FalloutTTSRPG

💎Hardness

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💎 Hardness represents a material’s resistance to Physical damage (ballistic, kinetic, or concussive).
It determines whether physical attacks are blocked, chip away at cover, or penetrate through it.

Hardness applies to Cover Objects and to 🦾 Power Armor pieces. Both resolve incoming attacks with the penetration rules below rather than by subtracting a value. Ordinary worn armor does not use Hardness — it uses 🛡️ Physical DT.

A Cover Object’s Hardness is determined by its 🧱 Material — see the 🧱 Materials table for the canonical values (wood, concrete, steel, etc.). A Power Armor piece carries its Hardness on its own stat block.

Effect of Hardness

When a Physical ⚔ Attack strikes a Covered Limb, compare the attack’s damage to the cover’s 💎 Hardness.

Penetration Resolution

Let:

  • D = Physical damage of the attack
  • R = the cover’s 💎 Hardness
Damage ComparisonResult
D < RThe attack is fully blocked. No damage is dealt to the cover or the target.
R ≤ D < 2RThe attack chips the cover. The cover takes D − R damage. The target takes no damage.
D ≥ 2RThe attack penetrates the cover. The cover takes D − R damage, and the target takes D − 2R damage.

Reducing Hardness

Three weapon tags cut through Hardness. Because the bar to penetrate is 2R, every point of Hardness removed is worth 2 damage — which is why they apply differently.

TagAgainst HardnessLasts
Piercing XReduces Hardness by half X, rounded down (min 0)The attack only
Sunder XOn a hit, roll d6; on X or lower, adds Sundered 1 — −1 HardnessPermanent until 🔧 repaired — stacks across attacks
🕯 Melt XReduces Hardness and ♨️ Energy Resistance by X — Cover onlyPermanent until 🔧 repaired — stacks across attacks

Piercing is halved so that a point of it is worth about the same whether it meets 🛡️ DT or Hardness. Sunder does not bypass the plate — it ruins it, and the damage stays.

Sunder X applies to 🦾 Power Armor and 🚓 vehicles only. Against Cover Objects it does nothing; 🕯 Melt X is the tag that wears cover down. Against ordinary worn armor Sunder costs a step of 🔧 Condition instead — see Sunder X.

Anti-Materiel Rifle vs. X-01 torso

The rifle carries Piercing 4 and Sunder 2; the plate has Hardness 10.

  • Shot 1 — Piercing 4 halves to 2, so R is 8 and the attack needs 16 to get through. Sunder 2 means a 1 in 3 chance the plate gains Sundered 1 and drops to Hardness 9 until repaired.
  • Every hit rolls again, whether or not it got through. Roughly every third one takes another point.
  • After four triggers the plate is at 6, halving to 4, and needs only 8 to penetrate.

The first rounds ring off the plate. Then it starts coming apart.

See Also

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