[Twilight Time] To crit or not to crit?

[Heather Grove]

March 5, 2007: To crit or not to crit?
Volume 8, Issue 1

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Good morning!

I've been involved in a few D&D games lately--a first edition and two 
3.5 edition games--and that's gotten me to thinking a bit about d20 
mechanics. This week, a few thoughts on crits, fumbles, and the lack 
thereof.

We're working on a few changes to the site; we'll send a (very brief, I 
promise!) note to the list when they're ready so you'll know what's 
going on.

Have a great day!
Heather

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To Crit or Not to Crit?

One thing I'm not so fond of in the 3.5 edition of D&D is the threat 
system. The odds of getting a critical hit on an attack are quite small 
ultimately, and when it does happen, the only result is a simple 
multiplier; worse, there's no such thing as a fumble at all. In many of 
the games I've been in some of the most tense, fun, crazy, wild, 
game-changing moments have come about as the result of a fumble or 
crit. The game master for that first edition game I'm in has his own 
crit chart, and it's resulted in events that have altered characters' 
lives or given them great stories to tell.

There are good reasons for the way 3.5 handles crits, and I can 
certainly guess at some of them:

* The simplicity of the system is handy for folks who are already 
having trouble assimilating a complex combat system.

* Combat becomes less unpredictable for GMs, which is easier on folks 
who have trouble improvising.

* Combat becomes easier to balance, which is important if you want to 
reduce risk of unplanned death among party members, or accidentally 
finding that an encounter is a lot easier than you thought it would be.

* For folks who want to play dashing, daring heroes, taking away 
fumbles might seem an easy way to encourage that atmosphere.


However, there are also reasons why I love having a critical & fumble 
system:

* Unpredictability can be a good as well as a bad thing, depending on 
the players and GM. It can help to make battles exciting.

* Crits and fumbles can lead to amazing and memorable in-game moments 
that become the basis of character stories for a long time to come. 
("Remember that time it looked like we were going to lose, and then 
Sebastien took the barbarian lord's head off in one blow?!")

* Crits and fumbles, handled dramatically, can add to a heroic 
atmosphere rather than take away from it.


All that said, I'm not sure the old way I'm used to seeing it handled 
(natural 20 is a crit; natural 1 is a fumble) is the way I'd do it--to 
me a one-in-ten chance of something wild happening is a bit much. One 
way to balance some of the above concerns is to make criticals and 
fumbles a little rarer than 1-in-20 each, so that they aren't as likely 
to throw off your whole planned encounter, but more common than they 
are in 3.5 (and more dramatic).

My basic system is this: when someone threats (as defined in the 3.5 
rulebook), they then roll 1d6. On a 6, they get a critical. When 
someone rolls a natural 1 on an attack, they also roll 1d6, and on a 1 
they fumble. You can choose a different die (1d4, 1d8, 1d10, etc.) 
depending on whether you find crits & fumbles occurring too often or 
not often enough for your taste. The more wild and unpredictable you 
want things to be, the smaller the die you should use.

The next problem, however, is making criticals and fumbles more 
dramatic and interesting than a simple weapon damage multiplier. You 
can make up effects on the spot, but you have enough to keep track of 
during combat without having to come up with new and interesting 
critical and fumble effects. So, I made my own d% crit chart. Here are 
a few basic guidelines to follow should you feel like using it:

* There is a 1% chance (a result of 96) that the opposite result 
happens: a crit becomes a fumble or a fumble becomes a crit. I cribbed 
this from that first edition GM, because it introduces a nifty element 
of uncertainty into things. Feel free to leave it out if you don't like 
such uncertainty--not everyone will.

* The basic chart is for crits. For fumbles, roll randomly to choose 
the affected party member from all party members sufficiently nearby to 
be at-risk (including the fumbler). Then roll on the crit chart. On a 
result of 96, re-roll and apply the result to the original enemy 
target.

* When deciding which arm, leg, shoulder, etc. is injured, roll any 
die. Odd is left; even is right.

* Adapt results as necessary to the genre, weaponry, and target. 
Obviously an eye injury to a monster with no eyes doesn't have the same 
penalties it would for a human; you can re-roll, adapt the result (head 
injury?), or simply apply the extra damage without the additional 
blindness effect. A "leg injury" would be different whether someone's 
hurt by a blunt or a sharp weapon, or some giant monster's pincers, and 
depending on the amount of damage dealt could range from a large cut to 
a broken bone or even a severed limb; you can take some license with 
how unusable the limb becomes depending on the injury.

* Effect notes are brief to keep the chart wieldy; extrapolate as 
appropriate. For instance, injuries which cause bleeding act exactly 
the same as bleeding that occurs when a character goes below 0 hit 
points: i.e., any first aid or healing at all stops the bleeding. An 
injury which makes it difficult for a character to speak might also 
make it difficult for him to perform skill checks involving speech and 
charisma or to cast spells that have a verbal component. You can make 
severe injuries require special healing or restoration as seems 
appropriate.

http://www.burningvoid.com/rpg/2005/crittable.php


One further concern is that parties often face enemies in greater 
numbers than themselves. This means that over a combat's worth of 
rolls, the enemy will crit more times than the party will. Including 
fumbles as well as crits helps to balance this out--they'll also fumble 
more. If you're still worried about balance, however, or you want to 
run an epic campaign where the players routinely beat up great numbers 
of lesser creatures, you can always use a different threat-to-crit die 
for the enemy than for the party (say, a d10 rather than a d6) so that 
the rate isn't identical. If you don't like to use fumbles for PCs, 
then you might consider using fumbles for enemies but not PCs. In fact, 
if you find that, for whatever reason, combat becomes imbalanced in 
your game, this system allows you to subtly change that balance simply 
by experimenting with different threat-to-crit dice.




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