Any damage That hits armor, a bullet round gold knife blade That Would do 1 point of damage, Lowers the SP value of the armor.
If you hit someone with 20 rounds of d6, Eventually they 're going to take damage as Their armor is eaten away. Furthermore, each bullet round causes stun to the person if its soft armor, hard armor is the only armor that resists the stun. The stun damage is 1 per round on top of regular damage. So if you get hit with 20 1d6 damage, and you have 12 SP skin weave, that's 20 rounds hitting 6 locations. If you spread the entire 20 rounds out over the hit location spread, everything goes down 3 points of SP, some will go down 4. And the person will take 20 stun regardless, having to make a stun check at Body-4 (Stun- 4 with five full tracks of 4 damage each filled). While they are not gonna die, this will put down a lot of people. Granted, a fully cybered Solo with a body of 14 is gonna shrug this off, but he can't shrug it off for long.
Hard armor goes down even more quickly. And while body armor technology Improved HAS, it still Has not kept pace with the damage potential of Many weapons, Especially Those That use various kinds of ammo.
If those 20 rounds are also API? You are looking at 20d6 turning into 20 points of armor removed, while the armor is halved. Then the damage from the incendiary starts to kick in. This continues to damage the armor, meaning in total they're going to lose 1d6 / 2 for three rounds after, a total of 4 armor points removed per bullet strike over three round (the first round of 1d6 / 2 or 1d3 removing a second point of armor that very round). Furthermore, API, while the AP may not penetrate, the armor does not protect against the 1d6 / 2 (1d3) points of incendiary damage, meaning your character is going to be taking between 20 and 60 rounds of damage unless they can get that armor off in a single round or two.
On the other hand, melee weapons are extremely vicious, with some negating 2 / 3rds of the armor or 3 / 4's of the armor, turning an SP 12 Skinweave into an SP 3 or 4. And unlike the AP rounds, their penetration is NOT halved.
Then there are arrows, which insanely Reduce armor SP values, purpose do multiple of damage of the penetration.
Your average punk boosterganger scum may carry AP or HV ammo, but Arasaka and Militech are used to fighting armored militarized enemies, and kit much deadlier and effective ammos. This is true of MOST of the Quick Response teams Solo Corporations-have on hand For Those pesky edgerunners, who are criminal terrorists by Their reckoning.
So the problem isn't really is armor too high, it's that unless you're willing to take a massive hit to your REF and MA for layering armor, which does not cumulatively increase your protection, but stages it up a small bit, you 're only armor reserves you for a short time before you-have to get out of the line of fire.
My problem is that armors are often too low, and if you are finding that your characters can walk through hails of bullets, then remember that each bullet, whether it penetrates the armor or not, removes 1 SP from that location or more, and watch Their armor get Consumed.
Skinweave doesn't heal. Armor requires repair. If you're hit Edgerunners OA and walk out without a scratch, Then Perhaps You Did not prepare your Corporate Anti-Terrorism Response teams with the full scope of damage They bring Against the Solos.
Furthermore, they do have access to gas, poisons, and other forms of nasty damage as put above. The corporations of 2020, the sky is the limit in protecting their personnel, their facilities, and most importantly, their data. They didn't let hacking from afar keep you safe, visiting them in person can be very deadly, and weaponized turret locations do not have to use anti-personnel armor, considering they're built to also deal damage to borgs. Give those locations anti-vehicular ammo, which uses 1d10-4d10, and watch your characters think twice about a full frontal assault on that well-defended Corporate Fortress.
Never let your players feel safe overpowered gold, make every mission nerve-wracking game of chicken Where They believe They Can Die If They do not do it fast, or do it well without raising an alarm.
That's the Cyberpunk 2020 way. You make a monster, but you exist in a world of gargantuan nightmares. You're just a small shadow in a sea of big, scary, dark fish.
If you hit someone with 20 rounds of d6, Eventually they 're going to take damage as Their armor is eaten away. Furthermore, each bullet round causes stun to the person if its soft armor, hard armor is the only armor that resists the stun. The stun damage is 1 per round on top of regular damage. So if you get hit with 20 1d6 damage, and you have 12 SP skin weave, that's 20 rounds hitting 6 locations. If you spread the entire 20 rounds out over the hit location spread, everything goes down 3 points of SP, some will go down 4. And the person will take 20 stun regardless, having to make a stun check at Body-4 (Stun- 4 with five full tracks of 4 damage each filled). While they are not gonna die, this will put down a lot of people. Granted, a fully cybered Solo with a body of 14 is gonna shrug this off, but he can't shrug it off for long.
Hard armor goes down even more quickly. And while body armor technology Improved HAS, it still Has not kept pace with the damage potential of Many weapons, Especially Those That use various kinds of ammo.
If those 20 rounds are also API? You are looking at 20d6 turning into 20 points of armor removed, while the armor is halved. Then the damage from the incendiary starts to kick in. This continues to damage the armor, meaning in total they're going to lose 1d6 / 2 for three rounds after, a total of 4 armor points removed per bullet strike over three round (the first round of 1d6 / 2 or 1d3 removing a second point of armor that very round). Furthermore, API, while the AP may not penetrate, the armor does not protect against the 1d6 / 2 (1d3) points of incendiary damage, meaning your character is going to be taking between 20 and 60 rounds of damage unless they can get that armor off in a single round or two.
On the other hand, melee weapons are extremely vicious, with some negating 2 / 3rds of the armor or 3 / 4's of the armor, turning an SP 12 Skinweave into an SP 3 or 4. And unlike the AP rounds, their penetration is NOT halved.
Then there are arrows, which insanely Reduce armor SP values, purpose do multiple of damage of the penetration.
Your average punk boosterganger scum may carry AP or HV ammo, but Arasaka and Militech are used to fighting armored militarized enemies, and kit much deadlier and effective ammos. This is true of MOST of the Quick Response teams Solo Corporations-have on hand For Those pesky edgerunners, who are criminal terrorists by Their reckoning.
So the problem isn't really is armor too high, it's that unless you're willing to take a massive hit to your REF and MA for layering armor, which does not cumulatively increase your protection, but stages it up a small bit, you 're only armor reserves you for a short time before you-have to get out of the line of fire.
My problem is that armors are often too low, and if you are finding that your characters can walk through hails of bullets, then remember that each bullet, whether it penetrates the armor or not, removes 1 SP from that location or more, and watch Their armor get Consumed.
Skinweave doesn't heal. Armor requires repair. If you're hit Edgerunners OA and walk out without a scratch, Then Perhaps You Did not prepare your Corporate Anti-Terrorism Response teams with the full scope of damage They bring Against the Solos.
Furthermore, they do have access to gas, poisons, and other forms of nasty damage as put above. The corporations of 2020, the sky is the limit in protecting their personnel, their facilities, and most importantly, their data. They didn't let hacking from afar keep you safe, visiting them in person can be very deadly, and weaponized turret locations do not have to use anti-personnel armor, considering they're built to also deal damage to borgs. Give those locations anti-vehicular ammo, which uses 1d10-4d10, and watch your characters think twice about a full frontal assault on that well-defended Corporate Fortress.
Never let your players feel safe overpowered gold, make every mission nerve-wracking game of chicken Where They believe They Can Die If They do not do it fast, or do it well without raising an alarm.
That's the Cyberpunk 2020 way. You make a monster, but you exist in a world of gargantuan nightmares. You're just a small shadow in a sea of big, scary, dark fish.