|
CRITICAL SYSTEM
Other Systems
Critical-hit systems have
always been fun, but they often haven't made much sense. One
system says that if you drop maximum damage on damage dice, you get to
roll again. So with a piddly weapon with just 1d4 damage, you have a 25%
chance to keep rolling again and again. while a critical hit with a 4d6
sword has less than 1/100th of a chance of rolling extra damage (based on
a rounded-up 17% x 17% x 17% x 17%, which I think is right). Another system using d20s for combat
rolls used to embrace a system where rolling a natural 20 meant a
critical hit. But piddly critters who need a natural 20 to hit anything at
all always have critical hits when they do hit, and master warriors
who need 2-20 to hit only make critical hits on the same 20. To make
matters worse, the same system embraced critical failures on any natural
1... so the master warrior who only failed on a 1 would always
critically fail whenever he failed. Huh?!
Critical and Incredible
Rolls
This one is realistic and
balanced. Unskilled combatants never have the same (or better!)
chances to do heinous damage than more highly-skilled counterparts, for
example. And this system applies to any d% roll (which is the basis for
everything in the game). We have two levels of exceptional rolls: Criticals and Incredibles, and they work at both ends of the spectrum:
success and failure. Any natural 01 is an Incredible Success; any natural
02-05 is a Critical Success; any natural 96-99 is a Critical Failure; and
any natural 100 is an Incredible Failure. So what makes this system
different? The tables for critical/incredible success and failure results
take the number you needed to roll in the first place into account, and
adjusts accordingly, so it makes sense.
Rolegamer Democracy -
What's this?
Just about everyone loved
the idea of a critical-hit system, and while many realized the
shortcomings to various systems, they were okay with accepting it. A very
vocal minority really disliked critical-hit systems because of their
illogical natures. Most GMs who hated how they worked either didn't use
them or designed their own complicated series of tables to determine
whether a hit was critical and what the results were. But virtually every
veteran gamer I first suggested the method that ultimately became the
system in AQ! was very excited about how it worked.
|
