Shields and Cover

    I've been thinking a lot about how to handle shields in the Identity System. For a while, shields were just extra bonuses to a character's Armor. This didn't do much besides make combat tedious, as nobody could damage anybody else without getting lucky or spending a lot of Stress. Then, shields (and by extension cover) were strictly flavor- you had no reason to take cover or use a shield when not doing so wouldn't change anything. That was also...well, it wasn't really a solution at all. Now, in my third attempt, I think I might have gotten it right (or at least less wrong.) 

    In this iteration, shields and cover wouldn't do anything to protect you, but would make it harder for your opponent to hit you. Using a shield or hiding behind cover would subtract from your opponent's attack roll depending on what you're using. Half-cover and smaller shields (heater shields, targes, trash can lids, a very unfortunate turtle) would give the attacker a -1 to hit you, while full cover and larger shields (tower shields, riot shields, human shields) would give the attacker a -2. This might not seem like much, but it could mean the difference between life and death. You could express this on your character sheet with a new tag on a piece of gear, Shield. So for example, a riot shield would look like this:

2-Shield Heavy

    But how to counter a shield? After all, a permanent debuff to incoming attack rolls seems like one hell of an advantage. Well, there's two ways to go about it. One, you could remove or destroy the shield, rendering it a non-issue. Two, you could just use a weapon with the Pierce tag, which already ignores armor, so why not shields as well?

    This mechanic has yet to be tested, but it seems solid enough. It provides a mechanical incentive to play it safer in a fight, but an easy method of dealing with those same tactics when they're used against you. I'll publish updates to this idea once I get a chance to test it more.

    -AA