Clarification on Team Attack

Question: For everyone’s various Team Attack mechanics, how do they work when you’re fighting against rival humans and supers, instead of against super-Zs?

I ask because if we’re fighting living people, then the stamina damage does actually accumulate on the target and impact the target’s health.

Using the earlier scenario, for example, how much stamina damage do you end up putting on the target? For instance:

1. Devastating Attack: 20 damage, TN20. 20 stamina damage on target.
2. Team attack: 10 damage, TN30. Does this add 10 stamina damage or 30?
3. Team attack: 10 damage, TN20. Does this add 10 or 20?
4. Etc.

Curious how people play it.

Yikes. I would think that cannon would make a mess of a super-Z, too. Vehicle-mounted weapons FTW!

I don’t think there is a consensus.

There is one camp (reflected by the earlier thread – viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2234) in which any number of allies can Team Attack, as long as each one is within one tick of another one. Once all the damage is in, the target rolls Vigor against the total damage sustained (i.e. not just what exceeds fortitude, but the total amount that exceeded AR).

The other camp is using the “only one ally” model, like:

First attack – Rolls 30 damage (vs AR of 5 and Fortitude of 20). 25 damage get past AR, so the target rolls vigor (because 25 > fortitude) and the TN is 25 (= total damage sustained that triggered the roll).

Second attack = Team Attack and lands 13 damage = 8 after AR. 8 adds to the previous 25, for a vigor roll at TN 33.

Third attack = Team Attack, but can only stack with Second Attack (not both allies, just the last one). Rolls 18 damage = 13 after AR. 13 adds 8 from the previous ally, for 21 total. 21 > 20, so roll Vigor with TN 21.

Etc.

There are probably other ways of doing it, too, but those seem to be the two camps so far.

Hmm, this definitely needs to get clarified, especially for the situations for the Living Campaign. Can’t have two different camps as it only adds confusion and inconsistency.

I nominate Team Attack as something for the FAQ/Errata.

On a related note, how about setting traps that are designed as Team Attacks? Can we apply them that way? For instance, four explosive charges planted in an area, with the intention of luring the enemies into it and then hitting everything with an Area-of-Effect (AoE) Energy Burst to not only damage the enemies but also set of the charges? Can we process the explosions of the charges with Team Attack mechanics? Or is that a no-no?

Sound more like something better handled by a weapon die bump (+1 die bump for each additional explosive).
Once you get above d12, the weapon die goes up quite fast.

Interesting idea. How exactly would you handle that? I’m having trouble seeing the steps. Here are a few example scenarios I’m struggling with:

Scenario 1: There are 4 grenades/bombs/whatever planted in an area as a trap. The grenades have Material Strength (MS) 15 and 1 Hit, and will explode for d10 when destroyed. The enemies (Fortitude 20) have been lured into this area, and a Hero lobs an Energy Burst into the area to (a) damage the enemies and (b) set off the grenades. So, the sequence of events looks like:
1. Energy Burst. Roll attack. Player rolls 22 to hit. Enemies are hit. I assume grenades are hit too.
2. Hero rolls damage. Between damage and plot dice, the Hero rolls up 17 points of damage. Enemies do not suffer massive damage, but grenades are destroyed.
3. Grenades explode.
4. Grenade damage – several questions:
Q. Can the grenade damage add (via Team Attack) to the Hero’s 17 Energy Burst damage?
Q. Does each grenade add to the total? Or are they applied sequentially?
Q. In Southernskies’ “die bump” application (above), how is that working? d10 becomes d12 becomes d12d4 becomes d12d6? Or what?

Scenario 2: There are 4 grenades/bombs/whatever planted in an area as a trap. The grenades have MS 15 and 1 Hit, and will explode for d10 when destroyed. The enemies (Fortitude 20) have been lured into this area, where two heroes want to take them out. The first hero fires a bullet at one grenade and hits it for 10 (not enough to destroy it). The second hero then Team Attacks the grenade with an Energy Burst, dealing 12 damage to everything in the area. The combined damage is enough to destroy the grenade. The sequence of events then looks like this:
1. Bullet hits grenade #1 for 10 damage.
2. Team Attack Energy Burst hits grenade#1 and everything else for 12 damage.
Q. Does the combined 10 + 12 damage destroy the grenade? Or do items and MS not work that way?
3. Assuming the combined damage destroys the grenade, Grenade #1 explodes for 7 damage.
Q. Can the 7 damage from Grenade #1 add to the 12 damage from the Energy Burst to damage the enemies and also to damage the remaining 3 grenades, such that the remaining 3 grenades now also explode?
4. Assuming the combined damage allows Grenades 2-4 to explode, they go off.
Q. Does their damage stack with the Energy Burst and Grenade #1?

Curious how to handle this kind of thing, and whether (and how) Team Attack applies to this kind of daisy-chained trap setup.

Ok

I’m chiming in here…

Team Attack is just that… an Team Attack if one hero just happens to roll high enough to deal a wound on his own that “extra wound” is lost… because all the damage is added together to deal a wound to the target.

Now the massive damage will still result in a knockback if any of the heroes were dealing Bludgeoning attacks or Kinetic/Force attacks. (and may result in Massive Knockback)

Now the E.I.C. may always allow the hero who rolled enough damage to deal a wound to spend a plot die to inflict an extra wound, but that’s their call. (I have done it in home games when the player can give me a bad ass description of why)

and yes team attack is between Ally’s, not independent equipment or set explosives.

Now the E.I.C. can always allow the player to spend a plot die to bend this rule as well well… I can totally see it as a big story moment that deserves it.

as for this

Personally, it would be more reliable (and easier to rule) to make up a satchel charge of 4 grenades. Pull pin, throw (making it a Hero attack) and die bump weapon die (making 5d8 (d12) Stamina). Team Attack after the smoke clears.

Agreed, that’s the way I would handle it as well.

I hope this cleared things up.

If Attack 1 doesn’t get resolved immediately before Hero#2 has their turn, it can get very messy to resolve, especially if you are fighting multiple non-common foes. Hero’s need every Massive Damage check they can generate.
We’ve been playing this way and it’s still a struggle to get the Wounds onto the Zs.

Your missing part of the equation, it’s very much an IF/THEN scenario

if the first attacker scores a wound, the 2nd attacker can always abort the team attack and let the original strike stand, unless they want to “pile on” for possible knockback.

Also starting heroes will always have issues with Super Z’s… it’s purposeful, a powerful Super Z is not a “monster of the week” but something the heroes meet at the end of a good storyline. they could and should always fight a weaker Super Z’s

In my home games the heroes did not face a super Z for the first 8 or so games, there are enough “strange” zombies to worry about… and a well played Ninjaz can feel like a super Z. The heroes in my game named one because it was such a pain in the @#! and always had an escape root planned and used zombies to cover its escapes.