The "Most Powerful" Magic Item

 

Ok patrons, quick question for y'all, but I have some framing parameters....first the Q: "What would you say is the most powerful magical item?"

Ok, so that's a real broad question so let's try to narrow it down a little bit to maybe Basic or 1st Edition AD&D, forget about Artifacts, and additionally toss out any magical items directly replicated by a spell.

Got to figure out the proper "sandbox", as it were, and Artifacts are just inherently game-breakingly powerful. Most potions have a similar spell and a Ring of Three Wishes is a no-brainer answer otherwise.....

Do you need a second to think about it?

Yes....no...

...ok, I'm going through my Holmes Edition of Basic and I totally think that the answer is the Bag of Holding.

Bag of Holding — Sack sized magic bag which will hold 10,000 gold pieces or an object up to 10 feet X 5 feet X 3 feet in size. The bag will then weigh 600 gold pieces in weight, or 300 for the gold and no more.

Now I fully expect patrons to have a different opinion on this, probably for a couple of reasons, but one is because encumbrance in D&D has always been a bit of a bother, enough that I don't think many groups really do much to track encumbrance.

Now encumbrance can really be a way-too crunchy game mechanic, but I love the crunchiness......which is one reason I liked HackMaster. I still remember geeking out prepping my PC and his pack horse for the beginning of an Against the Giants campaign. I had to figure out the weight of all the gear carried, in all the packs on the horse, and I had to make sure that not only did I have to make sure each bag/pack wasn't overloaded, but also to spread my shit er gear out across all the different packages 'cause I was sure that the GM would figure out some way for us to lose some of the gear as we trekked across the ice.

Now, that was as a player. As a GM encumbrance is one of those things that is a complete PITA.....BUT there is a good (enough) work-around: dump it off on the players! Make the players keep track of their personal encumbrance & keep track of their combat penalties for being encumbered. Just do a surprise audit once in a blue moon and if the player is caught fudging the numbers, or conveniently "forgetting" the combat penalties (there was an AC bonus is you were overloaded with too much crap!), then you hit them with a massive penalty. It's been years, so I cannot remember the penalty for failing an audit, but loss of like half XP, or immediately being placed into Dishonor sounds about right.....

Now with Basic/1st Edition.....encumbrance is in coins? Wait...what?

This is #1 of coins

Yes there is this weird idea that a lot of times things are listed in pounds, but then referenced in gold coins, with a ratio of 10:1 (i.e. 10 coins to a pound). 10 coins to a pound? That means the generic D&D coin is basically the equivalent of 2 Eisenhower Dollars.

Just seems kind of clunky to think (in Basic), "I can put *just* enough gold coins in this here bag to pay for two light crossbows." That's 30 pounds of coinage for two light crossbows that weigh......fuuuuuuck, how much do they weigh? Hell if I know....but in 1st Edition they weigh....nope, they only have the weight of the ammo listed.

Now *this* is really what I consider a PITA.

I think I just need to grab my old KenzerCo Goods & Gear and use that to figure everything out.....the Light Crossbow weighs 7 lbs. (page 25).

Until I bother to pull my Goods & Gear out of storage (I just used my PDF copy for looking up the Light Crossbow) I think I just need to get some Bags of Holding. I'm really thinking the true power of the Bag of Holding isn't *just* that PCs can stuff their crap inside, but that if used judiciously, the whole group can pretty much just ignore the clunky encumbrance system....

......THAT is what makes it the most powerful magic item in the game!

Dissing the Call of Cthulu Quick Start Rules.....for a Purpose

 

Today the podcast I helped with dropped, and while I'm not above self-promotion, the reason for mentioning it is the fact that I was clearly NOT a fan of the Call of Cthulu Quick-Start rules....

.....like holy fuck I would NOT want to play the game after reading these rules.

"Gee Chris, what's your beef with the game*?"

*(Asshole) is clearly inferred.....

Now I did take copious notes while I was reading, and re-reading the Quick-Start rules. While I have the notes, I'm not even going to glance at them. Since it's been a week now I'd like to *just* go off of my memory because some, well maybe some, of the small nit-picky stuff would be forgotten and the problems that remained with me a week later might be something that could be addressed....

