Kickstarter - Critical Hit & Fumble Dice

I like dice. I like them - a lot.

The Critical Hit & Fumble Dice Kickstarter by New Comet Games is all about putting critical and fumble dice into your hands.

I waffle back and fourth on using criticals and fumbles in the RPG campaigns I run. And when I do use them, it can be anything as simple as double damage or full on tables. These dice certainly simplify the use while still giving a nice variation of results.

Buy in on the Critical Hit & Fumble Dice Kickstarter is as little as 10 bucks a set plus shipping. Hell, that's nearly an impulse buy ;)

Some Thoughts On Criticals - Curving the Scores

Some people love criticals in their games.  Some hate them.  I tend to be on the fence.

Lets face it, they add excitement for the players, but they are also a hidden albatross, wearing down the players' hit points more over the long term than the cannon fodder they are dispatching.

Additionally, they tend to be a fixed number.  Natural 20 is a common on (you crit 5% of the time, whether your chance to hit is 50% or 5%), or its a range of numbers, usually depending on weapon (thinking 3x here), something like 18-20.

What is the usual critical effect?  Maximum damage or double damage.  Why, because it's simple to figure out.

Here's my thoughts (not that I'm finished thinking) on the matter.

Why don't we make it range dependent upon the number you need to hit.  Something like "all rolls 5 or better than the score you need to hit may be a critical.  Please refer to the critical table".  This means the better your chance to hit your opponent, the better your chance to possibly critically hit him.  Additionally, if you barely have a chance to hit him, you have no chance to score a critical.

Critical Table  (Roll 1D10)

1-3   Normal Damage only

          4-5  +2 To Hit on your next attack against your opponent (You are pressing your opponent)

6-7  +2 To You AC until the end of your opponent's next round (You have your opponent off balance) 

8-9  Get the benefits of the above two rolls (+2 Hit and +2 AC against your opponent)

10  You have an opening! Get a free attack immediately against your opponent!  Your free attack may also be a possible critical if you roll high enough.

This does away with automatically adding damage to the attack, while still offering bonuses for the player (or the monster).

Do PCs and Their Adversaries Need to Operate by the Same Rules?

Think of this as a follow up to yesterday's post on critical hits.

In 4e, monsters follow their own set of rules. Mooks always die with one hit, and bosses have abilities on par with PCs or better (yeah, this is a generalization - but it serves it purpose). Do we need to have the PCs and the monsters playing by the same rules in the OSR?

If you want to use critical hits for the PC attacks, you could limit crits on the opposing side to the Big Bad Evil Guy or the equivalent. Or you could give PCs a crit on a natural 20, andmake their adversaries confirm their nat 20 crits with a second attack role. You could even give PCs a save (vs Death or whatnot) instead of having the monster role to confirm.

The thing is, once you let the PCs and their adversaries play by different rules, you do change the nature of the game.

By the same token, by adding critical hits into a game that wasn't designed for critical hits, you are already changing the nature of the game. Critical hits hurt the PCs more the they hurt their adversaries. Is changing the rules the two sides operate by a way to balance that discrepancy, or does it cause more problems then it helps?

Can you tinker to the point that the game is no longer "The Game" we know?

Critical Thoughts on Critical Hits

I think critical hits were the first thing I house ruled into AD&D back in the day. We felt they added flavor, and there was nothing like rolling a natural 20 and having the critical swing the combat's momentum back in the party's flavor. It didn't hurt that the DM often didn't remember to inflict the criticals on the PCs.

When we moved on to MERP / RoleMaster it was crit heaven. My God but they had the best criticals ever in a game. Some funny shit too. They also led to fairly frequent party member death, as the crits were quite lethal, and the GM never forgot to use them against the PCs.

Tunnels & Trolls 5e and prior didn't have crits. With the way combat is rolled, once the players had momentum going, it was all downhill for the monster side.

That changed with the advent of Spite Damage. Basically all 6's rolled resulted in a point of damage that automatically scored, despite the other side's rolls or armor. Suddenly, solo adventures that were hard were now impossible, as your PC was slowly whittled down (as most T&T solos lacked healing for the player, this was a huge change in game balance).

T&T got me thinking about criticals in RPGs in general. In any particular encounter, the monsters / adversaries are making just that one appearance. For the most part, the GM isn't concerned about any damage they suffer carrying over until later. Not so for the PCs. Whatever damage they take, whatever penalties that's linked to that damage, carries over from encounter to encounter.

Criticals are flash that look great on paper, but are actually a PC penalty.

Is it possible to make criticals fair for the PCs? Are criticals even needed?

Why the hell are we so attached to them? I know I'm guilty of liking criticals, even though I know are far more likely to screw with me than help me.