Critical Table I Whipped Up

[Rurik]

Here is a Critical Table I put together for anyone interested:

01-40     Direct Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage. 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Difficult (-20%)

41-75     Well Placed Direct Blow - 
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage and Ignores Armor. 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Hard (-40%)
          
          
76-80     Unbalancing Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Target Must make a Difficult (-20%) Athletics or be knocked Down
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Hard (-40%)
          
81-85     Well Placed Unbalancing Blow - 
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage.and Ignores Armor 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Target Must make a Very Hard (-60%) Athletics or be knocked Down
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Very Hard (-60%)

86-90     Stunning Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d3+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Difficult (-20%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Very Hard (-60%)

91-95     Well Placed Stunning Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage and Ignores Armor
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d4+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Hard (-40%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Nearly Impossible (-80%)

96-99     Vital Blow
          * Automatic Major Wound
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d4+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Very Hard (-60%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Nearly Impossible (-80%)

100       Lethal Blow
          * Target Dies

This adds some lethality back into criticals. 1/2 of the results ignore armor so it gives everybody about the same chance of ignoring armor as a RQ2/3 critical (5% of skill).

I may do separate tables per location when I get around to it, but this works in a pinch.

 

[Rurik]

One thing I had considered was putting in some results that doubled damage. Any interest?

 

[Richard]

Good idea, Rurik. Drop that ignore armour precise hit and work with this. I was going to suggest seperate unbalancing/impaling results for different weapons/attack modes but in all honesty that would get a bit burdensome. This looks useful. Just need someone out there in mongoosedom to grab some of these ideas/house rules/fixes and put out something official. Maybe you and atqgtq, if he's still around, could collaborate on something?

 

[Rurik]

Maybe you and atqgtq, if he's still around, could collaborate on something?

Well he dropped in yesterday on the Happy Halloween thread so he is still lurking...

Not sure if he's up for working on the system though.

 

[Utgardloki]

I just had time for a quick look at this, and it looks good. I'll probably use it.

One suggestion: Since in MRQ low rolls % rolls are usually better than high % rolls, perhaps the table should be arranged this way with low % rolls providing the better results. Just makes this more consistent.

(And I am avoiding house rules such as "if both sides succeed the one with the higher die roll wins." Like D20, I'm trying to make this consistent, at least with respect to d% rolls.)

Another suggestion (since I often add a second suggestion when I say I am only going to have one): This could be a "standard" table, but specific weapons could have "patches" to the critical roll table. This is easier than having separate tables for each weapon, but still allows weapons like axes to work differently than weapons like clubs.

 

[Itto]

I have different effect for different types of weapons (based on RQ2)

Impaling - Max weapon damage (same as the RAW)
Slashing - Roll weapon damage twice
Crushing - Ignore armour

This gives a flavour to different weapons, but is still nice and quick. Impaling weapons have the Yanking rule for additional damage, Slashing weapons should be devastating and Crushing weapons should be able to batter down foes.

 

[Rurik]

I just had time for a quick look at this, and it looks good. I'll probably use it.

Thanks!

One suggestion: Since in MRQ low rolls % rolls are usually better than high % rolls, perhaps the table should be arranged this way with low % rolls providing the better results. Just makes this more consistent.

(And I am avoiding house rules such as "if both sides succeed the one with the higher die roll wins." Like D20, I'm trying to make this consistent, at least with respect to d% rolls.)

A good Idea. I will post a variation based on that.

I am a big fan of being consistency as far as high roll or low roll being good. If I were designing a system from scratch I would stick to that idea. That being said RQ has never been a pure low roll system, and MRQ is certainly no exception.

One way of expanding the table I was considering was adding more results over 100 and allowing characters with a skill above 100 to add the ammount over 100 to the critical roll. This pretty much requires a high is better table (unless I want to get into negative numbers, which I hate).

Another suggestion (since I often add a second suggestion when I say I am only going to have one): This could be a "standard" table, but specific weapons could have "patches" to the critical roll table. This is easier than having separate tables for each weapon, but still allows weapons like axes to work differently than weapons like clubs.

I am actually considering different tables based on location. Earlier versions actually had different bonuses for Crushing and Slashing Weapons (hence the Impaling Weapons Impale line, that I probably can remove as it is in every result now - originally there was a result that ignored armor but didn't impale or do max damage which got dropped because it basically turned a crit to a normal result vs. unarmored foes).

