Incidental Damage

Incidental damage describes the unintended or accidental harm caused by monsters that are considerably larger in size than humanoid combatants. Due to their size and strength, as these creatures whirl and attack, their large limbs and appendages come into random contact with their opponents, causing damage. With excessively-sized monsters, incidental damage can wipe out whole contingents of low-calibre combatants in a brief span of time. In some cases, damage results from the debris that's being thrown about by the monster's movements.

To cause damage, a creature must have a weight of at least 1,000 lbs. Then, for each thousand lbs. of weight, the creature has the potential to cause 1 hit point of damage. The overall weight of creatures is rounded to the nearest thousand, so that a creature of 1,500 lbs. would cause a maximum of 2 damage. Note that such creatures, when fighting one another, cause damage to one another on account of this weight.

Incidental damage occurs in addition to the creature's normal attack damage.

Calculating Damage

There is a potential for incidental damage for any combatant within 1 combat hex of the large creature's final position, or within 1 hex of anywhere along the creature's path during it's movement round. Thus, if an elephant were to trundle forward some multiple hexes through a mass of combatants, potentially dozens might be affected, even more. Considering that a 10,000 lb. elephant would cause up to 10 damage, an elephant's charge is a very effective battle tactic.

Once those potentially affected are identified, a roll is made for each with an even chance of damage occurring or not. For example, both Bonnie and Jack are in the path of the elephant above. On a d6, a 4 is rolled for Bonnie (high) and a 3 for Jack (low); therefore, Jack receives damage and Bonnie doesn't.

Incidental damage is interpreted as a random number between "1" and the maximum incidental damage the creature might cause. Thus in the example above, Jack would suffer 1-10 incidental damage, with low results indicating that he was merely shoved aside, while a high result would show that he was kicked or even stepped aside. Incidental damage can't be adjusted like critical hits, so 10 damage is the most that Jack might take.

See Combat