Insta-Kill

[Arnold Rimmer]

I noticed there are no rules for instantly killing an enemy. Observe:

Worf is succesfully sneaks up behind a guard. He draws his knife, and slits the guards' throaght.

Now, even if he does max damage, it's only 7 damage. He'd have to do that 6 times to kill the guard. Have any of you developed house rules for this?

[Balok]

Not specifically. In this situation, I'd be inclined to judge it based on who the victim was: if it was an NPC of little importance, I'd say "Fine. You killed him." I would, of course, require successful stealth rolls, and a successful to hit. Even the best sometimes bungle what should be easy...

But if it was a PC, I wouldn't make a fiat call. I might say that the damage was increased by some factor, or other, but I wouldn't make it instantly fatal. How many folks want their hard fought for characters to just "die" that fast, regardless of how realistic it might be?

Now, if the PC does something noble and self-sacrificial, or something stupid, or what have you -- that's a different story. Then I may say "It worked, but you died."

Sure, players could abuse this: in that situation, I'd be inclined to warn them (perhaps via a court martial) that they're not acting per Starfleet expectations.

[Arnold Rimmer]

Yeah, any guards that my players go after a just NPC's. As for Player v. Player combat, unless both parties agree to it, you wouldn't belive how easy it is a for a highly localized gamma radiation leak to spring up

[SIR SIG]

Dare I say an in House Critical hit system for death dealing blows

[QuantumRabbit]

So wait...we need to use in house crit hit? What about the normal crit hit system? If you roll a 12 on 2d6 you roll one d6 open ended and add damage...That allows for plenty of damage on a rare occasion.

[Arnold Rimmer]

The current system just doesn't cut it. Using the knife example again....

Assume and average health of 8. If a player rolls and extraordianry success, the weapon does max damage. In the case of the knife, this is 7. (1d6 + 1) In order to kill the enemy, he'd have to hit 7 times (or more) to kill.

Now then, I have played in other systems where a player can make incredimbly lucky saving throws and survive an arrow to the face, but it's not likley.

[QuantumRabbit]

With skills and the 2d6 you roll the second d6 over again... Wouldn't it make sense if the damage was 1d6 to roll open ended? I mean surely it shouldn't take 7 stabs of a knife to kill someone...and you should not have to get really lucky to do the deed...but this is star trek, what the hell are you doing using a knife? Set your phaser to kill, and nuke the SOB.

[Arnold Rimmer]

Go out and rent the movie The Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones. You'll have a sudden urge to run an entire knife-based series.

Actually, that's one thing I don't like about ST roleplaying. If you've got a phaser, it's one-hit kills.

[QuantumRabbit]

Not if you are playing starfleet, by the book, starfleet officers should never have phasers set above stun except in cases of EXTREME emergency. So I don't see that problem in the game I play in.

[C5]

It's true you don't have rules to instantly kill someone without an energy weapon, yet this happened a few times on the show (Worf snapping Weyoun's head and Data doing the same with some Borgs in First Contact).
What I'd suggest in this case in create a new Unarmed or Armed combat move, called Fatal Strike or whatever you feel like, allowing to instantly kill the opponent (of course, a TN of 25 or more is in order); it could be a stab right in the heart, snapping the neck, or the Tal-Shaya move (I don't remember right now if its in the SOM).
In the case of sneaking beside the Jem'Hadar, you would also get some modifiers on the TN depending on the stealthiness of your approach.

[Jem'hadar]

Although there are no current rules for instant kills, you may want to re-consider adding them to your game. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If PCs can instantly kill NPCs, then NPCs should have the same chance to instantly kill PCs. As a Narrator or Player, do you really want that?

Moreover, I'm not sure in reality how easy it is to instantly kill someone, unless you're well-trained to do that. Even gun shot wounds (non-head shots) aren't always instantly fatal. Instead, they usu. incapacitate the target, who may later (maybe only minutes) die from the wound or bleed to death absent medical attention. Of course, shots to the head can be instantly fatal & snipers are trained for 1 shot, 1 kill.

But how many Starfleet officers will be trained in such tactics? Not many, I imagine.

In any event, 1 hit from a phaser, at high enough setting, will instantly kill the target. Phaser combat is very dangerous in the Star Trek RPG.

[Ineti]

You could always use the mook rules from the LOTR RPG and make some villains one success baddies. One successful hit against them and the keel over.

Or, you could just rule that common sense dictates that if someone gets their throat slit and doesn't have a chance to stop it, they'll bleed out and die.

[7 of 11]

I had this problem too it pretty easy to fix. Just set your knife to KILL and presio! Remember this is Star Trek, just look for the knob on the under side of the knife and....THERE IT IS ALONG! Hope this helps.

7 of 11
A

[Arnold Rimmer]

An interesting side note:

When creating explosives, a TN 20 gives you an explosive described as equivalent to a photon torpedo or a nuclear weapon, doing 5d6+18 damage. The only problem is, I don't think anyone could survive a nuclear blast at close range, yet it seems to work this way in the game (my players are most appreciative of this rule.)