!
“Untested” is a long-running series here at the Alexandrian. Sometimes it’s just a nifty idea that I haven’t gotten to the table, but sometimes there’ll be stuff I’ve used at the table, but not enough to be confident I’ve worked out all the kinks.
For example, Justin’s House Rules for OD&D were something I had used several dozen times with lots of different groups. They may not be something that a GM or group will like, but I have a high degree of confidence that they work as intended.
These Ablative AP rules, on the other hand, I’ve used twice. So far I’ve really liked the result, but it’s very easy to imagine that there could be some situation or rules interaction that I’ve overlooked and which hasn’t come up in play that could cause something wonky to happen.
tl;dr The “Untested” branding indicates a rule hasn’t been thoroughly playtested and that a GM may want to use a higher level of judgment and caution before using the rules.
Oh sweet! This is how Cyberpunk handles it, and I love that system.
I adopted the same rule (pretty much; I think I didn’t degrade AP if damage and AP were equal) when I ran Mothership, but it didn’t really come up in play. A few variants easily spring to mind: if you want armor to degrade faster, then maybe reduce the AP by half every time something “gets through” to deal damage. Or reduce the AP by the amount of damage that penetrates.
My thoughts exactly. Base armor rules is a joke. =)
Interesting fix. Will try to popularize it in my gaming group.