[X] My Assistant

[Ol' Scratch]

Ditto.

[Moon-Hawk]

I like it.

[DocMortand]

The idea of useing the meat shield to soak up damage makes sense to me - but what about during melee? How would that work?

[GaiasWrath8]

The house rules i have been using are:

Living Metahuman shield- The unsoaked damage goes through and add any armor the shield had to your armor.

Dead Metahuman Shield- Treat as barrier = to body+armor. Partial cover rules might apply if you are using something smaller (A troll hiding behind a dwarf corps). But just treat as barrier is = to or larger than player.

This is what I was doing.

[DocMortand]

Also makes sense - lets turn it around. What disadvantages would you get in melee with a body shield? (I.E. It's clumsy, if it's alive it's struggling, it's occupying one or mor hands...)

[LinaInverse]

Frankly, using a body as a meat shield should be a huge loss of mobility, since you figure that most healthy adult Humans weigh between 50-100 kgs (nevermind fatties like us stereotypical gamers ;)) depending on build, gender, height, etc. Even assuming someone very strong (ie, str 7+), the inertia alone would prevent rapid movement, especially if the "shield" is alive. Don't even talk about the sheer strength to use a Troll "shield".

Hiding and/or shooting behind someone is one thing; you don't need to jockey for position. Melee is a whole different animal; for that matter, the attacker could just as easily seize the "shield" himself and hold it out of the way while punching/kicking with the other hand. But all that's just my opinion.

[mfb]

i... hm. i guess in melee, i'd allow someone to use their meatshield to impose a +2 modifier to their opponent's attacks, but only when the person is using Full Defense. when making an attack, the person would take a +4 to their own TN.

[GaiasWrath8]

I would let a troll or something of = size, use a Dwarf...maybe an thin elf as a shild in meele if they were dead. Other than that...could not see it doing more good than harm. In a real fight the best you can do is dodge behind some one for a single attack or push some inosent person at the attacker in hopes of delaying an attack.

So with that, It would be a resited improvised weapons roll...I think. LOL

[LinaInverse]

Disagree Gaias. For one, Dwarves are often quite heavy. But even discounting that, the weight will cripple even a Troll trying to melee.

Try this: Take a 20 lb weight, hold it away from your body (arm extended) and just try and hold that position. That's not much weight; far less comparatively speaking in fact than a Dwarf, or Elf, especially one that's not stripped naked, being hoisted by a Troll. Even if you're in pretty good shape, you're going to get tired pretty quickly; the muscles in that part of the body (mostly shoulders, some upper back) are some of the least-used (and consequently weakest) in the upper body.

Now try taking that weight, keep it held away from your body (facing a single facing if you'd like), and do something strenuous and requiring coordination like boxing a moving, heavy bag or running through a tire obstacle course. For one, the weight's going to eat your endurance like candy; for two, holding it like that's going to throw off your coordination like hell (something vital to an aggressive melee fighter).

Even if you want to discount all of this, try doing this when you're facing multiple opponents (who are going to come at you on opposite sides).

[GaiasWrath8]

OK, so maybe I am a little off with the troll thing. Just when I think of a Troll I think Stronger than we could ever attempt to become even with help of many drugs. Also, who holds there shield streight out away from there body. It would be very hard and would make a better improvised weapon than a sheild.

If you really "need!?" to use some one as a sheild I feel convinced that a troll with a good strenght could rip into a a human or smaller body "using the spin as handle" and hold the body up as a sheild. Might work ok because you just keep your arm curled and insted of moving your shield to block a weapon "like buckler" move your body around the shield "like a tower shiled".

Cant say I have used this in real life or anything. To be honest the only thing I do with other peope's bodies in a fight would be to push them towards some one when facing multipul opoinets..but then I'm not a troll. :cyber:

[GaiasWrath8]

Oh yes, and one other thing on bodies and gun fire. For some odd reason, in real life, bullets seem to be stopped more so by dead bodies than live ones. This is proven by such things as drive bys here is southern CA when bullets go through one target and hit some kids behind him. And then meny true storries of people from wars hiding under the corpses of other bodies and m-16 or AK47 fire being stopped by the dead body. It must have somthing to do with the dead weight provided by a corps.

Just some more food for thought

[Kagetenshi]

I could see the blood starting to clot causing that. "dead weight", on the other hand, simply refers to the rather unwieldy way dead people or similar tend to slump or loll about.

~J

[Ol' Scratch]

The rules for carrying a load more than cover that aspect. Unless you're exceptionally strong, an average 70kg-ish person is going to be a pain -- literally -- to move about.

[GaiasWrath8]

Once again, really not the sheild of choice.

I have grown fond of car doors when I am in a pinch. But then again, why use a shield?

[Ol' Scratch]

Because standing around going "hit me hit me hit me!" in the open is a stupid idea?

[Kagetenshi]

Depends on whether or not you have a Trid Phantasm going :)

~J

[DocMortand]

heh - what is the psychological armor value of a trid phantasm meat shield? Now THERE's a question. Well, not really, but still. :)

[Moon-Hawk]

[The Question Man]