Riot Helmet

Basic Information

A riot helmet is a helmet designed to be worn as part of riot armour - quite often it will be based on a military ballistic helmet design, but may also be derived from motorcyclist helmets or sports equipment. Purposed designed examples will generally be lighter than a military equivalent (not generally needing to resist bullets) but will often provide more coverage as rioters are prone to attack with melee weapons and hazardous liquids (corrosive or infectious material or moltov-cocktails). Face protection is also normal - as is respiratory protection - in some cases a full face respirator may serve both functions, in others plastic visors and/or face cages may be integrated.

Sources

Bibliography

1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

• May be very useful against "critter" attacks - both facehugger like things and more mundane rats and eye-pecking crows are going to be brought to an impasse by a sheet of Lexan across the front of their target's face. A full face respirator and suitable under armour will even stymie the attacks of insect swarms for a while at least. Even large carnivores may be challenged to bite into one of these.
• Should also protect against most human melee attacks absent a decent weapon¹ and most contributions by zombies and the like.
• Often available after the end (or indeed during…) as most collapse scenarios should involve extensive deployment of riot police and soldiers on civil control missions.

Footnotes

1. a club, broken bottle or wooden spear probably won't penetrate - a proper steel spearhead, let alone a sword or axe probably will.