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In RIFTS a called shot increases the hit number to 13 or higher.. and an Aimed Called Shot is the same but at a +2.. Dead Reign doesnt say anything about a 13 or higher. Dead Reign says A called shot has no bonus but still hits as normal. An Aimed called shot has a+2 also all ranged attacks are at 8 and higher a hit. Curious as to why Dead Reign combat is so much different than RIFTS.. I think as a House rule in my Games I'm taking the 13 or higher rule for a called shot.

The higher target number for called shots was removed from Rifts in Ultimate Edition. The penalty for target size stands though. There's a lot more differences between the combat systems of Palladium's games than you might expect. I've recently been customizing my character sheets to feature a checklist of combat maneuvers native to each game, it's been enlightening.

You may also want to review the modifiers on p.36. They make it much more difficult to damage a zombie's vital areas.

oops.. missed page 36

Yeah. Palladium Books products need to be read cover to cover to find all of the bits and pieces. It's sometimes frustrating. Both rules and background info tend to get scattered throughout.

Page 37 no bonuses allowed when making called shot against neck or head.
Page 182 a +3 to strike head or neck
Page 183 a +1 to strike head or neck

All I can figure is 37-8 are melee-only rules which don't apply to guns...

Or else not using strike bonuses was only in respect to explaining natural die rolls but you still used the bonuses to see if you hit at all (like if you had massive penalties that took you below 5) or to make it harder to dodge.

Pages 182 - 183 says you can make called shots with burst fire at close range which makes sense.. If you are 3 feet away from a zombie and you point your burst fire gun at the head of a zombie of course that called shot will hit. Beyond 15 feet you cannot make a Called shot with a Burst fire Rifle. I know it doesn't say specifically but it's kind of obvious.

Those are not Melee only rules.. You cant do a Melee attack 10 feet away.

I ignore those 'extremely' restrictive combat penalties against zombies, especially since the game isn't about fighting zombies (for me at least). So when you do have to put one down, lets not make it take 5 people to take down 1 zombie.

Tirisilex wrote:Those are not Melee only rules.. You cant do a Melee attack 10 feet away.

Remind me the length of a pike or a tree-trimmer chainsaw. How long can chains or whips get?

I have WWE on the brain. How much damage if I want to hit a zombie with a ladder?

Tables matches would also be good against vampires... and silver chairs matches against werewolves.