So I still think seperate results for Crushing and Slashing weapons are a good idea, but detached them from the table - that can be pretty much house ruled seperately.

 

[Rurik]

Here is the Low Roll version per Utgardloki's suggestion:

01        Lethal Blow
          * Target Dies

02-05     Vital Blow
          * Automatic Major Wound
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d4+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Very Hard (-60%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Nearly Impossible (-80%)

06-10     Well Placed Stunning Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage and Ignores Armor
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d4+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Hard (-40%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Nearly Impossible (-80%)

11-15     Stunning Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage
          * Impaling Weapons Impale
          * Target Loses next 1d3+1 Actions and Reactions
          * Difficult (-20%) Resilience test or drop any held items
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Very Hard (-60%)

16-20     Well Placed Unbalancing Blow - 
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage.and Ignores Armor 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Target Must make a Very Hard (-60%) Athletics or be knocked Down
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Very Hard (-60%)

21-25     Unbalancing Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Target Must make a Difficult (-20%) Athletics or be knocked Down
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Hard (-40%)

26-60     Well Placed Direct Blow - 
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage and Ignores Armor. 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Hard (-40%)
          
61-100    Direct Blow
          * Weapon Does Maximum Damage. 
          * Impaling Weapons Impale.
          * Spellcasting Persistence tests are Difficult (-20%)

 

[Rurik]

I am actually considering different tables based on location. Earlier versions actually had different bonuses for Crushing and Slashing Weapons (hence the Impaling Weapons Impale line, that I probably can remove as it is in every result now - originally there was a result that ignored armor but didn't impale or do max damage which got dropped because it basically turned a crit to a normal result vs. unarmored foes).

So I still think seperate results for Crushing and Slashing weapons are a good idea, but detached them from the table - that can be pretty much house ruled seperately.

I have different effect for different types of weapons (based on RQ2)

Impaling - Max weapon damage (same as the RAW)
Slashing - Roll weapon damage twice
Crushing - Ignore armour

This gives a flavour to different weapons, but is still nice and quick. Impaling weapons have the Yanking rule for additional damage, Slashing weapons should be devastating and Crushing weapons should be able to batter down foes.

See, like that.

I have been considering the following:
Impaling - Max+Impale
Slashing - Double Rolled Damage
Crushing - Double Damage Bonus

In the table I had slashing weapons do Max+ Rolled for all results above Direct Blow and Crushing Weapons do Double Damage Bonus for all results above Direct Blow, but as I've said, decided to detach them from the table.

 

[RosenMcStern]

Well done, Rurik! Looks fine to me.

My observations:

1) Lost CAs: wounds determine loss of CAs, too, so it must be specified whether it is in addition to this or not. Also note that "Automatic Major wound" already means -1d4 CAs.

2) Unbalancing and/or stunning blows should be more frequent with slashing/bludgeoning weapons.

3) Lethal blow, combined with Murphy's law, will often yeld the "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the foot". Maybe a good "Automatic major serious" would be better. At least it would yeld "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the HEAD".

 

[Quire]

"Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the foot".

Was the player in question Brad Pitt?

- Q

 

[Utgardloki]

3) Lethal blow, combined with Murphy's law, will often yeld the "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the foot". Maybe a good "Automatic major serious" would be better. At least it would yeld "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the HEAD".

This happened in a Top Secret game I ran, where a PC was killed by a bullet wound to his foot. That lead to jokes about the PC suffering brain damage...

On the other hand, for a human being, a wound to the foot can be quite serious. It can sever an artery, causing a person to bleed to death. It can unbalance him, causing to hit his head and die. The foot can get infected.

Perhaps the lethal blow result can lead to a subtable that determines whether it is a quick death (artery blown, etc), a slow, lingering death (infection, etc), or an immediate death (target falls, breaks neck, and dies). A quick or lingering death could be prevented with care or magic (although a simple First Aid result should probably not be enough -- not if there is internal bleeding or the wound is too much for the caregiver's knowledge and resources to cope with.)

As for a 1 point hit to the foot causing death, remember that hit points are arbitrary and abstract. Perhaps a 10% chance per hit point damage would go some way towards mollifying this concern. A low damage lethal blow would be one that hit something critical -- the foot's alright, but blood is spurting out all over the place.

Man, Runequest combat can be brutal :shock:

 

[Rurik]

Well done, Rurik! Looks fine to me.

Thanks!

