Author Topic: New was for resolving criticals  (Read 494 times)

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Offline alloowishus

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New was for resolving criticals
« on: May 23, 2022, 12:41:07 PM »
I have been thinking of a much more detailed way of doing criticals, and make it a little less random and more appropriate to the creature you are facing.

So first of all you have different classes of creatures, humanoid, quadroped, insectoid, flying and "blob" and different attack types, melee or missile. Each creature has a different area to hit and a percentage chance for each area, for example: Head, Torso, Back,Right Arm, Left Arm, Right leg, left Leg and Wing (for flying). For Large and super large creatures in melee head shots are almost impossible, the majority being torso or legs. Each area has a percentage change of being hit depending on the creature type, for example for Humanoid, head shot would be about 5 percent, torso probably around 20 percent etc. Shields adjust this, making head and leg shots more likely and torso and left arm shots less likely.

A character can "aim" for a certain area to increase the chances of hitting by deducting OB to increase the chances. Each critical then has 5 random roll tables based on the current criticals; Stun/Parry, extra hits, Bleeding, Penalty and Death. So there is a 1-100 table divided up similar to current criticals of increasing amounts for each effect (death would only occur above 80). Different areas of the body hit adjust these rolls. For example, a head shot increase the stun and death roll. A torso increases the Bleeding and extra hits, leg shots increase Bleeding and Penalty etc.

A,B,C,D,E criticals work more like the MERP way, i.e. they mere adjust these rolls up or down (-20 for A, -10 for B, +0 for C, +10 for D, +20 for E).

Combats are great in RM, but these would make them even more interesting!

Offline EltonJ

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Re: New was for resolving criticals
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2022, 03:12:28 PM »
Maybe.  I like criticals the way they are.  Make a strike, and if you make a critical strike you roll your critical strike. :)

Offline jdale

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Re: New was for resolving criticals
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2022, 03:26:15 PM »
We actually considered reversing the tables for RMU, so that there would be a column per location and the severity would just be a modifier on the roll. But that either substantially reduces the randomness (i.e. no fatal A criticals, no minimal E criticals) or it requires a restructuring that has a huge impact on how Ambush works, or both. If your objective is to remove the randomness, that's ok, but it is likely to also increase the lethality, since it really only takes one extreme roll to get an instant kill instead of two.
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Offline Vladimir

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Re: New was for resolving criticals
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2022, 05:59:05 PM »
  I've played games which had specific critical tables for each type of creature or vehicle. I even played an arena combat game that used critical tables designed by medical professionals, that described what happened if you had punctured or severed intestines, lungs or other organs. Critical effects were messy and often graphic, from screams of agony to evacuation of bladders and bowels. How realistic do you want? 

  The system we had in Arena were called Dysfunction Tables -when a muscle or organ sustained damage there was a chance it would dysfunction -Stop working. When specific organs stopped working, you died. The tables included Incapacitation -In RM the closest thing would be Stun effects, although we used a more detailed system. If enough pain was inflicted, the player would perform a RR vs fainting, screaming, soiling himself, etc.  These rules were for a gladiatorial arena but were later used in a Medieval setting and subsequently, a WW2 campaign I GMed.   

 
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