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Your aura (as in, that thing that people can sense your Alignment from unless they're a Dead Reign Zombie) shines like a Light Bulb, and can be hidden from the Zombies simply by covering yourself up -to them, it's nothing more complicated than you being a night light, and you can therefore be seen by them at very long distances away.

Your essence, on the other hand, you CANNOT hide from them merely by wearing concealing clothing or hiding behind obstacles. Fortunately the Essence Sense capability of the Dead Reign undead is vastly smaller in radius than their ability to see you.



Think of their Essence Sense as more or less the exact same capability that Rifts Earth Dog Boys have -you can't hide from them (provided you're a supernatural creature or Magic OCC) if you're in range of their senses by hiding behind walls, either -but just as it is with a Dog Boy who only senses "Magic User," or like a shark in the water, it is possible to hide from one of their senses but not be detectable by their other one.

For example, if you're out of their sensing range up on the fifth story of a high-rise office building, but then you foolishly step over to a window at night and they can see you glowing.

loki_racer wrote:1. Attribute Checks - This isn't addressed in the DR book that I could find.

This is not covered in any Palladium book I don't believe, as it is up the GM's preference. Traditionally, a D20 or D30 is rolled, needing to roll under the attribute in question.

2. Can't hide in clothes, but can hide behind a desk? - The books says that players can't hide their aura from zombies unless they are behind a desk, in a closet, etc. They don't make clarifications on what is and isn't required to actually hide a person's aura. Will a sleeping bag work?

If you can see a light-bulb through it, zombies can see a human's glow through it. The effect you're trying to hide is an intense neon glow to the eyes of a zombie. Pages 24-25.

3. Fire damage - The book does not explain how much fire actually damages zombies.

Zombies are the same flesh and clothing as humans, so I imagine damage is the same. Page 59

4. Critical rolls - All my players want to know if there are critical rolls.

Yes. Page 185

5. Can a zombie "sense" life energy just by waking by? If people were in a building with the windows borded up not making a noise would zombies walking down the street "sense" them as the strolled by? Or do zombies need line of sight?

Yes/Yes/No. Page 25

6. Once a moan is made, how many zombies answer the call?

An exponentially increasing number that continues growing until every last zombie within range to hear the moan is pursuing you. Potentially millions. Pages 26-27.

7. What type of zombies answer the call to feed? How do GM's determine what type of zombie's answer the call to feed?

Use the percentage breakdown of the zombie population as a logical breakdown of responders to a moan. Page 38.

8. If a PC knocks a zombie's neck SDC to 0, is the head cut off?

Yes. Page 37.

9. How are feats of strength determined? If two PC's decide to grapple with each other, one bear hugging the other, how do you determine what happens?

Similar to your first question, this is up to the GM. Generally competing attribute rolls for P.S., with a modifier equal to the difference between them. Can be whatever you decide.

Zombie Squishy wrote:I recently just had a Hound Master join my game and the first session with him we found out that a dog is way too easy to kill.

Is a dog suppose to have an AR with a similar effect of the zombie's AR where it'll take no damage if the roll to strike is less than its value?

Negative, a domestic canine doesn't have a natural A.R. of significance. Honestly, a domestic dog, even a well trained one, wouldn't be very hard to kill for a bulletproof predatory monster - it'd be more like a distraction in combat to buy an extra round. If you've seen the recent "I Am Legend," think of that - a great companion, a good tracker, but a short-lived distraction when real combat happens.

A Hound Master would never send their dog(s) in to heavy combat carelessly. Dogs aren't tanks, aren't armored, and have no ranged capability - in fact they have an even shorter "range" (bite/claw) than the zombies they're fighting (arm's length), and the closer you are to a zombie, the better it will do against you. A Hound Master will protect their dogs and use them tactically to gain brief advantage and then pull them back, or otherwise use them to for non-combat functions. You can't fire-and-forget them.

Really, they're like a human. An unarmed, armorless human will last about 5 seconds up close and personal with a zombie before being put in a choke and beaten to death.

J. Lionheart wrote:

Zombie Squishy wrote:I recently just had a Hound Master join my game and the first session with him we found out that a dog is way too easy to kill.

Is a dog suppose to have an AR with a similar effect of the zombie's AR where it'll take no damage if the roll to strike is less than its value?

