Rules Only: Wounds from Animals

[Snowgen]

From Book 1, Characters and Combat (Second Edition), page 34 (emphasis added):

Wound points are applied to the target's (defending character's) strength, dexterity, and endurance on a temporary basis. Each die rolled (for example, each of the two dice rolled in a result of 2D) is taken as a single wound or group of hits, and must be applied to a single characteristic.

From Book 3, Worlds & Adventures (Second Edition), page 30:

For simplicity, the damage dice should be rolled once when the animal is generated; the animal would inflict that number of hits every time it hits...

On page 35 of Book 3 is a sample encounter table. The first entry on the table is a 200Kg Hijacker that does 11 wound points with its teeth. Working backwards, I know that 3D were used to generate the "11": 2D for Teeth + 1D because the hijacker is 200Kg.

So, rules as written, this hijacker does a flat 11 points of damage every round, except no dice are thrown. But because Book 1 says that each die is assign to a single characteristic then technically, because there are no dice, the player doesn't have to assign the wound points anywhere and is immune from the animal's damage (other than on the first round, but that's a different story).

Clearly this is incorrect. My guess (with nothing to back it up at all) is that the folk GDW were using a different wound mechanic than the one written in the book.

So the question is, how does one handle this? I see these options:

1. The "11" is one set of wounds and must be taken against a single stat.
2. Let the player divvy the wound points amongst the stats any way they want.
3. Forget Book 3's suggestion "for simplicity" and just roll the actual damage every time.
4. Instead of recording the total ("11" in this case) record each die (maybe this one was "2/4/5")

Option #1 was how I read the intent of the rules when I first read them, but makes animals more effective at putting someone down than a shotgun.

Option #2 makes animal encounters less dangerous than other combatants, but I can justify by the first edition of the rules (Book 1, page 34) that state (emphasis added):

Each die rolled (for example, each of the two dice rolled in a result of 2D) is taken as a single wound or group of hits, and must be applied to a single characteristic; further modifications may be distributed against, or added to, such wound groups as desired (players do this themselves; the referee does it for non-player characters).

Option #3 is supported in the second edition's book 3 where states "If the referee wishes to take the trouble, he can roll the proper number of dice every time the animal hits..."

Option #4 is just something I invented.

For now I'm leaning towards option #3. But I'm still very curious (1) how other people have handled this, and (2) what the actual intent of the rules are.

It's been 42 years since the books were published, but I can't see where anyone else has ever had this question before. Maybe I failed an aging-roll and my Google-Fu is failing me.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Dragoner]

Apply the 11 points against one of the physical characteristics, and then the other points if it runs over to another characteristic. Similar to the first blood rule.

 

[bookwyrm]

I think the GM should just go with whichever works best. Personally, #1 is just the average of 3d6 rounded up to 11 and #3 is a damage range of 3-18, and are the two I would choose between. I could see #2 as a third option if you want more survivability, and #4 just looks like more work to slow things down.

 

[punkrabbitt]

I always used #3

 

[infojunky]

Honestly all I have ever used is #3.