Personas aren’t the only things that get destroyed in EXP. Besides the ceaseless battering of personas, inorganic equipment is also subject to the effects of entropy. The basic premise of equipment damage is that nothing is indestructible, everything wears out, and what can go wrong will. This chapter is not devoted solely to the violent destruction of equipment; over-used equipment will eventually break down also. Equipment maintained by mechanics or maintenance bots will never wear out. For the most part. Don’t do this. It would be total bore to keep track of equipment HPS. Equipment HPS are used for unfortunate situations where the players and referee want to quantify some kind of mishap. If even the most basic recording of equipment damage is found to be cumbersome, omit it entirely. EXP is a role-playing game, and not an accounting practice.
The referee may maintain equipment damage records for really important expedition equipment, even if the records are only updated occasionally. A toy may play an important role in a campaign, and keeping track of its trials and tribulations can be as important as keeping track of personas.
Determining Equipment HPS
The more EXPS a toy is worth, the tougher it is. Each toy has an EXPS value. Since tech level is the most important constituent of EXPS value, it is also an important component of toy HPS. The His of the equipment is a given percentage of the ars value, depending on the type of toy. Military equipment is sturdier than civilian equipment so it receives a greater percentage of Exrs for HPS. The equipment hit point table gives the percentage of ExPs value for each toy type. The tech level of the device is also added to the His score.
For example, a tech level 10 Age Determiner (Medical Equipment, Chapter 47) is worth 200 EXPS. Medical equipment earns 3% of EXPS for HPS. So this device can withstand 16 HPS of damage (3% x 200 + 10) before being damaged. A tech level 20 napalm grenade (Grenades/aerosols, Chapter 45) is worth 540 ExPs. Grenades earn 20% of their Exps value as HPS. So this grenade would have 128 HPS (20% x 540 + 20). Some equipment has a very high Exps value simply because it is complex. Just because an instrument is complex doesn’t mean that it is physically tough. What can be done to remedy this situation is to give certain components of larger equipment fractions of the total hit points. If certain components of larger machines fail, then the entire system fails.
Table 21.1 Artifact Hit Points
How tough is an inanimate object? Below are ways to guesstimate.| Artifact Type | Hit Points |
|---|---|
| Aerosols | 10% of EXPS |
| Armour | 1 HPS per point of AR |
| Artillery | 15% of EXPS |
| Bombs | 25% of EXPS |
| Grenades | 20% of EXPS |
| Guns | 10% of EXPS |
| Medical Eq. | 3% of EXPS |
| Misc. Weapons | 7% of EXPS |
| Misc. Equipment | 2% of EXPS |
| Pharmaceuticals | 1 HPS only |
| Random Junque | Indestructible |
| Spaceships | Special |
| Treasure | 1 HPS only |
| Vehicles | Special |
| Equipment Type | HPS |
Damaging Equipment
Artifacts are tougher than they look. Their sleek cases are composed of alloys, and polymers, stronger than skin, and as strong as most bone. Equipment has the universal damage indicator—HPS—like the personas, and takes damage in the same fashion. Equipment is most often damaged by area of effect weapons; direct hits; kinetic disorder (crashes and falls); and specific attack types (electricity and magnetics). Anything that damages a persona will damage equipment, yet something that effects equipment may go unnoticed by a persona. Exactly when equipment should face a damage check is up to the referee. The best approach would be, if it won’t slow down play, then check for equipment damage.
Nothing happens to the equipment until it has no HPS left. When this happens the toy is not necessarily dead, or unconscious, but it is damaged in some way. A roll on the Table 21.2: Extent of Damage will determine what shape the toy is in after it has been damaged. The extent of damage roll shows what percentage of previous function the toy presently has. This can vary from no damage what-so-ever (trivial), to complete destruction (destroyed) of the artifact. Complete explanations of these effects are detailed under Extent of Damage in this chapter.
Maintenance: Equipment that is used, but un-maintained, will deteriorate at a rate of 1 HPS each month it is used. A month of use is any month in which the device is deployed. Un-maintained toys will lose 1 HPs each month of use until no HPs remain. At that point a roll is made on Table 21.2: Extent of Damage. When the extent of damage roll is made, an important component may malfunction, or some unimportant button may get sticky. Equipment subject to routine maintenance will not be affected by wear and tear.
Extent of Damage
The extent of damage roll can be either non-changing or detrimental to the piece of equipment in question. There are 5 different levels of equipment damage. A roll is made on the Table 21.2: Extent of Damage each time the equipment’s hit point total reaches zero. Thus if a artifact with 5 hit points takes 15 HPs in damage there would be 3 rolls on the table.
All equipment damaging should be monitored by the referee’s common sense. If a situation arises where the tables aren’t doing their job, the ref must moderate the system. For example, the equipment damage system should not be used to destroy scenarios that require survival/destruction of certain toys.
