Tinkering with Power Armor

I've long been unhappy with the relative 'underpoweredness' of Power Armor in Savage Fallout. Part of this is due to the problem of converting the game's three distinct parameters for getting hit and taking damage to Savage Worlds' Toughness value and Parry score, and the generic TN4 to be hit with ranged. How to make Power Armor better at protecting a character, without just piling on more Armor value? Another issue is the core mechanic of Extras and Wild Cards in SW, making any NPC underpowered no matter what they're wearing, if they're not a WC.

One idea I had was giving Power Armor a bonus to Parry and penalty to being hit, reflecting the AC value in the games. But this would lead to even more attacks just missing, which is already a common occurrence in SW and quickly gets boring. Extras wouldn't stand a chance against Wild Cards in Power Armor.

Increase the Armor value? This would help out NPCs wearing Power Armor match off against the players, but in turn make players even more powerful once they finally get their hands on Power Armor. With exploding damage, extra Toughness doesn't make that much of a difference anyhow, another area where SW mechanics differ from the game's Damage Threshold and fixed weapon damage ranges.

So in the end what I opted for was a minor change, but something that will hopefully accomplish my ultimate goal: making sure novice Wild Cards don't just plow through groups of Extras in Power Armor. Power Armor now has the armor perk of only being able to be damaged by a) Heavy Weapons or b) weapons with Armor Piercing. These will be weapons that low rank groups will only have few of and need to use sparingly, ensuring foes in Power Armor remain a real threat until mid-high level.

Of course, the players will enjoy the same benefit once they get their hands on some suits, but by that point in the game some simple raiders wouldn't have been a match for them anymore anyway. Any monster of at least Strength d8 or Size+1 can continue to damage Power Armored characters.

News from the Midwestern wastes

Those looking for their fix of Savage Worlds Fallout: friend of the blog Degausser has set up a campaign portal for his game set around Chicago. Check it out for play reports of the campaign in progress!