Chunky Salsa Rule: Difference between revisions

[[File:fallout3headshot 447.jpg|link=Fallout 3|frame|[[Bloody Hilarious|I don't think that a medkit is going to do him much good now.]]]]

An exception to the [[Hit Points]] system common to virtually all role playing games, in that massive head trauma is automatically lethal to a character regardless of the number of hit points they have. This is a fairly common house rule in many [[Tabletop Games]] groups, but a few systems have it explicitly built in, particularly those on the cynical side of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]].

The '''Chunky Salsa Rule''' may also refer to rules specifically describing the effects of taking much more damage than is required to kill a character, which is to say reducing the [[Nightmare Fuel|entire character]] [[Ludicrous Gibs|to the consistency of chunky salsa]]. In addition to the grotesque visual, this may also negatively impact attempts to bring the character [[Back from the Dead]].

Please note that this trope is not about the splatter itself. For that, see [[Ludicrous Gibs]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', [[The Medic|Konoka]] warns the rest of the heroes that she can't heal them if they get their heads squashed like a tomato.

* [[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|"Article One of the Gundam Fight International Regulations; A unit who's head section has been destroyed, is disqualified!"]]

== Tabletop Games ==

* The 1980s FASA ''[[Doctor Who]]'' roleplaying game included the rule "Disintegrated characters cannot regenerate"

* In ''[[Mekton]]'', the rules for nukes are heavy on this sort of thing; if you're in the hex where it goes off, you're dead. The same applies to supernovae, except that every hex within about 100 AU of the star is treated as 'where it goes off'.

== Video Games ==

* All AT weapons in the ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield]]'' series is considered to be a Chunky Salsa Type weapon, which means getting hit by it causes you to be "killed" rather than critically wounded.

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]'' has four instant-kill possibilities: a meltagun at point-blank range, a Lascannon headshot (unless you're a Devastator with an Iron Halo), a charged plasma cannon shot, and an upgraded Thunder Hammer.

* In ''[[Quake II]]'' and ''[[Quake 4|Quake IV]]'', there's a Strogg called the Medic who can revive any corpse he finds, from a grunt to a [[Goddamned Bats|dog]] to a miniboss (or worse, another medic). The only way to counter this is to go around with the pistol or shotgun gibbing every corpse.

** In ''4'', if you're standing in the wrong place when the ship lands, it crushes you. In ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'', if you get caught in any running [[No OSHA Compliance|exposed machinery]], you're chunky salsa.

* In ''[[Grim Fandango]]'', everybody is already dead, so there's no way to kill anyone, right? Wrong. The conventional means of "death" in the Land of the Dead is by getting "sprouted": shot with special bullets that make flowers grow rapidly in the victim's bones, condemning him or her to what amounts to [[A Fate Worse Than Death|an eternity of]] [[Nightmare Fuel|painful immobility]]. However, at one point in the game, Manny defeats his rival Domino by {{spoiler|knocking him into the grinders of a large steamship and reducing him to bone meal.}}

* ''[[Sacrifice]]'' has a gibbing mechanism, where if an enemy is just killed, their body remains until its soul is collected and the soul itself has to be converted by the opposing side to get it. Hitting an enemy with an attack that does enough damage, and the enemy explodes in a shower of [[Ludicrous Gibs]], leaving behind a blue soul that anyone can snag, with no hope of revival without use of the [[Animate Dead]] spell.

* In ''[[Quake]] I'' and ''II'' both the player and enemies gib if they take enough fatal damage. In the second game, enemies can be [[No Kill Like Overkill|gibbed after they are killed]] (even before they hit the ground), which is required to prevent Medics from resurrecting them.

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'' also uses the overkill (HP reduced significantly below zero) rule with zombies and Z-secs, eg blasting a zombie with a shotgun at close range gibs/disintegrates them.

{{quote|Hahahaha! I've defeated Sonic! That annoying hedgehog is now gone forever! He's nothing but floating chunks in space now!}}

* In ''[[Dead Island]]'', a point-blank shotgun blast tears extremities off zombies and humans alike, even if it deals proportionally small amounts of damage. This means that one 420-damage shot to the face can kill a 2000 hp Walker zombie by turning his head into brain salad.

{{reflist}}