My observations:

1) Lost CAs: wounds determine loss of CAs, too, so it must be specified whether it is in addition to this or not. Also note that "Automatic Major wound" already means -1d4 CAs.

They are instead of. I should clear that up. In some cases they are not much different that non-critical results (though they were in an earlier version).

Also, I need a mechanic to replace lost Reactions, since they don't really count down like actions (you may never use one). Possibly "No reaction may be used until the character has a CA again" or possibly "Reactions are at 1/2 until trhe character's next Action. Only Defensive Reactions may be made" or some such..

2) Unbalancing and/or stunning blows should be more frequent with slashing/bludgeoning weapons.

I had other effects for bludgeoning/slashing weapons but removed them. They did additional damage over Max, so while there was no specific rule for knockback it was more likely as a result of the increased damage.

3) Lethal blow, combined with Murphy's law, will often yeld the "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the foot". Maybe a good "Automatic major serious" would be better. At least it would yeld "Beloved PC killed by parried 1-pt critical to the HEAD".

Note the last two results don't do damage. They ignore armor and one automatically does a Major Wound and the other Kills instantly. In the arm/leg scenario the death is a result of shock. I had considered writing it as Head, Chest, or Abdomen: Instant Death, Arm or Leg, Automatic major wound, falls, down, loses butload of actions, resilience test at minus a gazillion or some such.

I may actually do tables based on location, but that gets into a can of worms (non-humanoids for example), so I figured one table was the best place to start.

 

[RosenMcStern]

Thanks Rurik, it looks clearer now.

Lethal foot wound: sure, there are several ways a foot wound can become lethal. A crossbow bolt that hits a leg can kill you outright (a .45 round would likely do). My doubt was that a 1-pt. dagger wound to a limb cannot kill you on the spot, though it can easily cause you to bleed to death in one minute. So I just preferred the "It's-an-automatic-major-wound-now-roll-resilience" mechanics. Of course Murphy's law dictates a solid 00 as the Resilience roll when Joe-the-Invincible-100%-Resilience-hero gets a 01 as his critical result from a bruise. So well, Rurik is trying to keep it simple, let's say there is this result too.

 

[Rurik]

Thanks Rurik, it looks clearer now.

Lethal foot wound: sure, there are several ways a foot wound can become lethal. A crossbow bolt that hits a leg can kill you outright (a .45 round would likely do). My doubt was that a 1-pt. dagger wound to a limb cannot kill you on the spot, though it can easily cause you to bleed to death in one minute. So I just preferred the "It's-an-automatic-major-wound-now-roll-resilience" mechanics. Of course Murphy's law dictates a solid 00 as the Resilience roll when Joe-the-Invincible-100%-Resilience-hero gets a 01 as his critical result from a bruise. So well, Rurik is trying to keep it simple, let's say there is this result too.

I wanted a way to kill the Resilience 350% dude with one shot. I have been making some changes. I think the lethal shot will be same as vital shot but the resilience test automatically fails (so a limb means unconcious and a vital location means dead).

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

I personally think that removing the need to look up a table during play might be a better approach. Common items are:

Impaling weapons impale
This is in every result aside from auto-kill, so it doesn't need to be in a table.

Weapon does maximum damage
Likewise in every result.

Knockdown/drop/action loss/spellcasting effects
Ummmm... they're nice to have and make sense against same-sized foes, but as possible results against anything, up to and including a True Dragon, they smell of RoleMaster to me. I'd let the minor/serious/major wound effects do the job instead, maybe expanding them a little (currently major wounds cause no CA loss!) to cater for the hypothetical Resilience 350 guy.

Ignore Armour
Happens 45% of the time on the last table, so why not say that if the roll is within half of your critical chance (no difficult maths there) you get an Ignore Armour as well?
_______________________

Not looking to knock Rurik's work now, just providing another option for those who dislike tables.

 

[Rurik]

I personally think that removing the need to look up a table during play might be a better approach.

Some people kinda like looking up results in a table. Gives ya something special to do on a crit. It was actually much more complicated at one point. If ya hate tables, well, use it anyway.

Impaling weapons impale
This is in every result aside from auto-kill, so it doesn't need to be in a table.

Weapon does maximum damage
Likewise in every result..

You are right. This is left over from when I had different critical results for slashing and crushing weapons. I have since detached my slashing/crushing results from the table. The lines you mention will be gone in the next one I post. I'm processing all the feedback I get before posting the next version.

