Armour

Clothes make the individual, or so they say. That old adage is even truer in such a fashion-obsessed city as New Angeles. With so many cultures and subcultures rubbing elbows and struggling to live together, the city and its environs are awash in clashing styles. Even up the well in the stations and lunar colonies, clothing and armor styles evolve at a shocking rate, and what was in style last week is considered outré today.

The following list is just a small sample of clothing and protective gear available to the discerning traveller.

### CLOTHING

Clothing choices in the modern day are every bit as varied as at any time in the past. What makes current fashion transcend that of former eras, however, is advances in materials science and the use of smart fabrics that can interface with computer technology and change shapes, colors, and even toughness. Everything from basic T-shirts to business suits to haute couture is available in a dizzying array of colors, cuts, and fabrics.

Aside from day-to-day work and leisure clothes, numerous specialty options are available for those who need more than an off-the-rack pair of jeans or a boutique sundress.

Below is a selection of specialty clothing designed to keep Spacers, Martians, Belters, and everyone else looking sharp and feeling fine.

#### CONCEALED BUCKYWEAVE

Visible body armor isn’t exactly what most people wear while strolling down the slidewalks of New Angeles. Well-heeled risties who are looking for a bit of protection often wear stylish clothing reinforced with a concealed layer of buckyweave and energy-dispersion fiber mesh to provide basic protection from small arms and light energy weapons.

Just about any type of clothing can be tailored with this reinforcing layer, and quite a few shops are willing to discreetly add it to the clothes they already sell—for a substantial fee.

Concealed buckyweave clothing looks like normal clothing. Anyone searching your character adds 2 SETBACK to any

Perception checks they make to find the concealed buckyweave between the fabric layers.

Models Include: Various models.

#### DURABLE CLOTHING

Durable clothing is exactly what it sounds like: sturdy, well-crafted articles of clothing that provide a bit of protection and can stand up to the wear and tear of modern life. These typical, workaday outfits worn by the majority of blue collar workers range from synthleather jackets and denim jeans to sturdy mechanics’ coveralls and military surplus jumpsuits.

While they won’t stop a bullet or turn a monoblade, a suit of durable clothing is definitely better than nothing.

Models Include: Various models.

#### ENVIRONMENTAL HARDSUIT

Produced by a number of manufacturers, environmental hardsuits allow individuals to work in extremely hazardous conditions in relative safety. While they come in a variety of designs, most hardsuits share a common suite of features.

A general, multipurpose hardsuit consists of a tight, one-piece, ballistic fibermesh bodysuit crafted with special chemweaves to protect the wearer from limited exposure to nuclear, chemical, and biological agents. Worn over the bodysuit is a collection of fitted, high-impact polycarbonate and light alloy plates like those found in riot armor or lower-end carapace suits. Comprising the “hard” part of the hardsuit, these plates are often equipped with temperature-regulating systems and impact-resistant gel, and they offer good industrial protection. Most suits include heavy gloves, sturdy boots, and a helmet with an integral respirator.

While wearing an environmental hardsuit, your character adds 1 BOOST to Resilience checks they make to resist hazardous environmental conditions.

Models Include: Cal-X Mk II Sheol HazMat Suit, Weyland Salamander EV Suit.

#### OPTICAL CAMOUFLAGE SUIT

Rare and expensive, optical camouflage suits are wonders of modern stealth technology. Known colloquially as “invisibility cloaks,” these suits combine a sophisticated holographic imaging suite, sound baffles, and radiation shielding to make the wearer incredibly hard to see or pick up on sensors. The holographic imagers project a composite image of the wearer’s surroundings on the suit, allowing them to blend into the background, while the other systems muffle noises and hide the wearer’s body heat.

Someone trying to spot your character upgrades the difficulty of their check once if your character is wearing an active optical camouflage suit.

Models Include: ProTek Chameleon, Argus Mk II Infiltrator Suit, U.S. Army Model 30 Active Camouflage Suit.

### COMBAT SUITS

In this modern era of focused-energy weapons and mass drivers, armor seems like it should be an anachronism. However, current materials science has kept up with weapons technology, offering impressive personal protection.