......not that I expect Chaosium to read the Tavern, much less take my advice (but if they do my standard consulting fee is $50/hr with a 2 hour minimum), BUT.....I know sometimes uber fans try (and in my opinion fail) to put together their own "Quick-Start" rules. If anyone can learn from my observations/pain, than great....this post will be worthwhile.

First off, I really think ANYONE trying to put together any sort of RPG guide needs to sit-down and literally (as in write it out) determine what their focus/audience is. Making a guide for experienced RPG players vs. completely new players is fricken huge! This Call of Cthulu Quick-Start (CoCQS) said it was for total RPG newbs, but it clearly was not. There were references to advanced rules not even mentioned in the guide....and by not mentioned I don't even mean in passing. If I wasn't already a gamer I might not even have noticed that the references were to "advanced" rules.

On the flip side though, to advanced rules, is to realize what rules you're going to include and actually use them! After reading the CoCQS and then the included adventure it seemed apparent there was some sort of base-line for essentially untrained skills....but there wasn't a single mention that skills had a base level, just if you "got" the skills then you used  certain numbers as a base you added a percentage to. For what seemed like a skills-heavy game, not actually expressing how your skills work is a cardinal sin.

So we had rules included/referenced that shouldn't be, and basic skills missing......we also had basic aspects of the game that technically were represented in the adventure, but easily skipped. I think it would have been difficult to go through the adventure and not use the Sanity mechanic, but Luck.....Luck could easily have been missed when playing through the included adventure.

When you started out the adventure the players are given an either/or direction for where to proceed, when it is really obvious to an experienced player that there were more than the two options.....not terrible in and of itself, but since the CoCQS was aimed at not only inexperienced players, but a brand new Keeper (GM).......not cool.

...also not cool were including things that had no value to the game. There was a spell mentioned and even a handout that were straight-up throw-aways as they were never shown or mentioned again. Now after talking to the other guest hosts evidently there are some follow-on adventures that can utilize these elements. Nothing wrong with that per se, BUT even a simple included statement letting this new Keeper know that these elements tie into a larger thing would be useful.

Speaking of useful, or really not useful in this case, were the included handouts for the adventure. Ugh, talk about a missed opportunity. These handouts were basically just a typed up summation of "boxed text" the Keeper would have read out. No added value......which leads me into a larger point.

The whole idea of the CoCQS is to give a taste of the game rules with a short adventure. Hopefully this would entice people to I don't know.....actually want to play the game! It was clear that the product I downloaded from the Chaosium website was an actually printed product....and printed product costs money, BUT download product....not so much. Simply dumping what was a full-color (even if the color was black & white) press product into a PDF and calling it good was a missed opportunity. They could've easily reformatted the contents to look nicer for at-home B&W or even color printing and those handouts.....they could have made "real" handouts. If a handout was a newspaper clipping, then make a freakin handout that looks like a newspaper clipping! Chaosium could have, relatively cheaply, made a full CoCQS "packet" that would have had a ton of impact and really drew in some new players.

As it stands the CoCQS was a confusing mess of rules and an adventure that did not accurately reflect the rules trying to be taught.

Thing is, and this might seem painfully obvious, a metric shit-ton of potential difficulty could be involved by simply involving people that are your desired audience. If you wish to market your Quick-Start to complete RPG newbs, get some RPG newbs involved in at least the editing and playtesting elements. Some of the problems I noted were most likely created because the writer was overly familiar with the rules to begin with. 

Seeing How the Chili is Made: Call of Cthulu

 

This week I have a special project coming up and I'm finally getting a chance to essentially see "how the chili is made" with regards to a game I've deliberately put off learning to play....well, actually more like the rules themselves: Call of Cthulu (CoC).

I know there are multiple versions of CoC and I have played in a couple of them a couple of times at conventions. The thing is I have, until now, deliberately avoided learning the game itself. I know nothing about the mechanics aside from that your character can go insane.

Seriously, I cannot tell you about how the stats go or if there is a skill system even. I played one traditional RPG/Fantasy setting that I barely remember (aside from thoroughly enjoying it) and one Viking era game that was equally awesome. I played my character straight, disbelieving everything and towards the end as we're fleeing some monstrous horror, actually I was following my leader who was going insane. Our escape is blocked by some other monstrous horror who offers us an escape if I allow my character to be devoured. I remember telling the GM (are they even called GMs?) something along the lines of "Since this blobby thing isn't real, sure it can eat me." Instant death, but since my leader was able to escape and it was my PC's only goal/function to protect this liege....still a win.