Negative, a domestic canine doesn't have a natural A.R. of significance. Honestly, a domestic dog, even a well trained one, wouldn't be very hard to kill for a bulletproof predatory monster - it'd be more like a distraction in combat to buy an extra round. If you've seen the recent "I Am Legend," think of that - a great companion, a good tracker, but a short-lived distraction when real combat happens.

A Hound Master would never send their dog(s) in to heavy combat carelessly. Dogs aren't tanks, aren't armored, and have no ranged capability - in fact they have an even shorter "range" (bite/claw) than the zombies they're fighting (arm's length), and the closer you are to a zombie, the better it will do against you. A Hound Master will protect their dogs and use them tactically to gain brief advantage and then pull them back, or otherwise use them to for non-combat functions. You can't fire-and-forget them.

Really, they're like a human. An unarmed, armorless human will last about 5 seconds up close and personal with a zombie before being put in a choke and beaten to death.

Now, I don't have the second Dead Reign book yet, but I disagree with the above post. Dogs, even small dogs can be of great use aginst zombies.

Read World War Z, there's a chapter, maybe two where this is pointed out and the use of both small and large dogs in regards to zombies and what not.. and if the second Dead Reign book is like the first, the 'hound master' is very very likely to be lifted.... more or less straight from the pages of WWZ. Not saying plagiarized. Just he concept used.

Pepsi Jedi wrote:

J. Lionheart wrote:

Zombie Squishy wrote:I recently just had a Hound Master join my game and the first session with him we found out that a dog is way too easy to kill.

Is a dog suppose to have an AR with a similar effect of the zombie's AR where it'll take no damage if the roll to strike is less than its value?

Negative, a domestic canine doesn't have a natural A.R. of significance. Honestly, a domestic dog, even a well trained one, wouldn't be very hard to kill for a bulletproof predatory monster - it'd be more like a distraction in combat to buy an extra round. If you've seen the recent "I Am Legend," think of that - a great companion, a good tracker, but a short-lived distraction when real combat happens.

A Hound Master would never send their dog(s) in to heavy combat carelessly. Dogs aren't tanks, aren't armored, and have no ranged capability - in fact they have an even shorter "range" (bite/claw) than the zombies they're fighting (arm's length), and the closer you are to a zombie, the better it will do against you. A Hound Master will protect their dogs and use them tactically to gain brief advantage and then pull them back, or otherwise use them to for non-combat functions. You can't fire-and-forget them.

Really, they're like a human. An unarmed, armorless human will last about 5 seconds up close and personal with a zombie before being put in a choke and beaten to death.

Now, I don't have the second Dead Reign book yet, but I disagree with the above post. Dogs, even small dogs can be of great use aginst zombies.

Read World War Z, there's a chapter, maybe two where this is pointed out and the use of both small and large dogs in regards to zombies and what not.. and if the second Dead Reign book is like the first, the 'hound master' is very very likely to be lifted.... more or less straight from the pages of WWZ. Not saying plagiarized. Just he concept used.

Disagreement.

Dogs are EXCELLENT agents for 'personal' combat against The Living.

Dogs are POOR agents for 'personal' combat against The UnDead as it is, and when you further factor in the rather high durability of Dead Reign zombies, they're even worse.
Just about everything that a Dog does, and does well under normal circumstances (violently shake the prey at the point of contact with the dog's jaws, slashing/biting attacks at the throat, hamstringing the target, et al.) are all almost completely useless against the Undead except in a ROLL-playing sense.


IMO, people keep making the same assumptions about behavior-under-attack for DR Zombies as they do for The Living.

cornholioprime wrote:

Pepsi Jedi wrote:Now, I don't have the second Dead Reign book yet, but I disagree with the above post. Dogs, even small dogs can be of great use aginst zombies.

Read World War Z, there's a chapter, maybe two where this is pointed out and the use of both small and large dogs in regards to zombies and what not.. and if the second Dead Reign book is like the first, the 'hound master' is very very likely to be lifted.... more or less straight from the pages of WWZ. Not saying plagiarized. Just he concept used.

Disagreement.

Dogs are EXCELLENT agents for 'personal' combat against The Living.

