Starship Troopers: Skinny Armor

Skinny Armor

While SICON scientists cannot be certain, it appears that a Skinny powered suit incorporates into itself a number of useful functions and defenses that are derived not from equipment but rather channels for the possibly latent psychic powers of its wearer. Because Skinnies on any planet but their own must wear these suits just to survive, SICON has never had the opportunity to study or capture live Skinnies out of their suits. Thus it is impossible at the present time to determine which of a Skinny’s remarkable capabilities in combat are due to its own talents and which are derived from these exotic suits of powered armor.

What is known definitively about this form of elegant and antique-looking suits is that it is made of the same burnished bronze-like polymer with the strength of hardened composite steel with more than a 50% weight reduction over metal. Combat experience with the Skinnies has proven to the Mobile Infantry that the primitive appearance of these powered suits is extremely deceptive. With functionality as impressive as their own armors, Skinny raider suits are more than enough to make any battle with Skinnies a difficult affair.

Name: Skinny Armor
Model: Skinny Raider Suits
Type: Powered Armor
Scale: Character
Weight: 27.2 kg
Coverage: Full

Game Notes:

• Physical Protection: STR+1D
• Energy Protection: STR+0D+1
• Dexterity and related skills Penalty: none

The Benefits & Drawbacks of Skinny Suits

Skinny power suits grant a +1 pip bonus to the wearer’s Strength and Dexterity scores and a +1 pip bonus to the wearer’s Initiative rolls. Skinny suits have a battery life span of eight hours, however, the methane supply carried by the suit lasts only two hours, allowing the wearer to survive for up to two hours in hostile environments such as space, underwater and so on.

Skinny armor also provides a +2D bonus to the wearer’s Psychic Resistance Value, making it more difficult for psychic powers of any kind to be effective against him. Powered suits cause wearers to suffer a –1 pip penalty to Acrobatics, Dodge, Running, Climbing/Jumping, Sneak and Hide checks.

Integral Equipment A suit of Skinny powered armor includes the following equipment items as built-in devices that cannot be mislaid or lost.

• Encounter Helmet: A tough transparent compound dome with integrated life support gear that attaches directly to the built-in equipment mounted inside a raider’s armor, these encounter helmets protect the wearer’s heads and regulate the flow and mixture of the methane needed to survive. Skinny life support systems cannot operate without these helmets and also incorporate various visual and aural enhancing features allowing a Skinny to make out his surroundings despite any distractions and obstructions that may be present.

• Environmentally Sealed Bodysuit: There is no way for gases, liquids or other contaminants to get at a Skinny inside a suit of powered armor. This protects him from all attacks except acid and neural disruptors that use these mediums for transmission. Sealed suits also protect a wearer from harmful atmospheres and vacuum; they are the reason a Skinny can survive in deep submersion or in the void of space.

• Helmet Light: A powerful lamp that sheds illumination in a 5 meter path out to a distance of 40 meters. It also possesses an ultraviolet mode for generating light that is only visible in the ultraviolet spectrum. Unlike the light mounted on the power suits used by SICON, Skinny helmet lights already have a usable secondary light that shines in a spectrum Arachnids cannot see. This would allow them to spotlight bugs from outside the insects’ detection range, though there is no direct evidence that the Skinnies have even had contact with Arachnids, much less have a reason to combat them more effectively.

• Jump Jets: Jump jets are situated in both a Skinny’s boots and his suit’s as a collapsing backpack unit. Using jump jets, Skinnies can jump over a limited area and reach elevations of up to 60 meters. Jump jets use fuel and can only carry a Skinny for 300 meters before needing to be recharged. This allotted distance can be spent in any increment up to 30 meters per round, such as 20 jumps of 15 meters or whatever a Skinny needs during a mission. Jump jets do not allow a Skinny to hover or fly, they simply enhance the Skinny’s jumps. If a Skinny is hit mid-jump the suit allows the Skinny to land safely, thus not taking further damage from falling. A Skinny in mid-jump does not get to Dodge when determining an opponents attack roll.

• Psychic Shielding: Though SICON scientists cannot isolate this equipment it is believed to be an inherent property of the polymer used in the suits composition, it is proposed that Skinny armor generates a psychic interference directly tuned to blanket out the wearer’s presence from clairsentience powers of all kinds. This defense does not affect other kinds of psychic abilities, although it may be the reason for a Skinny raider’s general resistance to all types of mental attack.

• Temperature and Biological Regulator: Skinny armor has a built-in climate and health control that handles many basic jobs, including the innocuous one of making certain that exhaled gases do not condense on the viewing surface of an encounter helmet. Temperature regulators can only operate for 24 hours before their power cells and chemical supplies are depleted but while they are active, a Skinny can gains an extra 2D+1 vs fire or cold damage suffered each round and gains a +2D bonus to all rolls to resist exhaustion, temperature extremes, starvation or thirst.

Source

• Starship Troopers RPG Sourcebook (pages 229-231)
• thedemonapostle