Damage Control
By Bull (bull@dumpshock.com)

Controlled Ruthenium

Ruthenium Polymers are, without a doubt, are one of those items that give Munchkins wet dreams. They’re also once again a piece of required equipment for every Assassin, Scout, and general "Sneaky Type" character in the 3rd Edition World. And they are without a doubt an endless source of headaches for GM’s "blessed" by the presence of players with any sort of munchy streak in them at all.

So what’s a GM to do? Under Man and Machine rules, there isn’t much. They’re dirt cheap, don’t have an unreachable availability number, have a pathetic Street Index, and for god’s sake, are legal ! I think every ganger and ‘Runner wannabe with some loose change in their pocket has one of these all of a sudden. So outside of blatantly changing the rules and stats for these pieces of obnoxious tech (Which is fine and dandy, but not always a viable option), you need to think "Outside the Box", or in this case, "Outside the Rules".

I learned early on that the easiest way to control a player’s gear is to take it away from them. However, do this too often, and you can loose your group fast. But ... Damage the equipment so as to render it useable but less effective, and you just annoy the player, control the equipment, and spur him on to fix it. Sure, it doesn’t cost as much to fix as it does to replace (Well, usually), but, it does help you control the item.

So after thinking about this a bit, and playing with a few different ways of "damage control" in my home game, I’ve decided to formalize a short list of rules governing damaging of these rather delicate pieces of technology. Ever notice how the most expensive toys can often be the most fragile? And let’s face it, how often does the runner get a chance to stop and change clothes after the fighting has started. And how many of them is willing to leave their precious munch-tech behind while they do their fighting?

Camera Damage

Ruthenium Suits work via a series of cameras that constantly take pictures, then transmit them into the material of the suit, effectively creating a perfect camouflage to hide the wearer. The more cameras you have, the less work and dispersment each one has to do, and the more effective the suit is overall. However, these cameras are delicate items, and will often get smashed or cracked if the wearer takes any damage while wearing the suit.

Each time the player takes any sort of wound, roll 2d6 and add them together. If the result is equal to or lower than the current number of cameras operating in the suit, one of the cameras was damaged and becomes inoperable. Reduce the suit’s effectiveness accordingly.

Ruthenium Cloth Damage

Like the camera’s, the material of the suit is a somewhat flimsy material with conductive wiring sewn into the fabric. The material of the suit can easily be torn, and in a combat zone, it frequently is. Every time the character is physically hit, whether he was damaged or not, there is a chance that the suit will be torn or damaged enough to reduce it’s effectiveness. Whenever a character is hit, roll a D6 and consult the Ruthenium Cloth Damage table.

Ruthenium Cloth Damage
Wound Level Damage Effect
No Wound The suit is damaged on aroll of 1. Reduce the effectiveness of the suit by 1.
Light The suit is damaged on a roll of 1-2. Reduce the effectiveness of the suit by 1.
Moderate The suit is damaged on a roll of 1-3. Reduce the effectiveness of the suit by 2.
Serious The suit is damaged on a roll 1-4. Reduce the effectiveness of the suit by 3.
Deadly The suit is automatically damaged.Reduce its effectiveness by 4.

Reparing Rutheneium Polymers

The Ruthenium cloth can be repaired, but it’s much more complicated than simply sewing up a rip in your shirt. Miniscule electronic connections need to be patched, among other things, and these require a great deal of attention.

Ruthenium can be repaired by hand through the use of either an Electronics B/R test, or through a Ruthenium B/R test and access to an Electronics Shop or Electronics Facilities. The base TN for such a test is 4 for Ruthenium B/R, and 6 for Electronics B/R, modified by a +1 for each point of effectiveness that was reduced through damage to the suit. The base time for repairing the suit is 2 days per point of damage. Divide the base repair time by the number of successes generated on the repair test.

Ronin wants to repair his Ruthenium Cloak after a particularly hairy run in which he barely survived after taking a deadly wound. His cloak lost 4 points of effectiveness, and he’s using his Electronics B/R skill for the test. His TN for the repair would be 10, and to fully repair the suit would take him 8 days. He makes his test, and rolls 2 successes. It ends up taking him 4 full days of work to fully repair the suit.

Having a suit repaired by outside means takes a number of days equal to the number of points of damage the suit has taken (how much it’s effectiveness is reduced). It also costs 10% of the cost of the base suit (Not including extra camera’s installed) per point of damage to have repaired. Modify this cost by street index as appropriate.

Damaged camera’s cannot be repaired, only replaced.