Dogs are POOR agents for 'personal' combat against The UnDead as it is, and when you further factor in the rather high durability of Dead Reign zombies, they're even worse.
Just about everything that a Dog does, and does well under normal circumstances (violently shake the prey at the point of contact with the dog's jaws, slashing/biting attacks at the throat, hamstringing the target, et al.) are all almost completely useless against the Undead except in a ROLL-playing sense.


IMO, people keep making the same assumptions about behavior-under-attack for DR Zombies as they do for The Living.

Bingo, CHP got it right on the money. Dogs are great for many things, but their style of attack is almost worthless against a zombie. A DR zombie isn't going to react to being bitten by a dog, except to pummel the poor K9 in to kibble, while barely noticing the bite. At the risk of repeating myself, dogs are not tanks. Zombies, on the other hand, pretty nearly are.

As for World War Z, I have read it several times, and I love it. You'll note, however, that the dogs in it are primarily used for scouting and for luring zombies, not as direct combat resources. The K's would go out and lead the Zacks back to the human soldiers, who would eliminate them with incindiery bullets, or otherwise they'd have visual and audio reconaissance gear mounted, which a human would interpret. Since you're wanting to go by WWZ standards, remember that you're dealing with things that can walk straight through salvoes of modern fragmentation artillary - a dog's bite won't even get their attention.

Dogs are VERY useful against zombies, just not for combat. Use them for the myriad other tasks the devestated world of DR requires, and leave the zombie-killing to humans.

J. Lionheart wrote:

cornholioprime wrote:

Pepsi Jedi wrote:Now, I don't have the second Dead Reign book yet, but I disagree with the above post. Dogs, even small dogs can be of great use aginst zombies.

Read World War Z, there's a chapter, maybe two where this is pointed out and the use of both small and large dogs in regards to zombies and what not.. and if the second Dead Reign book is like the first, the 'hound master' is very very likely to be lifted.... more or less straight from the pages of WWZ. Not saying plagiarized. Just he concept used.

Disagreement.

Dogs are EXCELLENT agents for 'personal' combat against The Living.

Dogs are POOR agents for 'personal' combat against The UnDead as it is, and when you further factor in the rather high durability of Dead Reign zombies, they're even worse.
Just about everything that a Dog does, and does well under normal circumstances (violently shake the prey at the point of contact with the dog's jaws, slashing/biting attacks at the throat, hamstringing the target, et al.) are all almost completely useless against the Undead except in a ROLL-playing sense.


IMO, people keep making the same assumptions about behavior-under-attack for DR Zombies as they do for The Living.

Bingo, CHP got it right on the money. Dogs are great for many things, but their style of attack is almost worthless against a zombie. A DR zombie isn't going to react to being bitten by a dog, except to pummel the poor K9 in to kibble, while barely noticing the bite. At the risk of repeating myself, dogs are not tanks. Zombies, on the other hand, pretty nearly are.

As for World War Z, I have read it several times, and I love it. You'll note, however, that the dogs in it are primarily used for scouting and for luring zombies, not as direct combat resources. The K's would go out and lead the Zacks back to the human soldiers, who would eliminate them with incindiery bullets, or otherwise they'd have visual and audio reconaissance gear mounted, which a human would interpret. Since you're wanting to go by WWZ standards, remember that you're dealing with things that can walk straight through salvoes of modern fragmentation artillary - a dog's bite won't even get their attention.

Dogs are VERY useful against zombies, just not for combat. Use them for the myriad other tasks the devestated world of DR requires, and leave the zombie-killing to humans.

I'm not saying use the dog as your primary weapon, but they can be trained and used to fight zombies. Especialy shambler types.

The big ones, like used in WWZ can be trained to not attack in the typical way. They can be trained to use their superior speed to trip up and up root a zombie. Get it on the ground then circle. They can be trained to trip them till the zombie lands on it's face and bite the back of the neck. Or can be trained to knock um down and rip off a limb.

Do you want to use dogs as your primary source of weaponry? No. they are used for other thigns. yes. That training doesnt' come quick. It's hard work. but acting like a trained attack dog trained to deal with zombies would just walk up and let itself get bit is being silly.

