This section covers building custom armour for your character, based on material chosen, thickness, coverage and styling (if any). They are based loosely on the less detailed rules in GURPS Ultratech 2.
Each armour material provides a description and a set of statistics and rules in the gray box below the description. The first line of the gray box starts with "VEH:", followed by the mass number, cost number and armour type. Below that line are any special notes or rules regarding the armour.
The mass number is multiplied by square feet (sf) and DR to determine final weight of the armour in pounds. That is, "(mass) x (sf) x (DR)".
The cost number is multiplied by the total weight of the armour, and then by an arbitrary multiple for "degree of fashion".
The armour type is "rigid", "flexible" or "surface treatment".
This section is a general list of materials, arranged first by type (flexible, rigid and surface treatments) and then by tech level. The table below shows modifications for making a lower tech armour "with current techniques". Fair warning - it generally isn't worth it for TL 7 armours.
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KEVLAR (late TL 7): An extremely primitive form of protection, some vests can still be bought or found if no better protection is available. Although it protects pretty well against low powered firearms, modern ammunition and even knives tend to cut through it as if it were nothing more than heavy cloth.
SILK KEVLAR (TL 8): The eventual replacement for normal kevlar around the turn of the millenium, this can also be found by those with nothing better available.
SUPERSILK ARMOUR (TL 8): Still in use for its exceptional structural toughness and lightness, this is an improved weave but still uses a protein structure very similar to spider silk (improving on Nature has been hard). This armour cloth is also called "spidermilk armour" for its creamy offwhite color and smooth texture before dye. Supersilk is slow to make, and requires zero gravity, making it an expensive import dirtside.
MONOCRYSTALLINE BALLISTIC CLOTH (TL 8): This uses a flexible metal-crystal strand and uses the same weave as supersilk. Although heavier for equivalent protection against bullets, its tough fibres does not have the same difficulties with knives and lasers.
ENERGY ABLATIVE CLOTH (TL 8): A heavy, plastic-fibre cloth which expands and flakes off fragments under intense heat, ablating any form of thermal damage far better than most other armours of similar weight.
LAMINATE CLOTH (TL 8): A heavy, treated cloth of monocrys fibres in a tight weave with a mesh of heavier steel cords beneath and a solid-piece plastic cover melted onto the surface. Although considered heavy, nonconcealable protection at best, it has no real weaknesses. This is the primary "cloth" armour used by most armed forces who don't need concealable armour.
ARMOUR-GRADE BIOPLAS CLOTH (TL 9): An armour-weave cloth made of bioplastic. Extremely tough, the armour's primary advantage is that it heals rips and tears over time, as long as it has access to heat and moisture (natural body heat and sweat is sufficient).
REFLEX BIOPLAS (TL 10): Armour-grade bioplas cloth interwoven with proximity sensors and cloth circuitry. When the proximity sensors detect an incoming attack (fast enough to damage, or roughly 5 m/sec or faster), the circuitry causes the bioplas to momentarily harden into rigid armour with far better protective qualities. Its major disadvantage is its weight.
BALLISTIC GELATIN (TL 10): A gritty feeling, black, rubbery substance which is usually sheathed between layers of something else, ballistic gelatin is just coming out of the Aztechnology labs. Although it holds its shape as a solid, it resists fast impacts like a plasma, hardening relative to the impact and transmitting the force perpendicularly through itself. Transmission is close to complete, and even thin layers can provide incredible protection against bullets. However, it cuts pretty easily, and has little or no ablative properties against energy weapons.
CERMETS (TL 8): A ceramic-metal alloy which provides excellent protection. As time went on, more and more advanced versions became available, and an advanced this kind of armour is still in use today.
ARMOURPLAS (TL 8): an advanced carbon composite and proto-bioplastic shell which provides excellent protection. It is somewhat bulkier than cermet plating, and tends to ablate under energy barrages, but is light weight and cheap to make.
BLACK GLASS (TL 9): Not actually black at all, this transparent substance is so named because it tints naturally as light hits it. It is primarily designed as a faceplate and car window protective material. It takes approximately one second to tint.
