Gorger Advantage as Killing Blow

Rules Discussion
#1

A question has come up in Steel Horse Crossing (Wisconsin) discussion as a group of Gorgers plans our charity banquet that will involve many Gorgers eating the same person at the same time.

In which situations does the Gorger Advantage constitute a Killing Blow?

I think the question is maybe best illustrated with some specific situations. We’re dealing with timers, so I find it most clear to write based in seconds (T=0 is right when things start, T=60 is one minute later, etc.)

Scenario 1:
Character A has 25 body.
T=0, 6 Gorgers start feeding at the same time.
T=120, 2 minutes later, they all finish.

Option A - Because they all would have started their separate countdown clocks at slightly different times (fractions of a second), the first 5 dropped Character A into Bleed Out when they finished. The 6th Gorger feeding functioned as a Killing Blow, Character A is now dead.
Option B - Because they all started at functionally the same time, the damage all hit at the same time. There is no such thing as negative Body, so Character A is now in Bleed Out with a 5 minute timer.

Scenario 2:
Character B has 25 Body.
At T=0, 5 Gorgers began feeding.
At T=60 (1 minute later), a 6th Gorger begins feeding.
At T=120, the first 5 finish.
At T=180, the 6th finishes.

Option A - At T=121, Character B died. They were knocked into Bleed Out when the first 5 did their damage, and they were targeted by the Advantage of the 6th which functioned as a killing blow.
Option B - At T=180, Character B died. They were knocked into Bleed Out when the first 5 did their damage, when the 6th finished their 2 minute timer, it functioned as a Killing Blow.
Option C - At T=120, Character B went into Bleed Out. At the time when they were first targeted by the 6th, they were not in bleed out, so the 6th’s use of the Gorger Advantage did not function as a Killing Blow. At T=180, Character B is in Bleed Out with 4 minutes remaining.

Scenario 3:
Character B has 25 Body.
At T=0, 5 Gorgers began feeding.
At T=75, a 6th Gorger begins feeding.
At T=120, the first 5 finish.
At T=121, someone begins Basic Medical
At T=181, Basic Medical concludes.
At T=195, the 6th finishes

Option A: Character B died at T=121. They were in Bleed Out while actively being targeted by the 6th Gorger. (Similar to Option A on Scenario 1)
Option B: Character B died at T=195. The spirit of the thing doesn’t make sense if it’s done on someone who is only stabilized, so the 6th Gorger functionally did a Killing Blow.
Option C: Basic Medical ended the first Bleed Out Timer. A new Bleed Out Timer started at T=195.

Input or clarification would be appreciated.

#2

Your game runner has you covered. I already spoke with them about it.

#3

Yes, he’s great and we have enough guidance to move forward with a situation that is planned for our July game. He had also suggested that one of us could post it here because there might be someone who has done more of a deep dive on those particuar parts of the rules.

This is less of me needing to know immediately what to do about 2 weeks from now, and more me trying to wrap my head around this in a way that makes sure I don’t accidentally kill someone I didn’t mean to (or not kill someone I did mean to) in the future.

#4

S1: I personally think intent matters here - if everyone intended to feed at the same time I would go with OA, if they intended (or someone showed up late, etc.) to be done seperately then OB. Probably giong to depend heavily on how the local game wants to take it.

S2: OB. The Killing Blow never lands/takes effect until the action causing it is completed (otherwise interrupting normal KBs would have no change in outcome), so OA makes no sense. This would also not work for Sempers, whose target must still be alive when feeding. I could see the argument for OC, but it feels unintended to me. Sounds like this would vary a lot depending on the local ruling/how the game feels about what is intended.

S3: I don’t support OA for the same as above. OB sounds right versus OC - while I could fathom being able to heal someone actively in the midst of taking damage, that doesnt sound intended to me (otherwise people being gnawed on by zed focused on the free meal while you constantly stabilize them [with a fast enough kit] would be a pretty remarkable discovery for zed wrangling). If it is intended to be usable while the target is taking damage: you can’t be killing blowed if you do not have a bleedout timer.

#5

General rule of thumb. If you start going down a road where you have to make precise timing on whether or not you killed them, you probably did.

Scenario 1: I would rule they are dead as the 6th one kills them.

Scenario 2: I would rule the 6th one kills them.

Scenario 3: Technically not dead, but wish they were.

In all honesty, don’t get into this minutiae. In all of the above scenarios, you should have just limited it to 5 gorgers if you are trying not to kill the target.

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