Experience with A.R. in NB

[Xanador]

It's been a long time since I ran a game, or posted to the forums, but I'm hoping to get one going soonish. The thing is the Armor Rating was just being introduced to the Morphus forms back then and I didn't use it because I didn't want to mix some tough Bane with AR and others without. Now DD has listed the A.R.'s for old tables and I'm thinking of using them, but what impact will it have on the game? Does anyone have some feedback on how this actually plays out?

Sorry if this is an old discussion but I didn't find anything when I looked.

[dreicunan]

It's been a long time since I ran a game, or posted to the forums, but I'm hoping to get one going soonish. The thing is the Armor Rating was just being introduced to the Morphus forms back then and I didn't use it because I didn't want to mix some tough Bane with AR and others without. Now DD has listed the A.R.'s for old tables and I'm thinking of using them, but what impact will it have on the game? Does anyone have some feedback on how this actually plays out?

Sorry if this is an old discussion but I didn't find anything when I looked.

Since it is tough to get bonuses to strike with modern weapons, high natural ARs have a tendency to make melee weapons scarier than guns. If you have a Natural AR 15, then the strike roll needs to be 16 or higher. If you are bursting with low level characters against that target (only a +1 to strike), then you need a 15 (+1 for 16) on the die, so you'll only succeed in doing damage 30% of the time (assuming no negative modifiers to the strike roll). That said, if you are still using the burst rules from Nightbane then that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you like your Nightbane to live, given the amount of damage that you can be putting out with a burst ("I'm going to full round burst your nightbane with my M60 for 5d6x20 damage" or "Oh, you are 200 yards away? I'm going to empty my AK-47/M-16 into you for 4d6x10, then reload, then do it again because I have 5 APM and you can't get to me in time because your speed is less than 40.")

Strike rolls are a bit easier to come by in melee, so you won't notice the natural AR as much.

[Nekira Sudacne]

It's been a long time since I ran a game, or posted to the forums, but I'm hoping to get one going soonish. The thing is the Armor Rating was just being introduced to the Morphus forms back then and I didn't use it because I didn't want to mix some tough Bane with AR and others without. Now DD has listed the A.R.'s for old tables and I'm thinking of using them, but what impact will it have on the game? Does anyone have some feedback on how this actually plays out?

Sorry if this is an old discussion but I didn't find anything when I looked.

It has a pretty significant impact if the GM rules that you have to roll above AR on a natural die roll or if your strike bonus's are included.

If the GM demands natural rolls over the AR, then it has a pretty significant impact on gameplay.

If the GM says that strike bonus's contribute, then it's effect tends to be modest at first and gradually declines into irrelevence later on as strike bonus's rise higher and higher. This is good for giving a feeling of growing power.

The books never actually says if Bonus's are included or not, so a lot of people think AR works one way and a lot thinks it works another way, and usually each side is convinced the other is wrong.

[eliakon]

The presence of AR also makes Darkblades a lot scarier/effective given their AR bypassing property.

[Xanador]

I never really gave any thought to hitting AR not including a strike bonus. That sounds like a debate I'm glad I missed.

So it doesn't look like it makes that big a difference overall. No reason not to include it then, thanks for the input.