Hello! Just a quick question. The move Smash! for barbarians says the target loses something but is not specific. Could the barbarian use this to decapitate them?
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Hello!
Hello! Just a quick question. The move Smash! for barbarians says the target loses something but is not specific. Could the barbarian use this to decapitate them?
Comments are closed.
I’d say yeah, but follow the fiction.
Don’t stop the game to discuss if head counts as limb, but try to discuss FICTIONAL DETAILS. How do you swing?
Is your weapon made of steel? Glass? Bone?
How can you decapitate a huge dragon? An iron golem?
A headless blob?
Also, remember to make special qualities count.
If the enemy is dead yes.
Same if the enemy can act without that head. If it has more then one or is able to just spare it because its undead or if the head is only “decoration”.
If thats not the case I’d assume it would break fiction and kinda rules.
Probably yes, if everyone at the table is cool with it. And then I would caveat, “First time awesome, next time tired, after that boring.”
Jennifer Fuss you mean when they let someone lose a head when they still have HP?
Could be?
Like a Hydra who got some spare heads.
Like the headless Horseman who also obviously had some HP left after loosing his head.
Like maybe a Golem or Frankensteins creature.
Like maybe a Monster who stole his head anyway and would go out to hunt and find another persons head for its one.
Like maybe a Monster who basically is the head and not so much lifethreatening attached to the body (some of the creatures on Dead Space would rip the player characters head off, then implant them self onto the body and move around).
So basically I’d be fine withit as long as its no shortcut-attempt to exploit the move to an instant death were the Monster/Creature wouldn’t be dead.
(I am also not sure if a normal head really cause as a limb, like,… in general)
I don’t remember the specifics of the move, need to look it up to form an informed opinion.
I like and use the option of cutting off the head if the damage is enough to kill it. I suppose I agree with Jennifer in that regard. If they roll a 12+ and barely damage them it would make sense for them to choose something lesser. I appreciate all of your input on this!
Would cutting off the head for an insta-kill be against the rules, though? Following the fiction and the move, if they can lose something, they can lose their head, and if by losing their head they die, then they die, don’t they? I don’t remember at the moment, is it written anywhere that an enemy only dies when you exhaust their HP? What if we’re fighting on a cliff’s edge and I just declare my huge, muscular barbarian picks a zombie up and throws him down the cliff? I would go straight to defying danger, wouldn’t I?
Alberto Muti
In the example of the barbarian throwing a zombie off the cliff, the HP loss comes from falling damage, not from the act of the throw itself. Assuming it’s such a substantial drop that falling damage would not likely be survived, i might not roll damage, and would just pronounce the creature dead.
Alternatively, if damage is rolled and not enough to kill it, maybe the enemy landed on a ledge part way down, or caught a piece of scrub vegetation, or landed in a marsh… it’s rare, but people have survived falls from thousands of feet…. And the enemy may well remember the barbarian and come back later!
But backing up to the original question – if a character calls for a clearly fatal attack, and rolls well, but fails to produce sufficient damage i would keep the move badass, but make it non fatal.
Player wanted to cut off Bob’s head, rolled 10+, but only 1 damage? “You slice into his neck, burying your blade deep and driving him to the ground. Blood is spurting everywhere, and he’s grasping frantically at you, panic in his eyes. What do you do?”
Notice i don’t make a GM move against the player – i set the scene so they can use their 10+ to earn a free follow-up. If they want to damage Bob again, he’s so busy panicking that you don’t have to roll – you can inflict class damage again, no challenge. hell, i’d even let you coup de grace him, assuming there is no other pressing issue, but it’s a separate action, narratively, so that we’re sticking consistently to the damage of the original action, without setting a precedent that Smash! can auto-kill anyone, just because the Player calls a decapitation shot.
The goal is to highlight how badass the characters are, and to explore a cool story. If they can just assert they win an encounter, there isn’t much fun. But if they can’t pull of some slick moves, then all those long nights and weekends spent in adult ed axe-swinging courses really WERE a waste of time!
But a Druid that has an animal form with a move that basically reads: kill X can do that while a Barbarian rolling a 12+ can’t?
Jennifer Fuss what she said.
Tim Franzke The GM makes up the animal moves with Shapeshift. Safe to say they’re not going to give out an insta-gib move. Unless they’re cool with that, in which case they’re probably cool with Smash! decaps as well. Just depends on the tone they want for the story.
I’m going to have to go with no insta-gibbing. The purpose of rolling in the first place is when something is a challenge. If it isn’t, then it happens. So by definition when you’re rolling it’s at a challenging time. Your character is having to struggle, in the cases we’re talking about, it’s combat. Your character is fighting worthy foes in awesome combat! Allowing insta-gib moves (unless clearly that’s their point and normally have extra conditions (i.e. a death touch/death spell/assassin strike)) ruins this in my opinion. If dice are on the table it should be a real challenge.
It also takes away from the other players in my opinion. So…are we going to all try taking out the big bad guy or wait for Bob the Barbarian and Dave the Druid to get their move off?
Second, the dictionary and I are in agreement that a limb is not a head. However the definition does make a point toward the end that you can get into some interesting territory depending on the anatomy of said creature.
– one of the projecting paired appendages (as wings) of an animal body used especially for movement and grasping but sometimes modified into sensory or sexual organs
Well, but you ARE rolling, and have to get a 12+; and you ‘ve got to spend a level getting the move.
It could be argued that no other class gets a insta-kill just because they are above level 1 and got a 12+
That on the one hand it doesn’t really propell the fiction and on the other hand doesn’t fit the description of the move which does speak of limbs.