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Page 37 wrote:(bottom of left column under number 5.)
Note: A punch or kick attack does only its normal damage to zombies with a Natural 20, but the zombie is momentarily dazed and loses one melee attack. Otherwise punches and kicks do 20% their normal damage to a zombie.

Page 183 wrote:Fisticuffs and kicks only inflict 20% of their normal damage against a zombie, even on a head shot or blow to the neck. A natural 20 to strike does 40% the usual damage.

The key difference far as I can tell is the page 37 note is under "Inflicting Damage to the Neck or Head" list, and natural 20s the the head or neck have the note of doing more damage. Natural 20s anywhere else on a zombie are the standard x2 but on head/neck it is x3 meaning it is +200% instead of +100%.

So it seems like here, punch/kick does the standard x2 (+100%) everywhere except head/neck, where it will do x5 (+100%) by achieving normal damage.

Not sure why zombie skulls have a special vulnerability to human punches and kicks in relation to the rest of its body, or maybe I should look at it like everwhere else has a special resistance to punches or kicks?

Of course for the most part all it's good for is depleting SDC to crack the skull, because since you need to inflict the zombie's full PE in a single hit to shatter the skull and destroy the brains, you would need to be able to inflict 16 damage with your punch.

I think the key would be attacking the a 'power punch' or 'power kick' since either does double damage. I'm not sure if you add damage bonuses from PS or HTH before or after the doubling. Damage tables in previous RPGs have suggested after (not doubling the bonus) but the description on page 185 leads me to think it's open to interpretation, that there's grounds to say you can double the bonus too, not just the die roll.

If we look at the Leap Kick (Power Kick) of the Fast Attack Zombie though (page 44) 2D6 changes to 3D8 (I figure author figured that roughly 4D6 since both are 24 max, although it's slightly inferior) and the PS bonus isn't doubled.

We also see this for the Thinker Zombie (page 49) who can do a Power Punch, unlike a Sloucher. They roll 2D6 (rather than 1D6x2) so it's not pure doubling, but authors don't regularly make the distinction of the difference between doubling the result of 1 die and doubling the number of dice. Thinkers don't seem to double their PS bonus on a Power Punch any more than a Fast Attacker does on their Power Kick, so if zombies can't double their damage bonuses on power hits then why should humans get to?

Page 187's glossary entry for Power Punch also suggests only doubling the dice, not the PS:

For characters with normal P.S., it does double damage in Hit Points and/or SDC (normal punch damage of 1D4 times two plus any possible P.S. or Hand to Hand Combat damage bonus on top of that).

I don't really follow the meaning of the 'with normal PS', possibly a remnant of some other game system where characters with supernatural PS get higher base damage dice?

It seems clear though that the "times two" is applied to the 1D4, and that a possible damage bonus is on top of the doubled dice but not doubled itself.

Even a non-doubled PS damage bonus could be enough, when combined with a stronger hit, to reach the 16 needed to destroy the lowest-PE zombies, if you manage a natural 20 to get full damage.

Since leap kicks only take 2 attacks now (they used to take full melees in other games, if I recall) they are probably the best bet here. Even someone without damage bonuses could manage success. Using http://anydice.com/ on 3D8 (click "at least") a leap kick without damage bonuses will inflict at least 16 damage over 30% of the time.

Personally though, since a natural 20 might take 20 kicks to achieve (and with leap kicks taking 2 attacks) I'd rather have a high enough damage bonus to guarantee a kill.

For anyone capable of doing body flips, that might be a better idea, since they aren't fisticuffs or kicks and so could arguably be excepted from the 1/5 damage (down to 20%) penalty. Even tackles might be immune to that! They aren't fisticuffs or kicks either.

Makes me wonder if Joint Locks or Grasping Hands atemi (for those importing N*SS stuff via the ninja thread) might also be immune to the penalty. Could be a good way to whittle down the SDC of a limb or main body.