Rolemaster Criticals

[dr_venture]

Just FWIW, I figured other GM's might be interested in my experience using the Rolemaster critical tables with C&C. The core rules' 'double damage for crits' rule is much too boring for my tastes. So I decided to try the Rolemaster crits, with some trepidation at the potentially gory results.

For those unfamiliar with Rolemaster, it has an enormous set of critical tables for a huge range of attacks, from 'Slash' and 'Piercing' crits to 'Small Animal' and 'Heat' and 'Unbalancing' (a crit for a bashing attack, like a shield bash being tackled). The tables are mostly arranged into criticals of ascending severity, 'A' being the weakest, and 'E' being the most severe. The tables are also known for their colorful descriptions and brutality, like this serious result:


Strike to foe's head destroys brain and makes life difficult for the poor fool. Foe expires in a heap - immediately.


However, the reality is that the majority of the results are less definitive, and the outcome will be more dependent on the specific game situation, such as this moderate result:


Medium forearm wound. +4 hits. Foe takes 3 hits/rnd, is at -2, and is stunned next rnd.

To me that's fun: interesting, really mixes things up, requires immediate action, and perhaps a change in strategy for whoever is on the receiving end. It's definitely serious with characters at lower levels, but not necessarily fatal. This will also depend on your rules regarding bandaging and rendering first aid.

Now when a critical hit is achieved, the player rolls a d20 to determine crit type, and d100 for the critical. The d20 works like this:

1-6 (30%): A
7-11 (25%): B
12-15 (20%): C
16-18 (15%): D
19-20 (10%): E

The Damage amounts in the crit tables had to all be reduced down, of course - I had begun the process when I stumbled upon a PDF out in the webosphere that gives specific recommendations on modifying the Rolemaster tables for C&C (Google it if you're interested, of contact me if all else fails). Also, there are results in the original tables that contain notes like "Foe is at 50% hearing." Since Rolemaster is based on percentiles, and C&C is based on d20, it's an easy conversion: every +/-5% in Rolemaster is +/-1 in C&C, so the above would translate as "Foe is at -10 hearing." Until healed, of course.

So I put it all together and warned my players that we would give it a try, and I would retcon any disaster that occurred due to the experiment... and to my great surprise and relief, it works exceedingly well!

The big worry was that there would be a rash of dismemberments and brutal slayings, more in line with Rolemaster itself, but perhaps worse. However the reality is that Rolemaster tables result in much more frequent criticals than C&C's 1-in-20 model, and thus have a much higher chance of somebody rolling well on the crit table and getting a gruesome result. In practice in C&C, the more serious crits are mostly moderate to serious wounds with a very occasional brutality thrown in. Actually, the most common result is a critical with damage *below* the x2 damage that the C&C core rules call for, although the added details of stunning and bleeding make up for that on the whole, I think.

In about 20 playing sessions, I have yet to have a character get an insta-kill on them... nor has anyone just outright slayed an opponent via an insta-kill result. You know it's coming, though!

[damned]

so... how is the beta going? <gdw>

[dr_venture]

Very slow... haven't given up, work on it when I can, but progress is being made. I am still not the right guy to be doing the work, as FG continues to be extremely frustrating to debug, due to it's assets being spread all over the place. But if not me... who?

[bennis1980]

Is there no way you could make the critical type dependant on the attack roll (higher meaning more sever critical). Apologies if this doesn't make sense as I don't know how the C&C ruleset works. I just saw "Rolemaster Criticals" and my curiosity was piqued.

I wish you luck with this.

[dr_venture]

The C&C mechanic is just that if you roll a '20' to hit with your d20, it's an automatic critical... in that sense, you can't roll any higher, though mods could put the roll higher. You'd have to tie the critical severity to your total roll relative to what you need to hit or else high level characters would automatically get crits. It's a not a bad idea, definitely more realistic in many ways, as high level characters would more easily get criticals against lower level foes... which would be fun, of course, and make it feel really good to be a high level character beating on chumps.

The trade-off would be between simplicity and complexity/realism. As much as I'm a game-tweaker and want to mess with it, for me I'd rather stick to the simple formula: natural 20=critical, natural 1=fumble... that way, 90% of the rolls don't need any further calculations... although I do use hit location, so there's an extra roll there.

The above does bring up a good simple house rule: increase the critical range by +1 for every, say 4 full levels of difference between a character and the foe he's facing. So a 10th level character fighting a 2 HD monster would get criticals on any natural roll of 18, 19, or 20... which seems reasonable to me, since the crits are often not instantly deadly.

[bennis1980]

A critical on an 18, 19 or 20 would seem quite reasonable even at low levels, if you made an 18 roll cause an A or B Crit (50-50 chance), a 19 cause a C or D crit, and a 20 (which would explode or reroll in rolemaster on the equivalent 96-100) cause an E crit. Since A-B are generally non fatal they would add the flavour with most of the bite taken out. When a player rolls a 20 now, they can truely celebrate with anticipation.

Of course if you haven't had a meaty kill (on either side) in 20 sessions, you'll want to increase the odds of a critical a little bit.

EDIT: The beauty of this critical system (as you are probably already aware) is that a low level character has a chance, if even very slim, of defeating a high level dragon in one strike :D

[Trenloe]

Or, perhaps rate the critical category (A, B, C, etc.) on how much damage was done with the hit. e.g. A creature rolls a 20 with a longsword that does 1d8 damage. If they roll 1 damage, then make it a 1A. For example: 1A, 2A, 3B, 4B, 5C, 6C, 7D, 8E. I know that most damage rolls won't be evenly split through the 5 critical levels, but as the damage roll is the effective "lethality" of the hit, then why not use it to determine the crit category level too? This is essentially what happens on the Rolemaster tables anyway - the more lethal the blow (usually linked to more damage) the higher the crit category level too.

