Shields for melee combat

[TheDark]

I'll lead this off by noting that this is a blatant attempt to see if someone else has done the work so I don't have to.

One of the things I noted recently going back through the core rules is that we have melee weapons and we have primitive armor, but there aren't any physical shields. The only active defense is blocking with a weapon at Formidable: Armed Martial Arts. Has anyone put together rules for shields, whether for TL1 neo-barbs or for TL7 police/gendarmerie with riot shields?

 

[kilemall]

I'm doing it for Striker, don't know how well that would translate into TNE.


I would say that shields should have both a parry function against melee weapons and armor effect against gun weapons.

 

[TheDark]

I'm doing it for Striker, don't know how well that would translate into TNE.


I would say that shields should have both a parry function against melee weapons and armor effect against gun weapons.

Against melee weapons, I was thinking they could either be used to actively parry or passively as armor for selected hit locations depending on shield size. So, a buckler might protect one area (in addition to the arm it's attached to), while a heater might protect two and a scutum or aspis three (within reason - you shouldn't be able to passively protect both arms and both legs but not the torso, abdomen, or head).

Maybe allow them to parry at Difficult (instead of Formidable) and base the armor on the materials table? We'd need to include wood from World Tamer's Handbook to allow for early shields. An aspis was about 2 cm thick, which would be AV 0.4 based on wood being 0.2 per cm, while a scutum is about 1 cm thick, or AV 0.2. I guess there'd also need to be shield categories with how much volume they have per cm of thickness based on their area, so that weight and AV could be calculated.

 

[Timerover51]

Paul Elliot in his Traveller Supplement Mercator has a Shield Skill add-on for melee weapons. Basically, you use the defender's Blade Skill level as the Skill Level for parrying with a shield. If a moderator okays it, I will post the relevant paragraph. Mercator is a supplement adapting Traveller to the world of the Roman Empire, and does a very good job at it.

 

[TheDark]

Paul Elliot in his Traveller Supplement Mercator has a Shield Skill add-on for melee weapons. Basically, you use the defender's Blade Skill level as the Skill Level for parrying with a shield. If a moderator okays it, I will post the relevant paragraph. Mercator is a supplement adapting Traveller to the world of the Roman Empire, and does a very good job at it.

I'm familiar with Paul's work ever since Jeff included it with one of the Freelance Traveller issues. IIRC, he limits parrying to only people with shields, which is a valid approach but isn't the effect I'm looking for with TNE. That said, I totally agree that Mercator is a great supplement and everyone should look at it if for no other reason than to see how adaptable the original Traveller system is.

 

[Timerover51]

I'm familiar with Paul's work ever since Jeff included it with one of the Freelance Traveller issues. IIRC, he limits parrying to only people with shields, which is a valid approach but isn't the effect I'm looking for with TNE. That said, I totally agree that Mercator is a great supplement and everyone should look at it if for no other reason than to see how adaptable the original Traveller system is.

Are you looking more for rules with the ability to use the shield offensively? The Romans did use it that way, and I believe that the Vikings used it offensively as well. It could be very useful in negating attacks by thrown weapons, such as rocks or bottles in the modern situation. Depending on what the shield was made out of, it would likely do a nice job stopping pistol and submachine gun fire, with a combination of Kevlar and ceramic plating.

 

[TheDark]

Are you looking more for rules with the ability to use the shield offensively? The Romans did use it that way, and I believe that the Vikings used it offensively as well. It could be very useful in negating attacks by thrown weapons, such as rocks or bottles in the modern situation. Depending on what the shield was made out of, it would likely do a nice job stopping pistol and submachine gun fire, with a combination of Kevlar and ceramic plating.

I'm looking more for rules that use the same system as this forum, since the only rules mentioned (and the only rules I'm aware of), from Mercator, are based on Classic, not New Era.

 

[Timerover51]

I'm looking more for rules that use the same system as this forum, since the only rules mentioned (and the only rules I'm aware of), from Mercator, are based on Classic, not New Era.

I have the New Era book somewhere in my basement, and I believe that I looked at it once, and that was sufficient. I take it that the combat system is significantly different from Classic then?

 

[kilemall]

Are you looking more for rules with the ability to use the shield offensively? The Romans did use it that way, and I believe that the Vikings used it offensively as well. It could be very useful in negating attacks by thrown weapons, such as rocks or bottles in the modern situation. Depending on what the shield was made out of, it would likely do a nice job stopping pistol and submachine gun fire, with a combination of Kevlar and ceramic plating.

I think it's imperative for BD equipped troops to survive in a PGMP/FGMP environment- think angled armor, and the armored knight surviving the dragon's breath.

 

[TheDark]

OK, so here's a very rough draft of ideas for shields:

Shields have both a parry rating and an armor value. Using a shield is an Armed Martial Arts task. The parry rating adds to the character's Armed Martial Arts asset (not their die roll) when parrying. On a Formidable success, the attack is negated entirely. On a Difficult success, the shield's armor value is applied to the location hit (in addition to any worn armor). Parrying a missile weapon is one level more difficult.

The listings below have Toughness and Mass modifiers provided by shield type. These are applied to the Vehicle and Craft Construction Materials on page 38 of FF&S to calculate a shield's armor and mass, along with the addition of wood as a material on page 94 of World Tamer's Handbook. The calculated armor rating is parenthetical - if the equation generates a result of 5, the shield provides armor (5). Shields with double-digit armor ratings also provide armor 0 against firearms, and shields with triple-digit armor ratings provide armor equal to 1% of their parenthetical rating, i.e. a shield with a calculated rating of 12 is armor 0(12) and one with a calculated rating of 300 is armor 3(300).

Unaugmented humans can use shields massing up to 10 kilograms. Humans in Battle Dress (light or heavy) can use shields up to 20 kilograms. Schalli armor can allocate up to 16 kilograms to a shield.*

A shield has

Buckler: +0 to parry. Toughness x10, Mass x0.125
Examples:
Soft steel buckler - Armor 0(17), Mass 1
Bonded SD buckler: Armor 2(280), Mass 1.875

Viking Shield: +2 to parry. Toughness x15, Mass x6
Examples:
Wood shield: Armor (3), Mass 5
Fiberglass shield: Armor (4), Mass 6

Aspis (Hoplite shield): +4 to parry. Toughness x25, Mass x10
Examples:
Wood aspis: Armor (5), Mass 8
Fiberglass aspis: Armor (6), Mass 10

Scutum (Roman shield): +6 to parry. Toughness x10, Mass x8
Examples:
Wood shield: Armor (2), Mass 6.5
Fiberglass shield (riot shield): Armor (3), Mass 8

*This is of limited use under the current draft, since no shields are between 10 and 20 kilograms of mass, but I wanted to propose it now in case edits change the masses of available shields.