From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Critical Hits
Date: 7 Oct 92 08:02:51 GMT
	<1992Oct5.160921.29563@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>
	<1992Oct6.141619.21049@Princeton.EDU>
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Oct6.141619.21049@Princeton.EDU> dagolden@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Alexandre Golden) writes:

   In article <1992Oct5.160921.29563@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov writes:

   >I've read all of these strange, complicated systems people have come up
   >with, and I have one question: Why do you WANT to add critical
   >hits/fumbles to AD&D?
   >
   > - To "patch" the AD&D combat system "to add realism" 
   > - To add danger (and one DM admitted that he was insufficiently
   >    imaginative to come up with a decent challenge otherwise)
   > - To add excitement -- you never know when an orc will kill a 12th level
   >    fighter in one-on-one combat.  It could happen any time.
   > - To add "realism" (I hope everybody laughs at that one)

   I think the purpose of criticals is NOT to add realism, since the HP system
   is unrealistic anyway.  The purpose of criticals is to give the characters
   a CHANCE to defeat a more powerful foe quickly, or suvive a situation that
   otherwise would require DMI.  (DM intervention for the uninitiated.)  The
   ability to strike a truely heroic blow is the ESSENSE of fantasy.

   This is not to say that critical hit/miss should be complicated.  It should be
   as simple as possible, and, ideally, should favor players.  Remember that a
   DM does not HAVE to give criticals to monsters, even if they DO roll a 20.
   Similarly, criticals that do x2 are fine.  There is no need to auto-slay.

   THe end result is that "lucky" players can occasionally really pull off an
   excellent combat, saving the party much grief.  Players remember that, 
   no matter how bad the situation is, maybe, just maybe, they'll roll that 20...

YES!!! Also, i've put crits in my games BECAUSE I just hated it when the
5th level fighter charges the three goblins saying "no sweat". Of course
he's better than them, and should win. BUT there is a difference between "I
*KNOW* I will win, 'cause statistically the level of randomness is so low
that I will fight until 0 HP. No matter how many times they stab me, I'll
still be up...". Sure. Not only it's being overconfident, it's taking the
fun out of fights. When facing a bigger enemy, you just KNOW you're gonna
lose, just like when facing a smaller enemy, you just KNOW you're gonna
win. OK, maybe you'll lose a few or even half of your HP, but you were able
to predict that result anyway, and that's not such a big problem.

Were is the intensity of combat? Not there. And mere "x2 DG" don't help
either.

Remember that in medieval fights, superiority of numbers always meant
vastly greater chances of winning a fight. So the three goblins against one
should receive more, as a bonus, than one of them having +2 to hit from
behind because they surround you. And when facing a greatly bigger enemy,
the party is say 6 against one. Thus you have 6 times more chances of doing
the critical.

In short, all critical does is make the difference in power levels be
smaller. And I tend to like that. I don't like playing a game in which
unless you fight minsters that are top max +-3 levels over or under you the
fight's end is already decided in advance. I like intensity. Make that
margin be +-6 levels instead. Replace "you hit for 6 hit points" with "you
smashed his face real hard, he slams in the wall HARD, he takes an
additionnal D6 DG of somatic damage and he is STUNNED. He's at -2 to hit,
is AC is worse by 2, and he loses initiative next round."

Without critical, you still can say "you smashed his face real hard, he
slams in the wall HARD" but how are you to decide about the game effect
this has, that is: "he takes an additionnal D6 DG of somatic damage and he
is STUNNED. He's at -2 to hit, is AC is worse by 2, and he loses initiative
next round." ? Unless you "simply make it up as you go", which is a kind of
critical hit system without any coherence in it, you can't.

And thus you lose a great deal on DIVERSITY. I hate those "Strike HIT
Strike Miss Strike Again until he falls" battles. Having crits isn't *THE*
way to not have this kind of battles, but it sure helps a lot to put a good
ambiance.

Now, the REAL problem is trying to find a way to REDUCE the time required
to deal with crits/fumbles. One way of doing it is NOT rolling damage
(saves one die roll) if the 20 is really a crit, and to never use more than
3 die rolls, preferably either 3 D% or 3 D20 (fast), to determine exactly
IF there is a critical, and what kind of critical it is.

My own critical system is constanlty being modified to allow for
fast-action. Currently it is like this:

A 20 is rolled...

0) The GM evaluates the "power levels" of attacker and defender, and the
"number to hit", all very quickly andNOT precisely. In short, he combines
all this to determine if the attack is "weak" "normal" or powerful".
Example: a thief needs a 19 to hit a fighter PC. He rolls 20: Weak attack.
When in doubt, the GM ALWAYS "round it" in favor of the players
(thus if the thief was the PC and not the fighter, then the GM could say
that it's a normal attack...)
    The fighter PC needs a 8 to hit the goblin. It's a powerful attack.