Just a thought...

[bennis1980]

And a nice thought...


Here's another, why not play rolemaster :) (heeheehee - you knew it was coming)

[Trenloe]

And a nice thought...


Here's another, why not play rolemaster :) (heeheehee - you knew it was coming)
I was wondering when! :p

[JohnD]

Hey dr_v... do you have these tables integrated into the ruleset or are you simply ad hoc using them from a paper copy?

If you have them in game I'd love to have a copy of the module if you were to make it available for download.

I'm coming up on some DMing downtime (May - September) and am thinking of trying my hand at a C&C game in the fall if time allows.

[S Ferguson]

Hey dr_v... do you have these tables integrated into the ruleset or are you simply ad hoc using them from a paper copy?

If you have them in game I'd love to have a copy of the module if you were to make it available for download.

I'm coming up on some DMing downtime (May - September) and am thinking of trying my hand at a C&C game in the fall if time allows.

Try it! It would be a nice vacation after Rolemaster. This game brings you back to the basics. It's the reason you played D&D in the early eighties and enjoyed it. I host a one-off adventure of C&C occasionally. Haven't got one coming up soon but if I wind up with more downtime, I'll take you on a personal tour.

[dr_venture]

JohnD: I do not have the tables in a FG-sharable form (nor do I feel comfortable putting such intellectual property on the boards here). They are in regular old FG rollable table form that is part of the new ruleset which I'm trying to knock into shape for release some day... *sigh.* There may be another way - I'll PM you when I get the chance.

S Ferguson: Thanks for spreading the C&C love. I'm still surprised that C&C doesn't have a larger fan base, as it's such an easy game for old timers like me to learn and house-rule into the exact shape they want.

[S Ferguson]

JohnD: I do not have the tables in a FG-sharable form (nor do I feel comfortable putting such intellectual property on the boards here). They are in regular old FG rollable table form that is part of the new ruleset which I'm trying to knock into shape for release some day... *sigh.* There may be another way - I'll PM you when I get the chance.

S Ferguson: Thanks for spreading the C&C love. I'm still surprised that C&C doesn't have a larger fan base, as it's such an easy game for old timers like me to learn and house-rule into the exact shape they want.

Hear, hear!

[S Ferguson]

And C&C is one of my pet loves anyway. It's the system *you* want it to be, rather than the system *they* want to enforce on you. I'm using house rules in it that I thought up in the eighties. In fact a fair number of my "test" rules go into this game because it just doesn't break! It almost gives me that warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about it....:)

[JohnD]

I may take my summer "off" months and familiarize myself further... ToEE in C&C might be fun. :)

[dr_venture]

And C&C is one of my pet loves anyway. It's the system *you* want it to be, rather than the system *they* want to enforce on you. I'm using house rules in it that I thought up in the eighties. In fact a fair number of my "test" rules go into this game because it just doesn't break!

That's really well put. In my Old West game I spent a few months just throwing together the classes from the C&C variant Go Fer Yer Gun! and d20 variant Sidewinder: Recoiled!, made a spread sheet to kinda get an overview of classes and abilities, and when new abilities are automatically gained, hit dice for classes, etc... darned if it doesn't work pretty well right out of the box. Even converted all of the weapons to the Knuckleduster Firearms Shop rules, and added the Rolemaster crits... no problems. And yeah, I'm using several house rules from my AD&D days easy as can be. Even original AD&D and D20 game material can be integrated with minimal fuss... takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

It seems to be a game system that can certainly be unbalanced, but not easily broken. I love that it really serves me much more than I serve it.

[dr_venture]

I may take my summer "off" months and familiarize myself further... ToEE in C&C might be fun. :)

I've been kinda working on that, too. I got a nice Hommlet map all ready for you - PM me for it, or search for it in the forums here... I posted it at some point. :)

[S Ferguson]

That's really well put. In my Old West game I spent a few months just throwing together the classes from the C&C variant Go Fer Yer Gun! and d20 variant Sidewinder: Recoiled!, made a spread sheet to kinda get an overview of classes and abilities, and when new abilities are automatically gained, hit dice for classes, etc... darned if it doesn't work pretty well right out of the box. Even converted all of the weapons to the Knuckleduster Firearms Shop rules, and added the Rolemaster crits... no problems. And yeah, I'm using several house rules from my AD&D days easy as can be. Even original AD&D and D20 game material can be integrated with minimal fuss... takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

It seems to be a game system that can certainly be unbalanced, but not easily broken. I love that it really serves me much more than I serve it.

Yep, did the same thing to integrate firearms into my game. Sidewinder, and the Action! to d20 rules to bring in some of the Gunslinger professions and which has more comprehensive weapons tables. I have even added a few "cyberpunk" style classes, from d20 Digital Burn (mostly the underworld classes, like the "Fixer"). And yes, my AD&D material (like the Minotaur race from the original AD&D Dragonlance sourcebook), have provided countless hours of fun (just don't mess with a Minotaur Fixer toting a Henry-Irons rifle...:) )

[anemeth]

Was this done as a mod or ext? I would like to use it in my 5e campaign.