Skull

"Your mind is your most important tool! Protect it!" -- hard hat slogan

Skull is a hit location. It has 2 DR (helping protect the brain) except for hits through the eye. The wounding modifier for all attacks increases to x4 (except Toxic), knockdown rolls are at -10, and critical hits use the Critical Head Blow Table. You may want to wear a helmet if you're going to use headbutts.

From Behind

Attacks from behind have a -5 instead of a -7 to hit, as the skull is essentially the whole rear part of the head, not including the neck.

Optional Rules

For More Danger

• from Supers: Mental Crippling uses a HP/2 threshold (actually FP/2) as with vitals. can cause a coma.
• from Martial Arts:
  • Severe Bleeding applies here!
  • Skull Wounds Table

For Less Danger

• For a more cinematic (and less lethal) result, try using the Flesh Wounds rule. Or perhaps the opposite--allow the character to survive with only 1 HP!
• Allow skull-based parries to counter pressure points, potentially injuring the attacker's hands!

Non-Standard Skulls

Thin Skull

Thin Skull is a quirk. It can even be a perfectly mundane trait, representing prior injury or thin bones.

No Skull

No Skull gives 0 DR to the brain. This was used in Powers: The Weird to model the ability to stretch and squeeze through small openings, like an octopus.

Discussion

The thread at http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=72963&page=4 from 2010 has people talking about skull DR as if it were not flexible, thinking that because its innate damage resistance that it isn't subject to Falls and Armor rules.

See also

• Striking Bone
• Limitation: all but skull
• Thin Skull
• Skull has only 2 total DR (should be removed)