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Apocalypse World / Need help with armor piercing (AP) effects, especially ammo
« on: October 12, 2016, 05:01:39 PM »
Hello,
My group has been wondering about armor piercing attacks. The rulebook simply states that "It ignores its target's armor, inflicting its full harm." Now, this is fine in a simple case like a character wearing body armor getting shot with ap ammo, but becomes very strange in more complicated situations. So, my question is, what exactly should ap ignore?
Here's a really over-the-top example: Fifi the Gunlugger is guarding a heavily fortified hold (+2armor to defenders), as part of a large gang (+3armor against a single person), wearing his serious body armor (2-armor), and he has, say, Daredevil (+1armor) and Battlefield Grace (+1armor). Let's assume both of those moves are active at the same time in this situation, somehow. This means he has a total of 9-armor, making him essentially invulnerable to any harm a single person might throw at him from outside the walls.
However, what if someone attacks him in a way that pierces armor? If it's someone with a 9mm pistol and ap ammo, does he take harm? If it's the Brainer tossing a pain-wave projector, does he take harm? How about some huge badass shooting at this gang with a 50cal machine gun full of ap ammo, doing a total of 7-harm ap? And so forth, you get the idea.
According to the rules as written (as I understand them), the answer is Fifi takes the full harm of the attack. This doesn't feel right at all. Of course the situations at my game table are never this extreme, but we do see gangs wearing armor behind walls and that sort of thing. I feel like there's a real need for a house rule here (only spot in the game I've found yet!), but the details escape me.
Perhaps different sources of ap harm should ignore different parts of the armor (so the Brainer's psychic attack can ignore things the physical ap ammo can't)? Does the ammo ignore both the walls and the body armor? One or the other? What about Daredevil? Should it perhaps ignore armor equal to the weapon's harm (2), no matter the source? Can the pain-wave projector really ignore the gang bonus? Does the machine gun do 7-harm to the gang and defending PC, utterly destroying them? Or do they take some smaller amount of damage, how much? Or nothing at all?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Have I understood the way AP works as written correctly, and how do you handle it in your game?
My group has been wondering about armor piercing attacks. The rulebook simply states that "It ignores its target's armor, inflicting its full harm." Now, this is fine in a simple case like a character wearing body armor getting shot with ap ammo, but becomes very strange in more complicated situations. So, my question is, what exactly should ap ignore?
Here's a really over-the-top example: Fifi the Gunlugger is guarding a heavily fortified hold (+2armor to defenders), as part of a large gang (+3armor against a single person), wearing his serious body armor (2-armor), and he has, say, Daredevil (+1armor) and Battlefield Grace (+1armor). Let's assume both of those moves are active at the same time in this situation, somehow. This means he has a total of 9-armor, making him essentially invulnerable to any harm a single person might throw at him from outside the walls.
However, what if someone attacks him in a way that pierces armor? If it's someone with a 9mm pistol and ap ammo, does he take harm? If it's the Brainer tossing a pain-wave projector, does he take harm? How about some huge badass shooting at this gang with a 50cal machine gun full of ap ammo, doing a total of 7-harm ap? And so forth, you get the idea.
According to the rules as written (as I understand them), the answer is Fifi takes the full harm of the attack. This doesn't feel right at all. Of course the situations at my game table are never this extreme, but we do see gangs wearing armor behind walls and that sort of thing. I feel like there's a real need for a house rule here (only spot in the game I've found yet!), but the details escape me.
Perhaps different sources of ap harm should ignore different parts of the armor (so the Brainer's psychic attack can ignore things the physical ap ammo can't)? Does the ammo ignore both the walls and the body armor? One or the other? What about Daredevil? Should it perhaps ignore armor equal to the weapon's harm (2), no matter the source? Can the pain-wave projector really ignore the gang bonus? Does the machine gun do 7-harm to the gang and defending PC, utterly destroying them? Or do they take some smaller amount of damage, how much? Or nothing at all?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Have I understood the way AP works as written correctly, and how do you handle it in your game?