MERP had single attack tables, with colums for no armor, SL, RL, CH and PL. Critical tables were one colum per slash, crush, puncture, etc, with -20 for A, -10 for B, 0 for C, +10 for D and +20 for E crits.
I am not suggesting losing the critical tables. I am suggesting an attack roll (modified by OB/DB?etc), and a crit roll, with ALL damage on the critical result.
All attacks would have a critical spread. Armor and perhaps weapons or skill could modify the range. So, take the martial art sweep attack. Attack totals of 100+(A crit), 115+(B crit), 124+(C crit), 133+(D crit), 142+(E crit).
That is right from the current attack table (verus AT 1). Armor would then mod crit thresholds.
Attacks would have to fall into two catagories; standard or reverse. Armor bonuses would act as penalties when facing reverse attacks (i.e. the attack is more effective against armor than no armor, like grapples, lightning, sweeps, etc).
Every player could note the respective thresholds for their attacks on their character sheet, or the GM could. Point is, the need for an attack table is removed. All that is left are the critical tables. Cleaner, quicker and RM maintains its unique flavor via crit based combat.
I have tried the alternate combat systems in companions, anda few derived in house. I always come back to the RM standard rules because they are superior. My question is would removing the attack tables benifit or harm RM as a system.