A few quick notes about combat. Ballastic Weave is a fabric. It's very
good at stopping fast blunt things like bullets. What is does is spread
the damage around, thus keeping the bullet from penatrating. It's not
perfect though. For every die of damage it stops, the wearer still gets
one point of `blunt trauma' damage. For example, you get hit with a round
from an 11.45mm pistol (dam:2 Pen:1-Nil) while wearing a BW suit. The
armor stops one die of damage but not the other. The round it stops still
does 1 point of blunt trauma damage. You take 1d6+1 points of damage.
(personally I like 1d10+1 better, but that's another topic...).
The BW fabric is not good at stoping sharp (or very thin) things though.
Swords, knives, arrows, and laser beams are good examples of what it does
not stop very well.
According to the TUB (Traveller Upgrade Booklet) that came with FF&S
(and available from GDW), any kind of `hard' armor (flack jacket, combat
armor, etc) would provide good protection from MP lasers. FYI, A flack
jacket is a thick BW vest with inserts (or `plates') of metal or hard
ceramics/plastics.
Moral of the story. You're BW suit is pretty handy between Tech levels
of five and nine. You are most likely to get shot by a slug thrower.
Below that and there still is a good chance you'll get stabbed. Above
that and you start seeing lasers.
Where to find Spinward Marches world stats. The Regina subsector is in the
TNE book. There is a CT supplement called `The Spinward Marches' which has
data on a dozen or so subsectors.
Challenge #72...Anybody seen it? GDW told me (over the phone) today
that it was shipped to subscribers last week. I'd add some time to shipping
in the US due tax filing frenzy.
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Mark Urbin -- [email removed] -- These opinions are mine.
"I did not commit a crime. What I did was to fail to comply with the law."
-- NYC ex-mayor Dinkins, accused of not paying taxes for a number of yrs.
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