Reexamining the Exoskeleton

Exoskeletons
get short shrift in the Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn rules.

The only
mention of them is in the Equipment section with some very succinct, though
limited use rules. It appears that the only exoskeletons allowed are those that
are custom-made so they can be “specially fitted to the character that will
wear it, and cannot be worn by anyone else.”

Although
a character wearing such an outfit can move “twice as fast as a normal
character, can jump 5 meters straight up (in 1g), gains a bonus of +20 to hit
in melee and does +10 points of damage in melee,” this thing is no Iron Man™
suit and it’s a power hog.

The
exoskeleton only weighs five kilograms, though it is a mechanical and metal
frame worn on the outside of a character’s body and uses 1 SEU per minute while
in operation.

Contemplate
that for a moment.

A Star
Frontiers robot, with a standard body, can be equipped with a Type I
parabattery which provides 600 SEUs, allowing it to operate for 100 hours or a
range of 1,000 kilometers.<a name="_ftnref1" href="http://starfrontiers.us/#_ftn1">[1]</a> Such robots include
security and combat models.

But, if
you equip a player character with an exoskeleton and strap on that very same
parabattery, it will only allow the unit to operate for 600 minutes or 10 hours
of operation. More likely a character is going to use a beltpack or power
backpack, so you can either operate one for 50 or 100 minutes.

What
gives with this statistic? Although it’s lightweight, the exoskeleton has
pretty limited range.

Most
likely, the TSR rules makers were trying to provide some sort of “game
balance.” After all, imagine all your characters running around all the time in
exoskeletons and causing mayhem and destruction… but would that necessarily be
a horrible thing?

One
fairly recent movies was “Elysium” (2013), starring Mark Damon. His character
was outfitted with an exoskeleton that supplies superhuman strength, but it
required the outfit it to be plugged into the user’s brain. The basic Star
Frontiers contraption is a bit different than either of this example, but
“Eysium” offers a visual display of what these devices can do.

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<a name="_ftn1" href="http://starfrontiers.us/#_ftnref1">[1]</a>
That figure comes from “Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes.”

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