Hello fellow DMs!

So a while ago here was a tread about sustained damage to power armour. It got me thinking but I was DMing a RT(rogue trader) campaing at a time not a Deathwatch one so no solid ideas formed. Now I got my hands on DMing a deathwatch combat and to make it feel more ...hmm impactful. The night lords by Aaron Dembski-Bowden was a huge inspiration and the reson for this system. After each engagement the autor described how worn and barely functioning the armours were. So I came up with this system.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw4LgrNDpRPCcTdBdUktcG9XdTQ/view?usp=sharing

Each area(head, body, arms, legs) of armour have 5 extra points. When PCs reach 0 wounds before they start taking critical damage their power armour starts taking damage. Damage to power armour is halfed if pen is less then AP value of area - This is to represent the general toughfness of the armour.It is Important to remember that EACH area have this points. So if arm area took 3 critical damage the head area will still have 5 points. Each level of critical damage inclueds the above damage. Also for each point of power armour critical damage the coresponding part loses 1 AP(this could be forgot easyly(and it did)I am considering removing this rule) .

Tech-use -30 fixes 1 level of damage.Aprox 1h with tools. Levels marked with " * " could not be repaired without parts(Cannibalized armour or just have avaliable part on strike cruiser or forgeworld imortant that it will be extremly difficult to find this parts in the field). For 3 DoS repair 1 extra level of damage. Example: If arm area is damaged at level 4 then you can not repair it until you find spare components. Cannibalize armor have 25% to provide a spare part (If they maraude armour of the person they killed if they find a power armour in storage the chance should be much higher(85%) but not 100% to represent missmatching MKs of armour etc.).

Sorry for typos and cluncky english. It is not my 1st language. Thank you for taking your time and reading and considering all of this =). All feedback is welcome as alway.

I like the idea of this and the damage charts you have drawn up are very good.

The only thing I would change is try to work this in with the rules for armour destruction in the big rulebook, instead of having it preventing critical damage.

MR.

The critical dmage is taking after the armour is "destroyed". Yes it make PC that much more survivable. Its another 7-15 more wounds (because the hit areas don't share damage points).

The core book offers only 2(effectively) states for power armour "On" and "Off" without the fine gradient. Becasue of that I am replacing the system wholesale.

You've inspired me!

Mulling it over, I really like the idea of "armour crits" as it just adds to the personality of the player characters' "second skin".

What I personally don't like is the added protection from what amounts to 5 free Wounds, as well as how armour damage is tied to the characters' Toughness Bonus. I dislike these RPGs' use of TB as "skin armour" in general, but here it even adds to the resilience of their wargear ...

So here's my own take on your idea! It's a different approach (especially as it is "unified" for use in Dark Heresy and the other 40k RPGs rather than tailored to Deathwatch alone) and not as streamlined as yours, but as an alternate approach to the subject, I think it may have value, depending on one's personal preferences.

So here's my own take on your idea!

Would you mind uploading it again somewhere? I'd love to check it out, but something is broken, I can't seem get the file open.

Aw, ****. It's still loading for me, but I did notice that a lot of the time, people have to F5/reload it multiple times, or that it doesn't load for them at all.

Here it is again hosted on a different site, does it work now?

Perfect, thanks!

Has anyone tried these ideas out in play? New rule subsystems have a cost in time and complexity that may or may not be worth the gain.

I did. So a couple of observations. (my original system)

• AP value reduction is forgotten constantly.
• We have a tech marine in our group so repairing armour is not challenging. And right now they are fighting marines so they are cannibalising armour all the time.
• The reductions to stats are sometimes ignored/forgotten because they are very incramental. (-5 for example)
• Something like "Can no longer make a Called shot as a half action" is remembered much better then -10 to BS and recived( laughter, a muttered "****" ) too.
• Keep the sheet on the table and remind player to look up if they are not forgettin anything.

Here is a logic behind the system. To add more caracter to damaged armour but not to make it a hindrance. Power armour is an incredible asset even if damaged and the idea of taking it off BECASE its damaged should not come up. Again this is my view and approach. Also it is a narative reminder in what state your armour is.

After a couple of more sessions I think Ill make new char sheet with power armour. Maybe remake the original one.

• AP value reduction is forgotten constantly.

Couldn't this be solved easily just by making the AP reduction part of the other effects in that list? If you can remember the other penalties, the same should work for AP modifiers.

And I assume you only allow armour repair (proper maintenance) in-between missions?

• AP value reduction is forgotten constantly.

Couldn't this be solved easily just by making the AP reduction part of the other effects in that list? If you can remember the other penalties, the same should work for AP modifiers.

And I assume you only allow armour repair (proper maintenance) in-between missions?

Maybe maybe. I also have a party of 6 players and reminding every single one of them becomes tedious.

No I let them do it in mission. It becomes an interesting time managment game. (We have tech marine in our group so I dont see why not).

Hmm, kind of like an Apothecary fixing Wounds?

Not my cup of tea (it sounds like turning the whole idea about personifying armour effects into nothing but temporary debuffs), but I can see the appeal in this option, in that it'll be less punishing for the players and the Techmarine will have more stuff to do.

Some updates. So I revisited the chart with a few minor tweaks. Nothing major.

We had another session of deathwatch (finaly). And oh boy is it fun to break armour on players but lets get to the point.

Observations from play:

• Surprisingly players dont forget about their state. ( The printed out chart certainly helped.)
• Legs NEVER GET HIT! 70+ roll is imposible
• Reduceing AP value on every point is too harsh.
• Firing a semi-auto at 0 wounds PC is not a death sentence and then reading out how their armour shreds on 3 hits from bolter is awesome.
• Players are actualy are stiking to cover more now. Wounds can heal but armor will not repair itself.

So I had a couple a thoughts on further improving this system. I would like to make charts for each weapon type. But it would require a rework of the core mehanic (the crit alike system) as it is no longer a single chart that you can referance. Basicly a lot of book keeping and my god their are alot of it in this system. Another thought is to introduce cosmetic damage: burned robes, scared emblams of aligance. Something that can be a done just as flavour text but its great when hard rules force such events. Maybe stretch the chart to 10 points with a mix of both cosmetic damage and armour reduction (removing the reduction on every level ofc).