Headshot Damage rule/homebrew

Hello all,

After a recent run in with Petrochem security forces, the crew I gm for is feeling a little soured on the way headshots calculate damage raw.

As I understand it, headshots multiply the damage that gets through head armor by 2. The multiplication happens after the armor reduces damage. For a very heavy pistol hitting SP11 in the head, expected average damage roll is 14. (14 - 11) x 2 = a pitiful 6 damage.

If you're fighting for a while, and you want to put some pesky trooper down for good, a headshot seems like the way to do it. But with headshots being fairly uncommon, a helmet will often have full SP while body has probably already taken some hits.

IRL helmets aren't all that "bullet proof", because even without penetration, the bullet still imparts it's significant kinetic energy into the head and neck, which is often fatal or near fatal. So from a realism perspective (yes I know it's a ttrpg, it'll be skewed) these helmets are on some crazy next level protection.

I propose having bullets multiply damage before armor is removed.

14 * 2 - 11 = 17. A huge difference, but the helmet is still life saving. Now headshots in combat are actually worth the risk.

I am a little bit worried this will make headshots too powerful, obviously. It changes nothing in unarmored scenarios, so it's probably fine for most narrative scenes. No one on our team is a headshot machine, headshots usually only happen when someone decides to dump their luck for the session on a single roll. But I want that single roll to actually matter, and not end up with a pitiful amount of damage that feels like wasted luck.

I don't think it entirely invalidates helmets, as you'll still very much prefer taking 17 damage to 28. But IMO headshots should be fight enders, not something you can just shrug off with 100eb helmets.