Although combat suits are often issued to police and military units, plenty of criminals, bounty hunters, and assassins know how to get their hands on high-quality protection.

#### LIGHT BODY ARMOR

Light body armor is a catchall term for a collection of armored vests, flak jackets, and other lightweight, noncarapace, nonmilitary armor. It provides basic protection to the torso and often to forearms and shins, and it is typically paired with a simple, open-faced helmet to protect the head.

Primitive and cheap—and often cheaply made—light body armor is rarely, if ever, worn by combat troops or mercenaries. Its primary users are civilians in war zones, criminals, and security personnel on a budget. Some athletes in particularly dangerous sports, such as hopper racing or snowboarding, wear stylized variants of light body armor.

Models Include: OV-1 Bulletproof Vest.

#### PERSONAL EXOSUIT

Exosuits are powered exoskeletons wrapped in heavy composite armor and fitted with vehicle-class weapons that turn an individual soldier into a one-person tank squadron. That’s how exosuit manufacturers like to describe their products, at any rate. While “one-person tank squadron” might be ad-agency hyperbole, exosuits are still exceptionally powerful pieces of battlefield equipment.

While some exosuits are large enough to qualify as small, bipedal vehicles, many are smaller and designed to be armor that is worn, rather than piloted. The exoskeletons are adjustable for fit and are typically composed of myomer synthetic muscle fibers and nanohydraulics wrapped around a buckyweave-reinforced composite frame. Powered by high-output twelve-hour battery packs—themselves tended by a kinetic capture regenerative charging system—the frame increases a wearer’s strength and durability. Their composite armor plates can shrug off nearly all small arms fire, and they are fully environmentally sealed.

Wearing an exosuit increases the wearer’s Brawn by 1 (this bonus also increases the wearer’s soak, but it is not included in the soak increase in Table 2–5: Clothing and Armor) and the wearer’s wound threshold by 4. The suit’s sensor suite removes 2 SETBACK from any Perception, Vigilance, or combat skill checks caused by darkness or smoke that your character makes. If an exosuit loses power or otherwise ceases to function, its encumbrance value immediately becomes 12 and the wearer loses all the benefits of the sensor suite and the Brawn increase (including the additional soak from the higher Brawn). Getting into or out of an unpowered suit takes five minutes without assistance, or roughly two minutes with assistance.

Models Include: Heliodyne Sampson Infantry Suit, Weyland Consortium “Roughneck” Heavy Labor Exosuit, Argus “Ranger” Mk IV Reconnaissance Exo.

#### PLASTEEL CARAPACE

Carapace armor is the heaviest nonpowered armor available on the market. Consisting of interlocking composite armor plates over a reinforced unisuit, this armor is the go-to for high-end prisec outfits and the U.S. military.

Carapace protects against most small arms, energy weapons, and even shrapnel splinters and low-yield explosives. Some suits are environmentally sealed to protect the wearer against nuclear, biological, and chemical agents. As these suits are military hardware, there are a number of regulations against civilians purchasing and wearing them (which doesn’t stop most orgcrime outfits in the slightest).

Models Include: AMR Defense “Crusader” Infantry Armor, Garda “Hussar” Hardsuit.

#### RIOT ARMOR

CORSEC is the single largest purchaser of riot armor in the galaxy, prisec outfits being a respectable second, as both deal with anarchist protests and Human First riots.

Built to survive the wear and tear of modern law enforcement, a suit of riot armor typically starts with a heavy-duty service uniform similar to those worn by military personnel and PMC operatives. A set of protective plates—torso clamshell, shoulders, forearms, and shin protectors—made of ballistic gel and flexible polycarbonates is then worn over the uniform, providing protection for sensitive or easily damaged parts of the body. Most suits also include an integrated gas mask and helmet speakers.

While wearing riot armor, your character adds 1 BOOST to Resilience checks they make to resist the effects of tear gas and other riot-suppression chemicals. Riot armor can come with a riot shield (see the Riot Shields sidebar); this increases the cost by 150 credits.

Models Include: NAPD M1 Riot Armor, USAF “Peacekeeper” Law Enforcement Armor.