Now I can be 110% wrong, but I think part of my enjoyment of CoC comes from the fact that there is a mystery element to CoC and me not knowing how anything works adds a bit to the immersion. If/when my PC starts going insane, I have no clue how bad this is, how bad it can become, and how to mitigate, in game, the effects. It is kind of a mystery within a mystery.

I was reading one of my older blog posts (on my main personal blog....and no I wasn't planning on linking it) that was about some potential meta-gaming with regards to dealing with HackMaster's treatment of zombie attacks. Now in that campaign there was a lot of in-game character observations that mirrored what could be meta-gaming, and that painful in-character observations were passed along as party knowledge. This happened to the extent that unrelated PCs were simply following along with party Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that were due to what was dubbed "The Zombie Campaign". Of course, this only applies to that one party/my PCs in that party, and not my other games.

Now I like to think I don't meta-game and I'm sure to some extent I can play "straight" when at a convention or visiting another gaming group (it's been known to happen), but I'm sure that the reality is somewhere less than 100% compliance to what I like to think. Of course when it comes to games like CoC, ignorance of the rules pretty much ensures that I can't "game the system"....pun intended?

It's been years since I last played CoC and since I don't go to so many conventions anymore I highly doubt that I'll get to play again in the foreseeable future, and even if I do it probably won't be the same version of the game, so I should be safe.

Is Rules as Written Really Still a Thing?

 

I was scrolling through Facebook, which as an aside I'm kind of sad to see Facebook supplant Forum Boards as seemingly the place to find interaction between players online, and I came across a request from one GM on how to do something Rules As Written (RAW).

That was a playful "lovetap" to the nuts because I have a love/hate relationship with RAW.

Unless you've not read much of my previous posts, which I wouldn't blame you, you'll know I used to play quite a bit of HackMaster and organized a lot of tournaments for KenzerCo. Thing is tournaments really require everyone to play RAW so there is a baseline for fair play. Believe me, this is a HUGE pain in the ass.

Now one thing you probably don't know about me is that I am extremely predicable when playing a new game system: I always try to play the best archer I can make. Now I do like archers, but not enough to warrant this choice. No, I always run archers first because this gives me a baseline to compare the different systems.

I mention this because archers, more specifically Fighters specializing with a bow, kind of suck at the 1st/2nd Edition + home rules blend that was HackMaster 4th Edition. Big cost, terrible payoff and at high level fricken Crossbow specialists were as fast (if not faster) than bow specialists! What was worse was the firing in combat rules....well not the rules so much, but the RAW work-around.

I won't go too far into the weeds here, but what would happen is if you wanted to fire into combat, as a player you would specifically indicate you were trying to make an extremely difficult called shot on a friendly combatant! I think the most common was telling the GM, "My guy is aiming to shoot off the left piggy toe of my buddy engaged over there in melee."

You see, RAW had the GM secretly determining the "actual" target the PC ended up aiming at, based on size, and then if the "actual" target aligned with the the declared target, all those called shot penalties were applied. If they didn't align basically all the penalties went away.

Now I was able to write a new set of rules handling a couple of archer issues that was accepted by HackJournal, so they basically replaced this mess and became new RAW, but every time I hear Rules as Written I inwardly cringe, thinking of how many perfectly good games have been tainted by bad rules.

OK, "bad rules" might be a bit of an oversimplification and a judgement call, but I know I've seen plenty of what I think are bad rules. Thing is we all have what we think are great ideas. Things we think we can do better, and sometimes we're right and sometimes we're wrong. I got to write up some drowning rules for the new/current edition of HackMaster when writing an adventure and they were thrown out in favor of some much clunkier rules that probably fit better with the existing rules. I remember thinking my rules were better at the time, but I'm biased, and I cannot even remember what they were, so they couldn't have been all that.

Now I could be waaaaay off-base here, but I think that this whole idea of people (ok, game designers) thinking they know best and some inherent desire to play RAW is one of the reasons we have some many, gobs even, of OSR game systems right now. It seems like everyone has their own take on B/X and access to a printing press. Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great stuff out there now, but there's a lot I look at once and think, "I don't see the point".