Table 21.2 Artifact Extent of Damage
Below determines how broken the artifact is.| Die Roll (1d100) | Extent of Damage | % Previous Perfomance |
|---|---|---|
| 01-10 | Trivial | 100 |
| 11-60 | Minor | 90 |
| 61-90 | Major | 60 |
| 91-98 | Critical | 30 |
| 99 | Destroyed | 0 |
| 00 | Ref's Own Table | (improved?) |
| Die Roll | Extent of Damage |
Trivial Damage: The least detrimental is trivial damage. Trivial damage does not affect performance of the device. It results in a mere annoyance, such as a stuck button or a gummy switch.
Minor, Major and Critical Damage: A toy which has sustained minor damage will function at 90% of previous performance, a device sustaining critical damage will function at 30% of regular performance. Successive damaging effects are cumulative, 2 bouts of critical damage, with no interim repairs, would leave an artifact at 9% performance. Cumulative damage rolls can render a toy inoperative without destroying it. The results of reduced performance affects all aspects of the device’s performance. Range, battery duration, duration of effect, area of effect, to hit bonuses, and armour ratings are examples of what is reduced when equipment is damaged. If the age determiner discussed earlier were critically damaged (30% of previous performance) its new range would be 1 hex, its new battery life 1.5 years, its value reduced to 1500 eps, and possibly its accuracy reduced to 30% (30% chance of success per use).
Destroyed: The worst possible damage that a device can sustain is destroyed. When equipment is destroyed, it will not function at all. Destroyed equipment cannot be repaired, the artifact becomes a dead wate which may only be valuable for a few spare parts. Un-maintained equipment can destroy itself as easily as violently damaged equipment can be destroyed. Things such as battery spills, complete power drains, or internal explosions can destroy unmaintained equipment.
Complications: Certain problems arise under extent of damage that the referee should be prepared for. Do destroyed bombs, or grenades, detonate themselves? High tech ones do not, lo tech ones may; this depends mostly on the mood of the ref, but the ref must remember that a precedent is being set when the first bomb explodes. Very fragile pharmaceuticals are completely protected by packs or flaps of clothing. Only when pharmaceuticals are directly exposed to damage are they destroyed. Can a tech level be determined by smashing around equipment? If the ref is treating this manner of tech level identification accordingly, the perpetrators will only be able to find out what tech level the equipment was. A last possibility of complicated damage is an artifact that appears undamaged but malfunctions. A piece of medical equipment now harms a persona. An age determiner gives incorrect results.
Mundane Equipment Damage
Personas will often insist on damaging absolutely mundane items that surround them. They may wish to destroy a door, crash through a wall, blow a hole in the road, or destroy a bridge. It is impossible for the referee have the HPS of architectural items such as walls, doors, windows and the like prepared for her particular scenario. While specific items, ones expected to be destroyed, may have HPS ready, most sane referees will not have detailed HPS of the chairs and doors in their scenario. Table: 21.3 Mundane Artifact HPS will give her a framework for the HPS of mundane items. Mundane items are not treated the same as toys from the technology section of this book. Mundane Doors and-walls are destroyed when they lose all their HPS. This is unlike artifact technology which will only suffer a degree of dysfunction. For instance, a mundane door has 30 HPS. Anything that will damage the door will subtract HPS from the door’s total and once it loses all 30 HPS it will cease to be a door.
Table 21.3 Mundane Artifacts Hit Points (HPS)
Need to know how strong that hammer is? This list is not exhaustive.| Mundane Artifact | Hit Points |
|---|---|
| Bath Tub | 20 |
| Bench | 25 |
| Book, Electronic | 1 |
| Book, Paper | 5 |
| Bridge, Armoured | 15000 |
| Bridge, Steel | 10000 |
| Bridge, Suspension | 7000 |
| Bridge, Wood | 2000 |
| Chair | 15 |
| Couch | 5 |
| Dishes | 1 |
| Door, Armoured | 150 |
| Door, Normal | 20 |
| Fence, Chain Link | 15 |
| Fence, Picket | 10 |
| Fence, Stone | 20 |
| Fire Hydrant | 25 |
| Floor, Armoured | 500 |
| Floor, Concrete | 150 |
| Floor, Wood | 75 |
| Lamp Standard | 75 |
| Mirrors, Circus | 5 |
| Mirror, Enchanted | 42 |
| Mirror, Flat | 2 |
| Pier, Concrete | 1500 |
| Pier, Floating | 150 |
| Pier, Wood | 200 |
| Random Junque | 666 |
| Road, Concrete | 200 |
| Road, Gravel | 50 |
| Road, Tarmac | 100 |
| Rope | 10 |
| Shelves | 5 |
| Sink | 5 |
| Stairs | 45 |
| Stationery, Mobile | 11 |
| Stationery, Stationary | 2 |
| Table | 10 |
| Telephone Pole | 100 |
| Telephone, Desk | 15 |
| Telephone, Mobile | 5 |
| Toilet, Armoured | 150 |
| Toilet, Normal | 20 |
| Wall, Armoured | 250 |
| Wall, Exterior | 75 |
| Wall, Interior | 25 |
| Wall, Stone | 100 |
| Window, Armoured | 75 |
| Window, Glass | 5 |
| Window, PlexiFlexi | 50 |
| Window, Stained Glass | 2 |
| Mundane Item | Hit Points |