Call me mentally challenged, but I'm having a bit of difficulty understanding the Hit Location Zones diagram on the Character
Sheets and P. 76 of the main rulebook.

In looking at the text, it says that locations I - VI are for swinging attacks, and VII - XIV are for thrusting or missile attacks. That would lead me to believe that area VII and XIV are for thrust attacks, while area III is for swing attacks - then again, that leads me to ask why all other locations have one number listed for both the right and left sides, while the thrusting location has a seperate number for left and right sides but the cutting location is the same for left and right ???

-or-

Is a swing to location III supposed to indicate an attack on the opponent's "side" instead of his arms, while a swing to zone VII would be a swing directly at the arms (which would seem to contradict the text I quoted above that areas I - VI are for Swinging Attacks while VII - XIV are for thrusting and missile attacks) ?

Color me confused.

Okay here it is..
After looking at the diagram on the character sheet.. I see that the zones for cutting and thrusting are hard to understand..
Zones... on the diagram it just shows cuts from either the right or the left side. Or Thrusts to the left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, etc.
What gets me though is the clarity of it all. There is not much.
I shall address this by pointing out the zones that are targets via the Puncture Wound Tables. That's easier to understand than the diagram on the character sheet.

Why the diagram on the character sheet has all of those numbers all over the place is because there is no room to put a roman numeral for the pelvic region right at the pelvic region.. and the belly.. etc.
(assumption)

To clarify page 76 however, one can just point out that the zones for cutting are on the outside, and the zones for thrusting are the numbers inside.

This also irks me.. Zone III on page 76 shows text stating 'arms (swing)'
closer to the numeral VII than III... which might cause undue confusion.
Zone 7 is not for cutting. Zone 3 is.

Hope this helps.
-Ingenious

Thanks for your willingness to step in and help explain this ingenious....

Unfortunately, I'm still "cloudy" on the issue of the hit locations. Anyway to break it down with an example (specifically aimed -no pun intended- at the arm/side locations I mentioned above) ?

Thanks again.

The diagram on the character sheet is probably not the best reference for this - that diagram is for armor coverage and is a bit, shall we say, unclear.

According to the text on page 76, Zones I - VI are for swinging attacks, while zones VII - XIV are for thrusting and / or missile attacks. This is a misprint. There are 14 zones, 7 for each of the two attack types. Zones I - VII are for swinging, zones VIII-XIV are for thrusting.

They break down like this:

Swinging:

I - Lower legs, right or left
II - Upper legs, right or left
III - Lower trunk, right or left (damage roll may bounce through to location VII - "arms")
IV - Upper trunk, right or left (this is where decapitations are)
V - Head & shoulders, vertical swing
VI - Groin / trunk, upward swing
VII - Arms, right or left

Thrusting:

VIII - Lower legs, right or left
IX - Upper legs, right or left
X - Pelvis
XI - Belly
XII - Chest
XIII - Head
XIV - Arm, right or left

Ingenious wrote: This also irks me.. Zone III on page 76 shows text stating 'arms (swing)'
closer to the numeral VII than III... which might cause undue confusion.
Zone 7 is not for cutting. Zone 3 is.

Ignore the hit-location chart.

Ask your players, "Where are you swinging for?" or "What are you stabbing at?"

Flip to the table with that body-part heading in the back of the book.

Trust me: it works wonders.

Personally, I much prefer the older hit-diagram, which didn't have the armor level bubbles all over it. It was much easier to discern where to hit. It's essentially the same one as in the book.

For the most part, the others have covered it. Your best bet is to NOT ask for zones when asking for target description, but instead just to have them describe where. Trying to chop off his head, stabbing for the throat, etc. Then look for the number nearest that location on the body. If you're still having trouble, then remember that zones I through VII are swing locations, and as such are located OFF the body, and that locations VIII through XIV are thrust locations, and with the exception of XIV are located ON the body.

I don't agree with disregarding the hit location diagram..
It helps me as a player think like my character would..
It helps me visualize which parts of my opponent are weakest... unarmored, etc. Because most of my characters that don't use missile weapons are concerned with conserving their energy in a fight and don't want to put 3/4 of their combat pool(effort) into attacking someplace that essentially wont lead to a wound...

But that is just me. I still think the diagram could use some re-working, so I'll fix it to my liking and e-mail it to those that want to take a gander at it once I hook up my scanner and fish-out the disk with the drivers on it.. I might even make two diagrams, one for swinging attacks, and one for thrusting. Maybe even expand on the hit locations and make new ones... resulting in more detailed and more descript damage and so forth..(must find brother's now dust-ridden anatomy book also)Methinks this will give the 'blood-opera' style of play that much more gore. One can never go wrong with that..


-Ingenious

Thanks for all the responses.
That helps quite a bit.

Ingenious, feel free to email me when the diagram is ready.

http://www.geocities.com/coryvigdal/index.htm

And to clarify what I initially said about expanding the damage tables and making new ones etc..
I did not mean new hit locations, I meant new descriptions for the wounds.. and possible rules for the variety of wounds out there.
Being stabbed in the arm or hit with say.. a level 3 or 4 wound with a cut or bludgeoning for example... should carry with that penalties to strength.. and also being hit in the legs would reduce your move attribute.
Such things as this.
That work will continue for awhile as it is a bit of an undertaking..
but the pictures I scanned can be seen here:
http://www.geocities.com/coryvigdal/index.htm
After much frustration and cursing at Yahoo I found some remnants of my html skills in my memory. Thus the ability to actually put up two f***ing pictures!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr.

-Ingenious

Thanks ingenious. Very helpful!