A.R. of 2 to 4

A Place to post your game questions and rule clarifications. Once answered the post will go into the Games F.A.Q. Archive.

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

User avatar
Axelmania
Knight
Posts: 5523
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:13 pm

A.R. of 2 to 4

Unread post by Axelmania »

There were some HU/PF debates about Energy Field's AR 4 and I'm wondering if I possibly found an answer to this...

Pages 16 and 72 of the Mechanoid Invasion trilogy assigns A.R. 2 to cloth, 3 to padding, 4 to untreated leather.

AR 3 is also on 174 for unrepaired hulls and 185 for Dionii Larva

AR 4 is on page 53-54 for some NPCs and 74 for Sand Beetle Larva

I can't actually find the "1-4 misses" aspect in these rules. Perhaps this was added in later games?

I think Mechanoids was the 1st RPG that Palladium did so the writers perhaps had this system in mind when writing things like AR 4 for energy field?

It also seems like in MIT that all AR functioned like natural AR. Pages 15-16 give an example:
    This means the player must roll an 11 (matching the A.R. of the skimmer) or better (12 through 20 on a 20 sided die) to hit and do damage. In this case, 1 through 10 does no damage, while 11 through 20 hits and does damage.

There doesn't seem to be anything here about bypassing armor SDC, presumably rolling above the AR in MIT just meant you reduced the SDC of the armor and still had to deplete it to hurt the person.

Page 16-17 "The Incapacitated Foe" also interestingly tells us that AR doesn't apply for immobilized (ie bound/trapped/paralyzed) opponents. This even has a heading on page 4's TOC!

Beyond the Supernatural (pg 108, first appearance of energy field spell) could have been initially written using a Mechanoids rule system, and then page 43's "any roll above a 4" could've been added in at the last minute without amending Energy Field.

Considering that in PF we know cloth is AR 5, padded is AR 8, soft leather is AR 10 (PF2p270) when we compare 5/8/10 to 2/3/4 is there a mathematical formula we could come up with to upscale these sub-5 ARs from MIT to a "4 or higher" game?

Triple minus 2 works for the first 2 but not the 3rd.
User avatar
drewkitty ~..~
Monk
Posts: 17782
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2000 1:01 am
Location: Eastvale, calif
Contact:

Re: A.R. of 2 to 4

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

In the past it was discussed.
For then it was decided that the logical thing was they meant for the AR number to be added to 4 and the strike roll would need to be over the summ of 4 and the AR score.

In other words, if it was cloth armor being worn the strike roll would need to be greater then 6 to hit the char being protected.

Things changed and not we have what we have.
May you be blessed with the ability to change course when you are off the mark.
Each question should be give the canon answer 1st, then you can proclaim your house rules.
Reading and writing (literacy) is how people on BBS interact.
Post Reply

Return to “Palladium Books® Games Q. & A.”