How does Body Armor work in MGP Paranoia (2017)?

Question

I'm just starting a series of Paranoia (2017), having not run Paranoia since 5th Edition (a long time ago).

I'm confused about the cards, in particular, 'Body Armour'. The card states that it has an Action Order of Athletics-2 and is a level 2 item. Following the rules for actions, that suggests that a player can choose to use the armour by playing it as an action, getting an initiative of Athletics-2, and when doing so, they get a bonus of +2 against taking damage.

Does this mean that if a player who has Body Armour doesn't specifically use it as an action, that it does nothing? That would make for rather odd armour, as you'd have to choose between getting the defence bonus from armour OR performing any other action.

I feel I'm missing something important...?

Answer 1

Ok, here's how I'm going to run it at the next session:

• The character with the Body Armour card has body armour that just works without it being actioned. They'll get to use it as armour to deflect damage or make them harder to hit, or one of the other suggested armour systems in the GM guide. (I haven't decided yet.)
• If they want to use their card as an initiative card, it gets them (as stated) an initiative of Athletics-2. It seems unlikely people will want to do that, as they'd have a very low initiative, but it'd be better than having no cards at all. But if they do, there isn't really a specific action they can take with it, so they'll probably just be taking a basic action at that initiative level, optionally discarding it to get a bonus to their basic action. (Of course, if they want to go a bit off piste and throw the armour at somebody or try to restrain somebody using it, that might work: I'd probably even give them the +2 card bonus for doing that!)