I love RPG’s and I especially love playing zombie games. And… I have played quite a few of them. One of the problems that I have come across with zombies is that there is often nothing cool to do with a PC’s critical hit. I mean, if hitting the zombie in the head means it dies, then a critical hit just does it better, right? Where’s the reward? I wanted my reward for critting on that zombie and I figured others might too. So I made this cute little table. It’s not much, but hopefully someone out there can get some fun out of it. My group really seems to like it.
Zombie Critical Hit Table for Guns
-
A bullet hammers into the left side of the target’s head. Blood, gore and ichor spray out the other side of the head as the rotter is thrown violently to the side and then drops like a sack of potatoes. Death is instantaneous.
-
A ricochet finds the right temple of the target. The deadhead freezes in place for a moment and then falls like a tree to the left. Death is instantaneous.
-
The bullet splits open the left trapezium muscle near the base of the neck. The head lolls unnaturally to the right, but the zed is still functional.
-
The bullet slams into the right side of the target’s forehead. The zombie continues forward for another moment and then suddenly drops to the ground, like a marionette with cut strings. Death is nearly instantaneous.
-
A bullet pierces the forehead in a perfect drill hole wound and ricochets off the back of the skull playing lethal pinball inside the cranial cavity. Death is instantaneous.
-
The shot tears through the zombie’s nose and straight into its brain. There is a momentary look of surprise on its dead face as the zombie is carried over backwards from the force of the shot. Death is instantaneous.
-
The bullet smashes into the jaw leaving it a mess of splintered bone and mangled flesh that hangs useless and disturbing from the target’s face.
-
The bullet embeds itself deeply into the head of the target, dropping it suddenly like a stone.
-
A pinpoint shot to the head bursts it like a balloon. Blood, brains and ichor shower all within five feet. The zombie drops to the ground like a wet towel. Death is immediate.
-
The bullet (having hit the head) expends all its energy piercing the skull and comes to a stop deformed but intact on the surface of the brain. It’s really ugly, but zombies don’t care about beauty.
I also wrote a zombie apocalypse campaign setting book, Welcome to Mortiston, USA. It was published by means of a successful Kickstarter campaign and was released at Origins 2012. Everyone involved with the project has been very excited by its success thus far. If you like zombies, or need a post-apocalypse American city for some other reason, you might like Mortiston. Come check it out at www.mortiston.com.
Mark S. Cookman
My name is Mark Cookman and I love games. I have played and reviewed more than 65 Different Zombie Games. I wrote the zombie apocalypse campaign supplement book Welcome to Mortiston, USA. I search out useful sites, tips, and tricks for Tabletop GM's in The Pirate GM's News. I am also the chief cook and bottle washer for a small press RPG publisher called Black Shark Enterprises
Is the game more action oriented, or are you going for a horror feel?
The game that serves as the “playtest” for Mortiston is an odd mishmash of horror, action and time travel story as the players try to unravel what really happened, while they are caught inside a struggle with those that possess the time-travel equipment who are working on their own agenda, which is much larger than the scope of a single town.
The chart above is more for the action side of the game. I have a wide range of players from age 10 to age 50, so the game encompasses a wide range of elements to keep all of the players involved. Welcome to Mortiston, USA contains a detailed backdrop, characters, factions and a timeline. The product supports Savage Worlds, Rotworld, Outbreak:Undead, OGL 3.5 Modern, Modern Path for Pathfinder, HeroLabs and Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. and I believe is “generic’ enough to be used in any type of campaign from slock zombie killing to “Scooby-Doo” mysteries to Post-Apoc action to more serious necromantic horror.
I hope I answered your question. ; )
The problem is that a table of ten effects will rapidly get old and crits will go back to feeling the same way.
I cannot deny that is true. I am working on an IPT table that will allow for more results to be used while gaming. These 10 are some early samples of some of the results from that IPT table. I hope to have it done by the end of September, along with a few other things. I will post them over on the nbos site when they are done. ; )
On the other hand, you have to assume that a critical hit isn’t going to come up too often right?
Infrequent crits just delays the problem. Here’s my take – it’s got 3188 different results and it tells you about how the zombie blood spatters so you can see if the characters need to check for infection.
1 Chin level
2 Mouth level
3 Nose level
4 Eye level
5 Forehead level
6 Top of head
1 Left Front
2 Left Side
3 Left Rear
4 Back of Head
5 Right Rear
6 Right Side
7 Right Front
8 Dead Center
1 No splatter
2 Same side splatter
3 Opposite side splatter
4 Skull explodes – 360 degree splatter (always wide)
1 Narrow, short splatter
2 Wide, short splatter
3 Narrow, long splatter
4 Wide, long splatter
1 Body continues attacking 1 round
2 Splatter is fine mist (breathing hazard)
3 Splatter has bony chunks (penetrates light clothes)
4 Bullet ricochets random direction (half damage)
5 Perfect Kill
6 Zombie dies, but body still stands until knocked down