Cattle dogs have been used for time uncharted to heard animals many many times their size and argueably smarter than your average Zed. Bulls and cattle move ALOT faster than a Zombie and a cattle dog can dance in there. Nip heels, dodge horns, dodge hoovves of a multi 1000 pound animal, dodge the charges and get in there and harry them and get them to where they want to go.

Dogs have been used to hunt lions and tigers. Wolly mammoths ect. You can train one not to run up and get caught and bitten in the face. The knock down/disable/kill tactic could be easily trained (( if you're a dog trainer which is assumed the hound master is))

Now if you have 50 zombies heading your way? No... but one or two.. sure. Dog can knock um down. Rip off a foot. Dance out of the way and continue on at leasure knowing the shambler can't catch up.

Ect ect ect.

You guys are thinking about straight forward suicide runs into tides of undead 1000s strong. That's silly and not really what's intended I don't think.

Read the chapter in WWZ again. yes... most are scouts but they had combat back up. Read how they were used.

Did I miss secondary skill acquisition through experience for Survivors/Ordianry People? I can't seem to find it, yet all other classes gain skills through experience.

leonmallett wrote:Did I miss secondary skill acquisition through experience for Survivors/Ordianry People? I can't seem to find it, yet all other classes gain skills through experience.

Level-based secondary skill acquisition is covered under the descriptions of individual occupations, where their other skills are lain out.

J. Lionheart wrote:

leonmallett wrote:Did I miss secondary skill acquisition through experience for Survivors/Ordianry People? I can't seem to find it, yet all other classes gain skills through experience.

Level-based secondary skill acquisition is covered under the descriptions of individual occupations, where their other skills are lain out.

So some Ordinary People occupations start with handful of secodnary skills or gain some through character experience, but for most it is one or the other, not both?

leonmallett wrote:So some Ordinary People occupations start with handful of secodnary skills or gain some through character experience, but for most it is one or the other, not both?

Everybody gets at least 1 to start, but yeah, the occupations aren't all the same.

Some classes get several right to start out, but no additional ones later. Some classes get just a couple, but get them repeatedly at higher levels. A couple rare classes actually start with several, and get additional as they progress. It seems fairly random, but is spelled out under each occupation.

J. Lionheart wrote:

leonmallett wrote:So some Ordinary People occupations start with handful of secodnary skills or gain some through character experience, but for most it is one or the other, not both?

Everybody gets at least 1 to start, but yeah, the occupations aren't all the same.

Some classes get several right to start out, but no additional ones later. Some classes get just a couple, but get them repeatedly at higher levels. A couple rare classes actually start with several, and get additional as they progress. It seems fairly random, but is spelled out under each occupation.

Thanks. I supposed I have just got used to a paradigm of secondary skill growth due to HU2.

loki_racer wrote:#9. I usually address this situation:

PC 1 has a P.S. of 10, PC 2 has a P.S. of 12.
PC 2 is attempting to bear hug and restrain PC 1. Both roll a d20 and PC 2 gets a +2 modifier.

Is this right?

I believe the answer is officially d20 with bonuses for Exception attributes. IE 16 = +1, 17=+2, ect.
I think the explanation for a ps10 beatng a ps 12 is stuff like better footing/leverage/blah.

It was mentioned awhile ago, but I have to agree with Pepsi Jedi with the dogs utility. A well trained dog can do a hell of a lot when fighting a zombie(s). Even as strong as a zombie is, an 80 german sheppard launching itself into the cheast of a shambler is darned well going to knock it back/down taking a few seconds or even quite a few to get back up. It can also be trained to knock it down and then go for a killing bite to the back of the neck as mentioned.

Alternately a big dog, lets say an 80lb doberman latched on to the arm or leg of a zombie is going to slow it even more or possibly even drag it down/backward. The zombie might be much stronger, but the dog has a much lower center of gravity to work from. Shamblers aren't very coordinated and are slow, a big dog latching on to a heel and pulling back is likely to trip one.

Straight up rolled combat, dogs = dead. Roleplaying like the name of the game suggests, dogs = good. Sure 1 dog isn't going to take on a whole horde, but it might take on 1 or 2 shamblers or even a runner and give its master a chance to get away or help out taking out a couple. A pack of 5-6 well trained attack dogs could easily pull down or take out several shamblers.
-Matt

Why do people have such a hard on for dogs in this game? They suck! zombies in this game can kill people in 1 punch and 2 or 3 can disable a car in a melee round. The only way to play is a Rifle at decent range, aim for the throat, not the head - never aim at the head in this game and hope you roll a 17 minimum. That's how you play. And I'd suggest never getting into a gunfight, 2-3 shots and your hour long character creation is a waste... Play Rifts instead.

