the hound abilities

[Sir Blayse]

If you have a dog breeding skill then you could work on cross breeding some dogs. i would say crossing a pit bull or mastiff with a good smell based tracker, like a shepherd or coonhound. You would want the dog to be large and aggressive to bring down a zed, but you also need it to smell then from far away and not be right up on you. Or try Elkhound or Wolfhound types.

[Silveressa]

in the book it states that a victim of knockdown or entangle from a dog cannot move/escape/attack....is that the intended meaning?if so that makes a dog the most powerful/useful weapon in the dead reign game....any thoughts or corrections will be appreciated

I would change the rule to read: "a victim of a knockdown or entangle from dogS cannot move etc.." The victim of a single dog attack likely has at least one arm/hand free they can use to attack with. (Especially if they have a one handed melee weapon/claws or a pistol/revolver)

Even with 2 dogs on them the target may still have a single arm free or could (theoretically) kick/knee (or bite if a zed) at the animal although it likely wouldn't do much good.

Otherwise the rule as stated is rather unbalancing since it makes combat against a dog in melee range all but impossible.

[Sir Blayse]

Well, I was once engaged in combat with pissed off Mastiff and it took all my actions to deal with him in real life. I had one hand on the side of his muzzle, one on his collar, and needed both legs to wrestle the beast. Luckily the owner finally was able to get control of him.

[Silveressa]

Well, I was once engaged in combat with pissed off Mastiff and it took all my actions to deal with him in real life. I had one hand on the side of his muzzle, one on his collar, and needed both legs to wrestle the beast. Luckily the owner finally was able to get control of him.

Point taken, however from a game perspective such realism isn't usually all that fun or heroic; (Much like making firearms as lethal as they are in real life) and having dogs be so over powered can be really frustrating for players facing a wild dog pack. (Or let the hound master outshine the rest of the players.) Of course if the group is going for a gritty realistic game/enjoy the rule as printed, *shrugs* game on

On a side note if one's going for gritty realism, remember like in real life, stitching the wounds of a dog bite shut can result in a painful/nasty death from sepsis in under 24 hours during which the limb/effected area will swell up like an over stuffed sausage; from inflammation, puss and necrotic tissue/fluids. Granted it's a cruel piece of reality to spring on the poor person treated by the PC/NPC who only has first aid at 45% and decided to stitch the wounds shut; but hey, if the group's into gritty realism they'll prolly find it unexpected & fitting/neat. (as long as it happens to the hapless npc the PC treated anyway, and not one of the actual PC's themselves.)

[Sir Blayse]

and did you come out with any scratches?

no, i managed to see him coming and he went high for my face first. i'm pretty good in a fight, so i was able to sidestep him a bit. one case in point, this was a family's pet dog, not a trained attack dog. one trained to attack would of probably killed me... i'm now very edgy around any danes and mastiffs i see. in my line of work i encounter a lot of dogs, i climb utility poles. also, I could of struck the dog with items I had on me, but it was someone's pet and I would rather not do serious damage to him. he was definitely not playing, and those things are insanely strong.

Point taken, however from a game perspective such realism isn't usually all that fun or heroic; (Much like making firearms as lethal as they are in real life) and having dogs be so over powered can be really frustrating for players facing a wild dog pack. (Or let the hound master outshine the rest of the players.) Of course if the group is going for a gritty realistic game/enjoy the rule as printed, *shrugs* game on

Dead Reign is not a heroic game, it is made to be a horror game. That is why the zombies are so tough to kill. The fun for this game is the horror the players get when they nearly get killed by just a small handful of zombies, then they look up and realize that a hundred are shuffling their way. Only one chance to live and that means to run. If played right this game doesn't have heros, only more zombies...

But of course The hound master will only shine if theres only one or maybe up to three zombies and one or two humans max. since the other classes shine when there are more zombies/raiders/evil humans. since sending a dog after more then three zombies is a death sentence for the dog, and most hound masters (since there are those sick bastards who would send their friend to the zombies)

I would agree, but I'm sure the players would rather have the dogs get in there and not themselves. This is a different world and you must do what you have to survive. But of course you would not do something like that lightly, most cases would be to send them after one zombie while the team tries to dispatch the others quickly. If there are more zombies than you can handle... Run!!!

[Silveressa]

Dead Reign is not a heroic game, it is made to be a horror game.

Very true, although the degree of "horror & realism .vs cinematic action/heroism" is often different depending on the player group. (My group tends to prefer most games pretty realistic and think of DR as similar to a resident evil style survival horror.)

The varied "reality levels" of the game is one of the things palladium books never really touched upon compared to some games like Jovian Chronicles that have a in-depth sliding scale approach to reality levels. (Which is probably a topic for another thread since it's rather too detailed to get into here without derailing the post.)

So generally when browsing rules I tend to look at it with first "Is it realistic enough for my group?" (and if not how to change it so it is) and then secondly "Does it have the capability to significantly imbalance the game or slow things down too much if included?" (And if so how to fix it.) Hence my suggestion of changing it to include more then one dog for total pinning. (Especially if the one dog is a small dog like a pit bull or other canine less physically overbearing then a mastiff)

Of course for a bit more "Crunch" giving some kind of -1-4 penalty or so to any actions taken while grappled by the dog would help make the grappling ability still useful and give the pinned person a way to at least fight back rather then be out of the conflict as soon as the dog gets a-hold of them. (Since a person with a pistol or knife/crowbar in hand might well be jamming it in the dogs neck/mouth to hold it back rather then grappling it bare handed)

[Sir Blayse]

Not bad, I would just make sure that any attacks would have to focus on the dog or dogs that are grappling with the victim. A dog attack is vicious and would take total attention to deal with. This is where they help the hound master out, now he can easy attack his opponent who is forced to fight the dogs. It might be possible to break free from the dogs, but it would not be easy.