The Heavy Armory ยท Chapter 4
Two Scales
One point at vehicle scale is ten points at personal scale.
That holds for damage, for Armor, and for Blast. A tank with Armor 4 has the equivalent of Resistance 40. A gun that deals 5 Hull Damage deals 50 damage to a person.
This chapter gives the whole procedure for every case where the two scales meet. It agrees with The Starship Armory and with the Siege quality of The Ranged Armory.
A Heavy Weapon Against a Person
- Make the attack. A person is Scale 1, so a Standard gun adds 2 Bane Dice and a Heavy one 3.
- On a hit, multiply the Hull damage, including Successes, by 10.
- Subtract the target's Resistance. The rest is Wounds.
- Critical Injuries are inflicted and rolled as for any weapon.
Blast X at vehicle scale: spend 2 Boons, and every person within Short range of the point of impact suffers X times 10 damage, less Resistance.
Canister, grape, and shrapnel exist because round shot is a poor way to hit a person. They are in the ammunition tables of Chapters 8 and 10.
Cover. A person inside or behind a vehicle or a structure is protected by its Armor. Resolve the attack against the cover.
The Edge of It
A player character who is hit by a vehicle-scale weapon may spend a Story Point to have been caught at the edge of the shot. The character suffers half the damage, after multiplying and before Resistance.
A Personal Weapon Against a Vehicle or a Structure
There are three cases, and a weapon is only ever one of them.
An Ordinary Weapon
- Work out damage at personal scale: the weapon's damage plus Successes.
- The target's Resistance is its Armor times 10, reduced by the weapon's Pierce.
- Divide what gets through by 10 and round down. That is Hull Damage.
A musket, a rifle, or a machine gun can hurt an unarmoured cart, car, or boat this way, slowly. It cannot hurt anything with Armor 2. A pistol never hurts a ship.
A Weapon with Siege X
Siege is mass: a trebuchet stone, a powder keg, a mortar bomb. It sits between the two scales, and it multiplies against people as well as walls.
- Multiply the weapon's damage plus Successes by X. Against a person, that is the damage, before Resistance.
- Against a vehicle or a structure, divide by 10 and round down for Hull damage, then subtract Armor.
| Weapon | Hull damage | Against Armor 2 | Against Armor 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle, damage 8, 2 Successes | 1, only against Armor 0 | Nothing | Nothing |
| Heavy Machine Gun, 12, Breach 1, 2 Successes | 1 | Nothing: 1 Armor is left | Nothing |
| Ballista, 13, Siege 3, 1 Success | 4 | 2 | Nothing |
| Counterweight Trebuchet, 14, Siege 6, 1 Success | 9 | 7 | 5 |
| Powder Keg, 14, Siege 3 | 4 | 2 | Nothing |
| Reloadable Rocket Launcher, 14, Breach 3, 2 Successes | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Anti-Tank Guided Missile, 18, Breach 4, 1 Success | 7 | 7 | 7 |
A Weapon with Breach X
Breach is a weapon built to defeat armour: a shaped charge, a rocket, an armour-piercing round. It does nothing extra to a person.
- Against a vehicle or a structure, multiply the weapon's damage plus Successes by X, divide by 10, and round down for Hull damage.
- Subtract the target's Armor, ignoring X points of it.
- Against a person, the weapon deals its printed damage.
No weapon has both Siege and Breach. Neither uses Pierce against a vehicle.
A weapon cannot inflict a Critical Hit on a vehicle unless it dealt at least 1 Hull Damage.
Siege and Breach for the Other Armories
When this book is in use, the heavy weapons of the other armories carry one of the two qualities. The engines of The Ranged Armory already carry Siege.
| Book | Weapon | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| The Black Powder Armory | Swivel Gun, Breech-Loading Swivel, War Rocket, Powder Charge, Dynamite Stick | Siege 2 |
| Powder Keg | Siege 3 | |
| Petard | Breach 3 | |
| The Modern Armory | Anti-Materiel Rifle; grenade launchers firing the dual-purpose round | Breach 1 |
| Disposable Rocket Launcher | Breach 2 | |
| Reloadable Rocket Launcher, Guided Missile Launcher | Breach 3 | |
| Plastic Explosive Charge, Dynamite Bundle | Siege 2 | |
| Satchel Charge | Siege 3 | |
| Breaching Charge | Breach 3 | |
| Limpet Mine, Anti-Tank Mine | Breach 4 | |
| The Stellar Armory | Rail Lance, Beam Cannon, Shear Projector | Breach 2 |
| Plasma Cannon | Siege 2 | |
| Missile Tube | Breach 3 |
Charges set together add their Hull damage. Twenty Powder Kegs in a mine gallery deal 80.
Shooting at Cars
An unarmoured car, cart, or small boat is hard to stop with small arms and easy to shoot through.
The people inside have light cover from the bodywork, and heavy cover if the engine or a load is between them and the shooter. They are attacked as people.
A part of the vehicle may be aimed at. Add 2 Bane Dice.
| Part | A hit that deals 5 or more damage |
|---|---|
| A wheel or tyre | Handling and Speed are each 1 worse. With two gone, the driver makes a Hard Operate check each round or loses control |
| The engine | 1 System Damage |
| The steering, the rudder, a mast | The driver adds 2 Bane Dice to Operate checks until it is repaired |
This applies to vehicles of Scale 3 or less with Armor 0 or 1. Against Armor 2 or more, the part is armoured too.
People Inside
Damage to a vehicle does not pass to the people in it, with three exceptions.
- A Critical Hit result that says so.
- An open vehicle, an open deck, or a gun without a turret. Blast reaches the people on it.
- A vehicle that is disabled while moving. Each occupant makes an Average Reflexes check or suffers 3 Wounds, and 6 if it was flying or at Speed 4 or more.
