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[Option] Critical Strikes by Attack Roll

PostDateIcon Fri, 01/11/2013 - 10:50pm | PostAuthorIcon Stacktrace

I have been toying with the following idea, and thought I would throw it out there and see if anyone has any feedback or thoughts on it.

I am not a fan of games with freeform combat effects, or even worse, that offer a list of special effect options in combat (like Dragon Age and the new Runequest/Legend). I do like flavorful weapons and combat chaos, so here is an attempt to address these points.

In combat, when a critical attack is rolled, the effect is based on which number was doubled, which is described below based on the type of weapon being used:

Crushing Attacks
Value Effect
======================
0 Damage ignores defender's DR from Armor
1 +1D of damage, defender is also Dazed for one turn
2 +1D of damage and ignore defender's DR from Armor
3 +1D of damage, defender is knocked back one space and stunned one turn
4 x2 Damage, defender is knocked prone
5 x2 Damage, defender is Surprised one turn
6 x2 Damage, defender is Stunned 1 turn and Slowed until healed
7 x2 Damage and ignore defender's DR from Armor, defender deafened until healed
8 x2 Damage and defender is Weakened until receives healing
======================

Slashing Attacks
Value Effect
======================
0 Defender begins to Bleed
1 If Defender has shield it becomes unusuable, if not then as (2) above
2 +1D of damage, worn armor reduced by 2 DR until repaired
3 Defender's weapon is broken (if wooden or wooden hafted) Otherwise weapon is Disarmed
4 x2 Damage, defender Bleeding
5 Attacker may make an immediate free melee attack that does not count as an action
6 x2 Damage, defender's leg incapacitated: falls prone and slowed until healed
7 x2 Damage, defender dazed and has disadvantage to perception until healed
8 x2 Damage, defender's arm incapacitated: drops held item, unusable and Bleeding
======================

Piercing Attacks
Value Effect
======================
0 Defender is Impaled
1 +1D damage and defender is Bleeding
2 +1D damage and ignores defender's DR from armor
3 +1D damage, forced back 1 space and surprised 1 turn
4 x2 Damage and defender is Impaled
5 This attack does not count as an action
6 x2 Damage, defender Impaled and Slowed until healed
7 +3D damage
8 x2 Damage, defender Impaled and drops a held item
======================

I tried to use the existing defined conditions, but ended up adding 2 new ones, that are likely too strong at this point:

Bleeding:
Unless the first action each turn is used to hold wound with free hand take 1D/2 damage that ignores DR. Removed if receive healing, or bandaged up after battle. Multiple Bleed conditions stack, and must be addressed individually

Impaled:
Weapon stuck in defender. Each action the defender takes causes 1 damage (ignoring DR). An ally can remove the stuck weapon, which causes 1D of damage. Can make Will Resistance to remove it ones self the 1D of damage is suffered on both success or failure. An enemy can remove the weapon with a successful unarmed attack. Removed in this way, the removed weapon causes 2D of damage and the attacker has the weapon. The unarmed attack does no other damage.

With proper time (after battle) the weapon can be removed safely with a successful LOG check. On failure, the weapon is still removed, but causes 1D of damage as normal. Magical healing does not remove this condition. Multiple Impaled conditions stack, and must be addressed individually

Weapon Types:

S = Slashing
P = Piercing
C = Crushing

Weapon Type
=================================
Battleaxe S
Club C
Crossbow P
Dagger P
Flail C
Glaive S
Greataxe S
Halberd S
Hand Crossbow P
Handaxe S
Javelin P
Longbow P
Longsword S
Mace C
Maul C
Morningstar C
Quarterstaff C
Scimitar S
Shortbow P
Shortsword S
Sling C
Spear P
Trident P
Two-handed sword S
unarmed C
Warhammer C
Whip S
=================================

Was thinking of extending this to Fumbles as well as Spell casting, but that is for another time.

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PostCommentsIcon Login or register  | PostCategoryIcon   | PostTagIcon Tags: BareBones
Submitted by Ascent on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 5:57am.

This is how I came to accept your list in my mind: Since "0" is the better number in BBF, and "9" is the worse, this would seem to be anti-intuitive since, in BBF, the lower the number would seem to be better. But since success rolls are linear, then really, a success is merely a determination of "Did the roll succeed?": "yes" or "no". So really, a list of which numbers qualify for which effects is actually flexible. Since a person's skill improves, then it would be okay to simplify things so that as they improve in skill, so too does their damage ability on doubles. So it becomes, "Does the roll succeed? Yes." "Is the roll doubles? Yes." "Which doubles are rolled?": "Match doubles to list".

However, I would put a super critical success ("00") at the end of the list, below 9.

A critique, though. I'm one to prefer standardization, because it keeps things simple. So making lists based on the type of damage is impractical to me. I suggest making one simple list or mechanic with standardized incremental damage. (If the character improves beyond 88, then the GM and player can still determine the damage based upon the increments.) So when a character performs a blow with their weapon, the player already knows what type of damage it is (crushing, slashing, piercing) and can determine the damage without consulting the table. The less to remember, the better.

Perhaps, though, you can have a conditions table instead, based upon the damage type. So you simply determine the resulting condition and standardize determining the length of the condition. So all that you have to remember is the order of the 10 conditions. This also makes standard conditions available to normal rolls.

This game is about performing on the fly and leaving a lot of the mechanical decision-making to the GM's story-telling ability. To perform on the fly requires simple mechanics that don't require referencing a book. So the simpler, more predictable the mechanic, the better.

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Submitted by w00t on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 2:43pm.

Great post Stacktrace!
Reminds me of the MERP critical tables. :-)

I agree with your assessment, rolling higher doubles on a critical indicates your characters level of competency. Anyone can roll a 00, very few starting characters can roll a 88 critical success.

This might be common knowledge, could you edit your post and give examples of crush, slash and piercing weapons?

Suggestion on terminology:
Change "defender" to "target" or "foe"
Change "ignores DR" to "bypass DR"
I only say this because it's terms we've used in BBF.

Overall I like it, at the minimum it gives GM's some options how to handle critical successes for attacks. It also gives a bit of crunch/realism to the game (love the bleeding condition). I'll try and use this in my next game.

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Submitted by Stacktrace on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 4:18pm.

@Ascent you are 100% correct that this adds a lot of overhead and oomplicates what is a very lean system. I do not imagine there are many BBF players out there that would care much for this option.
The nice lean open system is likely what attracts many people to this system. Personally though I am not a big fan of some of the story game mechanics and free form nature in BBF, what I apreciate is the clean simple core mechanics. So, just putting this out there as an idea for anyone else that wants a little bit of extra crunch.

@Larry, thanks for the feedback, when I write up something more official I will include the terminology you suggest. If you do try it out, I would be interested in the results, and also take care that it is very rough and likely unbalanced at this point.

I will update the original post with weapon types as you suggest.

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