SOAK and damage types

[Velcerick]

While I'd guess this has been addressed somewhere, I can't find it in the playtest document and it isn't really made clear.

How does SOAK (unspecified) affect different types of damage? It appears to soak all kinds of damage, with a few exception spelled out as follows:

SONIC: Sonic damage is specifically excluded from general SOAK according to the damage type description
POISON: Poison damage is also specifically excluded from SOAK in a couple of places
ION: Ionic damage halves SOAK

What about the following?

Psionic Damage - From Psi-Blast, etc.
Other environmental damage types: Cold, Heat, Electricity, etc.? There are all sorts of enhancements to grant SOAK 5 to these types of damage, but they seem irrelevant even in the face of something mundane like a Kevlar Vest (SOAK 5) or a Battle Suit (SOAK 10) where the general SOAK value is as high as the enhanced material or whatever.

 

[Morrus]

You're right - it isn't clear enough. I'm heading out for my game tonight, so I have to be quick, but the intention is that SOAK applies to attacks which target DEFENSE (not MENTAL DEFENSE) and does not apply to environmental damage unless specified. SOAK is also intended to (generally) stack, although playtesting may alter that - the general idea being that if youw ant to wear armour under your armour, you can, but it may well weigh you down. That might not work well, balance-wise, though, so we'll see.

I'll make sure I fully clarify it in next week's playtest document update! A lot of this niggly suff is ironed out with more strict terminology usage.

 

[Velcerick]

Thanks for the reply, that clears it up a bit. We won't be playing until Tuesday.

What about weapons that do special damage types?

These are the damage types listed in the weapon list, along with my assumptions:

Ballistic - Soak Applies, this is bullets and other projectiles
Stabbing - Soak Applies
Sonic - Soak does not apply, since it specifically states it does not
Heat - Soak Applies because it is not stated otherwise elsewhere (This one is sensible in the sense that almost every weapon does heat damage, but it seems odd in the face of a flamethrower, fireball, or some other less focused source of heat)
Electricity - Soak Applies, because it is not stated otherwise elsewhere (though this one is a lot less common than heat and logically doesn't fit as well)
Force - Soak Applies, because it is not stated otherwise elsewhere (it is an unusual damage type, but force could be similar to sonic or ballistic damage, so its questionable)
Radiation - Soak Applies, because it is not stated otherwise elsewhere (this one doesn't make much sense, and the ongoing poison damage is not SOAKed)
Cold - Soak Applies, because it is not stated otherwise elsewhere (this one doesn't make much sense either)
Ion - Half Soak (though this is only spelled out in starship combat, it seems reasonable that the rule would apply to regular weapons too)

I'd argue that mundane armors like Kevlar Vests should maybe have SOAK (ballistic and stabbing) while the more futuristic armors might be more catch-all. Either way, some damage types should probably be excluded in general.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The way I have been running SOAK is that weapon damage is blocked by generic SOAK, and this includes magical/psionic attacks that specify 'physical damage'. Everything else needs to have the specialized SOAK for that specific damage type.

I imagine that advanced armors have 'environmental soak' that would block the natural elements (fire/cold/etc) while specialized armor would still be needed to block the weird damage types {sonic/ion/radiation}.

As to stacking SOAK, I think this has to be part of the rule set but some simple means to avoid misuse of basic armor types. I haven't been asked this question {playing OLD so less of an issue} but I love CP2020 which does have this as an issue. What do you do with a character who gets subdermal armor Soak 5, Kevlar jumpsuit Soak 5, tailored ballistic clothing Soak 10, and a Kevlar vest Soak 15? Does he get a total Soak of 35?
In a WEG Star Wars game I have a character that is close to this level of armored and playing him is a blast, there have been battles in which I was shooting at the stormtroopers grenades at point blank range in order to trigger them.

I think it has to be up to the GM, but a sidebar on the hazards of allowing one high SOAK tank while other PCs are squishy should be included. I would allow the aforementioned stacking up to SOAK 35 because it makes sense. Wearing a Kevlar Vest with a powered exoskeleton doesn't.

In my OLD playtest, I have already encountered issues with SOAK at low levels and think that 1 point of damage per die should always breach soak as minimum damage. This allows for stacking while not having to track damage to armor or other note-taking intensive method.