Find the Path: Armors and Guns

Armor, and Guns
Another set of design notes.  I know, I know.  More fiction is in the pipe too.  The last one seemed to garner some positive interest as well; I find myself liking Maralda, Lahm and 8511's little adventure.  Its nice to have some sort of fiction going on as I rant all over about Crux.

A friend wrote me about the choice of armor in Crux, which brings up an interesting point.  As a Napoleonic/Baroque/Jacksonian setting, plate mail and similar armor is going out in favor of less bulky, more efficient choices.   People should be stalking around in leather coats with holsters.  I want to encourage a more light armor setting and need to contend with firearms.  Since I'm going to go with Guns Everywhere rules, I need to write up some rules on it.

As a quick aside, I know that the Guns Everywhere rules includes Advanced Firearms, most of which are no where near the same tech level as Napoleon and all that.  I'm choosing to present the firearms in Orphos (the world Crux occupies) to be the result of a acceleration tech evolution, as the Church of the Machine has been developing and changing them without restrictions since they first invented them.  The logic of a faster than our world development means that revolvers and rifles should be around, but not necessarily cheap enough to be in common hands.  I think Guns Everywhere as written reflects that.  Back to the action.

How do I make it so my players don't die immediately to gunfire?  They are the ones who'll get hit the most often by the plethora of guns.  Here are my thoughts on a solution:

• An shield quality I call Bulletproof.  Only shields can have it, and it lets a character add their shield bonus on their Touch AC vs Firearms (I am considering just making there be a "Gun AC" that might best suit it).  Bulletproof assumes that newer steel alloys have been developed that can be considered bulletproof, but are much heavier than prior variations.  I'd venture enough to suggest that Adamantine Shields could also gain this quality, but not armor (a conceit to the flavor I want and nothing more).
• A feat I call Dodge Bullets.  Hint, it gives you a bonus to dodge bullets.  I think it'll grant a +2 dodge bonus and require Dodge, perhaps creating a new chain.  It also needs a better name.
• I plan on multiplying the cost of most metal armors by 5 or 10.  They are harder to come by as most armorers have stopped working with metal armors outside of more experimental ideas, hence the higher cost.
• Gunfight oriented environs.  I suspect I'll have to set up combat in scenes that contain good places for concealment, that provide cover of some sort.  I'll also have to design fights so that enemies utilize cover making elements more, enough that most gunfires have a sort of foggy feel to them I think.
• And I'm going to give characters a static Defense bonus of some kind.  So far I'm leaning toward it being 1/2 level or perhaps tying it into BAB somehow.  I know this has been done before, I just want to have a nice set of simple solutions, not a single complex one.  I hope.  Anyway, its still in proto-beta thought at the moment.

That's the idea for Crux anyways.  I'll try and get to it in a article covering some of the tech and magic in Crux (which I've started but haven't gotten back to).

In other news, I'm still working on my ideas for ramping up the power of humans and other races to match my goal of a solid 16 RP.  Thus begins my efforts to tie rules to my craziness.  More to come, enjoy this for now.

Thanks for reading this.  All comments are read, all suggestions considered, and all good ideas stolen if not nailed down.  Please share and comment, I appreciate it.  I'll see you around, hopefully with more.