| Light Intensity Artificial Darkness Natural Darkness Dusk, smoke, thick gas, etc. Average room light, cloudy day, minor smoke, etc. Bright room light, partly sunny day, etc. Intense artificial light, floodlight, sunny day High intensity concentrated light, powerlight, close proximity flare, etc. | SEU/10 turns 1/4 1/2 1 1.5 2 3 4 |
One SEU is drained each time the screen absorbs a point of damage from a laser.
Visible penetration of the shell is impossible while the LSS is on, but detection is possible in one of two ways. Infrared optics always show the proper heat image and location of an individual usuing a LSS. Ultraviolet optics show operating LSSs as areas of solid purple light.
Light shift screens are rare and expensive. Most civilized worlds forbid their use as they are prefereed devices of criminals, Sathar agents, etc.
There are three types of LSSs.
Type I: A Type I LSS bends all light away from the shell, thus creating a totally black area. This LSS types is usually used at night or by a character masking his identity.
Type II: The Type II LSS shifts the wearer's image away from his actual location to a distance of one to three meters in a fixed direction. The direction must be specified whenthe character purchases the device. Type II LSS devices that are found or taken from fllen foes can ahve their direction determined by using the Area Effect Weapon Miss Diagram. The shifted image that appears is an exact duplicate of the character using the LSS. This version of the LSS is often used by Star Lawmen and Landfleet officers to draw enemy fire away from themselves.
Type III: The Type III unit is a variation on the type II but
instead of shifting a single image of the wearer it creates up
to five images (at the wearer's option), all exactly the same.
Type III LSSs always create the images in a side-by-side line,
with up to three meters between each image. These LSSs are often
used by Landfleet soldiers to draw fire away from themselves and
to swell their ranks, thus confusing the enemy.
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DEFENSIVE SUITS
Albedo Suit: An albedo suit is made from a special shiny flexible material. It will reflect the damage from a laser attack. For each point of damage reflected, the suit takes 1 point of damage. When it has accumulated 100 points of damage or more, the suit becomes useless.
Skeinsuit: A skeinsuit is made of light ballistic cloth. It absorbs damage just like an inertia screen. It also can be used along with an inertia screen. A character wearing both a skeinsuit and an inertia screen would take only one-fourth damage from ballistic attacks. The suit is ruined when it takes 50 points or more of damage. Two types of skeinsuits are available: military and civilian. Military skeinsuits are camouflage green. Civilian skeinsuits look like regular clothing.
Synthvelope: A sythvelope suit is a synthetic one-piece envelope
that absorbs the damage from proton beam weapons (rafflurs). For
each point of damage absorbed, the suit receives one point of
damage. When it has accumulated at least 100 points of damage,
the suit becomes useless. The suit must be stepped into from the
back and zipped up, completely encasing the wearer's body except
for the head. It is flexible enough even for a Dralasite to use.
Maser Mesh: Maser mesh is used to protect against maser attacks.
It resembles chainmail and can be purchased in different sizes.
Full maser mesh, which almost touches the ground, is heavy and
a bit cumbersome. While is completely nullifies the effect of
maser fire, it is also easily picked up by scanners and radar.
Partial maser mesh, similar in size to a long shirt, is lighter
and harder to trace than full mesh, but only absorbs half the
damage from masers.
A character wearing maser mesh is vulnerable to electrical attacks
and receives an additional 50% damage from them. Maser mesh does
not adapt well to unusual Dralasites shapes.
Dead Suit: A dead suit is a black one-piece synthetic garment
that resembles a wet suit. It masks the heat emissions of the
character wearing it, thus preventing any IR devices or heat scanners
from detecting the wearer.
Gridsuit: The gridsuit is probably the most unusual, sought after,
and expensive of defensive suits. Like skeinsuits, it comes in
both military and civilian styles. The military style is a camouflaged
uniform that has convenient patch pockets. The civilian style
can be any fashion desired, though this may increase the cost.
Much more important than the style is the inner lining of the
suit, a nullifying absorption field circuit that absorbs and dissipates
large amounts of energy. The suit can absorb up to 30 points
of energy damage per turn from lasers, rafflurs, masers, bolt
weapons, and electrical attacks before it allows damage to pass
through to the wearer.
If attacks cause more than 30 points of damage in a turn, the
excess damage is inflicted upon the wearer. The suit absorbs
damage in this fashion every turn. It is destroyed after 100
points of damage are received from projectile or gyrojet weapons.
It also comes in elasticized styles for Dralasites.
HELMETS
Helmets come in many shapes and sizes to fit all races. Most
are made with modular sections that can be removed to add microphones,
goggles, etc. The items in this section can be added to helmets.
There are eight ports on a helmet; only one item can be attached
to a port. The cost for a helmet attachment is slightly more
than for the normal item (add 20%). Items marked "(a)"
are found in the Alpha Dawn rule book, other items are described
in this book.
Power helmetpack
Visors can have up to three functions, such as electromagnetic,
infrared, and ultraviolet capabilities. These combination visors
are more expensive than normal ones (the cost of all three types
is +20% of the total cost).