I play with called shot rules from the other palladium games, I don't use the silly reduced damage rules for low caliber weapons nor do I play with the 17 and above natural to strike (penalty to strike, yes, but with added skill bonuses and no 2/3 melee actions, single action). Its asinine. Sure it isn't easy, but if you are decent marksman you can put a round in to a head sized target with a pistol at 15 yards 9 out of 10 times or better, not 3 in 20. Let alone a well trained marksman with a rifle, even at 100 yards with a slowly moving target...I am not well trained at all (IE I hit the target range about 3 times a year for a couple of hours with some friends) and with a stationary paper target I can put at least 3 out of 5 rounds through the head at 100 yards with a .30-30 and no scope. I'd bet a well trained marksman with a .30-06 or other high powered rifle could easily do better then that with a scope.

Up close an personal I don't really modify the rules...well other then the strike rules when it comes to damage or anything similar.

Heck, think about it, how hard is it to miss at 5 yards with a shotgun filled with 00 or 000 buck??? Not hard at all.

I prefer the game to be a bit more life like and have my players actually have a chance against more then an equal number of zombies. I am not looking for a resident evil style game, but 3 players against 10 or a dozen zeds should damn well have a chance unless they were really suprised at knife fighting range (IE they all burst out of a closet when one of the players opened the door or something silly like that). Against a horde of 100...the players are toast unless they can get running.
-Matt

Citizen Lazlo wrote:

azazel1024 wrote:I play with called shot rules from the other palladium games, I don't use the silly reduced damage rules for low caliber weapons nor do I play with the 17 and above natural to strike (penalty to strike, yes, but with added skill bonuses and no 2/3 melee actions, single action). Its asinine. Sure it isn't easy, but if you are decent marksman you can put a round in to a head sized target with a pistol at 15 yards 9 out of 10 times or better, not 3 in 20. Let alone a well trained marksman with a rifle, even at 100 yards with a slowly moving target...I am not well trained at all (IE I hit the target range about 3 times a year for a couple of hours with some friends) and with a stationary paper target I can put at least 3 out of 5 rounds through the head at 100 yards with a .30-30 and no scope. I'd bet a well trained marksman with a .30-06 or other high powered rifle could easily do better then that with a scope.

Up close an personal I don't really modify the rules...well other then the strike rules when it comes to damage or anything similar.

Heck, think about it, how hard is it to miss at 5 yards with a shotgun filled with 00 or 000 buck??? Not hard at all.

I prefer the game to be a bit more life like and have my players actually have a chance against more then an equal number of zombies. I am not looking for a resident evil style game, but 3 players against 10 or a dozen zeds should damn well have a chance unless they were really suprised at knife fighting range (IE they all burst out of a closet when one of the players opened the door or something silly like that). Against a horde of 100...the players are toast unless they can get running.
-Matt

Agreed. Whole heartedly.

Wow, I was expecting thumbs down for some reason .

I dunno, I just feel like some of the existing rules for DR make it really hard to do more then run from zombies. I want my players to be able to stand up to a few of them and to me it makes more sense with reapers. You'd need a hundred guys just to go in and clean out a really small town with a couple of hundred shamblers and a few runners in it and even then your likely to have a couple of dozen of your reaper buddies pushing up dasies at the end. Tweak the rules and a couple of dozen mid level reapers probably could clean out that same small town.
-Matt

I know many people dislike the called shot rules as written, but having run a large game a couple times at the Open House with stock rules, I can tell you they do work.

The games were 10 players each, who faced off against an ever-growing group of zombies - eventually reaching about 60 in size with occasional thinkers and fast-attackers added - swarming upon them. They had some basic cover, but it had several open paths. Using teamwork, with small clusters of players joining together against shared targets, both runs through the game were successful. I know 10 players is more than most people deal with, but so is 60 zombies at a time. Three players against 15 zombies would be a win for the players if they're smart. They just have to remember to kite the things, join together on targets, and not try and stand their ground like some damn-fool Revolutionary War British column. These are supernatural menaces, and many of the player complaints I hear are from people who want to just walk in and shoot stuff without thinking about tactics.

