Advice: Do not, do NOT go red-red with a Walking Dead, then attack with a thrust. Thrusts do nothing to Walking Dead (with the possible exception of pinning them to something, if done under the right circumstances), so even if you win initiative, your hit will not effect them. Secondly, do not go red-red with a Walking Dead unless you're reasonably sure you can take their arm off, or otherwise disable them. Walking dead, with their 1/3rd Pain/Shock barely notice anything but dismembering force. Also, never turn your back on a Walking Dead until it has been dismembered into uselessness, or banished.

Situation: Two enterprising criminal PCs are searching through a rich merchant's house, looking for a rare-and-unique item that one of them had heard of, let's call him Elpis. Slaine, his dashing highwayman companion, helps with much of the pre-planning, and it's really quite easy for them for much of their exploration through the mostly sleeping house. However, upon entering the third floor, they find a glowing (just a special effect...) corpse sitting behind a desk, throat cut. They investigate with a certain amount of caution, but when the corpse mumbles at them to leave, then raises a hand-axe they, probably bolstered by how easy the rest of their jaunt had been, do not react with the same caution. Elpis and the Walking Dead drop initiative, both going red. I look at Kory like the suicidal maniac he is, then have him and the corpse both declare. Elpis thrusts for the shoulder. The corpse cleaves for the shoulder. Elpis gets initiative and sticks the corpse for a solid, level 3 wound. Nada. The corpse cleaves Elpis straight through the collarbone, and he drops like a sack of potatoes. Slaine comes up behind the corpse, which is now trying to dislodge his axe, and chops through the weapon arm, following quickly with the other arm and one leg, before going to try to staunch the bleeding on his quickly bleeding out companion. Through a heroic, SA-fueled effort, he succeeds in stabilizing his friend. (8 successes on a First-Aid roll handily stops a BL of 20). However, he forgot about the rest of the corpse. Luckily I rolled very badly on the Walking Dead's bite roll, so he was able to Partially decapitate it easily enough.

Remember.. they don't stop coming until they're banished.

Commentary: My second serious use of OBaM (a serpent prior, though I've also used it several times for NPC stats) and it was golden. Kory learned (I hope) a valuable lesson about caution, and how lethal mistakes can be. His character (with a Pain of ALL, which I believe Jake once said to call 20 for healing purposes) will be laid up for months easily, so he's decided to create a new character with the insight from Elpis. Elpis may rejoin the game as an NPC later, but for now, the game goes on.

So your guys encountered a walking dead in the last few sessions too... I had a fellow with a rapier who stuck one and decided he was not happy when the thing started to pull itself up the blade by the guard of the rapier to get at him... Good thing the rest of the party managed to cut it down. And all of a sudden I have people asking about longsword and mass weapon proficiencies...

I remember lurking through the forge before I ever posted reading on the walking dead having a movement rate of 10... was that correct? Aside from that they sound fearsome and awe-inspiring... useful for keeping egotistical and arrogant players such as myself in check. But given that I am egotistical and arrogant about my character, I'm sure that on horseback, high on opium... and using my halberd and my SA's... I'm sure I could hit a walking dead with enough force to cleave it in two with either a downward vertical or upward vertical swing, to either the head or the groin.
Oh, and per my seneschal's previous approval of my opium benefits, the opium high has the berserker effects of not feeling pain, etc etc etc.

*shrug*
Just blowing smoke here guys,
-Ingenious

not quite THAT extensive..... just a mild boost to resisting the pain.... but the addiction factor is a bitch if you get separated from your stash...

Hey Ingenious, here's a mechanic to suggest to your Seneschal...

Over-damage: If you do more than 5 levels of damage once the whole thing is done, you take the damage on to the next, adjacent area that the cut would go into (yes, this really only works for cuts..) there applying the target's TO and applicable armor to what's left of the damage. For instance.. You cut into the arm of an unarmored man with a TO of 4, and your total DR, after ST, weapon damage, and successes are factored in is, say, a 14. His TO reduces that to a 10, so you do a level 5 wound to his arm, most likely severing it. The sword continues on into his side (zone III) with 5 DR left over. His TO once again reduces this, now to a 1. So he takes a level 1 wound in his side.

This can even be used with cuts into the body. I created this mechanic on the fly when someone blindsided someone else from behind with a poleaxe, and managed to cut through his collarbone, and into his chest. Needless to say, the victim of this vicious stroke didn't live.

I applied the same rule when Slaine attacked the Walking Dead, though with it's TO of 6 (fresh corpse) it didn't end up doing any additional damage to the torso of the corpse. If you intend to be using opium-induced fury to cut walking dead in half, a rule of this sort might be useful. And even if you don't intend to do this, it's still kinda fun.

Being the Seneschal in question..... I must say this mechanic interests me. Does anyone else have firsthand knowledge of use? it's an interesting way to make the hits seem more gruesome, but as the example states, It'll be affected by the toughness again. And armor if aplicable. Requiring it to be a horrendously powerful blow. Makes sense.

If anyone has used this... let me know what you think about it. Right now I think I like it.

ZazielsRephaim and Ingenious: Guy's I'm a little confused about this whole opium thing - exactly what effects does the drug have in your game?