I've already mentioned that I have a love/hate relationship with RAW and what I'm seeing really makes me think that I'm not alone in this regard. Thinking about the current market for these OSR games, and what I perceive as a potentially-fractured-but-not-really player base what I've concluded is that the average GM/players kind of wants a RAW game, but ends up taking the closest system to their liking and lays a few tweaks to the rules for use in their game. Sometimes a lot of tweaks......

I'm totally cool with this BTW and it really describes how I play. I really (think I) want a crunchy RAW game, but I've yet to find a system that has everything I want, but I (pretty much just now) have come to the conclusion I'm never going to find it unless I publish my own variant....which I'm NEVER going to do (ability, motivation, funds, ROI....take your pick)...and that's OK.

Taking my current home-game I'm in as a player for example. There are a few things I'd like to see rules-wise in the game, but it totally occurs to me that it really doesn't fucking matter. For example: I'm running a Magic User and think it'd be great to use my old HackMaster rules to figure out the details on my spellbook. Number of pages, size, etc. I don't need my GM to add that to the RAW to make me happy as I can easily just do that myself and say I'm lugging around this massive tome and I have my backup spellbook with my henchman. Also, by not having this huge ruleset available to essentially restrict us in how we do things he can introduce new rules....that could be good or can suck balls. Either way there is an extra level/layer of fun because of this unknown quantity.

I'm kind of looking forward to GMing again in the future. Oh I'll be running a RAW game, but it definitely won't be single writer/publisher ruleset. No, it'll probably be Old School Essentials as a base with a generous helping of New Big Dragon Games Unlimited stuff, a lot of d30 tables, and whatever cool shit my players bring me (that we agree on!). Yes, you Magic User will have that big-assed clunky spellbook, but how that gets figured out will not be a RAW situation.

As a bit of an aside, and more like extended/recommended reading, if you have access to Gary Gygax's Master of the Game, Chapter 6 would be a good read. Just saying.

Kickstarter - Old-School Essentials (B/X)

"A modular adventure game in the tradition of the beloved 1980s role-playing rules. 100% old-school rules, 100% modern design."

If you read The Tavern, I'm sure you've come into contact with the B/X Essentials ruleset. At the very least, you've heard of it. It has been called the best presentation of the Basic / Expert rules, and that says a lot. Well, Old-School Essentials is a rebranding of B/X Essentials and then some. Let's see what you get with the Old-School Essentials Kickstarter:

Old-School Essentials is an adventure role-playing game of exploration, danger, monsters, and magic. The game is intentionally rules-light, putting the focus of play on imagination, improvisation, and fun. The rules are optimised for ease of use at the table, with meticulous attention to wording and layout clarity. What's more, Old-School Essentials is 100% compatible with the classic Basic/Expert game from 1981, meaning that decades of adventure are at your fingertips!

Old-School Essentials comes in two forms: a chunky tome and a modular boxed set. The content is identical. Choose one or both, depending on your preferred format! 

The Old-School Essentials Black Box: A game box containing five deluxe, sewn-binding, A5 (Digest sized), hardcover rule books presenting the complete rules of the game and everything you need to run games in the classic fantasy genre. 

The Old-School Essentials Rules Tome: A deluxe all-in-one, sewn-binding, A5 (Digest sized), hardcover tome containing the complete rules of the game and everything you need to run games in the classic fantasy genre.

Free Basic Rules PDF: To whet your appetite for this game, you can download a free PDF, featuring the basic rules for creating characters, adventuring in dungeons, combat, magic, and spells. Includes the complete rules for four classic fantasy character classes: the cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief.

Compatibility: Old-School Essentials is a 100% accurate restatement of the original Basic/Expert rules (B/X), with nothing added, changed, or removed. All material written for the B/X rules over the last 38 years can be used with Old-School Essentials, without any conversion effort whatsoever! 

Refinement: The original Basic/Expert rules form a wondrously solid rules set, but they are not without areas of confusion and contradiction. All known omissions, contradictions, and areas of confusion have been carefully ironed out in Old-School Essentials.

There's a lot more info on the Kickstarter page. I suggest you read it. If you are an old school gamer or are at all interested in old school gaming, this is pretty much a no brainer ;)

Old-School Essentials had a goal of just under $17k USD (it's listed in Euros). With 27 days to go as I write this, it sits at a hair under $58k USD and is knocking down stretch goals like a 10th level fighter swatting down goblins - at least under AD&D 1e rules ;)

11 bucks for the PDFs (17 if you want bother versions). Rules Tome in print is 28 bucks. Black Box with 5 individual books (this is The Tome broken down to shorter books) is 57 bucks. 79 for both versions of physical and PDF books. Damn it! I think I'm in for 79...

