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Forgot to mention: with just the Encumbering quality and the Primitive gear type, you can get the following spread of IR ratings:

2 (1xLI [Starter if you want to add another quality])
4 (2XLI, 1xLI+E [Starter if you want to add another quality])
5 (1xSI [Starter])
6 (3xLI, 2xLI+E)
7 (1xSI+1xLI, 1xSI+E [Starter])
8 (3xLI+E)
9 (1xSI+2xLI, 1xSI+1xLI+E)
11 (1xSI+2xLI+E)

EDIT: The reason why the primitive gear type is limited in this way is that it cannot get Greater Improvements, and in its place it gets a Lesser Improvement. You can shift those Improvement slots (gear gets 3, for balance/sanity check reasons) down, but never up.

Gear that could get 2 SI would have the following chart:
2 (1xLI [Starter if you want to add another quality])
4 (2xLI, 1xLI+E [Starter if you want to add another quality])
5 (1xSI [Starter])
6 (3xLI, 2xLI+E)
7 (1xSI+1xLI, 1xSI+E [Starter])
8 (3xLI+E)
9 (1xSI+2xLI, 1xSI+1xLI+E)
10 (2xSI)
11 (1xSI+2xLI+E)
12 (2xSI+1xLI, 2xSI+E, 1xGI)
14: (2xSI+1xLI+E, 1xGI+1xLI, 1xGI+E)
17: (1xGI+1xSI)
19: (1xGI+1xSI+1xLI, 1xGI=1xSI+E)
21: (1xGI+1xSI+1xLI+E)

That means that you have 23 possible permutations over 14 possible results (and my math may be off because it's now 12:15 AM here).

EDIT 2: Actually, the numbers above assume you don't do 0 IR, which would include 12 new permutations if I remember my basic math right. Right now I have six armor qualities excluding Encumbering, which range in cost. I have certainly not filled that list. The number of possible interesting armor combinations is likely in the hundreds even before you include 0-protection armor (fire-proof spacesuit!)

I find it hard to comment on this, because I don't see the whole picture. Out of context, this system fragment is just confusing, sorry


What is the source for Improvements? Do players get them at character generation and during gameplay? And then they use them to "level up" their gear and other features?

I think I partly understand what you're doing here but more explanation would be useful in the finished product. If players making their own equipment is a part of the game, I would spend a lot of pages on this process and the thoughts behind it.

In my first RPG (Galactic Legions) I figured it was easier to have equipment generation rules than to list a whole bunch of equipment. The players didn't like it at first. What I did was to use the rules to make most of the standard stuff they'd run into. Having the rules made that a lot easier to do. Once I had a critical mass of basic equipment, the players started to make their own for edge cases.

I'm doing the same thing in the Energy System. Everything is built according to the rules in the character generation section. However, along with my previous experience, I'm providing basic equipment. During play testing, I expect players to ask for equipment I didn't think of and if it's general enough that most players would want it I'll put it in the book.

Ah, sorry, late-night posting forgetting to include everything:

As it stands, gear in PROJECT HAMMER is built in such a way that it can be recorded on a character sheet that takes up about three lines worth of space, with the following fields:

One text box for gear name, one text box for type, one text box for origin (e.g. Technological or Arcane), and three boxes that hold a single letter indicating what improvements gear has. This is followed by a spot for a line of text marking the final effects of the gear. There are also five maintenance check boxes, representing an optional rule for gear maintenance (intended to limit how much gear can be used).

Gear can have three possible levels of improvement: Lesser, Standard, and Greater. The "greatest potential" comes from one of each improvement, but it is possible to put three lesser Improvements or two standard improvements on an item if the character so desires.

At character creation, characters get three items, each with a Standard Improvement. This indicates that they have high-quality gear or gear that is highly specialized (e.g. clothes, basic tools, etc. are free and not listed on the character sheet).

Over the course of play, they can upgrade their items, or acquire new items. Upgrades to their core items are bought with XP; they can always replace damaged or destroyed core items freely.

I'll probably include ~10 examples of starting gear, and ~10 of advanced gear of each type. This doesn't use up as much book real-estate as I thought it would (because the actual "gear" blocks fit in a single line of text).

EDIT: Forgot to mention that one of the goals of the game is to have character sheets that are one-sided. They would be available with notes and other record-keeping on the back. My hope is to have a version of the game that's distributed on the back of sample character sheets.

The procedural gear is probably not going to be part of the character-sheet back references, since it does just require a certain volume (though maybe in like 8 point print I could).

Perhaps I should have been more clear: a quick-start version of the game would go on pre-made character-sheets, sort of a reference system for the actual play.

Characters typically only build gear during character creation and advancement, and the rules are pretty simple (in glorious twelve-point with no columns, it runs around four pages for the armor and weapons if you exclude the examples [and that's including the comprehensive list of qualities, which you probably don't need in its entirety on a reference], and while I haven't yet added tools they will be shorter).

Keep in mind that all gear, regardless of type, is designed to fit all its information in a 80-character line, and that's if you don't do any optimization at all (e.g. "+12 Injury Reduction, Mobility Enhancement, Warding, All-Environment" for super-high end armor or "12+6 damage, Long Ranged" for a baseline weapon). If you wanted to make it shorter, you could easily ("12 IR, Mobility Enh., Warding, All-Env." and... well, you don't need to abbreviate that weapon's stats).

Weapons have three common scaling values. Armor has one. The interesting distinctions come from weapon qualities.