1) Reroll the D20. I made a little table which takes into account the 
APPROXIMATE level difference between the opponents on the Y axis, and the
approximate margin of success on the X axis (i.e. if the goblin attacked
and needed a 20 to hit, the margin is in the ZERO column. But if you need 8
or more to hit and roll 20, the margin is in the "over 10" column. There
are also columns for under 0... And there are also a similar table for when
you roll a 19 (though the GM instinctively knows that this one is used only
when the attack is most of the time an automatic success, like when you
need 3+ to hit...). The numbers at the intersection is the APPROXIMATE
number (or more) you needed to roll on the second roll of the D20 to get:
second (lowest) number: automatic max damage (if there is only one number
in the box, max damage is automatic). This allows for goblins making normal
damages on a roll of 20, and all the "approximate" words allow for QUICK
REFERENCING. The GM uses the number as guides. the tables should be
consulted VERY quickly, they also are pretty straighforward and a GM used
to them can often not have to consult them. When the party is having a hard
time, no need to check if the roll of 12 on them "critical determination
chart" really give a "max damage" or a "normal damage". Go straight for the
critical and have a good time. If the PCS have too easy a time, simply say
"max dmaage". If a rules lawyer can't understand why one round he got a
critical while rolling LESS on the chart than in another round (where he
only got "max damage", well too bad for him. Tell him rapid play is more
important than nit-picking and that the NEXT 20 he rolls, he does a normal
blow. Tell him that the GM often round up this "approximativeness" in favor
of the PCs, and thus criticals are a favor the GM do to the party. If he
doesn't like it, start doing the reverse thing and say to the other players
that it's the players fault. He shouyld understand soon enough.

Anyway, up to date we have (in most cases) simply replaced the damage roll
by a rerollof the D20, which is faster than changing dice to do a damage
roll. Consulting the table should never be more than a quick glance at it
to get a "feeling" of comparison and quickly decide if the roll was a
normal, max, or critical damage (or sometimes a double-critical).

Now, if it's normal damage, in most case it's a low-level monster, say a
goblin, fighting a well armored fighter, which is the GM's province and
thus he should know about it in advance (that there is a chance for normal
damage instead of the automatic max damage which is the norm when you roll
20) and roll the dmaage dice at the SAME time as the second D20 roll.

If it's max damage, end of story. Combat goes just as fast as usual.

If it's a critical, roll the D20 again, consult the "general effect"
described. All attacks do max damage unless a multipliwer is speicifically
described. In short: no need to roll the damage dice, which saves time.

Example of effects include:

Target stunned,
Target falls, prone & stunned
Target knocked back,
Damage x 2, x3, x4, x5
Bleeding (-1hp/round and a few little simple rules), Hemmoragy (-2 Hp/rnd),
         (internal hemmoragy: -3 hp/rnd,
         japanese movie style hemmoragy: -4 HP/rnd)
or a combination of multiplier and bleeding.
(I'm thinking about making hemmoragy top at -3/rnd...
Scars
member hurt & unusable for a little while
target unconscious
Member broken & unusable for a long while (or maybe even tchopped)
target feels incredible pains & passes out (comatose)
Target killed on the spot cinematically...

Most results don't involve permanent effects, nor loss of consciousness.

The Double-Critical table is simply rolling on the same table with a bonus
(+1 to +4) on the roll. This make a loss of effects in the low-range, but
make the automatic death prospect a lot higher (I'm thinking about kaing a
separate table which would simply contain the x5 multiplier and greater
hemorragy and things like that at lower values...

As of now, if you've gone as far as the crit table, you rolled two
additionnal D20 and no standard damage roll, thus it's only one more dice.
A few (not much) of the critical hits effects require a third D20 roll.
Typically, these involves things like hit-location, or durations. Example:
Scar in face. Roll D20: 1-3 = nose broken, ... 18 = lose nose, 19 = lose
ear, 20 = lose eye. Hit locations can be instead arbitrarily decided upon
by the GM. A few effects need both a location and duration.

So, at MOST, you need 3 additionnal rolls, mostly D20, and in normal cases
you need only either 0 or one additionnal roll (zero because the damage
roll is replaced by a D20 roll which determines if it's a "real" critical
or simply a "well placed shot for max damage".).


I think this combines Diversity and Simplicity along with Ease of use and
fast Pacing quite well, and I've, to date, not found any other critical
system which does as well on this DSEP "rating".


Pak.


--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
\---------------------------/
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd