Every Cover Object is built from a Material. The Material determines the object’s 💎 Hardness (Physical resistance) and ♨️ Energy Resistance (Energy resistance). 📏 Size, 🧱 Durability and 🧩 Cover Object Qualities are tracked on each individual object — a wooden crate and a wooden barricade share the same Hardness/Energy Resistance, but differ in Durability and which Qualities they carry.
This decouples what something is made of from how big and how reinforced it is. Adding a new Cover Object is as simple as picking a Material from this table and assigning a Size, a Durability, and a list of Qualities.
Material Table
| Material | Hardness | Energy Resistance | Typical Qualities | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upholstery | 1 | 1 | 🔥 Flammable | Mattresses, sofas, padded chairs, car seats |
| Glass | 1 | 1 | Thin | Windows, display cases, lab equipment |
| Plywood | 2 | 1 | 🔥 Flammable, often Thin | Cheap doors, plywood barricades, billboards |
| Drywall | 2 | 2 | Thin | Interior walls, partitions |
| Plastic | 2 | 3 | 🔥 Combustible | Trash cans, plastic crates, lawn furniture |
| Wood | 3 | 2 | 🔥 Flammable | Wooden crates, doors, furniture, tree trunks |
| Sheet Metal | 4 | 3 | sometimes 🔥 Combustible | Car body panels, appliances, dumpsters, road signs |
| Porcelain | 4 | 5 | sometimes Thin | Bathtubs, toilets, sinks, tile, enameled appliances |
| Sandbag / Earth | 5 | 4 | — | Sandbag walls, earthen berms, packed-dirt barricades |
| Cinder Block | 5 | 5 | sometimes 🏛️ Structural | Cinder-block walls, low barriers |
| Lead | 5 | 7 | ☢ Rad Shielded X | Lead plating, pre-war reactor shielding, old radiology rooms |
| Brick | 6 | 5 | sometimes 🏛️ Structural | Brick walls, chimneys, fireplace surrounds |
| Stone | 7 | 6 | sometimes 🏛️ Structural | Masonry walls, stone pillars, boulders |
| Steel Plate | 7 | 5 | sometimes 🏛️ Structural | Vehicle armor plating, industrial machinery, blast doors |
| Concrete | 7 | 7 | sometimes 🏛️ Structural | Concrete barriers, jersey barriers, highway dividers |
| Reinforced Concrete | 9 | 8 | 🏛️ Structural, maybe ☢ Rad Shielded X | Bunker walls, bridge supports, pre-war military construction |
| Vault Steel | 10 | 10 | 🏛️ Structural, ☢ Rad Shielded X | Vault doors, vault interior bulkheads, pre-war secure storage |
How to Use This Table
When stating up a new Cover Object:
- Pick a Material from the table — this sets the object’s Hardness and Energy Resistance.
- Assign a 📏 Size — this decides whether the object gives Half or Full Cover.
- Assign a 🧱 Durability value based on the object’s bulk and structural mass.
- List the object’s 🧩 Cover Object Qualities. The “Typical Qualities” column is a starting suggestion, not a requirement — a wooden crate is usually Flammable, but a wooden crate stored in a damp basement might not be.
Example minimal stat block:
Wooden Crate — Material: Wood (Hardness 3, Energy Resistance 2). Size Small. Durability 8. Qualities: 🔥 Flammable, Thin.
Notes on Specific Materials
- Glass / Plywood / Drywall all carry Thin by default — these are cover you take in a pinch, not cover that holds up to sustained fire. Half Cover behind a window pane lets you ride out a single shot but rarely a second.
- Upholstery is the lowest-protection material in the table on purpose. Foam and stuffing stop almost nothing — a sofa or a mattress is concealment, not protection. It earns its place by being bulky (full Concealment Bonus, no Thin) rather than by stopping anything.
- Sheet Metal is intentionally close to Wood in Hardness — most car doors and appliances are surprisingly fragile to small arms. The Energy Resistance edge over Wood reflects metal’s slight advantage against lasers, but it doesn’t help against fire-based weapons (and the 🔥 Combustible quality on some appliances makes them actively worse).
- Porcelain is dense but brittle. Its Hardness matches Sheet Metal and its Energy Resistance beats it — fired ceramic shrugs off lasers and heat — but porcelain fixtures carry low 🧱 Durability, so they shatter once anything gets through. A bathtub is the best cover in a bathroom; a sink is one shot from gone.
- Lead trades Hardness for excellent Energy Resistance and unlocks meaningful ☢ Rad Shielded X values. A lead-plated wall is a defensive sweet spot against radiation explosives.
- Reinforced Concrete and Vault Steel are intentionally high-end. Encountering Vault Steel as cover should feel like a major environmental beat — you’ve found yourself inside something pre-war.
See Also
- 💎 Hardness — the Physical resistance mechanic
- ♨️ Energy Resistance — the Energy resistance mechanic
- 🧱 Durability — object-specific HP track
- 🧩 Cover Object Qualities — object-specific tags
- Cover — the full Cover system
- 💥 Damage Types — Physical vs. Energy vs. RADS