ZOMBIES - where it would be easier to reach around barriers to grab than punch?

[Plane]

Like for example, I went looking a bit and found a stock photo showing the sort of situation I had in mind, where a zombie is crawling through a door and grabbling a guy's leg:

https://i.imgur.com/eziatcQ.jpeg

In this situation because of the placement of the door, the zombie would not be able to fully extend his arm and thrust his left elbow towards the survivor to throw a punch at him as we understand a traditional punch to work...

But he's fully capable in this situation of grappling him using a bent arm because the lower leg is still well within a half-arm's reach.

Like in theory sure you might be able to do some kind of half-hearted "palm strike" to basically give them a calf massage but there just isn't the kind of full-limb leverage there using a bicep-only elbow-flexion attack to match what we'd expect in the force of full limb extension (traditionally triceps and chest/shoulders) thrusting the hand forward.

This also seems like one of those situations where the lunging pose of the guy holding the door would give different hex positioning for his limbs, probably akin to All-Out-Attack (Long) or Committed Attack (Long) where only the front leg is targetable but the rear leg is far back and untargetable?

A situation like this also seems really borderline as to whether the bottom-zombie would be able to do a headbutt or a bite. Like he's nearly there but the door IS braced against his check so it's a subtle matter of neck length and craning it aroud the edge of the door while the door-pushing survivor might in a panic try to adjust his leg back to put it out of reach without taking too much pressure off the door.

Normally I would think headbutts could have a slight distance advantage over bites (conceptually - in GURPS pretty sure they're lumped together) though in this case positioning I think would matter more - like it would be easier to bite stuff below the zombie's nose (the survivor's foot or shin) and easier to headbutt stuff above the zombie's nose (the survivor's knee or thigh)

I know this is all more technical than most GURPS combat gets but in lieu of stuff like magic powers I find this is the kind of situational-awareness and environmental-tactics crunch which would add some spice to zombies, I'm sure a lot of us think about these micro-adjustments about terrain when watching muggles take on the undead in Walking Dead when using unarmed or melee combat.

[Donny Brook]

The zombie on the floor is in an improvised weapon ( the door) grapple by the torso. His posture is lying down for a -4 to hit, and his only reachable target is the leg for another -1.

Zombies only grapple and bite, they don't punch or headbutt.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Zombies only grapple and bite, they don't punch or headbutt.

Zombies pg 25 "the zombie can punch, kick, grab, and scratch"
pg 32 "It opts to attack in some other way: grapple, punch, etc"
pg 125 "if the zombie inflicts at least 1 HP of injury on a living person via direct, body-tobody contact (biting, skin-on-skin punching or rending, etc.),"

While thematically I understand grapple-to-bite being our usual expectation of a zombie, we do need to figure out how to represent that statistically, ie why a zombie would be dumb enough to avoid punching when it's a great way to soften up meat before eating it.

That's why I always figured there ought to be something like a "make a fist" skill where fist-clenching costs a ready maneuver and zombies are in too much of a rush to hurt you to bother with that. Something one might forego with a kinda quick-draw skill that zombies lack the DX to use competently like we might.

[Kromm]

I think the situation is far closer to jumping, where your distance is cut down unless you take extra time to prepare, or aiming, where your accuracy is reduced unless you take extra time to level and sight your weapon first.

You have a barrier. All attacks through a gap in it – strikes or grapples – are at a penalty, that being the SM of the gap. It doesn't matter that your final target is an SM 0 human if the gap is, say, 12"×12" square that gives -5 (1 foot) + 2 (box) = -3 to hit. Your real target is SM -3.

With a strike, it's inefficient to put a body part through first and then attack at no penalty. Strikes rely on engaging a chain of muscles to take advantage of your strength and weight, and unless you seriously believe in "one-inch punches" (which are a parlor trick outside of kung fu movies), the striking body part must travel through space to develop momentum. So, you're stuck attacking at -3 if you want full damage. The upside is that your foe might not even see you there . . . if you're in the dark behind the gap, say, they have -3 for the gap on top of darkness penalties, and aren't likely to succeed at Vision. This can make your first strike a surprise attack.

With a grapple, you can put a body part through and then attack at no penalty. It just takes extra time, probably a turn. On your first turn, take a Attack maneuver to stick an arm through the gap; don't bother rolling dice for this, as gap don't hit back. Your enemies can now see your arm, won't be surprised by attacks with it, and can attack it – though you can defend, and I'd even give the +3 for retreating if you pulled your arm back through (meaning you just wasted your last turn). However, if you still have an arm left on your next turn, you can grapple at no penalty for the gap. (Yes, in theory you could do this with a strike, too, but the blow would be a wimpy poke at -2 damage per die or whatever.)

Given that untrained humans are at DX 10 for all this, and zombies often aren't even that good, -3 means not hitting.

All-Out Attack can change things. With Determined, the -3 to hit is ignorable. With Strong, the damage penalty for poking an arm through and then striking is ignorable. With Double, you could poke the arm through and grapple in just one turn. The catch, of course, is that you're now defenseless with an arm stuck through a hole. A zombie might not care, but most humans probably should.

Tack on an extra -4 for being prone and even All-Out Attack won't help you much. At that point, your zombie is probably going to take a turn to reach through and then grapple next turn, using Determined to offset the -4 for being prone.

[zoncxs]

And since its a zombie, I would expect all attacks or grapples be telegraphed and All Out Attacks.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

And since its a zombie, I would expect all attacks or grapples be telegraphed and All Out Attacks.

Definitely true of classic Romero-style zombies, but of course there are many other types. Zombies suggests that conduct being standard only for those with Berserk or Uncontrollable Appetite, which rules out zombies that are magical or weird-science servitors to necromancers or mad scientists . . . and infected or transformed humans on autopilot, who defend reflexively . . . and dead bodies animated by parasites or evil spirits with agendas.

But then, I'm a big-tent zombie fan. You might not count all of those things as zombies!

[Donny Brook]

I note that:

-the zombies pictured look like the modern mindless-hungry Romero-type.

-the grappling zombie in question already has the grappling limb and its head through the gap.