07-27-2023, 12:59 PM
From Book 1, Characters and Combat (Second Edition), page 34 (emphasis added):
From Book 3, Worlds & Adventures (Second Edition), page 30:
On page 35 of Book 3 is a sample encounter table. The first entry on the table is a 200Kg Hijacker that does 11 wound points with its teeth.
So, rules as written, this Hijacker does a flat 11 points of damage every round, except no dice are thrown. Because Book 1 says that each die is assign to a single characteristic then technically, because there are no dice, the player doesn't have to assign the wound points anywhere and is immune from the animal's damage (other than on the first round, but that's a different story).
Clearly this is incorrect. My guess is that this was just a sloppy edit and no one at GDW was playing by the rules as written. MegaTraveller uses a different damage system where you don't track each die separately, and maybe they were already using that in-house.
So the question is, how does one handle this? I see these options:
Option #1 was how I read the intent of the rules when I first read them, but makes animals more effective at putting someone down than a shotgun.
Option #2 is supported by the first edition of the rules (Book 1, page 34) that state (emphasis added):
Option #3 is supported in the second edition's book 3 where states "If the referee wishes to take the trouble, he can roll the proper number of dice every time the animal hits..."
Option #4 is just something I invented.
For now I'm leaning towards option #3. But I'm still very curious (1) how other people (would) handle this, and (2) what the actual intent of the rules are.
Quote:Wound points are applied to the target's (defending character's) strength, dexterity, and endurance on a temporary basis. Each die rolled (for example, each of the two dice rolled in a result of 2D) is taken as a single wound or group of hits, and must be applied to a single characteristic.
From Book 3, Worlds & Adventures (Second Edition), page 30:
Quote:For simplicity, the damage dice should be rolled once when the animal is generated; the animal would inflict that number of hits every time it hits...
On page 35 of Book 3 is a sample encounter table. The first entry on the table is a 200Kg Hijacker that does 11 wound points with its teeth.
So, rules as written, this Hijacker does a flat 11 points of damage every round, except no dice are thrown. Because Book 1 says that each die is assign to a single characteristic then technically, because there are no dice, the player doesn't have to assign the wound points anywhere and is immune from the animal's damage (other than on the first round, but that's a different story).
Clearly this is incorrect. My guess is that this was just a sloppy edit and no one at GDW was playing by the rules as written. MegaTraveller uses a different damage system where you don't track each die separately, and maybe they were already using that in-house.
So the question is, how does one handle this? I see these options:
- The "11" is one set of wounds and must be taken against a single stat.
- Let the player divvy the wound points any way they want. Note: this makes animal encounters less dangerous then other combat.
- Forget Book 3's suggestion "for simplicity" and just roll the actual damage every time.
- Instead of recording the total ("11" in this case) record each die (maybe this one was "2/4/5")
Option #1 was how I read the intent of the rules when I first read them, but makes animals more effective at putting someone down than a shotgun.
Option #2 is supported by the first edition of the rules (Book 1, page 34) that state (emphasis added):
Quote:Each die rolled (for example, each of the two dice rolled in a result of 2D) is taken as a single wound or group of hits, and must be applied to a single characteristic; further modifications may be distributed against, or added to, such wound groups as desired (players do this themselves; the referee does it for non-player characters).
Option #3 is supported in the second edition's book 3 where states "If the referee wishes to take the trouble, he can roll the proper number of dice every time the animal hits..."
Option #4 is just something I invented.
For now I'm leaning towards option #3. But I'm still very curious (1) how other people (would) handle this, and (2) what the actual intent of the rules are.