Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Vinzent]

In a sci-fi setting, how would you implement personal energy shields without just resorting to them acting as armor? In other words how would you keep them interesting?

[SlasherEpoch]

You could do a couple things:

1. They absorb a set number of Wounds instead of acting as Armor
2. They act as armor but grant a couple Bennies just to soak with; once these bennies are gone, the shield stops working
3. They act as Armor until they take X points of damage
4. The Dune route, where they aren't useful against melee attacks
5. They act as Armor until they absorb X amount of Wounds
6. They act as Cover
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Evil Wig Enterprises Minion #15 - "The
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[OSIAdept]

I have gone the following route in regards to my System Crash Setting.



Plasma Barriers, colloquially called "shields", provide protection against most Ballistic or energy weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same.

Plasma barriers are repulsive electro-magnetic fields projected from tiny emitters. These shields safely deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles, but still allows the user to sit down without knocking away their chair.

The shielding afforded by plasma barriers does not protect against extremes of temperature, toxins, or radiation.

Game Mechanics
A Hard-Suit's or Ships Shields allow a free soak roll using the shields Rating Die, if the the damage bypasses the shield the shield is temporarily overloaded going down for 3 rounds after which the shield returns. Armor mods can provide bonuses to the roll or decrease recharge time, while certain ammo mods are designed to break shields down incurring a penalty on the soak roll.

Shields have the Following Ratings
Lvl 1: d6 (Standard on all combat hard-suits)
Lvl 2: d8
Lvl 3: d10

Shields provide the free soak roll vs. Ballistic and Directed Energy damage. Melee and thrown Weapons do not set off the the shield's reflex system. Soak rolls vs Explosive Damage suffers a -2 penalty. Due to the Shields ability to block the shrapnel but the kinetic force does not register one shields sensors.
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[Rohan]

My take on it is that you could allow them to function as a deflector shield of sorts, making it harder to hit the target that they are protecting. If you went that route instead of soaking damage, they would probably be best served adding onto Dodge/Parry of a character. A good shot is still going to get through, but a lot of shots that normally barely make it are deflected.

So where as normal armor makes it harder to damage, this makes it harder to hit them. So it acts outside of the cover bonus, it's more like obscurement than anything else. Different levels of shield could add bigger bonuses for whatever they're protecting using the obscurement steps as a guide.
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[77IM]

For my Fading Suns conversion I made it like Armor, but different sorts of things pierce it.

• Armor protects against physical melee attacks and slow projectiles (arrows, knives, etc.), and half value against other damage.
  
• Shields protect against energy weapons (melee or ranged) and fast projectiles (bullets), and half value against other damage. They provide double protection against explosions, falls, collisions, etc., but then burn out until repaired.
  
• The two don't stack, so if you have Shields +5 and Armor +1, and are hit with a physical melee attack, you get +2 protection (half the Shield value) since it's better than the Armor.
  
• That sounds complicated but what it really means is that everybody has two Toughness values: Physical (Armor) and Energy (Shields). You just have to know which sort of defense your attack goes against.
  
• SP works just like AP but is on attacks that target Shields.

This is not as "interesting" as an entirely new mechanic but it's easy to understand and balance, and does provide important tactical differences between Armor and Shields.

-- 77IM
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Stuff I made: Arcane Abilities · Talent Edge · Savage Fading Suns · Savage Wuxia!

[Fury]

As mentioned by Rohan, deflection shield that increase Dodge and Parry is one option. Deflection might also give the Hardy ability, i.e., a result of Shaken is not staged up to a Wound if the target is already Shaken. It can be explained by the shield deflecting glancing blows, but stronger attacks penetrate it.
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"We are the Queen's shield. We are the nation's shield."
—Sir Nicholas Fury, 1602

[jasales]

My take on them is to give a separate toughness value for the shield. If that is overcome, apply the remainder to the target as normal. If the shield is overcome you need to decide when and if it comes back up. Some suggestions: next round, next scene, next action card, next action card next round, after a required action (boost shields! Button).

Also, think about what it protects against: energy weapons, kinetic weapons, does it allow the passage of gases, etc.

You can find some examples of shields of different strength in the Savage Mass Effect conversion on www.explodingdice.com (downloads).

[kreider204]

Here's what I've done:


In brief: A shield has a Toughness rating and a number of wounds, just like a person. Attacks against someone wearing a shield work against the shield first, and then against the wearer once the shield is down.

In detail: If a character successfully hits a target with a shield, then the character rolls damage and compares it to the target’s shield’s Toughness; each raise reduces the number of the shield’s wound levels by one. (A success has no effect; shields cannot be “Shaken.”) When the shield absorbs its maximum number of wounds, the shield is considered down. Any excess damage from a single attack that reduces a shield to zero wound levels is applied directly to the target.
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[Lord Lance]

[kreider204]

[Snate56]

So assign a different Toughness to the shield. When the shield drops, Toughness reverts to the character's own.

In fact, you could have different shields with different attributes like maybe a slippery shield with no wounds but a higher Toughness.



SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[kreider204]

Yup, that's basically what I've done (see above).
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[ValhallaGH]