Quote:
Originally Posted by swaghauler
A quick question for all the GM's out there. How do you resolve the protection value of say a sofa or desk used as cover during a fight? I posed this question during the improvised armor thread and Stainless Steel Cynic wanted a more general posting of this. Below is the system I use. Please feel free to post your house rules as well, so everyone can compare them easily (including the assignment of Armor Values to items).
I use a "Barrier Rating/Value" that spans a range from 1 to 10 and is denoted in module text by placing it in brackets like this [#]. This rating is the number of POINTS (not DICE like Armor Value) of damage the item will absorb before letting the remaining damage pass through to the target. Penetration Ratings do apply to this but that increased damage protection does have a price (for the object). The damage that's absorbed doesn't simply disappear. All of the damage the object absorbs has an effect on that object. I simply increase the wear value by one for every instance that the object absorbs damage equal to or greater than it's Barrier Rating. I also reduce the object's Barrier Rating by 1 per instance of damage penetration to represent the "erosion" of the object by the damage. I use this system for some items that are considered "armor" in the original rules. An example of this would be car doors. Most automotive bodies are easily penetrated even by handgun rounds; Therefore I apply this system to them. Below is a sample list of the Barrier Values of common items:
BV [1]: Plate Glass, Heavy Cloth barriers (drapes, padding)
BV [2]: Light Safety Coated Glass (car side windows, display windows/glass doors), Fiberglass (boats, Jeep doors), Light Furniture (rattan), 2 ply Plywood. Thin Metal (lawn shed type)
BV [3]: Interior Doors (hollow cored), Cheap Sofa/Arm Chair (pine), DOT Approved Windshield.
BV [4]: 4 ply Plywood, Interior Door (solid, soft wood), Heavily Padded Sofa/Arm Chair.
BV [5]: Exterior Door (Solid, wood & vinyl composite build), Compact/Light Car body (Toyota, Honda).
BV [6]: Hardwood Door, Hardwood Desk, Hardwood Sofa/Arm Chair. Compact Car Body/Light Car Door with electric fixtures)
BV [7]: Padded Hardwood Sofa/Arm Chair, Refrigerator, Hardwood/Steel Coated (18 gauge) Exterior Door.
BV [8]: Luxury/Heavy Car body, Filing drawer full of paper,
BV [9]: Water Tank (full),
BV [10]: Steel Security/Fire Door, Engine Block/Gen Set.
This list is just a guide for you to rate your own items in game.
So how do you deal with that guy hiding behind the sofa in game?
Swag.
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Having been part of the group that tested rounds against different objects with my last agency as we were going to a new sidearm/rifles. My experience is that plate glass and the side windows of a car reacted the same to bullets with one exception that being the size of the pieces of glass, we did not test anything small enough to not destroy it in one round. If anything plate glass is stronger as I have seen it get hit with BB guns and not break, but have seen side windows hit with BB guns and every time I have see it they always broke. As for the front windshield it is interesting, I have seen where it had almost no impact to the bullet, and other times were the bullet was almost destroyed going through the windshield. The biggest thing that I have seen is that almost with out fail it changed the direction of flight of the bullet, often enough to miss the target.
I am not sure what you mean with Compact/Light Car body, Luxury Heavy Car Body? We shot a bunch of cars and even more doors from all sorts of makes and models, most with electronic controls. The biggest factor was the speed and mass of the round. The 12G slug was the best for this, followed by pistols the larger the better, rifle was next again larger better than smaller, and the worst as in did not penetrate the door was the 12G 00 shot.
As for most of the cloth materials they did not make any real difference, besides they made most of the bullets in to effetely FMJ as it filled the hollow point and they did not expand as well as they would have otherwise. A lot of the other items Fiberglass, 2 ply Plywood, hollow cored door, and thin metal I would say could be concealment but if you get shot behind one you would not know the difference. The different woods I would say that the amount it is going through is the biggest issue and it is more than one inch of hard wood stops 1 point, two inches stop 2 points, and three inches stop 3 points and so on, it would be more one inch stops 1 point, two inches stop 2 points, but three inches stop 6 points and it keeps growing, I am just guessing here but would say between four and six inches would stop most pistol rounds, and around eight inches or so would stop most rifles rounds (.308/.30-06 and lower) about a foot or so for .50BMG ball, AP would up the numbers same as adding some heavy gauge metal on the wood.
As for the rest of the items I have no experience with shooting house hold appliances, did not come up in our testing, so your guess is as good or maybe better than mine. I would treat the filling cabinet as equal to about the same size of light wood, yes paper is not very tough, but packed together in a cabinet it adds up really quick and can stop a lot of bullets cold. Water is one of the best bullet stoppers out there, it just issues in that it is a liquid, so it will leave any hole that it can get out of so it degrades much faster than others. The engine block will stop most rifle rounds, I have not seen it tested with anything larger then .30-06 but have been told it will stop a .50BMG with ball at least. And last Steel security doors there is several levels to these the one we have at work will stop .50 Slap round, and most explosives they weigh in at over 250lbs each and are about four inches thick, and go up from there the largest we have is 15 tons and a foot and half thick. So anything short of a tank round will not get through it.
Just my thought, for the most part I like your idea, just would change some of the values and make water lose more per hit.