Opium doesn't seem to fit with the idea of a "fury" - at least in my experience. When people take opium their pupils constrict, their pulse slows and their blood pressure falls while their respiration slows. They begin to feel warm, euphoric, and relaxed with any feelings of fear, panic, and anxiety lessening and, depending on how much has been taken, they become increasingly drowsy, entering a dreamy state and finally a deep sometimes - dreamless sleep. Not the sort of state that suggests the ability to fight, let alone furiously ;)

Personally I don't think anyone who takes opium is going to be in a fury, or even standing up for that matter so I'm curious as to the effects you've given it.

Cheers

Camillus, you've got a good point.

Anyhow, I like that idea of carrying the attacks through to other areas. Often times I have players that do more than level5, so that could be helpful.

Hey Lance,

That's a nifty mechanic actually. It wouldn't come into play all that often, I imagine, but nice for those situations where the attacker gets a rediculously good success and doesn't want to just hear that it was a level 5 wound.

I might see if I can work that into TFOB somewhere (with credit to you, of course).

p.s: Walking dead rock... :-)

Brian.

We've done the overdamage thing in a couple games too...

at one point, by ST 8 blacksmith character, who was hauling around a sharpened maul (extra bloodloss), took off one guys head and managed to deal a LVL 4 wound to the side of the guy beside him with a blindside attack. Rolled about as good as is possible using a Maul, and threw in a good handful of applicable SA's... something like 22 dice thrown, completely unopposed.

It was fun.

It's been a house rule in my group since before the book was off the press (but after it went to press).

Jake

I didn't even know it was a house rule, I thought it was standard. It's explained with shields and armour, I assumed it applied to limbs, etc. too..........

Heh..

It was a house-rule I suggested many moons ago, and was met by lukewarm response. Here I find that people have been using it, either crediting it to me, or as a parallel creation, all along.

Maybe we were all, like, allready doing it. So, like, when you like introduced like, we all were like "dude, we allready do that like. So like, duh. Like."

Heh, just joshin' ya

Jake

Mayhem1979 wrote: at one point, by ST 8 blacksmith character, who was hauling around a sharpened maul (extra bloodloss)

A maul isn't a hammer but a heavy sort of axe used for splitting wood -- not nominally a weapon at all. Normally the head is angled but not sharp per se.

Actually a maul has had many meanings. One of the more common was a two handed hammer with a wooden head used for pounding stakes and driving timber splitting wedges. In simplest form, a cross section of a trunk can be fit to a handle.

The more modern useage (which many of us may have in the garage or out at the hunting cabin) is basically a sledge hammer with a wedge shaped head. Or ultimately what amounts to a dull axe.

I don't know how much sense sharpening one would make, since the head is far too wide to actually shear through anything like an axe can. Better to just use an axe if you want something sharp. The benefit of a maul vs an axe is you can split hard wood much easier by wedging apart the grain and you don't dull your axe. Being noticeably heavier it also does some of the work for you meaning you don't have to swing so hard and can last a lot longer out at the wood pile.

As a weapon, it would be pretty pathetic, but if you catch someone helpless it would make a very messy wound. Hard to say if it would actually chop an arm off, or just shatter it into oblivion.

well, a warhammer can have a sharp end, so why not do the same thing with a maul. Ouch, that could hurt. the warhammer is mean enough already.

Krammer wrote: well, a warhammer can have a sharp end, so why not do the same thing with a maul. Ouch, that could hurt. the warhammer is mean enough already.

weeeeellll a TROS maul is that big fantasy hammer that you see from time to time. Think sledge.

Jake

Watch CONAN THE BARBARIAN! and watch for the big guy with the big wooden hammer... attacking the village.

We always refered to that guy as "Mallet-man". His weapon seems to me to be more of a mallet like you'd use to pound in circus stakes than a Maul. Not that it matters. That weapon was really unrealistic. You can see the actor struggling to use it and make it look right in the movie.

Sorry, I've seen that film way too many times.

Mike

I remember when I was a kid reading one of those grocery store asian martial arts mags, there was an article on, I forget what they called it, but bsically that same huge wooden sledge hammer. It was probably a tool, at least primarily, that they decided to get creative with or something. They were saying it was a japanese ninja weapon and demonstrating techniques with it. One was where the ninja waits on a roof and when Joe sentry or whoever walks by below, they get it ropped on their head. Who knows?

I don't know about ninja but Akira Kurosawa equipped the giant in Yojimbo with a hammer.

He looked a lot more comfortable with it than "mallet man" (who's real name escapes me - didn't he raise the snake that was killed in the temple?).

The bodyguards in Conan the Barbarian are Rexor and Thorgrim - played by Ben Davidson and Sven Ole-Thorson.

I believe Thorgrim (Sven) is "Mallet-man".

As you can see, I retain only the most IMPORTANT details from life...

ZazielsRephaim wrote: Watch CONAN THE BARBARIAN! and watch for the big guy with the big wooden hammer... attacking the village.

Mike Holmes wrote: His weapon seems to me to be more of a mallet like you'd use to pound in circus stakes than a Maul. Not that it matters. That weapon was really unrealistic. You can see the actor struggling to use it and make it look right in the movie.

Cammilus wrote: I don't know about ninja but Akira Kurosawa equipped the giant in Yojimbo with a hammer.

He looked a lot more comfortable with it than "mallet man" (who's real name escapes me - didn't he raise the snake that was killed in the temple?).