Help Killing a Zombie

[DtMK]

Supposedly, the center for activity and motor functions is the brain, even in an undead state. What we'd see in most movies in game terms is someone rolling a crit to hit the brain pan. In this case, it's a called shot, and in the DR book, it covers sharper weapons versus blunt, how some weapons are better, etc.

[Shotgun Jolly]

Is it we are assuming that all the Zombies we are encountering are "maxed" out on SDC/HPs?

Cant we just assume that a zombie who has been around for a few weeks/months, who has been shot at by other survivors, Fell off buildings, stuck by trucks, etc. NOT have to be at full health?

A brand new animated corpse that just died, sure. But the rest?

Wouldnt that be a good fix to this problem?

[Ninjafingers]

Is it we are assuming that all the Zombies we are encountering are "maxed" out on SDC/HPs?

Cant we just assume that a zombie who has been around for a few weeks/months, who has been shot at by other survivors, Fell off buildings, stuck by trucks, etc. NOT have to be at full health?

A brand new animated corpse that just died, sure. But the rest?

Wouldnt that be a good fix to this problem?

If IIRC, zombies heal when they consume PPE, so unless they recently underwent what you just described, no, they would all be at maximum health.

[Shotgun Jolly]

Is it we are assuming that all the Zombies we are encountering are "maxed" out on SDC/HPs?

Cant we just assume that a zombie who has been around for a few weeks/months, who has been shot at by other survivors, Fell off buildings, stuck by trucks, etc. NOT have to be at full health?

A brand new animated corpse that just died, sure. But the rest?

Wouldnt that be a good fix to this problem?

If IIRC, zombies heal when they consume PPE, so unless they recently underwent what you just described, no, they would all be at maximum health.

True, but not all of them will be as successful as the next.. But what you said does indeed raise the "oh my god! we are all gonna die" factor by a good margin!

[Ninjafingers]

The thing is though that to kill it you need to overcome it's lifeforce along with destroying the brain. What makes it so nasty is that your typical zombie might only have 20-30 SDC on the head, but then has another 10-20 hit points, and depending might have as much as 78 points of damage required to put it down.

There are 3 problems I see in the head shot way of destroying "jennies".
1] Hit points. They are not alive, they should not have HPs.
2] High SDC for Head, 2d6+14, come on.
3] Double penalty to make head shots. Why do you receive a greater then normal penalty to a called shot, AND have to make it on a natural roll without skill modifiers?

If I ran a DR (not likely, but you never know), I'd drop the HPs from them all together. Once the head/main body is destroyed, it goes down. The only exception would be the thinkers, who can survive with their main body destroyed and retain control of their amputated limbs.
I'd make the Head SDC 3d6, still has the potential to be high, but allows for them to have recently taken some damage (even if it was just a fall).
And I'd use the normal rules for head shots.

Would you also eliminate the instant kill rule where you have to do three times the head SDC to kill a zombie in one shot?