Okay, on to
page 38 of the first Traveller book. It looks like we’re finishing up with
Folding Stocks, then we move on to Armor. Good; not getting killed by all those
nasty things is a good thing to work toward. Let’s see what we have.
As
mentioned, the last of the gun accessories is the folding stock, which works on
carbines, rifles, and shotguns. It makes the weapon shorter, but less accurate,
with a -1 DM at any range when it’s folded. It makes the gun heavier, by half a
kilogram, and costs a mere 100 credits to put it on the gun. Well, that’s not
much. I’m still not sure it’s worth it, though, unless you’re doing some
concealment mission.
Alright, on
to the armor. This stuff doesn’t add to your weight allowance, so you can wear
whatever armor you want and still move as if you’re unencumbered. Sorry;
D&D words are part of my vocabulary now.
So, the
first piece of armor is ‘jack’ armor. It’s basically a jacket or a body suit
made of leather that might stop a knife if you’re lucky, but isn’t much better
than paper against guns. It does have the benefit of being cheap, though, at a
mere 50 Credits.
Next up,
Mesh, which is basically chain mail with leather backing. It actually does help
against gunfire, which is nice. Lasers, however, ignore it. Well, one step at a
time. It’s a handy thing to wear if you’re expecting hand-to-hand combat, since
it’s better than the jack against blades.
Then we
have Cloth armor, or more specifically, ballistic cloth armor. It ‘absorbs
impact energy,’ which means it’s going to turn gunshots into bruises. Still
painful, but not deadly. I approve of that. It’s noted that it’s versatile and
almost the best armor, and the price isn’t too bad at 250 Credits. Sweet deal.
Reflec
armor is basically mirrors, I guess. It actually works against lasers, but not
against anything else. But you can mix it with other armors, even wearing it
under your regular clothes if you want, so it’s good for stealth against guys
that you know are armed with laser weapons. Just hope they don’t go for the
head. This is a pricy armor, coming in at 1500 Credits. Still, those lasers
probably hurt a lot, so it’s good to have a defense against them.
Ablat armor
is next, and it’s the cheap version of Reflec armor, costing only 75 Credits.
Basically, it’s ablative, being vaporized when it’s hit by laser fire. It will
help a little against other weapons, too, but it’s not going to be as good as
Cloth. However, as the book points out, it’s easy to find and it’s cheap. So,
you’re more likely to see Ablat than Reflec, unless you’re in the pricer part
of town.
Ooh, Battle
Dress, a.k.a. Robert Heinlein’s dream machine. It costs a whopping 200,000
Credits, and that’s just for the basic suit, with no bells or whistles. Or ammo
packs. Also, it’s restricted to the military, and civilians can’t get it. Does
that include ex-military? Because I can see them refusing to lend it out to
former soldiers who are just out to get a quick buck.
You have to
have the Vacc Suit skill from character creation to use Battle Dress, though,
which will limit the option to Navy, Marines, Scouts, and the Merchant Marine.
And the last two might not qualify as military (okay, merchants definitely
aren’t military; scouts might be, depending on the setting). So, practically
speaking, this armor is for Navy and Marines only. I would probably rule that
ex-soldiers might have access to this stuff, if only because otherwise there’s
no reason to put it in the game anyway.
Oh, one
more juicy tidbit about this armor: It doubles your personal strength score. It
also nullifies your endurance requirements in combat, so you can do this all
day. Nice!
At the very
bottom of the page are two lines that go with what’s on the next page, so I’ll
include it in the next entry.
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