Ballistic Protection standards reference

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

I needed to find a way to take into account the fact that Armor can fail during play. Initially, I just used the Wear Value system but this only gave 10 hits or less. I KNOW (from my own testing) that even soft body armor can take much more than this. The RBR Level 3A Spectra Vest I referenced in my earlier post withstood 26 rounds of .40 S&W 165gr Jacketed Flat Points before letting one through and it is nearly 20 YEARS old with 6 years of daily wear under its belt. I have also seen Demolition Ranch's test of green tip 5.56mm against AR500 armor plate. That plate took 27 hits before a 5.56mm round got through it.

The new system I came up with involves reducing the vest's protection very gradually. I give the vest a "Coverage Rating" based on its actual "Real World" coverage. If a vest covers 80% of your body then its coverage rating is 16 or less on a 1D20 roll. EACH HIT THAT PENETRATES THE ARMOR (resisted hits don't count) REDUCES THIS RATING BY ONE. Thus, a vest with a Coverage Rating of 16 that had 3 rounds penetrate, now only covers the wearer on a roll of 13 or less. When the Coverage Rating reaches 0, the vest is ruined.

For those who want vests to provide 100% coverage to a location (like they do in the basic game), just start with a Coverage Rating of 20 (on 1D20).

Ceramic Vests:

Most ESAPI ceramic plates are NOT "multi-strike" rated. This means that one hit can compromise a plate. There are several instances where single strike plates have stopped multiple rounds. To reconcile this during play, I simply subtract the number of DICE OF DAMAGE OF A GIVEN ROUND from the plate's Coverage Rating for every round that penetrates. This balances out the plate's superior AV without requiring the player to put on new body armor after every hit.

This should add a little life to your player's body armor during play. As always, use what you will and ignore the rest.

Swag.

Several years ago I went to a body armor shoot, the industry professional told us that to be rated as a level three plate it had to be able to take six shots (not in the same place), but that a level four plate was only rated for a single shot. He went on how just because that is what is required for the rating that does not mean that is the max it would take. They did not have any level four plates there and we wanted to try out our custom tungsten AP .30-06 rounds, so we sent a couple of rounds back with the rep, and they shot the plate (it stopped it) and sent the plate to us, we shot it tell we got one to penetrate (to about six rounds all in the same place). This was all mostly in regards to the ceramic plates, the steel plates were rated the same, but we better able to take the multi-strikes, but were much heavier. We also talk briefly about the polyethlene plates, that at the time could only be made into level III, but doing some looking today they can now be made in level four.