How to Have a Comment that You Believe Infringes on Your Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright and the Like Removed From The Tavern

Lets cut to the chase, shall we? I do NOT read every comment posted here, at The Tavern nor every comment in The Tavern's Facebook Community. If I did, I'd never have the time to post. There are thousands of Tavern Readers (many of them commenters) and the Facebook Community is closing in on 1900 very active members.

So, it is certainly possible somebody commenting here or in the The Tavern's Facebook Community may link to or copy-paste material that "you" feel infringes on your intellectual property rights.

Know what you do? Messege me the moment you notice it.

How? This very page has an email feature on the right hand side. Or Facebook PM. Or Google Hangouts PM (not a Google Plus mention, as I miss that shit constantly)

What should you say? Identify the comment that you feels infringes on your intellectual property rights (or misstates information that you feel is actionable - yes, I mean you Gail) and tell me how it does so. I can pretty much guarentee I'll take down the offending material in as timely a manner as I am able to do so.

What should you not say? Legal threats, direct or implied, do not help. Seriously, all you are doing is burning bridges where none need to be burned. This is, of course, totally up to you. The offending comment gets deleted in either case. Relationships suffer with the second option.

How to Piss Off Your Bartender in One Easy Step - Post Comments that have Nothing to do with the Blog Post in Question

I get it. Really I do. There's a late Kickstarter project (or pre-order) and the project creator doesn't seem any closer to getting the goods in your hands.

The Tavern is well known to look into such stuff and you want to grab my attention, so you make a comment on a random post with the following:

Will you ask XX XX where our product is at or what they did with our XX XX dollars? And put it on your site, I think it's newsworthy... 

First off, I have NO FUCKING CLUE what this is in reference to. None what so ever. The secret is in the details and there are none. If you want me to look into something I need details - date the project went live, date due, what the project was for, a link - anything and everything that can help me figure out what is going on. Tell me your story.

Second and possibly even more importantly, you don't just drop your comment on the latest post that has little if any relevance to your request. It will (and has been) deleted. There is a contact form on the right side of this page. Its pictured above. It gets used every day. I read each message and I try to respond to every single one in a timely manner. Use it.

Sorry if I'm grumpy but I just woke up to this situation. Its not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last but I felt a need to address this right away. Well, that and we have some morning thunderstorms rolling through, my knee aches and my sinuses are killing me. So yeah, not good timing ;)

I Was a Tinkerer Back in the Day

My first tour through this hobby I was a rules tinkerer. The players wanted to raise an army and conquer part of the Wild Coast (pre BattleSystem)? I put together a quick system to handle mass combat with a handful of rolls (like many of my notes from the 80's and 90's, long gone).

AD&D2e with it's endless splat books? I house ruled for balance.

NPC classes? Check

New spells? Aye

New creatures? But of course. You can't keep your players on their toes if you don't put them off balance on occasions.

That all ended in 97, shortly before the released of 3e.

3e I collected and read, but never played.

Then came Castles & Crusades - and I was back in the game and active. My second tour in the hobby known as Role Playing Games commenced.

I thought about tinkering but never did much of anything until a few months ago, when I put together a Swords & Wizardry Bard Class for submission to KnockSpell. It was a blast to do. Then again, I've always liked Bards.

I think I need to do some more tinkering, just not sure what yet. Maybe expand on the Bard with new spells and magic items. Maybe resurrect some of the more balanced kits from 2e for Swords & Wizardry. Something.

I understand why the real creative types in our hobby produce what they do, as there is little more satisfying in life then creating, completing and sharing a project that your are satisfied with and proud of.

Well, that and it would be a nice occasional distraction from installing the 2 rooms worth of flooring. It arrives tomorrow and I commence installation Thursday night after work. In a heatwave. In rooms without AC. The fun never ends ;)

3d6 or not 3d6, That is the Question

Grognardia has a post up about generating ability scores in D&D and it's various offspring. It's pretty much about the virtues of the 3d6 in order method, although a roll 18d6 and assign as you want is also mentioned and is interesting (tho I suspect Dump Stat would be in full effect)

My issue is that the method is fine in OD&D and Swords & Wizardry (the current clone) as your abilities don't have much of an effect on gameplay. The largest stat bonus is +1 and the largest stat penalty is -1. It just doesn't have a significant influence on gameplay.

