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What skills would be required to take something like the left over carcass of a fury beetle or some other MD creature into a suit of armor?

well the first question you have to ask is what is the best description of how the material works in relation to real materials.

for instance wool off a sheep or hair off a dog (or mdc equivalent) would be tailoring, weaving and similar (basically turn the hair into cloth, then make clothing (armor) from the cloth.

skin, hides and similar would typically be like working leather

chitin and similar would be a bit different, because you have to decide (as the gm) if there is a way to "soften and mold/shape it, and get it to reharden or do you have to cut and shape it like pieces of metal

guardiandashi wrote:well the first question you have to ask is what is the best description of how the material works in relation to real materials.

for instance wool off a sheep or hair off a dog (or mdc equivalent) would be tailoring, weaving and similar (basically turn the hair into cloth, then make clothing (armor) from the cloth.

skin, hides and similar would typically be like working leather

chitin and similar would be a bit different, because you have to decide (as the gm) if there is a way to "soften and mold/shape it, and get it to reharden or do you have to cut and shape it like pieces of metal

So what skills for working it like leather?

And what skills if it is plate like Chitin?

i would assume you'd need the skills for working with each of the materials involved*, plus Armorer/Field Armorer.**

i'd probably also have you roll each several times, and you'd only fail completely if you fall all the skill rolls.. fail some of the rolls and i'd downgrade the MDC and/or weight/physical skills stats appropriately.

* so sewing for fabric, basic mechanics and/or blacksmithing for metal, carpentry for wood, skin and prepare animal hides for leather, bone, and chitin.

** armorer/field armor is the more important part.. the above skills govern how well you understand the material involved and how to cut, shape, and assemble them together according to those materials. Armorer is the skill that lets it be armor instead of just clothing, by informing you of what parts of the body need in terms of protection, the kinds of shapes needed, and so on.

if you want decorative elements i'd tack on some extra skills. want the wood bits to be decorated? Whittling. want words or art added to the cloth or leather? Calligraphy and/or art skill. want a weapon built into the forearm? pobably an extra feidl armorer role, possible a weapons engineer role if it is complex enough.


i'd probably also allow characters with the Jury Rig skill to roll that once if they fail the armorer skill rolls, to offset one failed roll.. the result would not be pretty, but would be functional.

Sewing, but I'd add in big penalties for essentially trying to use vibro-stilletos or power tools to insert the needles through the megadamage hide....

Here's how I would do it.

Minimum Required skills:
Skin/Prepare hides: necessary to harvest the hide/shell in such a way that the material isn't disgusting/smelly and doesn't rot.
Leather Working: This is actually useful for making SDC leather armor in canon (RUE p324), and it could arguably be applied to M.D.C. hides as well.

The result of this would be a crude and ugly armor with significant mobility penalties and an A.R. It doesn't fit well and looks like something a primitive person would wear. However, these drawbacks could be reduced or eliminated by including additional skills:

Sewing taken once could help to close some of the gaps in the armor by making modest alterations (improved A.R).
Sewing taken twice becomes the Tailoring skill per canon RUE (p308). This would dramatically improve the fit and appearance of the resulting suit, possibly allowing the AR to go away entirely and reducing or possibly eliminating movement penalties for suits custom-fit to the wearer.
Weapons Engineer canonically allows a character to "add armor" and makes the character an expert welder (RUE p313), allowing a suit to incorporate MDC metal. It could also allow the player to incorporate weapons into the suit itself a la Boba Fett.
Camouflage could enable the suit to be colored or modified to break up the profile of the wearer and possibly blend into certain environments better, which reduce or eliminate prowl penalties or even provide a modest situational bonus.
Field Armorer could be useful for salvaging pieces/plates from a ruined body armor suit and attaching them to the homemade suit. Using this skill might allow for a tougher suit, but by itself it would look pretty ugly, like a Mad Max kind of armor, and it probably wouldn't move very well.
Concealment could help for adding in hidden pockets, pouches, and places for small backup weapons.
Chemistry: Analytical could be helpful for improving the flexibility or durability of M.D.C. leather.
Xenology could be useful for identifying species that could provide useful materials for a homemade M.D.C. suit.
Art could be useful for making an armor look awesome, putting some kind of heraldry on it, et cetera, or for helping to color it for helping with camouflage (think the Hunger Games Peta, but less over the top)
Whittling/Sculpting could be useful for creating custom armor plates out of horn, chitin, or shell for key areas that would improve the M.D.C. rating of the armor.
Hunting could help increase some of these relevant skills
Mechanical Engineer could allow the character to incorporate some non-weapon surprises (extend-o-pistol devices up the sleeves, electromagnets in the gloves, Batman toys, et cetera).

Required tools: an M.D.C. cutting tool of any variety would do. Vibro-Knives in particular would be a common and fairly easy-to-acquire tool.

Optional tools: A Wilk's Laser Torch would be ideal for cutting/shaping MDC materials and welding. Other useful tools would include Measuring tape, appropriate treatment chemicals/paints, patterns, and a setup something for stretching a hide or molding it into desired shapes. For incorporating gizmos, you'd likely need a full suite of machine tools, an extensive chemistry set, and a small electronics lab.

tl;dr you could plausibly make a crude homemade armor with a couple of skills and a vibro-knife. If you really want this to be a focus for your character (Boba Fett meets Batman), you might take as many as 14 skills and get an extensive tool set. That could be quite an interesting approach.

I'd also like to know time needed and how many suits per beetle. Ideally a guideline for every single MDC creature you could possibly make armor from.

Axelmania wrote:I'd also like to know time needed and how many suits per beetle. Ideally a guideline for every single MDC creature you could possibly make armor from.

I'm no tanner, but I'd figure on some days to treat the leather, 12 hours or so to make a basic full suit from scratch with all the right materials and good tools, and additional features (plates, gizmos) would be a judgment call.