SILK MIRROR (TL 8): Chemically treated supersilk which reflects light extremely efficiently, allowing a mirrored surface to be placed onto flexible surfaces, from clothing to faces to ropes. The mirror is actually two layers of supersilk - one treated to be reflective and the other dipped in an adhesive, so that the silk can be layered onto a surface easily (it will not stick to the reflective surface, so storage is a simple matter of rolling it up). Aside from a nice fashion statement, silk mirrors can be added to armour to provide additional protection against laser fire.
OPTICAL WEB (TL 8): A very thin layer of optical sensors which react to laser light - they are usually linked to a warning tone on a helmet or earpiece, to give the wearer warning when a laser sight or ladar is aimed at him.
All weaponry is constructed with Guns Guns Guns by BTRC, and converted into GURPS by their guidelines. If you have that book, you may construct weapons with it normally. The following house rules are in place if you are:
BTRC uses a slightly different TL scale than GURPS, but for guns it translates fairly adequately as GURPS TL +5. Thus, TL 13 (GURPS 8) is half cost, TL 14 (GURPS 9) is full cost, and TL 15 (GURPS 10) is x20 cost.
Historically, lasers have been around but only become useful for specialized military field operations at TL 13 and more generally useful for space at TL 14. Particle beams do not become plausible as an alternative to bullets until TL 14. Railguns become fairly effective at TL 13 and begin to peak in usefulness at TL 14.
I use the GURPS Vehicles rules for Accuracy and Snap Shot.
MINI NEEDLER (TL 8): A 5cm (2") long by 0.3cm (0.1") wide barrel, with a semiauto lemon-squeezer trigger and a tiny, clip with four needles. The needles themselves do 1 hp of damage against bare flesh, and will inject their payload if they do exactly 0 hp or more (they can penetrate up to DR 1 and still poison someone).
TL 8 Minineedler (2mm, dmg 1, SS 9, ACC +3, rng 115/875, RoF 3)
wt 0.04 lbs, cost $100
clip 4, wt 0 lbs, cost $4
The GM ruled that the needles on this gun should have half regular
accuracy for the weapon, since they are built more for punching into
clothing than aerodynamics.
HVY LASER PISTOL (TL 10): a fairly heavy laser pistol, engineered by some of the brightest minds in the world, and "purchased" well before it was available on the open market.
TL 10 Hvy Laser (5mm, 2d IMP, SS 10, ACC +9, rng 175/3800, RoF 3)
wt 3.9 lbs, cost $16,000
TL 9 power cell: clip 100, weight 0.8 lbs, cost $80
MACHINE PISTOL (TL 8): A lightweight, one-handed machine gun designed primarily for hosing an area down.
TL 8 Machine Pistol (5mm, 3d BAL, SS 10, ACC +7, rng 230/6000, RoF 20)
wt 3.1 lbs, cost $330
clip 60, wt 0.6 lbs, cost $60
LAPEL GUN (TL 9): A tiny little gun, 1.8cm (0.4") long, fired by squeezing two metal clips on either side of the barrel. Made famous by Agent Maxx, a trite fictional character in a series of James Bond-esque movies, who hid it in a carnation on his lapel (hence the name, "lapel gun").
TL 9 Lapel Gun (3.5mm, 1d BAL, SS 9, ACC +4, rng 115/875, RoF 1)
wt 0.4 lbs, cost $300
clip 1, wt 0 lbs, $1
The GM decided that the extremely short barrel length should reduce the
Accuracy of this weapon by -2.
BASIC ASSAULT RIFLE (TL 9): A heavy, comfortable weapon for hosing down people you don't like. Nicki likes it. Comes in a bullpup configuration, with a total length of 8 inches.
TL 9 Basic Assault Rifle (10mm, 4d BAL, SS 10, ACC +6, rng 575/7100, RoF 15, Rcl -1)
wt 4 lbs, cost $475
clip 45 AP, wt 2.6 lbs, $40
666 EXPRESS (TL 10): Do you hate lines? Does waiting make you mad? Then wait no more! This gun will send you straight to hell in a heartbeat! And at a mere 14" length and what its engineers delicately call "a bit of a kick", it's a bargain to carry!
TL 10 666 Express (12.5mm, 8d BAL, SS 10, ACC +6, rng 575/7100, RoF ~3, Rcl -3)
wt 9 lbs, cost $19,500
revolver 6; each bullet is 1/12 lbs and $20