Sonic Headphones: These headphones are only found in a helmet
and are useless if removed. They provide a natural, non-powered
sonic baffler that protects the ears and head from sonic damage.
Any character wearing a helmet with sonic headphones only receives
half damage from sonic attacks, unless otherwise stated. Extremely
strong sonic attacks, such as boomer grenades or sonic warheads,
affect the entire body and sonic headphone have no effect on those.
Minigrenade Launcher: This device can hold six sonic marble grenades
and has a range of 25 meters (no range combat modifiers apply).
Up to three grenades can be launched per turn. This grenade
launcher is activated by a jaw-tension mechanism and is an action
that can be performed in addition to ther actions that round.
(Referees should note that if the player is firing a hand-held
weapon that round the grenades must be launched in the same direction
as the player is looking.)
A minigrenade launcher cannot be affixed to a helmet that is already
equipped with helmet rafflurs. The minigrenade launcher can launch
a total of 60 grenades per microdisc.
Helmet Rafflurs: These double projections (one on each side) on
the helmet are actually two rafflur M-1s that are activated by
a jaw-tension mechanism. The range is 12 meters maximum (no range
combat modifiers apply) and a single attack roll is made for both
rafflurs.
Each rafflur has its own microdisc power source. Helmet rafflurs
cannot be affized to a helmet that already has a minigrenade launcher
attached.
OPTICAL DEVICES
Electromagnetic Optics: EM optics are used to spot the tell-tale
pale blue or purple sheen surrounding all force screens and fields,
whether caused by a device or a Mentalist discipline. Pressor
beams, used for lifting and moving cargo, can also be seen by
EM optics.
Floodlight: This extremely powerful light comes in many shapes
and sizes, but is usually cylindrical, 60 cm long with a 60 cm
diamter. It is most often mounted on vehicles, larger robots,
and installations.
A floodlight must be powered by either powerpacks or parabatteries.
One SEU is required every ten minutes of operation. A floodlight
can cast a beam of light up to 600 meters. If it is directed
at a character's eyes (requiring a Resolution Table roll on the
Level 1 column each turn), the character cannot see clearly and
suffers a -2 Column Shift combat modifier to all attacks made
that turn.
Holo-Projector: The holoprojector operates in similar fashion
to a holo-screen (see Defenses in Alpha Dawn), but can send the
image on a high intensity laser beam up to a distance of 20 meters.
The projector is the size of a 30-cm cube.
Infralight: This form of powerlight emits an infrared beam that
can only be seen by those using IR optics. All other statistics
are the same as a powerlight. It is generally used as an invisible
signal or search light.
Infrared High-Resolution Optics: IRHR optics allow a character
all the advantages of normal IR optics plus the ability to see
maser fire. Unfortunately, it also adds the penalty for microwave
blindness. A character wearing an IRHR optical device is blinded
for 1d10 minutes if struck from the front by a maser blast. If
the result is a 10, roll 1d10 again. If the second roll is also
a 10, the character is permanently blinded (though he may have
bionic optics replace his eyes).
Omnoculars: This optical device resembles a large binoculars and
combines the abilities of magnigoggles with an automatic range
and vector readout that gives the exact location of any object
in view. The maximum omnocular range is three kilometers.
Various features can be added to omnoculars: IR, IRHR, UV, EM,
and starlight capabilities can all be added as lens attachments
(at the feature's normal cost plus a 20% installation fee).
A spotter using omnoculars adds a +1 Column Shift to the attack
of a long-range weapon, such as a grenade mortar. This is a delicate
piece of equipment with a built-in computer and should be treated
carefully. Omnoculars are microdisc powered for 100 hours of use.
Powerlight: The pwoerlight is a cylinder 60 cm long by 20 cm in
diameter. Its beam has a range of up to 300 meters and it operates
for 400 hours on two microdiscs.
Solar Optics: Solar optics look like giggles, but have a thin
layer of polarized material between the glass that instantly darkens
when brilliant light appears. Though the reaction is too slow
to prevent the wearer from suffering the effects of a flash grnade,
solar optics do help a character looking into floodlights and
powerlights. This type of optics is used extensively by starship
personnel.
Starlight Optics: Starlight optics are a product of pre-Frontier
technology. When using starlight optics, night scenes are viewed
as clearly as if it were daytime. This is because starlight optics
greatly amplify even very low levels of lighting to almost daytime
intensities. Therefore the character suffers no penalties for
darkness. The only time starlight optics do not work is when
the sky is heavily overcast and no artificial light is present.
Ultraviolet Optics: UV optics are useful in detecting anything
printed or written in UV ink, paint, or dye (commonly used by
Star Law to mark valuable objects), a LSS in use, or any object
that emits UV waves.
End of Defenses List.
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Gas mask (a)
Infrared (IR) goggles or visor (a)
Magnigoggles or visor (a)
Poly-vox (a)
Radiophone (a)
Sun goggles or visor (a)
Electromagnetic goggles or visor
Infralight
IR high resolution goggles or visor
Powerlight
Solar goggles or visor
Starlight goggles or visor
Ultraviolet (UV) goggles or visor
Sonic headphones
Minigrenade launcher
Helmet rafflurs
Computer link (see Computer section in this book for helmet additions)
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