In the middle of the picture there's an arrow suspended where it split the bamboo flagpole. I hit that from 100 yards away. And I can attest in all honesty that it was pure luck.
OK. Now I'm supremely impressed!
I would still tell people you meant to do that though.
Still... I would grant that the criticals are more about providing narratively interesting detail than they are about realistic simulation.
I will amend this to my previous statement. "The crits also add interesting narrative detail and add lots of color and flavor."
Imagine Bruce Lee, arguably the best unarmed combattant in modern times, trying to punch in the face an immobile man. If he were using the RM rules, though he would hit the man anytime due to a very high OB, he'd pretty much never succeed in a bad luck day...
You're actually looking at this from the opposite direction. I'm not saying Bruce Lee cannot hit an immobile man and not do extra damage. My point was that a lesser skilled combatant can get in a lucky shot on a higher skilled combatant. Bruce Lee, for all his skill did actually get hit from time to time by people who were arguably less skilled than he was. One of my instructors went to seminars hosted by Dan Inosanto and had plenty of training with him. He still managed to get solid "finishing" strikes in on Mr. Inosanto. Likewise I was able to get solid "finishing" strikes in on Christine Bannon (she wasn't married to Don Rodriguez at that time) but she was still ranked in the USA around the time she was triple crown winner for weapons, forms, and fighting. I clearly not as skilled as she, but I still managed to get several blows in on her because she had never sparred against me and didn't my my style and wasn't familiar with my skill set.
But you do bring up a good point, O.L.F.: What if Bruce Lee is punching an immobile man and he doesn't want to kill the man. Isn't it possible he just lands a lucky (or unlucky blow) and accidentally kills him? Absolutely yes.
The crits allow for the possibility of the lesser skilled to get a killing blow on the over skilled. If this were not the case, then every higher ranked, or higher OB character would always win every single fight against every lower skilled character every single time and RM will be a really boring RPG to play because it will either be a cake wake for the PC as he levels up or he never levels up because he only faces higher skilled characters.
Yes, I still contend the crit tables add realism to the game, tongue in cheek of course. I don't recall any news article of someone vibrating another person so vigorously that their foe's brains leaked from the ears or the attacker literally went and grabbed a spatula. However, there are even the accidental killing crits, which again add realism. There was one accidental tournament death in France where the victim was kicked in the chest and suffered heart failure from the blow. The probability of intentionally doing that is astronomical. Search for any sparring fatalities online you will find hundreds. It is very possible for a lesser skilled combatant to land a killing blow on a higher skilled combatant, the crit tables allow for this possibility.
This is the realism I am referring to, not the "aiming at the chest and breaking foe's leg, foe has permanent limp."