Mob attacks

[jacobmuller]

What about attacking into close combat?
Assuming non-zombie unarmed attacks, if the victim is grappling an attacker, on the ground, and using him as a shield, is he any better off?

[Kalzazz]

. . . . . and this is why in starslayer's last game the two party members did not charge boldly into the teeth of a mob of 50 enemies awaiting them in close quarters in a cave, but instead went for sending poison gas into the cave

[Sir Tifyable]

Thanks for these. I think Ulzgoroth's suggestion of counting the followers into the 'stats' of the first rank of attackers is the one I'll go with. From my experience as a medieval re-enactor, I've been hit by a couple of wedge attacks (also known as boar-snouts, but that's really Viking) and know that whatever you do to the guy in front, the wedge keeps a-comin'.

I'll start off by treating them as a Slam attack that can't be dodged (get out of one guy's way and you're in the way of those shoulder-to-shoulder with him), and remembering to count 1/5th of the ST of those directly behind him for Parrying Heavy Weapons purposes as well as 1/5th of their HP for the Slam check. (For 'directly' behind him, I'll just need to work out roughly how many 'ranks' of attackers can fill the full space and use that estimate.)

If the victim somehow survives that it'll be a Takedown attempt by four of the mob (realistically, no more than that will be able to manage to get involved) but with a bonus of +4 to the attackers to reflect the extra pressure from behind (assuming that's two normal-ST humans doing the pushing: it will be more if they're good strong zombies!).

Once down, six humans can use unarmed combat or close-combat thrusting weapons on the fallen target. Though I would probably boost the chance to critically fail - think Julius Caesar's assassination, where several of the attackers came out of it with serious wounds from their colleague's daggers.

[cybermancer2k1]

Something like this should have been in GURPS Mass Combat, neh?

Be that as it may, the rules in Supers work pretty well. If you don't have Supers (I highly recommend it!) or want something a little simpler, I remembered this material I downloaded years ago (now on Archive.org). Look for "GURPS Worst-Case Scenarios", then the passage "Surviving a Riot". Might not be quite what you want, but it is adaptable.