Ya know what else works? Cripple them. It may be hard to hit the head and break the skull, but it's not at all hard to hit a leg. When the swarms came shuffling in, several of the players would pointedly shoot the legs off of some of them, causing the swarm to spread out and offer single targets instead of masses. Then when the standing ones were finished, they could close up on the crawlers and get the huge bonus for point blank range, and annihilate them.

Yes, the zombies are powerful and a pain to kill, but it's easily done with combined teamwork and firepower, and some concept better than "stand here and shoot til they die."

Their assertion that a motorcycle helmet is a good protective device for combat shows a lack of understanding of motorcycle helmets.

Simply put they are designed to break once they are solidly hit once, because they are designed to protect once only by distributing the impact, the idea that they are at all combat worthy is asinine.

rat_bastard wrote:Their assertion that a motorcycle helmet is a good protective device for combat shows a lack of understanding of motorcycle helmets.

Simply put they are designed to break once they are solidly hit once, because they are designed to protect once only by distributing the impact, the idea that they are at all combat worthy is asinine.

Hey, I used that word first!

True, but if the impact was low enough it wouldn't destroy the integrity of the helmet, and it takes a pretty hard hit to do that.

For the groups of zombies, my players tend to just slowly retreat keeping out of range and pumling them with long range weapons. The issue is ammo...a lot of times it takes a player 8 or 10 rounds or even more to kill a zombie with headshots (or decapitate them). Against a couple of zombies that isn't a problem, but ammo doesn't grow on trees and against a dozen zombies my players would burn through ammo taking them all down. In some cases there simply isn't the space to be able to continually retreat while taking shots at the zombies and if enough runners are in the group then it just doesn't work out well. Even trying different things in 5 or 6 play sessions I had 7 out of 3 PCs die and have to reroll (not including probably 15 or 20 NPCs). With my revised rules I've had 1 PC die out of about a dozen play sessions since...course we've lost probably half a dozen red shirted ensigns as well.
-Matt

So, if you're playing a Half-Dead... Is the only way you can heal, if you happen to be near some humans when the zombies shred them? Or do half-dead heal normally, but just get a boost from nearby zombies ripping people apart? Or do they regenerate like actual zombies. I'm a little confused on it. Does it mention this stuff in the book somewhere, that I'm missing?

Pepsi Jedi wrote: Or can be trained to knock um down and rip off a limb.

Sorry in all my time playing DR, the closest thing I've seen of a dog ripping off a Zombie arm is when the Dog's head was decapitated .. and stayed on the Zombies arm .. due to its jaw being locked ..

I've never seen a Dog actually pull any arm off of a fully functioning Zombie ..

hehe

azazel1024 wrote: Straight up rolled combat, dogs = dead. Roleplaying like the name of the game suggests, dogs = good. Sure 1 dog isn't going to take on a whole horde, but it might take on 1 or 2 shamblers or even a runner and give its master a chance to get away or help out taking out a couple. A pack of 5-6 well trained attack dogs could easily pull down or take out several shamblers.
-Matt

This is how I play the Dog's in my game.

Thier not a Front line trooper against the Zombies .. Nuthing is ..

You kill Zombies from ranges of Bow's Rifles or Pistols .. The only time you get close to a Zombie is if you run them over in a vehicle .. or your surrounded (an prolly going to die) by them ..

Dog's are used as a reactionary type defense system for Humans in my game. They are there to slow down the runners by tripping them an keeping them on the ground as long as possible before making good thier own escape twords thier master again. And they do this type of defense against all Zombies.

[quote="loki_racer"]
1. Attribute Checks - This isn't addressed in the DR book that I could find. A d20 roll is required with the player needing to roll under their attribute.

I prefer the roll d20, shoot for a target number 10, 15, 20, 25+ depending on difficulty and use bonuses appropriate to attribute.

4. Critical rolls - All my players want to know if there are critical rolls.

Crits are in the combat section.


9. How are feats of strength determined? If two PC's decide to grapple with each other, one bear hugging the other, how do you determine what happens?

Use the entangle rules in the combat section. They should work reasonably well.