WB2p88 has a few lines on this and the issue is whether it's just SDC, or also HP, which is important:
- LEFT COLUMN:
In the case of possession or mind control, the controlling outside force cannot activate any new tattoos nor cancel any already activated. Tatttoos that were activated at the moment that control was initiated remain in place until the end of their duration or the animal is slain/depleted of S.D.C. points.
RIGHT COLUMN:
Duration: One hour per each level of the Tattoed Man's experience, or until slain by depleting its S.D.C. and hit points
..
if the animal was destroyed, meaning all of its S.D.C. was depleted, the T-Man must spend twice..
Pg 146 of SOTA seems to have the same wording.
Given that one might write off the left column as special rules that only apply during possession/mind control, I think the main focus should be on the language on the right column of Atlantis 88...
"Slain" is defined by depleting SDC and hitpoints
"Destroyed" is defined as depleting SDC (no mention of hit points).
This could simply be an oversight, maybe they are meant to be synonyms and not mentioning HP was an oversight? Perhaps since they are ecto-plasm like, the idea was the make them like astral projections where HP/SDC are added to create an SDC?
When we compare these to real animals, there seems like there could be some key differences here:
- 1) if destroying/slaying REQUIRES depleting SDC, this means that "direct to HP" attacks wouldn't be very useful in killing them using less damage
2) if they are destroyed/slain merely be "depleting" these pools (reaching 0) then it seems like they can be killed more easily than normal animals: who would follow the usual rules of being able to survive up to PE below 0 damage for PE in hours in a coma. That said: due to having max HP/SDC for the range, they'll probably outlast average animals and only be inferior to the best animals.
I can't remember playing a character with Tattoo Animals (or with someone who did) so this has never really come up as an issue. I'm wondering how people have played it. It's a subtlety that may not matter to people who play MD-heavy campaigns (what's 10-20 hit points when 1 MD does 100?) but does seem very important against foes who do non-mega damaeg (NMD?).
One major problem I see with the "meaning all of its" omission of HP is the note we see later "Small animals have no S.D.C." because that would mean their S.D.C. is depleted from the get-go!
But: would you actually require SDC to be depleted to destroy/slay them (unlike normal animals, who can die with 100% of their SDC so long as they lose all their HP and are reduced beyond PE negative HP) or would depleting HP be enough? Would you require going PE below 0 like normal animals?
Why the coma survival issue seems very important is that if you could survive at 0 HP (even though this would turn you unconscious) it might give a T-Man a window to un-summon the creature at a point where it is no longer useful, yet still not dead so they can avoid suffering damage.
I suppose this question applies to Monster Tattoos as well, though it's less complicated since there's no HP/SDC dichotomy, only the question of whether they die at 0 or PE below zero. Atlantis90/SOTA148 both say "slain by depleting its MDC" but I guess the question is: does "deplete" always mean reduce to zero, or could the "I can survive my PE below zero" also count as part of your MDC pool that there is an inference must be depleted like with normal living beings?
SOTA's new MDC guidelines appear to balance out how uber-powerful monster tattoos were in respect to other tattoos, but it makes the munchkin in me kind of sad and also removes the one advantage it had over the Nazca "Monster Drawing" which has a 1000 MDC cap like the Monster Shaper