Topic: Have there ever been alternative crit tables of "equivalen impact"?

[Thot]

While the crit system of RoleMaster has always been fun, it does in fact increase the randomness of combat significantly, because the actual impact of a critical hit can vary greatly.

Now, suppose I want to have a collection of criticals that have a rather similar impact per class of critical hit - in other words, an A critical will always have a rather minor impact, and an E critical will always have a near-lethal impact.

Has there ever been an optional rule with critical hit tables like that in RoleMaster? If not, how would you implement it? Or wouldn't you? Why?

[Hurin]

I can't recall there ever being anything like that. I guess the way MERP handled criticals (note: it has been a long time since I played MERP, so this may not be entirely accurate) mimicked the idea to some extent, since the difference between criticals was just a modifier to a single table, meaning an A critical could never kill, while an E was always pretty bad.

If you wanted to mimic this in Rolemaster, I would roll all criticals on the 'C' chart, and just apply mods to the roll (e.g. A = -40, B = -20, C = 0, D = +20, E = +40).

[Thot]

[...]
If you wanted to mimic this in Rolemaster, I would roll all criticals on the 'C' chart, and just apply mods to the roll (e.g. A = -40, B = -20, C = 0, D = +20, E = +40).

Unfortunately, there is the 66 that breaks this approach...

[Hurin]

[...]
If you wanted to mimic this in Rolemaster, I would roll all criticals on the 'C' chart, and just apply mods to the roll (e.g. A = -40, B = -20, C = 0, D = +20, E = +40).

Unfortunately, there is the 66 that breaks this approach...

The 66 doesn't help, but I'm not sure it really breaks the approach. It means that you can't obtain a 66 on an A critical, which I think works well. The B criticals are probably the most problematic, since an 86 (which might not be lethal) becomes a 66 (which might be). But you could probably solve that problem by saying to get a 66 result, you need to roll a natural 66. The C criticals stay the same, so they are good, and you could use the same rule -- a natural 66 stays a 66 -- for the D and E criticals.

[Peter R]

As for an approach, there was a variation created for HARP called HARP Hack & Slash. If you can find a copy of that you have a perfect way of controlling the lethality of every attack.

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=11486.0;nowap

If you take a look at this thread and download either the pdf or the spreadsheet you will see an attack table with results labeled A to Z. Those letters point to explicit critical results. So a Z would be the equivalent to rolling an 00 on the E critical table. So now you can decide that maxing out the attack table will always be lethal or barely getting a critical at all will never produce more than +1 hit, as examples.

[Peter R]

Here is an example

[Puin]

While the crit system of RoleMaster has always been fun, it does in fact increase the randomness of combat significantly, because the actual impact of a critical hit can vary greatly.

Now, suppose I want to have a collection of criticals that have a rather similar impact per class of critical hit - in other words, an A critical will always have a rather minor impact, and an E critical will always have a near-lethal impact.

Has there ever been an optional rule with critical hit tables like that in RoleMaster? If not, how would you implement it? Or wouldn't you? Why?

As others have said HARP and H&S approaches this as in fact, and if I don't recall badly, they merge the attack and critical roll in a single one. This eliminates inflicting an E crit and throw an 01!!  If you do a great attack the critical goes along with it.

But I can't recall any product of RM along the lines.

I designed two generic tables (with diferent severity) that realocates the cells of any critical table so that all "A" critcs are mostly the less severe of all the table and the "E" critics are mostly the most severe of the table. I also eliminated the "66" efect.
(I took the Slash table as model to order the cells by severity precedence)
As example a 100 "A" equals now the 67-70 "A" (quite heavy but not deadly), 51-55 "C" equals 61-65 "C" (more or less the same) and now a 01-05 "E" equals the 46-50 "E" (wow, any "E" is now worthy  ).
This way is better to donn armour and parry until you stun your foe, then it's time to trow all you have.

Just my two cents.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

The condensed combat system in the "Combat companion" just does that.

[Thot]

[...]
I designed two generic tables (with diferent severity) that realocates the cells of any critical table so that all "A" critcs are mostly the less severe of all the table and the "E" critics are mostly the most severe of the table. I also eliminated the "66" efect.
(I took the Slash table as model to order the cells by severity precedence)
As example a 100 "A" equals now the 67-70 "A" (quite heavy but not deadly), 51-55 "C" equals 61-65 "C" (more or less the same) and now a 01-05 "E" equals the 46-50 "E" (wow, any "E" is now worthy  ).
This way is better to donn armour and parry until you stun your foe, then it's time to trow all you have.
[...]

Do you have put these tables online anywhere?

[Thot]

The condensed combat system in the "Combat companion" just does that.

It does? Well, then the question is, is there a PDF version available anywhere?

[Peter R]

I think it is one of the lost books.

[Puin]

[...]
I designed two generic tables (with diferent severity) that realocates the cells of any critical table so that all "A" critcs are mostly the less severe of all the table and the "E" critics are mostly the most severe of the table. I also eliminated the "66" efect.
(I took the Slash table as model to order the cells by severity precedence)
As example a 100 "A" equals now the 67-70 "A" (quite heavy but not deadly), 51-55 "C" equals 61-65 "C" (more or less the same) and now a 01-05 "E" equals the 46-50 "E" (wow, any "E" is now worthy  ).
This way is better to donn armour and parry until you stun your foe, then it's time to trow all you have.
[...]

Do you have put these tables online anywhere?

Nope but you can PM me if you want them. 

[Puin]

The condensed combat system in the "Combat companion" just does that.

mmmm... not really the same. The Condensed Combat System (CCS), that reminds me of old MERP or HARP products, helps reduce rolling a 01 "E" crit as it gives "E" crits rolls a +20 bonus. But still you can merely inflict a (+5hits, -25 2rnds)!! 

We want that "E" crits really make the difference!

Besides, those charts say that a broadsword is way better against plate armour (max "D" crit) than a War Hammer (max "B" crit). I always though it was the other way round!! 

[Thot]

Indeed I think rearranging the existing critical results would be the best solution.