The Pros and Cons of Armourin' Yer Noggin'!

Them Rules

What can we say except... "Chrome Book 4, man...". The revised armour & clothing rules from ChromeBook 4 allowed for more style for your punk than anything previous (except maybe the game itself), and for more abuses. The SP:12 scarf idea on page 67 is the perfect example of what soft armour shouldn't be able to do... so here we go! Rules Ideas First off, Hard Armour provides full SP value for head hits. That's what it's for. But most helmets don't cover the whole head! Any amount of covering over the ears causes major awareness penalties, and full face protection dampens sound even more, in addition to reducing your peripheral vision. Below I've offered some sample hard armour helmets to give examples of what I consider to be fair Awareness penalties. Now for soft armour... We had considered reducing the effectiveness of soft armour on the head against bullets and such since the bullet in question will most likely still be able to crack your skull with a good hit against your SP:10 ninja hood. But then again, it WILL prevent the bullet from actually scrambling your brains... So where do we go from here? An old idea that was often bantered around in many publications was for body armour to *reduce* damage from killing to bludgeoning, and in the case of head hits we've decided to adopt a variant of this - primarily for game balance and not entirely out of realism... Soft armour on the head reduces damage as normal from firearms, but half the damage reduced is applied as "stun damage". So that SP:12 bandana could easily stop a 9mm round dealing 8 points, but the wearer would take 4 stun damage for his trouble. Anyways, an SP:12 light armour would look like "pure combat gear" (based on the rules for gloves - which I apply to all light armour - from Pg 67 of ChromeBook 4).

Tactical Headset Rig	SP:14, 400eb
Not so much a helmet as a piece of tactical gear, the Headset rig actually provides no protection to most of the head besides the eyes and ears. The visor is usually tinted or mirrored, and can incorporate the Kiroshi Heads-Up-Display (ChromeBook 2, pg 17) for the standard list price. The visor immediately provides -1 to awareness rolls, augmented to -3 if the HUD is engaged. The visor also acts as smartgoggles, and therefore one point of this penalty can be countered with the purchase of the image enhancement option. The rig also provides a basic commo unit covering the left ear (treat as the pocket commo from CP2020). This commo gear can be upgraded to any other communications rig from the various supplements for the base price of the new communications rig +10% to fit it to the Headset.
Standard Full-Coverage Helmet	SP:20, 150 eb
This is your typical infantry helmet of the 21st Century, and the one documented in the main rulebook. Usually made of epoxide, It provides good, solid protection against shots to the side and back of the head, as well as covering the forehead against frontal attacks. Back hits will strike the helmet 5 times in 6 (the 6th will hit the neck), side hits 4 times in 6 (with the face and neck being exposed) and frontal shots will only hit the helmet 2 times in 6. Since the helmet covers the ears, it provides a -2 to awareness rolls. If an epoxide faceplate is attached (100 eb, SP:20, protects against all facial hits), this is increased to -3.
Security Cap	SP:14, 525eb
For all intents and purposes, this "Cap" is the "Tactical Headset" documented above (with all the options available for it also) attached to a hard-frame cap covered in a soft kevlar weave. It protects agains front, side and back shots 4 times in 6, with protection for the ears and eyes included. The visor provides -1 Awareness, and the ear coverings over each ear immediately provide an additional -1 Awareness (for a -2 total). This type of cap is often seen being used by Security details, as it looks official and is effective without looking like a military helmet, with it's soft cap appearance.
HardCase HeadGear	SP:25
This is the helmet included in a suit of MetalGear III and equivalent hardcase battle-armours. It offers complete coverage of the head from all angles of attack. It's also ugly and hot, not to mention quite uncomfortable for long periods of wear. The full coverage of eyes, ears and mouth (which means you can hear your own breathing amplified) provides a whopping -4 Awareness penalty, which is difficult to offset, since most MetalGear systems do not allow for optional electronics gear inside the body armour for optical and audio upgrades.