Robots as Spaceships: Paver-Guard Battlesuits

On the rim of civilized space, there are monsters. Alien beasts of every description imaginable. Some are hostile and irritable. Some are fearless and stealthy predators. Some are driven by strange hive-mind bent on destroying human habitation. Don't rely on exterminators to keep you safe. They will avenge you, but if you want to stay safe, you'll need Armor. Armor like PaverGaurd. 

I've talked about creating power suits and walkers in earlier posts, but I really only made one. Here I present a spectrum of TL 10 battlesuits of all sizes.

 PaverGaurd is a series of Power-Armor designed for life on frontier planets that might have hostile alien infestations. Its TL10, and uses the standard costs for spaceship legs. Legality Class varies by setting: the legality class of power armor is usually LC2 in Gurps, but the setting PaverGaurd was inspired by considers it to be civilian equipment, at least on the frontier, so higher Legality Classes may be appropriate. PaverGaurd is built as power armor, so it uses its wear's speed and does not have full vehicle statistics, and uses the equation for armor I give here. If worn by someone with a very high move, it may be appropriate to limit their speed to 10 if using the standard leg speed rules, or to less if using downshifted legs. The armor split is what I called "Standard Humanoid Armoring" in my earlier post, applying the higher number to the head and torso armor.

Name	ST	DR	Weight	TL	Cost
PaverGaurd-50	ST 14	38/28	50lbs	TL 10	$2,500
PaverGaurd-70	ST 15	54/40	70lbs	TL 10	$3,500
PaverGaurd-100	ST 17	77/57	100 lbs	TL 10	$5,000
PaverGaurd-120	ST 18	92/68	120 lbs	TL 10	$6,000
PaverGaurd-150	ST 19	107/79	150 lbs	TL 10	$7,500
PaverGaurd-200	ST 20	117/87	200 lbs	TL 10	$10,000
PaverGaurd-300	ST 23	135/99	300 lbs	TL 10	$15,000
PaverGaurd-400	ST 25	148/110	400 lbs	TL 10	$20,000
PaverGaurd-500	ST 27	160/118	500 lbs	TL 10	$25,000
PaverGaurd-600	ST 27	170/126	600 lbs	TL 10	$30,000
PaverGaurd-700	ST 30	178/132	700 lbs	TL 10	$35,000
PaverGaurd-800	ST 32	186/138	800 lbs	TL 10	$40,500
PaverGaurd-1000	ST 36	201/149	1,000 lbs	TL 10	$50,000
PaverGaurd-1250	ST 40	217/161	1,250 lbs	TL 10	$62,500
PaverGaurd-1500	ST 44	201/149	1,500 lbs	TL 10	$75,000
PaverGaurd-1750	ST 47	243/179	1,750 lbs	TL 10	$87,500
PaverGaurd-2000	ST 50	253/187	2,000 lbs	TL 10	$100,000
PaverGaurd-2250	ST 51	263/195	2,250 lbs	TL 10	$112,500
PaverGaurd-2500	ST 53	274/202	2,500 lbs	TL 10	$125,000
PaverGaurd-2750	ST 54	282/208	2,750 lbs	TL 10	$137,500
PaverGaurd-3000	ST 56	290/214	3,000 lbs	TL 10	$150,000

PaverGuard numbers are just the weight of the suit, for ease of remembrance. A metric society probably halves those numbers and uses them as the approximate kilogram weight. Another naming scheme might be to use Roman numerals: The Lightest armor becomes Paverguard - L, the Heaviest Pavergaurd-M, and an 800 lb suit is Paverguard-DCCC. 

Analysis

These armor values come out just above ultra tech, which means they're probably in the right ballpark.  They are also much much cheaper, as spaceships in general tends to be cheaper.

With such a range of power armor, which suit to buy becomes an interesting decision. A character might decide to just keep making their armor bigger and heavier for more and more protection and strength. That costs money, of course, but if anyone has the cash spare on bigger and bigger suits of power armor, its a Player Character. Its worth remembering that the armor has to be moved around: power armor doesn't move as quickly as ultra-tech vehicles, and it take the equivalent of a truck to move around a half-ton suit of armor, while a character in 70 lb armor can probably keep their battlesuit on while in civilian transportation.

PaverGuard is intended to be my default power armor resource, as TL 10 is kind of the sweet spot for Power Armor. There are lots of things we could tweak though: splitting up the armor differently, using a different Tech Level, intentionally using cheaper armor, and using cheaper leg options. 

I hope you find this armor useful!