Chipping in, once again, without any context because that's how I roll.
I've never quite liked the way the DR system works, and doesn't work. For example, the earliest implementation that I saw when I joined (in 2006) was a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being flogging someone with a warm leaf of damp lettuce while 10 was a planet cracking Aether beam. Though, a devil in the detail of the system was that the damage "after ten seconds of constant exposure/attack". With pistols, which were DR 1 or 2, that meant shooting someone constantly for ten seconds.
I'm no expert but a gunfight against an unarmoured target is usually over before ten seconds passes. I doubt someone would stand out there for ten seconds without making an effort to dodge, find cover, shoot back, or otherwise find ways to disrupt the attacker aside from hoping that they miss a lot or pace their shooting (which may be an implication). On the attacking side, this doesn't take into account things such as character skill, anticipation of attack, surprise attacking, or hits to critical locations like the head or the joints. On face value, it seems clunky and off given the pace and writing of combat in SARP. A lot can happen in ten seconds.
Furthermore, if you have to punch above your weight in this old 0 to 10 point scale, it requires ten times the amount of firepower, then a hundred, then a thousand, so my DR 1 pistol against someone wearing DR 2 body armour is going to require lots and lots of shots. I need to count on him standing there for a minute and two thirds while I pepper him with lead, spending upwards of six or seven magazines of sidearm ammunition in the process.
Its absurd!
I think I'm going to need a Beretta 92FS (DR 1 or 2 under old DR, PDR2 under new) with a bottomless magazine if I want to take out someone wearing DR 2 armour, which probably wouldn't even be powered. I might ask John Woo if he has one laying around. Might need to break out the doves so the target goes down in dramatic slow motion.
Then - solution!
We had the sense to iterate upwards and to compartmentalise the scale of things between Personnel, Armour and Starship scale damage and structure, which was a number that went upwards and outwards, and used multiples to denote changes in scale, so 1, 5, 10. It meant that everything slotted together neatly. Then Mecha and Frames came along, and they didn't fit anywhere neatly. They were capable of mounting more firepower in a smaller package. They weren't as big as starships, and bigger than power armour, but the way they were presented in roleplay didn't match neatly as their articles gave Armour-scale attacks. Thus, we have
@CadetNewb's proposed system to bridge the gap! Double solution!
However, there's an underlying problem with a numbers based system.
All of these are guidelines subject to interpretation. For example, there's still no concrete way of determining DR for melee weapons/attacks and its left entirely dependent on GM interpretation. This, I find is the main failing: A lot of the DR system hinges on interpretation and enforcement of the rules, which can be ignored completely by the GM for the sake of story or because they disagree.
Of course, the leaps of logic won't be so bad as to go that a 10mm pistol can completely neutralise a power armour flat out, but if they're aiming for the head and hitting it from behind, its bound to make the target's head rattle inside the helmet with a CLUNK! It won't kill them, but it will rattle them -
and that's my interpretation of what would happen.
Similarly, something like a Mindy dragging their aether sabre or a VOID dragging their fusion cutter along the hull of an enemy starship both have SDR damage. Both are intended to be melee weapons, but they have a DR number. Do certain sorts of melee weapons such as powered edges like
Desmond Stroud's Machete get a DR number too? I could imagine it giving a power armour a difficult time, could either chop off a limb at the shoulder, or merely put a scratch in the plate of something-ium.
Again, this is up to interpretation.
The system also falls over and becomes the dreaded 'submission tax' in the NTSE when other peoples' interpretations of the system doesn't line up with the submitters. Instead of being a guideline for assistance, it becomes a bandying-about subject, pushing things around, nerfing or buffing the item based on reviewer feedback rather than reaching a consensus.
I think it'd be best to add damage descriptions as to what happens - maybe list what the items work best on, and what they fail to work against. Hell, even add what happens when you slap someone/ram someone with the item.
Another suggestion, we need
a list of materials in the setting, and their numbers or something. Yarvex, Stone Thread, Zesuaium, Durandium, Nerimum, Yamataiaum, Dura-Neri Alloy, Steel ... There's lots more.
