Re: Body Armor

["Walter M. Rauch" <waltrauch@mindspring.com>]

At 11:49 PM 05/27/1998 EDT, you wrote:

>Along with that, I also give body armor h"hit points"- the amount of E
factors
>it can stop before it becomes useless. For instance, a Kevlar Vest can absorb
>a total of 1000 e factors of damage before it become useless, tho of course
>any attack over e=14 penetrates it, so each individual hit only does a
maximum
>of 14 points ts of  damage. The Kevlar Helmet and Ballistic nylon vest each
>have 100 hit pointsThe steel helmet has 50. A hidden second chance vest might
>have E=12 & 500 hit points. whaddayasay?

	The currently available "soft" body armor is not nearly so durable as you
imagine. The manufacturers of "name" brand armor, like Second Chance and
Safariland, all state clearly that the armor is a "one shot" item.

	A typical vest consists of a "carrier", in the shape of the vest, made of
cotton or cotton/synthetic blend. This garment holds the actual armor
panels, and allows the user to customize it, to some extent. You cannot
wash Kevlar panels other than by wiping with a damp cloth, so they are made
removable so you can wash the carrier to get rid of BO. The panels come in
a variety of configurations. 

	At least with the "high end" stuff, you can buy a basic carrier and add
whatever panels you may need. The protective panels keep evolving, so the
10 pound kevlar IIIA vest I wore a few years ago, is now a 4 pound item. 

	One thing is certain. Current armor fabric is damaged from all but the
lightest hits. Stopping a high velocity 9mm breaks fibers. This means that
a hit anywhere else on the vest along those long fibers will meet much less
resistance. The general rule is one shot and toss it.

	Game terms? I might give the vest up to 100 points in your system. I would
count any "excess" points from a penetrating hit, as such a shot will
likely do more damage to the fibers, and possibly hit the back panel after
it exits the poor slob's body.

	Note: GI armor is intended to stop big, slow moving chunks of metal. It is
not designed to stop bullets, especially rifle bullets. The kevlar "flak
vest" of the 80's will barely slow a 5.56mm bullet down. &.62 nato pretty
much ignores it, from the point of view of the grunt wearing it.

	The special SWAT type stuff has big, hard plates, and is quite cumbersome.
They do not walk very far in it.

	But again, this is a game. So you can ignore the 4-6" deformation that
occurs when a IIIA vest stops a .44 Magnum slug. This concussive event
tends to break multiple ribs and bruise internal organs. It, in and of
itself, can be fatal without medical attention.

				Walter M. Rauch

			     Student of Many Things

			    waltrauch@mindspring.com