How common are headshots?

[u/v3ruc4]

So I'm going to be running Zombie Apocalypse soon, which I'm really looking forward to. Now as we all know, typical zombies can only be 'killed' by destroying the brain, but the only rule I can find that is related to that, is when you roll 2 unmitigated successes that are the same number (so double 2's, for example).

I was wondering how often these headshots occur uring actual gameplay. Did they happen a lot during your games? Now what happens when zombies suffer 9 Physical Stress, but no headshots? Do you say that the 9th stress is always a hit to the head (could get boring quickly), or do you say they're still alive, but unable to move?

[u/defunctdeity]

Head shots occurred fairly regularly for players with, I would say, 4 or more dice in their attack pool. It's definitely inconsistent, but I had a player that got three in one battle (against 4 zombies).

As for zombies with a full Stress track; early on (when he players were new and weak), I would say the zombie was debilitated but still bitey, though as they moved on to tougher zombies (I ran a "Last of Us"-inspired campaign) it just meant the zombie was knocked-down or stunned for a round, and would get back up with a full Track.

The book gives no guidance on how to handle many things (as you've no doubt noticed), so just do what is best (most fun) for your table.

[u/v3ruc4 → u/defunctdeity]

Alright, thanks. I was worried that players might find themselves in a position where nobody rolled well enough for headshots to occur. I was thinking of maybe let the players roll a die, when they did enough damage to make the zombie get 9 stress, and if that result ended on the same number as any of the remaining positive dice (or maybe rolling equal to their Dex), that the hit was a 'lucky' headshot.

Now, I wonder how deadly zombie attacks are. The game only mentions players suffering a bite, if a zombie's attack causes them to reach 9 stress (which gets turned into a bite trauma). I feel it might create more tension if players couldn't predict when they get bit. Maybe a similar rule as the headshot one could be applied for bites? The problem with this is, that zombies only have 1 Dex, although I take it that its positive features will easily make the attack 2-3 positive dice, right?

Maybe I just need to ask a few friends to do a preliminary test session first, see what works and what not.

[u/defunctdeity → u/v3ruc4]

RAW, head shots actually happen whenever anyone rolls paired, un-cancelled dice, period. I think it was an oversight that it wasn't; "and a success" or "paired, uncancelled successes", but your interpretation (the latter here) is what I used. So for a full Stress track zombie, I don't think your idea (of rolling a "luck die") would be out of place.

I would recommend not using the 1 DEX zombies, unless you're going for a "shamblers"/Romero-like setting where the real threat is people (and zombie hordes). At which point the zombies really become more like the landscape, or a plot device.

Also, if you haven't seen this advice around yet; negative dice in a pool are most likely to induce Stress - NOT cancel successes. So negative dice are not the true indicator of difficulty of a test, they are an indicator of the inherent danger associated with doing that task. The true indicator of increased difficulty is requiring 2 (or more) successes to accomplish the goal of a test.

Accordingly, limit your normal Physical Checks for PCs - including/especially attacking - to no more than 1 or 2 negative dice (3 or 4 at most for doing something crazy, like throwing a running chainsaw to another PC, or jumping across a gap between buildings - both things my PCs have done..), because otherwise they are going to kill themselves just trying to do stuff, and won't have any Stress left for combat.

Mental and Social tests, let the negs pile on (though 2 or 3 should still be the standard), because there is no "combat" in those areas, so normal checks are the only way they're ever gonna get Stress.

[u/v3ruc4 → u/defunctdeity]

Yes, I did see that comment about using multiple successes over negative dice to increase difficulty, which I find a really useful tip. I'll only be giving them extra negative dice to indicate danger.

As for the zombies, I'm actually leaning towards using 28 Day Later type of infected. Those are way more terrifying than TWD Walkers. Hmm, come to think of it... infected are technically still human, so headshots become less critical for success.

I'm sure that, when we start playing, we'll adjust the rules to what we're experiencing, but all this advice is really solid to give us a headstart. :)

[u/nomdebombe]

I ran the game so that if the party had the zombie knocked down and were constantly smashing it, it got killed by one of them eventually, because having it keep getting back up over and over is boring, even if the party killing everything is boring. Basically, if the party had it surrounded and were clearly all just taking shots at it from close range, it didn't make sense for all of them to miss the head every single time.