The rules reference says

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At the start of the turn, a survivor can equip items from his or her inventory or exchange any of his or her equipped cards with cards from his or her inventory.

There are two interpretation of "exchange any equipped cards with cards from inventory"

1. Two cards must be actually exchanged (e.g., to unequip my armor, I must swap it with different armor from inventory)
2. Any equipped card can be moved to inventory and vice versa (within limitations of inventory size and equipment slotting)

Normally, I would assume the answer must be interpretation 2. However, this make the BoS Outcast very powerful early game, because the survivor can unequip their armor to regain full movement, then re-equip for encounters and fights. This comes at the risk of being attacked without the armor equipped during enemy activation (and possibly dying and losing it), but it's a small and manageable downside compared to having 2 armor and effectively full movement.

I emailed the designer this exact same question, I'll post back here when I get a reply

I just noticed a sentence in LtP that strongly implies interpretation #2:

Quote

You can change out what cards you have equipped when you acquire a new card, at the start of your turn, or when you perform a camp action.

I don't see it as that powerful. If you unequip it at the start of your turn you don't have it for the two actions you take during the turn. So if you walk into an aggro enemy, or one jumps on you before your next turn you don't have that protection. You can't do something like, Unequip it, move, equip it, adventure/attack.

Sure there are situations where he can unequip it, double move, and on next turn requip it it attack/adventure. He just risks being hit without it on during the AI activation.

I never thought of this while playing the BoS guy. I am looking forward to hearing the formal answers but I agree it seems logical that you could take it off at the start of your turn and run the risk of getting into a fight.

I read it solidly as you must switch equipped cards with cards in your inventory. If you have no inventory cards, what you have equipped stays equipped.

Our BoS players tried this trick last night; we allowed them. Didn't really help them that much. Poor things. BoS definitely seems like the weakest character of the bunch. Her ability is the only "not lose" one where the others have something that helps them win (Vault Hunter at least gets E rerolls.) I say let the player remove the armor when the rulebook allows equipment swap. It lets BoS actually get into the wasteland to get things done.

Every turn the BoS player moves with the armor on is only 1/2 a turn. I mean, imagine a BoS player going first from the camp. She could explore and an action only to find the Vault 84 tile and hit a wall of Red terrain. She can't generate enough movement points to climb the hill. First turn over. Everyone else thanks her and charges forward murdering everything in their path. Second turn. The BoS player uses an entire turn just to get onto the hill. Someone else enters Diamond city on the same turn.

Letting her remove the armor at beginning turns where movement is necessary and risking some damage only seems fair compensation.

Yeah. The movement penalty is definitely rough. Although it depends on the turn - there have been plenty of rounds with faster-speed characters where I have leftover movement points I don't want to spend because I only wanted to move 1 + fight and be done. Certainly the other characters are jealous of all the damage that power armor is blocking, the Brotherhood outcast has to spend less time camping to heal.

But yeah I really don't think it's a problem to let the player choose to take the risk of removing their armor. It seems thematically appropriate and not overpowered.

T-45 power armour is probably worth a solid 5 turns at least of spending a cap to get full movement.

Still haven't received a response from the developers

Rules query responses usually take some time. Upwards of a month or two is not unheard of. The good people at FFG don't just sit around twiddling their thumbs when their game ships. They're already hard at work with any number of other board games and or expansions.

The argument against the BoS armor is a powerful one, but I really hate the idea of getting stuck using a knife that can hurt me (if I'm low on health) or a laser that can melt down if I'm broke. It would absolutely be in the spirit of Fallout to be able to holster my weapons and just punch something to death. It would not be in the spirit of Fallout to let me tow a suit of power armor behind me all over the Wasteland, however. Perhaps those Power Armor cards need an errata that says:

"If you move while this armor is in your inventory, place a matching set of quest markers on your location and the power armor card, then remove this card from your inventory. The power armor may be collected by any player who stops on this space and spends one action to equip the suit."

Out1975, did you get a answer ?

On 12/9/2017 at 12:51 PM, Ou1975 said:

Still haven't received a response from the developers

I too am curious about this. I just got this game and this possible exploit kind of needs clarification.

Honestly, this is not a competitive game, nor a "technical" game (as Doom for example, which is more a miniature game with a dungeon). It is a narrative game.

And I find really silly that someone cannot take of his armour if he wants...

I'm going to approve the option 2.

On 1/5/2018 at 9:02 PM, Almeric said:

It would not be in the spirit of Fallout to let me tow a suit of power armor behind me all over the Wasteland, however.

Wait, why not? Your inventory is always full of everything you got during your adventure. Never walked into the wasteland (in Fallout3) with more than one armour? It fits totally with the spirit of Fallout (which is an unrealistic game per sê).

I mean, if you die you just respawn losing your items

However, a Power Armor IS quite huge. You actually need to climb inside it as opposed to put it on like a jacket and a pair of pants.

Also however, a Power Armor is also supposed to enhace your strength and increse your carrying capacity so I guess logic is a bit meh in the board game version...