We are currently starting a post apocalyptic superhero campaign - mutants, psionics and intermittent high tech.
Do to the nature of the PC's we are doing a decent amount of damage (8d lethal) this brings into consideration the damage we will be doing to attack forms like swords or similar. Looking through stuff and the rules I'm getting melee weapons with about 2d armour and a few hits which will break after a couple (or 1) blow from a character. Some of these melee weapons are physical forms of paranormal powers so the question is - should they also be only a 2d armour etc or should they be enhanced and if so should what level to??

There are a couple options.

1) Upgrade the tech. If you are dealing with superior materials tech, then the goodies can be tougher. If the PC's are tossing around 8d melee attacks, then the weapons themselves have to be hellaciously tough. A 20mm cannon does 8d, but it does not survive the attack. A weapon that can dish this out repeatedly does not adhere to science as we know it, so increasing the armor of the item is warranted for this gameworld. The basic notion is that a weapon should be able to parry itself without being damaged, and block itself multiple times without being broken.

2) The rule for paranormal items in EABA v2 is that gadgets have half their power level (as in +3 = 1d) in armor and a quarter their power level in hits. And, they get double their base armor when deflecting or defending against something in their designed role (like a sword or shield). This is more or less a formalized version of 1).

Greg
Thanks - The issues are comming when the really strong characters are picking up swords etc and hitting each other with them, it looks like they'll have to carry around a lot of weapons

The other 'paranormal' powers which end up as items I'll pass on to the GM, from my reading of what you said then if it's a melee weapon it'll be able to hold up to the normal attack the character can make

I think Mythbusters did an episode where they tried to cut through a hot machinegun barrel with a katana. Busted a lot of blades, if I recall correctly...

If swords are going to be so ineffective versus the characters, I'd think that some of their enemies might start cranking out tougher weapons, like warhammers and battleaxes.

It's not quite that bad for the Bad guys - there are more normals around and a range of less powerful people. 'The wildlings' are also mutants of various sorts so they maybe comming up with powers such rather than trying to hit us with swords etc.

Hopefully will find out on Monday as that might be the first session (assuming Silverfalkon has his technologist's gadgets figured out by then )

I think your players would be good guinea pigs for the EABA v2 power system, and there is a decent chance I'll have the revisions, including gadgets, done by the end of the weekend if any of them are interested.

Yes - there are definitely some things I would like to try but getting to grips with all of the new stuff will be hard. We'll try to have a look as we get to grips with this power level

The gadgets seem to be pretty solid now, just trying to get a handle on vehicles. The scaling up of gadgets to multi-ton size has been its own bundle of headaches. Especially when trying to fit them into a real-world performance model. Doing them as powers is no problem, since real-world constraints don't apply!