Get
this… THERE IS NO “TRUE" MDC!!!
I
thought up this stupid idea when I was writing a post about MDC and armor
penetration and AR. Then I thought about my AR house rules and made something
up on the spot that was really effective! Here’s how it works.
…
okay let me toss in the AR rules this is based on first.
AR Absorption: Each AR over 4 absorbs 1 point of
damage. For example armor with an AR of 12 absorbs (12-4=8) 8 points of damage
from each strike.
Breaching AR: If a strike roll beats a character’s
AR, then the “angle” of the blow was just right on the armor. Any damage
done over the absorption is done to the character inside. The damage
absorbed is taken from the armor’s SDC (if applicable) as full damage.
Hitting, but not Breaching AR: If a strike
roll is over 4 and lower than the AR, then the damage done to the armor (after
the absorption amount, which goes nowhere) is one one-hundredth (here’s
where the MDC comes in). Any damage done past the absorption is done to the
armor SDC at one one-hundredth. One way to see it is that if the AR is not
breached, all damage is done to the armor on the MDC scale instead of the SDC
scale. Again if the armor is natural, the absorption damage is simply ignored
(since natural armor has no SDC to it) and goes to the armored target.
There! Now for
the MDC/Rifts rules I pulled out my backside.
Natural MDC Structures: This is as
simple as it gets… simply add 20 to the AR of the creature in magic rich
worlds. What’s labeled as “MDC” in the creature descriptions is actually SDC
and HP combined. It’s just that the AR is so high that the likelihood of
breaching their armor is pretty slim. Even humans who are MDC (such as visitors
from the world of Ninjas & Superspies with body hardening abilities) have
an AR of 24. The absorption is 20 and any roll equal to & under 24 counts
only on an MDC scale. Rolls over 24 count as SDC scale.
Thus
shooting an MDC martial artist with an SDC rifle can hurt them, if your
shot is precise enough and does over 20 SDC damage. If that rifle’s an MDC
laser rifle, you do MDC instead (ignoring absorption, as MDC always rounds up).
If that MDC laser rifle strikes over the AR, chances are pretty good that a
1-hit kill results.
MDC Body Armor: Look at the armor type and figure
out a reasonable AR for the material (plastic would absorb zero to five; zero
if that rubbery stuff the Altera Slave Barge Women wear, 5 for thick plastics;
3-4 for plastic-man armor). Then add 20 to the AR (or 24 to the absorption) to
find the AR on MDC scale. The AR rules above still apply.
So
again we have an SDC rifle and an MDC laser rifle, but firing at a dummy with
old CS body armor (AR of 32, absorption of 28). If, by some miracle, the strike
roll is over 32 with our SDC rifle, then the first 28 damage (as “MDC” to the
armor, really SDC) is done to the armor and the rest goes to the dummy inside
(still as SDC). Any strikes under 32 do nothing (unless damage after absorption
is over 100 SDC, which does 1 MDC). Firing the MDC laser rifle takes off the
MDC like regular (minus 28 SDC absorption, which doesn’t count on the MDC scale
and goes nowhere anyway) unless, once again by some miracle, the strike
roll is over 32. Then in one blast the armor takes 28 damage (which isn’t
removed from the MDC blast; remember that the 28 SDC counts for beans in an MDC
blast) and the dummy inside takes full MDC damage. If the person inside
the CS armor was SDC, there would be nothing left but boiled stew with arms
& legs, and the armor would have a gaping, smoking hole in it.
Small MDC, large SDC: This is
important in situations like the martial artist above. Martial artists can tend
to have a lot of SDC (in SDC worlds), but their body hardening gives them small
amounts of MDC in MD worlds like Rifts. Keep track of SDC/HP, and track MDC
separately. In a situation where the character becomes SDC again then the SDC
and HP really do make a difference (travels to other worlds, some
temporal magicks and phase technology ignore MDC and become SDC). Think of it
as natural MDC and MDC body armor (over SDC being) combined, but the best of
both worlds. Remember, though, that only the MDC value has an AR over
20.