Nice Things of Mage - Vehicles

Important Concepts/Rules

Piercing Attacks

Piercing attacks are those specifically designed to penetrate large quantities of armor. Sabot rounds, rapiers and bodkin points are all examples of armor piercing weapons. Relatively simple Matter or Correspondance magic can be used to make an otherwise non-piercing attack piercing.

Piercing attacks halve the armor (not stamina soak) of the target.

Hardened Armor

Hardened armor is specially treated to resist penetration - composites, adamantium, dragonscales, etc - and armor treated as such ignores the Piercing effect. Hardened armor requires Matter 4 to create.

Heavy Armor

Heavy armor is thicker and more resistant to conventional small-arms, bladed weapons and low-end magic. Matter or Life 3 can be used to create heavy armor for character use, though without forces/corr magic the weight will impose a dexterity penalty - in practice, heavy armor is found on technocratic hardsuits, golems and armored street cars.

Heavy armor soaks damage on a roll of 4+.

Heavy armor may be Hardened.

Vehicular Armor

Vehicular armor is the step past heavy armor, consisting of thick plates of steel (often several inches thick) or similar. While it can technically be created with matter or life 3, in general spheres at 4 (or 5, for turning into a dragon with nigh-inpenetrable scales) are necessary to make something clad in vehicular armor. Unsurprisingly, vehicular-scale armor is far too thick and heavy to be used by a character and is limited to vehicles or large mystic creatures.

Vehicular armor will automatically succeed on all of its soak dice (ie, D12 vehicular will soak 12 damage) if the attack has a base damage pool less than the soak rating. Otherwise, it soaks on a 4+ as per Heavy armor.

Vehicular armor may be Hardened.

Technocratic AFVs

Samurai Powered Exoskeleton

[1]

A prototype 'Urban Protection Exoskeleton', the Samurai is an eight-foot, one-ton powersuit, generally used only in specialized assault situations due to its bulk, expense, and inconvenience. Officially it is used during SWAT operations, replacing conventional wheeled 'assault vehicles' on an experimental basis. In practice, it is deployed as a heavy weapons platform, carrying an automatic grenade launcher or heavy machine gun to deal with shapeshifting mutants or other targets who require heavy firepower to put down.

Fine manipulation is done by a pair of secondary armoured sleeves extending from the cockpit, as the suits own heavy arms are intended only for carrying loads or forcing breaches, and are unsuited for fine manipulation. The use of hydraulics and servomotors instead of the more advanced synthetic musculature of Alanson and Martinez powersuits give the Samurai slow response times, and add to its weight. The heavy steel armor helps makes for (relatively) easy repair but also weighs the suit down. Its primary vulnerability, however, is the large battery powerpack, which if damaged renders the user immobile.

Hardened Armor at 6d, cannot jump or run. Visor provides 2d armor and can be targeted at a +3.

The suit is too large for direct feedback, and unless using the manipulator sleeves, must be operated with Drive (at a +2 difficulty) or Pilot. The weapons use Firearms (at +2 difficulty) or Heavy Weapons + Perception. They cannot be used at all as unskilled.

Replaces user Str/Dex with Strength 8/Dexterity 1, runs out of power after 3 hours.

Called shots to the rear-mounted battery packs (at +3) can render the user immobile. The powerpacks have 4 HLs and are protected by 3d of non-hardened armor but can only be attacked from behind.

Normally armed with either a .50 MG, Mk. 19 grenade launcher, or 2.75 in Rocket Launcher (capacity 6). All weapons found in Technomancer's Toybox, p. 92

The use of conventional high-density lithium batteries gives the stock Samurai a relatively short operational period. For this reason they are transported to and from crisis locations in special support vans that include full recharging facilities.

TA-NT-01

[2]

A Japanese mecha, the TA-NT-01 (Tactical Armor New Type 01) was an attempt by the Japanese branch of the Technocratic Union to push bipedal mecha into consensus after the (qualified) success of the Samurai. At not quite 4.5 meters in height and ~5 tons in weight they are best compared to a 4x4 armored car. Advanced composites and Titanium alloys have been used extensively in their construction to keep weight and bulk down and they have cutting-edge avionics including a semi-panoramic virtual cockpit.

An unfortunate avalanche at the JGSDF base on Hokkaido during October 2009 mobility trials has caused the loss of the original prototypes and the project's future is uncertain. However, reliable reports state that one or two of the prototypes survived and were seen in the JGSDF deployment to the November 2009 Tokyo Earthquake. There have been unconfirmed sightings of TANTOs or derivatives in northern Canada, perhaps in prelude to the purchase of a small number of these weapons - and if true, making them among the first sale under Japan's newly liberalized arms export laws and suggesting that the project has not been cancelled, merely veiled by secrecy.

12 Hardened Vehicular armor

8 HL

cannot jump or run.

The TANTO is controlled from a cockpit pod in the chest and must be operated with Drive (at a +2 difficulty) or Pilot. The weapons use Firearms (at +2 difficulty) or Heavy Weapons + Perception. They cannot be used at all as unskilled.

The onboard avionics provides a +1 Per Targeting assist.

Replaces user Str/Dex with Strength 8/Dexterity 2

While equipped with fully articulated hands, the TANTO is incapable of fine manipulation as the suit's heavy arms are intended only for carrying loads or forcing breaches.

The cockpit is armored and padded, consequently the pilot takes bashing damage only.

Power is supplied not by lithium batteries as the Samurais, but by high-density fuel cells. While adding substantially to the cost of the prototypes, these provide both a longer operational time and better suitability for military as opposed to police operations.

The TANTO has a number of onboard weapons; while all are modular and can be replaced with some garage time, these are the standard fittings.

A 30mm chaingun is fitted to one forearm and is fed from three 100-round magazines. Different types of ammunition are available and can be selected with the flip of a switch. All have an effective range of ~1,200m.

• Ball 12D
• AP 16D AP
• HE 14D AoE

A .50cal machinegun is mounted on the other forearm and is fed from a 200-round box magazine. Up to four additional box magazines can be carried on rear skirt armor.

• 8D, 1,000m range

4 Hellfire missiles are loaded in two backpack launchers, with two missiles each. They normally lie against the back of the TANTO and elevate over the shoulder to fire. The original models had TOWs but the wire guidance system proved a liability for what was intended to be a mobile unit.

• 18D AP, 5,000m range

Smoke grenades launchers are mounted on each shoulder.

Mystic Creations

Dragons

DRAGONS!

Etherite Blambots

The biggest seem to be 8-9 meters tall.

Unclassified Monstrosities

Nexus Crawlers

Probably? Would sufficiently powerful spirits use some or all of these rules?