GUNS, LOTS OF GUNS: EQUIPMENT IN THE MATRIX AND THE DESERT

As mentioned before, there is no longer a form of currency in the Real World.  Everything is barter and trade, and so the human cities and larger Tribes came together and established a standard value for everything.  For the sake of simplicity – and perhaps out of nostalgia for the past – they decided to call the standard a Dollar.  For instance, a trusty SMG may only be worth a few hundred Dollars, while a good hydroponics farm may be worth a few thousand Dollars.

CALCULATING LOAD

Each piece of equipment that the character takes into the Matrix uses up some of the bandwidth of the broadcasting equipment. This bandwith usage is known as Load. Each piece of equipment has a specific Load, which is listed in the table below with the appropriate gun types.
There is a limit to how much a person can download before being noticed.  Hovercrafts have a Load Limit as to how much they can transmit safely into the Matrix without raising alarms.  This is known as Load.  Each item, of clothing, each gun, each Harrier Jump Jet that Freeminds take into the Matrix increases this Load – even the act of projecting a single consciousness into the Matrix is considerable.  Load can also be increased and decreased depending on the strength of the broadcast signal, and proximity to a receiver Node.  The generic Nebuchadnezzar-class hovercraft is equipped with electronics with a Load Limit of 5000 at 5 kilometres.

FIREARMS

HAND-TO-HAND WEAPONS

ARMOUR

Armour: the one thing stopping that bullet from entering your chest. Armour in the Matrix is constructed in the Construct according to the wearer's specifications; like weapons, they more complicated and useful the piece of armour, the more load it consumes.
Constructing Armour.
There are several armour shapes, as follows:

Jacket – your everyday, open-fronted, upper-body garment.  Covers arms and torso.  They may be made from any kind of material, and may be plated.
Duster – the longer version of the jacket, the duster covers the upper legs in addition to the torso and arms.  May be made from any kind of material, and may be plated.
Thrasher Suit – essentially a jumpsuit made from damage-resistant materials.  Popular with the courier crowd.  Covers all areas except the head. May be made from any kind of material, but may only be plated with plastic, either Regular or Moulded.  Unless plated, Thrasher Suits do not accrue Speed penalties due to layering.
Body Armour – custom-tailored armour, designed to be undetectable under clothing.  Comes in three levels: shirt, which covers the torso and upper arms; half-suit, which covers the torso, upper arms, and upper legs, and full suit, which covers all areas except the head.  It may only be made from ProMax, Kevlar or KevlarMax, and may only be plated with Moulded plastic.  Body Armour does not accrue Speed penalties when layering armour.
Longcoat/Greatcoat – the full-length, floor-brushing coat.  Covers all areas except the head.  May be made from any material, and may be plated.  Automatically reduces the character’s Speed by 1.
Skirt/Pants – covers the upper legs (for short varieties) or the entire leg (for longer ones).  May be made out of any material, but cannot be plated.
Cloak – for the superhero wannabes. Cloaks cover all areas except the head, with one proviso: they can’t be moving.  If they are, draw a card when the character is struck: red suits, the cloak was there to protect; black suits, it was billowing, as cloaks tend to do, and wasn’t there to stop the damage.
Helmet – a rarity for Freeminds, helmets cover the all-important head.  May be made of any material, and may be (and usually are) plated.
Boots – the all-important shoe factor.  Boots come in ankle-, knee-(Lower leg) and calf-(all Leg)length.  Calf-length boots automatically reduce the character’s Speed by 1 – have you ever tried to run in those things?  May be made of any material (usually Leather), and may be plated.
Shirt – a lighter version of personal protection, sliding in somewhere between Body Armour and the Jacket.  Covers the Torso and arms.  May be made of any material, and may be plated.
Vest – a stripped-down version of the Shirt.  Covers the Torso only.  May be made out of any material, and may be plated.
Now that you;ve chosen what the armour protects, it's time to see how well it does its job. The player must choose the composition of the armour, and whether or not it is plated.  There are several types of material which the piece may be constructed from:
Ordinary Cloth: what most clothing is made out of. Not too good at stopping things, but light on the Load.
Heavy Cloth: the rugged stuff that goes into the construction of heavy coats and cheap riot gear.
Ballistic Cloth: a combination weave of Kevlar (spider silk) and ordinary cloth.  The result is cheap and relatively sturdy.
Leather: good old tanned hide.
Ballistic Leather: hide reinforced with Kevlar.
ProMax material: tightly-woven material designed to resist attacks from knives
Kevlar: material woven from spider silk, which protects well against ballistic attacks, at the cost of being susceptible to blade attacks.
KevlarMax: a Kevlar/ProMax composite offering the best of both worlds.  Unfortunately, KevlarMax is so heavy it automatically reduces the character’s Speed by 1.
Plating adds rigid protection to the piece of armour by adding plates over vital areas, like the chest, back and forearms.  There are two types: Regular, and Moulded.  Regular plates are produced en masse, and are cheaper to obtain – not to mention easier on the Load of the ship.  Moulded plates are custom-fitted to the character, which reduces Speed penalties for the type of plating by one.  On the down side, they are more expensive and more detailed, and hence have a higher Load factor.
Plastic plating consists of plates of hard plastic, about 1cm thick.  While bulky, it won’t set off MAD scanners.
Ceramic plating is what most low-threat enforcement vests contain.  Ceramic plates are similar to those used on the Space Shuttle, to ablate friction and the force of re-entry; hence, they provide greater protection against Heat attacks.  Ceramic-plated boots add 1 point of damage to any foot-attacks (Martial Arts).
Steel plates are the best armour money can buy.  Unfortunately, the protection comes at a cost: they reduce the character’s movement drastically, as well as setting off any MAD scanners the character may walk through.  Steel plates add 2 points of damage to any foot-based attacks (Martial Arts).

Armour weights tend to be ignored in the game, to an extent.  If a character is wearing more than one plated piece of armour, subtract one from their Speed for plastic plates, two for ceramic, and three for steel.  This counts for every piece of plated armour; so a character wearing a bullet-proof vest (regular ceramic plates) and a ceramic-plated long-coat would have their Speed reduced by 4.
Layering armour: layering armour reduces the effectiveness of the layers. If the character layers armour, only one article is at full value; the others are reduced by half, with Absorption Values rounded down to the nearest whole number, and Armour Values rounded down to the nearest 10%.  Also, layering more than two articles of armour automatically reduces the character’s Speed by 1 per extra layer.
When the player has decided what kind of armour they want, they have to figure out the Load for each item.  This is done by taking the article’s Basic Load, and multiplying it by the Material Multiplier.

Note that if the article is plated, the Material Multipliers are multiplied, not added; the only exception is the Moulded option for plating, which is added to the plating type multiplier.

Engel wants to get her Persona a suit of KevlarMax body armour, calf-high leather boots, and a plated leather duster.  She decides to plate the body armour, which brings the Load for it to (40×2×2=)160; the Armour Ratings for it are 5/30-4/30-3/30-2/20.  Engel decides to make the boots Ballistic Leather, but leaves them unplated, for a total Load of (20×1.5=)30, and Armour Ratings of 2/20-1/10-0/10-0/10.  Sticking with the style, Engel makes the duster Ballistic Leather as well, and adds moulded plastic plates, so she avoids Speed penalties.  The Load for the duster is (40×1.5×2=)120, and it has Armour Ratings of 3/20-1/10-2/20-1/20.  Following the rules for layering armour, Engel’s total Armour Ratings when she is loaded for bear are: 7/50-4/30-4/40-2/30.  The total Load for her armour is 310.