Knockdown/drop/action loss/spellcasting effects
Ummmm... they're nice to have and make sense against same-sized foes, but as possible results against anything, up to and including a True Dragon, they smell of RoleMaster to me. I'd let the minor/serious/major wound effects do the job instead, maybe expanding them a little (currently major wounds cause no CA loss!) to cater for the hypothetical Resilience 350 guy.

You forgot flying and swimming creatures, how does knockdown work on them? I'm gonna fall back on the GM discretion cop out. How often do you actually fight a true dragon? Be sweet dropping the Crimson Bat with one blow to the little toe though, wouldn't it.

I really did want a way to knock spellcasters with high persistance off their casting.

Ignore Armour
Happens 45% of the time on the last table, so why not say that if the roll is within half of your critical chance (no difficult maths there) you get an Ignore Armour as well?.

There is an implicit ignore armor on the Vital and Lethal results, so 50% is the odds (what I was shooting for) . Halving twice? are you daft? way to mathemelogical.

Not looking to knock Rurik's work now, just providing another option for those who dislike tables.

Hey, no offense taken. You have been marked in the Book of Wrongness however. Expect a visit from the Rightness Army soon.

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

I personally think that removing the need to look up a table during play might be a better approach.

Some people kinda like looking up results in a table. Gives ya something special to do on a crit. It was actually much more complicated at one point. If ya hate tables, well, use it anyway.

Diff'rent strokes.

Impaling weapons impale
This is in every result aside from auto-kill, so it doesn't need to be in a table.

Weapon does maximum damage
Likewise in every result..

You are right. This is left over from when I had different critical results for slashing and crushing weapons. I have since detached my slashing/crushing results from the table. The lines you mention will be gone in the next one I post. I'm processing all the feedback I get before posting the next version.

Glad to be of help, amigo.

Knockdown/drop/action loss/spellcasting effects
Ummmm... they're nice to have and make sense against same-sized foes, but as possible results against anything, up to and including a True Dragon, they smell of RoleMaster to me. I'd let the minor/serious/major wound effects do the job instead, maybe expanding them a little (currently major wounds cause no CA loss!) to cater for the hypothetical Resilience 350 guy.

You forgot flying and swimming creatures, how does knockdown work on them? I'm gonna fall back on the GM discretion cop out. How often do you actually fight a true dragon? Be sweet dropping the Crimson Bat with one blow to the little toe though, wouldn't it.

Good point on the flying/swimming - I'd totally forgotten them. Any of the real Big Stuff would have you wiped out before you got close enough to swing a sword anyway, so it's probably academic.

I really did want a way to knock spellcasters with high persistance off their casting.

Too right.

Ignore Armour
Happens 45% of the time on the last table, so why not say that if the roll is within half of your critical chance (no difficult maths there) you get an Ignore Armour as well?.

There is an implicit ignore armor on the Vital and Lethal results, so 50% is the odds (what I was shooting for) . Halving twice? are you daft? way to mathemelogical.

Half of the standard one tenth of skill for crits doesn't seem too onerous, but again it's diff'rent strokes.

Not looking to knock Rurik's work now, just providing another option for those who dislike tables.

Hey, no offense taken. You have been marked in the Book of Wrongness however. Expect a visit from the Rightness Army soon.

No worries. I'll just bottle it up and come out with an outburst when you least expect it. :lol:

 

[Rurik]

Halving twice? are you daft? way to mathemelogical.

Half of the standard one tenth of skill for crits doesn't seem too onerous, but again it's diff'rent strokes.

It was sarcaserism.

[Old Fogey]I quite frankly find it shocking that the math in previous RQ's is 'too complicated'. What has become of todays gamers? They need a good dose of Aftermath![/Old Fogey]

 

[Utgardloki]

I may actually do tables based on location, but that gets into a can of worms (non-humanoids for example), so I figured one table was the best place to start

One way to get around making different tables for different locations, and being able to handle any body shape, is to provide for special effects based on the function of that hit location.

E.g., "A critical Resistance success is needed to prevent immediate death if this hit location is a vital location." This means that a human hit in the head or the chest, or a giant starfish hit in the central area, or some wierd alien creature that has its brain at the end of a tentacle, would be killed if that area is hit, but a zombie or a golem can lose its head and not have a problem.

"The function of this location is lost" causes a serious problem for a human hit in the leg, but a human hit in the arm doesn't have as much trouble, and a giant starfish hit in one of its arms doesn't have much of a problem at all.

I could go on, but I need to go to bed.