How does decapitation work?

[phydaux]

One of the major tropes of the monster hunter genera is that a normal human armed with only a simple sword can be a threat to huge nasty beastie because with one blow he can decapitate the meanest werewolf or vampire.  

 

So how does decapitation a head or severing a limb work in Hero?  Called Shot penalty, sure.  When does the head/limb get cut off?

[Beast]

Death for decapitation

severing a limb you need to look at the inpairment rules in 6th ed

[massey]

Generally in heroic games, you take x2 Body from a hit to the head.  If you kill somebody with a head shot, I'd say that might count as decapitating them.

 

You might give monsters that have Defenses defined as "instant regeneration", and put a limitation on those defenses that says "not vs cutting attacks to head/neck that do enough Body to kill creature".  I'd probably give it a -1/2 limitation (doesn't come up very often, but when it does it really sucks).  Special effect is that you're dead before you have a chance to regenerate.

[Ninja-Bear]

Back in fifth, iirc if you took 1/3 of Body to a limb, it was impaired. So I would start with that. Btw, I could be confusing impaired with disable.

[dsatow]

It used to be 1x Body before or after the multiplier to impair and 2x Body before or after the multiplier to disable.

[phydaux]

See, that doesn't make and sense.  If I inflict twice someone's BODY in one attack they aren't disabled, their DEAD.  

[death tribble]

I always found it a struggle to get something like a vampire onto the guillotine before activating the blade..

[Ninja-Bear]

18 hours ago, phydaux said:

See, that doesn't make and sense.  If I inflict twice someone's BODY in one attack they aren't disabled, their DEAD.  

Well rules are rules so let’s not lose our head over it. ? Sorry I couldn’t resist the bad pun!

[Greywind]

"When your head comes away from your neck, it's over." ~ Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez

 

[LoneWolf]

An impairing wound is when you take ½ or greater of your body before or after the multiplier.  Disabling is if you took full body before or after the multiplier. This rule is the same in 6th edition as it was in earlier editions.  It is also suggested that unimportant thugs and NPCs should be considered dead if they receive a disabling wound for faster game play. 

 

I would consider a disabling wound to the head to have decapitated an unimportant NPC.  For a PC or important NPC they are only decapitated if they roll a 6 on the disabling chart and fail the CON roll.  If any character is outright killed by a head shot they could be considered decapitated. 

[Ninja-Bear]

On 4/13/2018 at 2:00 PM, Greywind said:

"When your head comes away from your neck, it's over." ~ Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez

 

Says you! The Headless Horseman

[Ragitsu]

Edit: deleted.

[Cantriped]

Regardless of optional rules, any attack which causes enough damage to the target's head to kill them outright could be called a decapitation. I would include the caveat that certain weapons just might not be able to cause the right kind of injuries to actually sever limbs even when they do cause enough damage (like a shiv).

 

I'm familiar with the Impairing/Disabling rules, which are fine but don't really represent severing limbs well (or decapitation at all). I could have sworn there was a 6th Edition optional rule for Severing Limbs which triggered upon taking BODY Damage equal to your BODY Score (before or after Hit Locations). Which meant decapitation was always lethal, but you could probably survive having both of your legs chopped off (assuming you aren't left to bleed to death). However I cannot find it now...

[ghost-angel]

Given it's a trope of the genre... I'd actually set it where it's a moderately accomplishable goal within the campaign ... how much damage does a typical person do with a weapon. If you can normally get 2-3 Body past defenses, which doubles to 4-6 Body... then unless you've got a particularly tough monster; maybe call it 5 Body will decapitate most monsters.

[Gauntlet]

On 4/12/2018 at 3:14 PM, phydaux said:

See, that doesn't make and sense.  If I inflict twice someone's BODY in one attack they aren't disabled, their DEAD.  

 

Not always, should your character have 10 BODY and take a 12 BODY hit to the hand, he/she will take 6 BODY which will not kill him/her but with disabling and impairing rules you take before or after the multiplier, whichever is more so that 12 BODY still removes the hand even through it does not kill the target. Also, should the character be able to regenerate from Death, then you can state that taking their head off (causing more body to their head then they have in Total FULL BODY) would kill them permanently even though their Regeneration can Regenerate from death (i.e. have purchased the 20 point extra for Regeneration labeled "Resurrection"). If you take "Resurrection" you must still state a way that the character can be killed.

[Rich McGee]

On 4/13/2018 at 11:20 AM, death tribble said:

I always found it a struggle to get something like a vampire onto the guillotine before activating the blade..

There's a solution for every problem.  May I refer you to the Flying Guillotine?

 

Take that, Dracula! 

[Gauntlet]

12 minutes ago, Rich McGee said:

There's a solution for every problem.  May I refer you to the Flying Guillotine?

 

Take that, Dracula! 

 

I also found that Miniguns work well at removing their heads as well.

[Rich McGee]

1 minute ago, Gauntlet said:

I also found that Miniguns work well at removing their heads as well.

IIRC Rifts has rotary-barrel mass drivers that fire wooden stakes cased in steel, specifically made for anti-vampire work.  Good old Palladium, no such thing as "too over the top" for Kevin.

[Gauntlet]

34 minutes ago, Rich McGee said:

IIRC Rifts has rotary-barrel mass drivers that fire wooden stakes cased in steel, specifically made for anti-vampire work.  Good old Palladium, no such thing as "too over the top" for Kevin.

 

Like I said, Miniguns work well!

[GDShore]

I have always understood this rule as Gauntlet has described, and we always used it as so in our campaigns. If you think that a human could not remove a head with an ordinary sword, I refer you to the Japanese Samurai, there are too many tales of them doing so to ignore and if you require an example closer to home culturally I present Richard the third also known as the Lionheart. A story supported by 6 references (3 primary and 3 secondary) ascribe the following; as the heat of battle grew Richard struck a man while ahorse from his right shoulder through his body and out his left hip and as the horse continued past the body fell atwain to either side of the horse. Now admittedly Richard was a superior human, brighter than most, faster and stronger he was still human. Thus it is possible for a man to remove the head of a dragon, a vampire or that of a werewolf with a single blow. By the way the chap copped in half was reportedly wearing chain and leather. 

[Beast]

5 minutes ago, GDShore said:

I have always understood this rule as Gauntlet has described, and we always used it as so in our campaigns. If you think that a human could not remove a head with an ordinary sword, I refer you to the Japanese Samurai, there are too many tales of them doing so to ignore and if you require an example closer to home culturally I present Richard the third also known as the Lionheart. A story supported by 6 references (3 primary and 3 secondary) ascribe the following; as the heat of battle grew Richard struck a man while ahorse from his right shoulder through his body and out his left hip and as the horse continued past the body fell atwain to either side of the horse. Now admittedly Richard was a superior human, brighter than most, faster and stronger he was still human. Thus it is possible for a man to remove the head of a dragon, a vampire or that of a werewolf with a single blow. By the way the chap copped in half was reportedly wearing chain and leather. 

Wouldn't this be a reverse move through where the attacker is using the movement of the target for  the velocity(and to hit)mod?

[GDShore]

Not really, I seemed to have described it badly, Richard and the soon to be departed were in a scrum, having exchanged several blows back and forth when Richard stood up in his stirrups and smote down upon his foe cleveing him atwain. The tension released from the reins the horse moved forward and the body slipped to either side.

[death tribble]

How does decapitation work ?

 

You cut the head off.

 

Although this does not work very well with the Hydra....

[Duke Bushido]

It does if you burn the head off, though.

 

 

[Ockham's Spoon]

I have never assigned a specific mechanic to decapitation, it is just a description used in combat.  If a player does a butt-load of damage and their opponent is killed by the blow, I might describe it as decapitation.  Or getting cut in two, or some other colorful demise.  The only time it is really important is if you are trying to kill something that can only be killed with decapitation, in which case they would have to declare a head shot before doing the butt-load of damage.