This article logically follows on from the three advanced weapons rules articles. It incorporates elements from both published sourcebooks.

Use this the same way as the weapons rules: work through the following four steps to design the armour your character needs.

1. Frame

Unpowered
Unpowered armour is cheaper but the wearer must carry the full weight of the armour at all times. Various types of basic frame are available:

Webbing: A simple strap harness onto which armour sections are fastened. This is the cheapest and simplest frame to use, but also the most restrictive.

Undercover: A soft frame which is designed to give armour the maximum concealability. The advanced craftsmanship needed for this frame makes it more expensive than other types of unpowered frame.

Bodysuit: The most versatile unpowered frame, this is a complete body of soft and rigid sections, giving the best weight distribution for armour. More expensive than webbing, but affording greater flexability.

Powered
Powered armour uses energy sources to help the wearer bear the weight of the protective materials, and may provide additional benefits. Over most of Avernus, powered frames use tough myomar pseudomuscles and servos powered by banks of Drakonium cells, which guarantee a full month of continuous usage between recharges. Hydran carapae replaces man-made components with organic muscles interwoven with the armor. The following powered frames are available:

Assistance Frame: A series of linked servos in what would otherwise be an unpowered bodysuit bear much of the weight of the armour, reducing the load on the wearer. control is still entirely from the user, who merely notices augmented strength.

Control Frame: The first "fully powered" frame, this system noticeably increases the bulk of the armour. The strength of the occupant has little or no effect on the strength the armour can deliver, and control is through a reactive system which monitors nervous impulses.

Power Frame: The power frame is more vehicle than body armour; it is typically 50% taller than its wearer and can carry a huge amount of protection.

Titan Frame: These huge frames form the basis of the Shogunate's Waste Walkers. The "wearer", if there is one, is really a pilot, controlling the lumbering motions of a Titan twice as tall as he is, at one remove.

Frame Type	Cost	Availability	DP	ST	Weight	DPCs
Webbing	200 cr	10	-3	Wearer	10	-
Undercover	1M	6	-2	Wearer	10	-
Bodysuit	500 cr	8	-1	Wearer	10	-
Assistance	2M	4	-2	Wearer	20/0	40
Control	4M	2	-3	+2	30/0	70
Power	6M	0	-4	+4	60/0	100
Titan	10M	-10	-5	+6	120/0	200

2. Materials

Carapace: A tough material grown almost exclusively in Hydra. It forms a symbiotic link with its owner, and so must be worn for at least a few hours every day. Although not as strong as the cmobat ceramics used elsewhere, carapace is quite light.

Ceramic: Probably the most popular armouring material in the Metrozones (apart from Hydra). Centuries of refinement and craftsmanship have made combat ceramics one of the hardest mass-produceable substances known.

Duralloy: The bread-and-butter material of much of Avernus' equipment. Duralloy is a tough but light metal composite which is relatively cheap to manufacture.

Hide: The material of choice for those who do not have access to metrozone equipment. Although effective against many wild animals and low-caliber weapons, these tanned skins are rarely useful against the weapons employed by agents of the metrozones.

Steel: Some areas of the wastes have developed far enough to smelt and alloy steel, and use it to manufacture armour. Although it tends to ablate less energy than ceramic, and is heavier, it is more effective than hides; about equivalent to carapace.

Shellak: The secret weapon of the waste dwellers, Shellak is a substance formed from the shells of certain beetles which inhabit the wastes. It is tougher and lighter than both ceramic and carapace. No Metrozones have yet mastered the production of Shellak, but fortunatly for them no Shellak powered armor has ever been seen.

Basic ARs	Carapace	Ceramic	Duralloy	Hide	Steel	Shellak
Webbing	2	3	2	1	2	4
Undercover	2	3	2	1	2	4
Bodysuit	3	5	3	2	3	6
Assistance	4	6	4	-	4	(8)
Control	6	9	6	-	-	(11)
Power	8	12	8	-	-	(15)
Titan	12	18	12	-	-	(20)

Material	Cost	DP	Availability	Weight
Carapace	x1	+2	-5 (+0 in Hydra)	x0.2
Ceramic	x1	0	0	x1
Duralloy	x0.8	+1	0	x0.5
Hide	x0.1	+1	0 +5 in the Wastes)	x0.8
Steel	x0.5	0	0 (+3 in the Wastes)	x1.5
Shellak	x10	+3	-10	x0.2

3. Bulk

4. Plug-ins and toys

Buying off DP for non-Carapace armour: Dexterity penalties for powered armour can be bought off with a x1.1 cost multiplier per point (i.e. add 10% to remove the first point, then 10% of the total to remove the second poing, etc). This represents the use of bigger, badder motors to overcome the bulky encumberance of the armour. Dexterity penalties for non-powered armour may be bought off at the same rate by having the armour custom fitted and using finer grade materials, but you may not buy off more than half (round up) the initial DP. That is, DP 2 or 3 can be improved to DP 1, DP 4 can be improvd to 2, etc.

Additional Strength for non-Carapace Powered Armour: Additional Strength (added to the ST listed in the Frames section) may be bought for a cumulative cost multiplier of x1.2 per point, up to a maximum of half again the listed ST.

Powered Systems for Powered Armour: Items of technology, cybernetics and weapons can be built into powered armour and used as if they wee normal equipment. the cost for this is the face value of the item x1.5.

Custom Carapace and Magus Armour: Carapace armour made in Hydra may be imbued with genesculpted abilities. These cost (contrary to the giveaway prices in the Hydra Sourcebook) a fixed 1M per level. The same applies to stats (this is how you can buy off DP for carapace).

Phase-Resonant Crystals: Armour can be manufactured laced with phase-resonant crystals, which means the armour can counteract energy weapons as if they were normal weapons. PR crystals double the weight of the armoru and increase the DP by one.

Partial Armour: Characters may choose to wear different (or no) armour on different parts of their body. to find the cost and weight of one armour component, find the cost and weight of a complete suit as above, and multiply by the factor on this table:

Powered Armour in the WW core book: The original rules for PA suggest using a points system to determine the actions which PA can carry out during a turn. I happen to think this sucks, but if you want to carry on using the system, the power ratings for different powered frames are suggested as follows:

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