Energy Shields
Protection:
Energy shields protect a fixed range of damage, activating at the lower boundary and being able to absorb up to the maximum (20 for basic and dueling shields, up to 40 for battle shields. Anything that is beyond the energy shield's maximum rating passes though the its protective barrier, so that an attack 25 points of damage directed against a basic energy shield actually do 5 points of damage.
Avoiding Shields:
Those that wish to work around energy shields have a few options.
First, they can withhold unkept damage dice; withholding Brawn dice is easy, up to a minimum Brawn of 1. However, you can only withhold as many dice from the weapon's Base Damage as you have ranks in the attack knack. This is mainly a problem with heavy weapons, rather than the lighter fencing weapons.
Example: Don Esteban de Hazat, with a Brawn of 3 and a an Attack (Rapier) knack rank of 1, makes an attack on baroness Bryony Decados, who is using a duelling shield. Thus, when rolling damage he can withhold up to 2 dice from his Brawn pool, and up to 1 die from the weapon's base damage, for a minimum roll of (1+1) = 2k2 with the rapier.
Second, using finesse the attack may be made slowly using precision aiming rather than speed and power. By making raises, one may avoid activating an energy shield. Two additional raises are needed with standard and dueling shields, three with assault shield, and four with battle shields.
An opponent using an Active defense may make the active defense roll with the same number of raises to purposely activate his shield by actually stepping into the strike to artificially increase the speed of the attack. This is a Free Defense as there is no attempt to parry or get out of the way.
These two methods only work for melee combat, those with ranged weapons have very few options against a shielded target, as they cannot slow their attacks down.
Third, the attacker can roll his full complement of dice, but select low values rather than high ones, assembling a low number from the damage dice. Raises can be taken in the normal fashion when attacking, to obtain extra damage dice and assemble a "leak" result more effectively. This can be used with any kind of attack.
For example: Don Esteban decides to make an attack and takes one raise for extra damage. He hit, so his damage roll will use 3 dice for his Brawn, plus 2 for the rapier, plus one for the raise for a total of 6k2. He rolls 9, 9, 8, 7, 6, 2 so the highest total he can assemble while still slipping under the shield is 2 + 7 = 9.
Optional Energy Shield Skill:
This is a Noble Skill and almost exclusively taught at the Fencing Schools.
Basic Knack: Shield Parry: The rating in this Knack is the maximum dice that may be used when trying to activate the shield on purpose to block a strike.
Advanced Knack: Shield Adept: Each rank in this knack acts as a free raise to avoid an opponent's energy shield. With a rank of 2 in this knack you do not need to make any raises to get past a Basic or Dueling Shield, and only 1 to get past a Battle Shield.
Dangers: Those who fight with and against shielded targets most of the time find that the they have difficulty changing tactics to fight against unshielded targets, or defending themselves when unshielded.
At the Game Master's discretion, those with the Energy Shield skill may begin to suffer shield dependence. This can cause the following effects:
- When making attacks against unshielded melee targets, the defender gets a free raise to both active and passive defense for a number of attacks equal to (5-Attacker's Wits).
- Active Defenses Rolls made by the shield-dependent character when unshielded are at a +5 TN.
Leaking Damage:
Weapons that leak though energy shields do so at a fixed rate. Energy shields are only able to block one half the normal damage from Blasters and three quarter from Flamers and Lasers, but work normally against slug guns.
For example: a blaster produced 30 points of damage (flesh wounds) against a target that used a basic energy shield. The actual damage would be 20: 10 from the overpower attack (30-20=10), and 10 from the "shielded" damage that would leak though the shield.
Armour and Weapons:
Though some Energy Shields can be combined with armour, and most with Synthsilk, most armour is ineffective against slug rounds and heat weapons. Archaic armours, while good for melee combat, are too brittle to stand up to slug guns, and tend to just heat up and fry the person alive when exposed to heat generating weapons. On the other hand, the best ballistic armours such as synthsilk can stop bullets but tend to be cut to ribbons by a good sword and melted into ooze at the touch of a blaster. Here is a general outline of what certain armours are useful or inefficient against:
Armour Efficiency Table
| Armour Type |
Good Against |
Inefficient Against |
| Synthsilk |
Projectile Weapons |
Blades, Lasers and Blasters, Flamers |
| Stiffsynth |
Blades, Projectile weapons |
Lasers, Blasters, Flamers |
| Archaic armour (Leather, chain, plate etc.) |
Blades, Lasers (Most are thick enough to stop a short laser shot) |
Projectile, Blasters, Flamers |
| Polymer Knit |
Projectiles |
Blades, Lasers and Blasters, Flamers |
| Ceramsteel |
Everything physical |
Psi |
| Psi Cloak |
Psi |
Everything else |
| Flame Retardant |
Flamers, Blasters, Lasers |
Slug Guns, Blades |
Blasters and Melee Weapons:
So why doesn't everyone carry a blaster? Why do Nobles carry around rapiers? Not only are blasters unreliable, tending to malfunction or misfire is not properly taken care of by their user, they are also very strictly controlled. Where most nobles allow other nobles into their presence with a melee weapon, only a madman would ever allow someone to carry a blaster. Only the most trusted guardsmen would ever carry a blaster in the presence of a high-ranking noble man.
Most captains strictly enforce a ban on ranged weapons on their ships; the Charioteers have a blanket law about them on their spacecraft. The damage that any projectile or energy weapon does from inside the ship is enough of a threat to get some one spaced. Even most boarding parties use melee weapons as they are often interested in salvaging their target and shooting at the innards of the ship is a certain way to destroy any function systems. And though some captains will deploy ranged weapons to defenders, they are very careful what type and where the defenders may use them. It is no use saving the crew if the ship is torn to sheds.
Most people do not wear armour of any sort either; a good fencer can bypass most armour with a "Raise", and often it slows down the wearer enough that it is more of a liability than an asset. Those cultures that still wear archaic armour (Vuldrok for one) normally use heavy melee weapons, which have a hard time getting around armour.
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