Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[deadlander]

hi, in wotd do players get the free edge for being human? dosent say they dont so assuming they do?

also do players get the +2 unarmed bonus against zombies and only melee/hand weapons negate this bonus not pistols ?

adam[/u]

[werecorpse]

My understanding is that you do get the free edge

But you don't get the unarmed bonus as zombies are considered to have a natural attack

Edit : btw I generally allow most anything ( including a pistol) to act as a small improvised weapon ( ie -1 to attack, -1 to parry ) . This negates the unarmed bonus but as the parry is dropped by 1 you effectively get half the benefit.

[Wibbs]

I agree with werecorpse on both counts, and its the way I ran it with both groups I did it for.

[Zadmar]

I agree as well, but I'll elaborate on why.

The zombies in Zombie Run are treated as Unarmed Defenders because "there is no specific "Bite: Str damage" or similar listing. That is the general way of showing a creature with a natural weapon that would count as armed". However in War of the Dead, the zombies all have "Bite" listed under their Special Abilities. That means they do have natural weapons, and are therefore not treated as Unarmed Defenders.

Regarding the free Edge, WotD states that "from a mechanical standpoint character creation remains the same as detailed in the Savage Worlds rulebook", and as stated in step 1 of character creation in the rulebook, "Humans are the standard race in Savage Worlds, and start play with one free Edge".

[Jordan Peacock]

I agree that zombies in WOTD aren't count as "unarmed." It seems to be some sort of trope that against the teeth of a zombie, all human flesh is like Play-Doh, and all clothing is like crepe paper.

(I remember at least one scene on The Walking Dead where some guy is walking past a "corpse" in the prison, and -- oh, surprise, ZOMBIE! -- it reanimates, and effortlessly takes a chunk out of his leg, right through the blue jeans. Seriously? And nobody bothers wearing gloves, because I guess those would be useless if faced with fearsome reanimated human incisors. )

Re: Pistol as improvised weapon: That's a pretty nice idea. I should have used it. It would have been a little less severe than giving zombies the +2 bonus all the time against someone with a pistol.

As it was, if someone was relying on a pistol or other one-handed ranged weapon, it became a standard tactic in my campaign to have some sort of melee weapon -- even just a makeshift club -- in the off-hand, just in case. (There are no Savage Worlds rules for pros and cons on using both hands when firing a pistol, after all.) It also became pretty popular to arm NPC Extras with whatever could be used as spears or staves, to give them that +1 Parry bonus (and so that they could give Gang-Up bonuses from the second rank when fighting in a tight corridor, thanks to Reach 1).
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[Zadmar]

[deadlander]

great, thanks for the responses much clearer now.
on a side note, is the d6 running dice capable of acing or just a 1-6.

[Zadmar]

[Snate56]

The real question between being an armed or unarmed deffender is do you have anything to interpose between you and another's weapon? Zombies don't care enough to flinch away from sharp objects but neither are they actively blocking. So you could rule either way. I, personally, consider them armed because of their tactics. (the basic zombie, that is)




SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[Lee_Szczepanik]

You do get the free Edge. I didn't specifically spell it out because, as someone else mentioned, I simply pointed character creation back to Savage Worlds. Hey, it was many years ago that I actually wrote Chapter One, Week One (wow . . . almost 4 years now) and was still new to the license. I do things in books differently now.

Also correct about the bite and natural weapons.

In short, unless a Daring product has a specific setting rule that changes something from Savage Worlds directly, always use the core rules (or your own house rules).