Zombie Problems

[Edsel]

THE PROBLEM

 

My characters have had a couple of encounters with zombies so far.  They were originally dismayed by how hard the creatures were to eliminate with gunfire.  This is due mainly to the way the zombies are built.  They have 4 resistant PD, +2 resistant PD verses slashing and piercing attacks, and +2 more resistant PD verses piercing attacks.  This means that they count as having 8 resistant PD verses bullets and shotgun pellets.  The group has found two very effective methods to combat them.

 

(1) As long as the range and surrounding permit, an explosive shotgun slug works wonders.  It does a 2 ½d6 KA in a 4m radius and it counts as an Energy Attack.  The zombie build has only 2 resistant ED so the slugs are now referred to as “zombie shredders” by at least one of the team.

 

(2) One of the other characters has started carrying around a magazine or two loaded with AP ammo.  Due to the way the zombies are built Armor Piercing ammo is much more effective against them than regular ammo.

 

I can see the explosive shotgun slugs being effective.  A blast is going to be a whole-body damaging attack and the term “zombie shredder” is an apt description.  What I have a problem with is the effectiveness of AP verses zombies.  I believe that the intent of the zombie build is to make clear that things that cause small isolated areas of damage (like piercing attacks and bullets) shouldn’t be nearly as debilitating to a creature of their nature.  Therefore it seems rather silly that an armor piercing bullet, which will make an even smaller and well defined puncture, should be much more effective.

 

REMEDIES

 

You could harden the zombie’s resistant PD or apply a Naked Advantage that hardens their PD verses puncturing attacks.  You wouldn’t want to give them a blanket hardened to their defenses because it is possible that some non-slashing and non-piercing forms of armor piercing physical attacks are out there which could be more effective.

 

You could simply implement a house rule that says that AP bullets and similar attacks just don’t work due to the FX of the situation.  However I prefer to use as few house rules as I can since a plethora of them can be off putting to gamers new to the group.

 

You could replace their resistant PD with Damage Negation.  However Damage Negation seems to be used more often to simulate creatures that regenerate rapidly from damage (like vampires and werewolves) and obviously zombies do not regenerate.

 

I am thinking of doing something like this.  Give all Zombies 2 resistant PD & ED and 25% Damage Reduction verses all attacks to simulate how tough they are and how they keep operating after taking a pounding.  Give them 50% Damage Reduction verses slashing attacks and 75% Damage Reduction verses piercing attacks.  This would still mean that the explosive shotgun slug would be effective but bullets, including AP bullets, wouldn’t be.

 

Anyone care to offer any opinions or input to this?

[Beast]

activate 15- on all def and hardened all def

the 15- is to simulate a head shot

or use the hit location chart

[Cancer]

Limit availability of that ammo.

[BhelliomRahl]

Some of my players have also complained about the difficulty to damage a Zombie.  What I tell them is take a look at your weapon.  Its got a range of 250m with no Range Penalty due to the Sights.  With a standard Zombie's Speed of 2 and Movement of 4m.  About 15-turns moving at Non-Combat Speed to get into melee; most of my PC have speed 4, even with single shots they will fire about 60 shots, with approximately OCV8 vs. DCV3.  You are going to be putting a lot of bullets into them before they get close.  If they get close run away and then start shooting again, repeat as needed.

 

The other factor is that Zombies are built as Automations, so every body they lose reduces Speed by 1, Strength by 10 or removes 1 sense (MHI p.213).  I usually say that Head Shots reduce Speed, so only 2 Body is needed to effectively disable a Zombie.

 

We use Hit Locations in my game, although Zombies' have the No Hit Location Power, I generally say that if a Zombie takes a 1/3 of it Body to a limb (Arms & Legs), that limb is destroyed.  In one encounter had a zombie with no legs and 1 arm trying to bite a PC's ankle; It was solved with the traditional lead lobotomy.

[Lord Liaden]

Personally, I think it's good that the hunters have to put some thought into taking down zombies. Many of the players will have seen movies or television shows in which bullets cut down hordes of zombies like wheat, and expect these to be the same kind of pushovers. Realizing they don't know MHI zombies is healthy for them.

 

As Steve Long has written elsewhere, he worked closely with the MHI author to design characters and creatures corresponding to how they're depicted in the source material.

[Lord Liaden]

I can see the explosive shotgun slugs being effective.  A blast is going to be a whole-body damaging attack and the term “zombie shredder” is an apt description.  What I have a problem with is the effectiveness of AP verses zombies.  I believe that the intent of the zombie build is to make clear that things that cause small isolated areas of damage (like piercing attacks and bullets) shouldn’t be nearly as debilitating to a creature of their nature.  Therefore it seems rather silly that an armor piercing bullet, which will make an even smaller and well defined puncture, should be much more effective.

 

Another way to look at this is that Armor Piercing, the Power Advantage, isn't necessarily the same as real-world armor-piercing ammo, i.e. ultradense cores, coated surfaces, etc. The Special Effect of this Armor Piercing ammo could be that it's hollow-point or otherwise differently configured, higher velocity, or the like.

[bigbywolfe]

Another way to look at this is that Armor Piercing, the Power Advantage, isn't necessarily the same as real-world armor-piercing ammo, i.e. ultradense cores, coated surfaces, etc. The Special Effect of this Armor Piercing ammo could be that it's hollow-point or otherwise differently configured, higher velocity, or the like.

Except the MHI book uses the Armor Piercing Advantage for AP ammo, doesn't it?

[Edsel]

I think that I am just going to go with the modification that will change things the least.  I will give the Zombies hardened PD vs. piercing and slashing attacks.

 

Currently my players are battling some Deep Ones in the just off the southern coast of Vancouver Island.  So far the group has looked at them as push overs.  It will be interesting to see how they react once their small boat is overturned.