Once stat bonuses and penalties start hitting the +/- 3 or 4 range, as they do with the other D&d variations, they start having a huge impact on play. Who really wants to play the someone that is less then average in a game that is supposed to be fun? Some might like the challenge, but if the player isn't going to have fun because his character is crippled from level 1, why is he going to keep coming back to reach level 2.

I'm not advocating the Unearthed Arcana method of stat rolling, but there is nothing wrong with a best 3 out of 4d6 method (or even 3 out of 5d6 depending on the type of campaign the players and the DM want) in my opinion.

As for point buy, I've always had an aversion to it, but I do see how it can keep a player from rolling something that is totally borked.

Isn't the whole point of our hobby to have fun? Maybe not for some of the old timers (that there is a joke, son) but that's the reason I like to play. It's simply fun. I don't want a character that is the best, but I certainly don't want to play one that is so crippled that it just isn't much fun. Besides, if he was really that much of a loser, who would pick him for an adventuring party anyway?

It is called "Fantasy" Roleplaying for a reason ;)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

LotFP - Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Rules - On Sale at RPGNow

James put the Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Deluxe Edition - Rules Book, The Magic Book, The Referee Book and the Tutorial Book up on RPGNow - $12.50 for the lot of it.  The Referee Book might be worth that on its own, its just that good.

485 pages  of gaming fun, including character sheet, an info sheet and Raggi's Recommended Readings

(short review of the Referee Book here.)

 

Some might prefer a free peek, and James is doing you one better... he's offering the Rules Book and Magic Book as a free download on his website.  They are art free but the real deal.

I think it's awesome that you can get everything that was offered in the collectors box for less then $23 total in PDF (if you add in Tower of the Stargazer and Weird New World, reviews here and here).

Give Weird Fantasy a free grab if nothing else.  It's good, well written, and making me think of house rules and adding classes - that's amazing unto itself ;)

Half a Hobbit is Better then None

Over the past few days there have been a couple of blog posts here and there dealing with the level limits demihumans in particular suffer in the various "old school" editions of D&D / AD&D.  Most, if not all of the suggestions, included giving humans an expo boost if one were to remove the level caps from the other races.  I lean in a different direction in my "solution" to the issue (assuming there is even an issue at all, as except for halflings in D&D, most races can hit a level well in the range that the vast majority of the campaigns I've played in have ended at... but that's a whole 'nother post for another day).

My way of dealing with it, if it comes up in the next game I run, will be to treat the level caps as "soft caps".  Once a character hits a "soft cap" on their level, they suffer a 50% reduction on all future expo (if they have an expo bonus due to an exceptional stat it lowers the penalty by the amount of the bonus).

Demihumans under the "soft cap" method will keep pace with their human companions for the early levels, but the advanced levels will come slower to them.  That being said, they will still have the opportunity to increase in level and power... they will not need to be retired, nor will they be forced to adventure for no experience gain.

Hmmm, unless someone plays a halfling in my next campaign it will be a while before this plays out.... assuming it even gets that far.  Time will tell.

Crit or Miss.. Why?

Critical hits and Dungeons & Dragons have a long, if largely unofficial history.  Most DMs have put together their own critical hit tables and fumble tables, or at least have borrowed from some of the many tables that have found their way into old issues of Dragon Magazine, Rolemaster or other games.

Most of those tables rely upon a to hit roll being a natural 20 (or a natural one for fumbles).  Which basically means a fighter that almost always can hit has a small percentage of crits, and a large number of his misses are fumbles.  Something about that just doesn't seem fair.

My solution, or at least, what I'll be experimenting with in my next Labyrinth Lord game, is the use of a control die.  I may us a d10, or even the lonely and rarely used d12.  Roll maximum on the control die when you score a hit with the d20 and you've scored a crit... miss when you roll a 1 on the control die and you've scored a fumble.

As for the effect of a critical hit or a fumble, choose you favorite tables or use the maximum damage for crit, attack lost next round for the fumble.  You can even make the control die open ended if you wish, adding damage or negative effects as warranted.

Any thoughts?