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Conversion of Armor, Draft 2

This is an area where Palladium and BESM differ greatly and are not directly compatible.  In Palladium, armor is treated as a barrier that must be depleted, or bypassed by a sufficiently high roll, before damage is applied to the wearer.  In BESM, armor is treated as an absorber that reduces the damage character receives, if any.
A perfect mimicry of Palladium in BESM would come down to using Own Big Mecha and using Mecha Points to add armor.  This is cumbersome to say the least as it would require the player to expend character points just for equipment.

For SDC armors, the following formula was devised to determine damage reduction (DR) based on Palladium and BESM descriptive guidelines for real world references (which are, of course, actually arbitrary to begin with).

BESM Base Damage Reduction = (Palladium Armor Rating – 4) / 2.  Then the following adjustments are factored in.  "Soft Armors" such as cloth or leather-based armors subtract 2 from the base formula.  "Mail Armors" such as chain mail or splint armors subtract 1 from the base formula.  "Plate Amors" that have large plates require no immediate adjustment.  The GM can always change this number to suit the game.

This damage reduction is used to determine the level of Light Armor attribute needed.

If the armor covers 50 percent or less of the character (biker jacket), or is listed as “half”, the BESM Partial modifier for Light Armor is used. 

^ PB Armor ^ Armor Rating ^ SDC ^ BESM Description ^ BESM DR ^
| Cloth (Full) | 5 | 6 | ::: | 0 |
| Padded / Quilt (Full) | 8 | 15 | ::: | 0 |
| Soft Leather (Full) | 10 | 20 | Riding Leathers | 1 |
| Hard Leather (Full) | 11 | 30 | ::: | 1 |
| Studded Leather (Full) | 13 | 38 | ::: | 2 |
| Soft Leather (Half) | 6 | 10 | Leather Jacket| 1, partial |
| Hard Leather (Half) | 8  | 12 | ::: | 1, partial |
| Studded Leather (Half) | 9 | 20 | ::: | 2, partial |
| Chain Mail (Full) | 14 | 44 | Chain Mail | 5 |
| Double Mail (Full) | 15 | 55 | :::| 5 |
| Scale Mail (Full) | 15 | 75 | ::: | 5 |
| Splint (Full) | 16 | 82 | :::  | 6 |
| Chain Mail (Half) |9 | 20 | ::: | 5, partial |
| Double Mail (Half) | 10 | 28 |::: | 5, partial |
| Scale Mail (Half) | 11 | 35 | ::: | 5, partial |
| Splint (Half) | 12 | 40 | :::  | 6, partial |
| Plate and Chain (Full) | 15 | 100 | Plate Armor | 5 |
| Plate (Full) | 17 | 160 | ::: | 6 |
| Plate (Half) | 14 | 60 | ::: | 6, partial |

BESM “How strong is my armor?” table for Light Armor
^ Damage Reduction ^ Description ^
| 1-2 | A leather jacket or thick hide |
| 3-5 | Chain Mail or Bullet Proof Vest|
| 6-7| Plate Armor or Dragon Scale |
| 10 -12 | Tactical Body Armor |
| 15| Futuristic Combat Armor |

The following are guidelines from Palladium’s Dragons and Gods for the conversion of MDC to SDC.  If something has or can do MD, it is listed.

MD armors are built using Own Big Mecha and using Mecha Points for armor.
For MDC armors, the following formula was devised to determine damage reduction based on Palladium and BESM descriptive guidelines for real world references.

BESM Damage Reduction = (Palladium Armor Rating – 4) / 2 + 20, or (Palladium Armor Rating/2) + 18.  The same numbers result.  
This damage reduction is used to determine the level of Heavy Armor and Light Armor attributes needed. 

For reference, this table shows the general AR for various Mega Damage armors found in the Megaverse.

^ Examples and General Notes ^ Armor Rating ^ BESM  ^
|Huntsman, Urban Warrior, Juicer, Plastic Man  |13  |24  |
|Busman, Gladiator, Crusader, Explorer  |15 |25 |
| Borgs and Power Armor | 16 | 26 |
| Human Sized Robots (Skelbots) | 17 | 26 |
|Giant Robots, Titan, Skull Walker, Tanks APCs  | 18 |27  |
| Big Boss (or airplane) | 6-8 | 21-22 |
| Mountaineer (armored vehicle) |14 | 25 |
| Military Vehicle| 16-17 | 26 |

BESM “How strong is my armor?” table for Heavy Armor
^ Damage Reduction ^ Description ^
| 10 | APC or heavy tactical body armor suit |
| 20 | Light Tank|
| 30 | WW2-era medium tank |
| 40 | 1960’s-era main battle tank |
| 50 | Battleship or modern main battle tank |
| 60 | “Advanced super mecha” |

Creatures with natural MD or Armor Rating use the Mega Damage formula.