Critical Tables

Has anyone come up with a critical tables like those in Rolemaster or WHFRP. The setting would really lead itself to these and maybe could be used instead of harm?

The Infinity game works similar to this. Instead of saying that each Wound gives you +1 Difficulty for all Agility-, Brawn-, and Coordination-related tests, you gain an effect which is appropriate to the Wound. You might as well roll on a table if that’s your preferred taste.

Some effets include:

  • Bleeding: The target gains the Bleeding condition (not sure if this condition even exists in Conan)
  • C.ripple: Target suffers +1 difficulty on all Agility-, Brawn-, or Coordination-based actions (sorry, the forum won’t let me spell the word correctly).
  • Dazed: The target gains the Dazed condition. If they are already Dazed, they become Staggered. (This condition can be removed with the Absterge action, ending the Wound Effect.)
  • Horrific Wound: The target suffers 2 [CD] (Vicious 1) Mental damage.
  • Knockout: The target must make a Resistance test to avoid being rendered unconscious. The difficulty of the test is equal to the number of Wounds the character is currently suffering from. If the test is successful, the character still suffers the Wound, they merely avoid the Wound Effect.
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Thanks Shran, im looking at something a little more lethal like a chance to lose a limb, or one shot kills.

here an example of whrp where they have to roll to see the effect

1 Your blow grazes your opponent’s arm, causing them to drop anything held in that hand.
2 Your blow skins your opponent’s knuckles, painfully but not seriously. The arm may be used normally, but anything held in the hand is dropped.
3 Your blow opens a small cut on your opponent’s forearm, incapacitating the hand for the next round and causing anything being held in the hand to be dropped.
4 Your blow strikes the back of your opponent’s hand. Anything held in that hand is dropped and the hand is incapacitated for the next D4 rounds. Until medical attention is received, any actions attempted with this arm suffer a -10 penalty.
5 Your blow gashes your opponent’s forearm. Anything held in that hand is dropped and the hand is incapacitated for the next D6 rounds. Until medical attention is received, any actions attempted with this arm suffer a -20 penalty.
6 Your blow jabs painfully into your opponent’s shoulder, slipping between any pieces of armour worn there. Anything held in that hand is dropped and the hand is incapacitated for the next D6 rounds. Until medical attention is received, any actions attempted with this arm suffer a -20 penalty.
7 Your blow opens a deep wound in your opponent’s forearm. Anything held in the hand is dropped and the arm is incapacitated until medical attention is received.
8 Your blow carves into your opponent’s shoulder, laying it open to the bone. Anything held in the hand is dropped and the whole arm is incapacitated until medical attention is received.
9 Your blow cuts deeply into your opponent’s lower arm, breaking the bones there. Anything held in the hand is dropped and the arm is incapacitated until medical attention is received.
10 Your blow cuts deeply into your opponent’s upper arm, breaking the bones there. Anything held in the hand is dropped and the arm is incapacitated until medical attention is received.
11 Your blow strikes your opponent’s hand, severing D3 fingers. Anything held in the hand is dropped and the hand is incapacitated until medical attention is received. Your opponent’s Dex is permanently reduced by 5 points per finger lost and any future Dex advances are +5 rather than +10. The GM may decide to impose additional penalties to tests relating to manual skills, depending on the nature of the skill.
12 Your blow cuts off your opponent’s hand at the wrist and blood gushes from the wound at a rate of D4 W per round until staunched. Anything held in the hand is dropped and your opponent falls to the ground unconscious. The loss of one hand halves Dex permanently and means that all future Dexadvances are +5 instead of +10. The GM may impose further penalties to tests relating to manual skills, according to the circumstances and the nature of the skill.
13 Your blow severs your opponent’s arm at the elbow and blood gushes from the wound at the rate of D4 W per round until staunched. Your opponent falls to the ground unconscious. The loss of the lower arm halves Dexpermanently and means that all future Dex advances are +5 instead of +10. The GM may impose further penalties to tests relating to manual skills, according to the circumstances and the nature of the skill.
14 Your blow severs your opponent’s arm at the shoulder and blood cascades from the wound at a rate of D6 W per round until staunched. Your opponent falls to the ground unconscious. The loss of an arm reduces Dex by 60% permanently and means that all future Dex advances are +5 instead of +10. The GM may impose further penalties to tests relating to manual skills, according to the circumstances and the nature of the skill.
15 Your blow severs a major artery. Death from shock and blood loss is instantaneous.
16 Your opponent’s arm drops to the ground in a welter of blood. Your opponent staggers backwards for D3 yards and falls dead.
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I like the spirit of your table, but perhaps it could use a little more balance to not knock characters out of combat so easily.
Garrett

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Thanks. To be clear that table wasn’t my own just an example however I do think there should be a chance to one shot a character but our group do play a house rule where you can permanately burn a fortune point to reset back to beginning of the action. I

I am looking for suggestions on how it could be implemented though.

For reference, I think that’s the “arm hit” table from WFRP. It’s not just a straight roll, if I remember correctly, but a roll to which a variable modifier (possibly the amount of damage, but it’s been over 25 years, so I can’t quite recall) is added, making the insta-kills less likely than the temporarily incapacitating, but still allowing for the possibility of a dramatic injury and something to spice up the narrative.

Yes you are correct its from the first edition, hence the example. Im thinking of modifying it for a d20 roll.

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Penalties would become increased Difficulty (-10 penalty :point_right: +1 Difficulty, -20 penalty :point_right: +2 Difficulty). You could roll the number of rounds, but usually how long something lasts is tied into the number of Effects rolled on the damage roll.

(Always liked result 16 on the ‘Head’ table there!)
Good luck with the modification!

I assume you’d just use the hit location die to determine where the critical happened? I already use that die for crits in other RPG’s.

This is the intention yes.

That actually sounds like a great suggestion. I was looking for much more lethal options like a 20 would cause death. 15 would be lost limb etc.

I am also a Rolemaster player but in this game, I think instant kills occur often enough. PC’s are less likely to suffer instant kills unless they are sporting two or more treated wounds but that does happen. I have been involved in one near TPK (one PC survived) and another game where 1/2 of the PC’s were killed. In both cases the party was sporting a number of treated wounds before the final battle. If you are a PC and you are using a Battle Axe or Great Axe for example, you get Vicious 1 & Intense plus Knockdown for the Great Axe. If the PC also has Killing Strike it is not uncommon for a PC to inflict 3 wounds on an NPC. That will kill all but a Nemesis and at that point the Nemesis is virtually useless with 3 wounds. No need for more critical hits in my game.

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This has been my GM’ing experience as well.

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Very nice stuff, thanks.

If someone is interested I made some rules for critical hits for my own campaign. We haven’t started playing yet as we are finishing up some other game stuff, so the rules are still in “beta” (i.e. pretty untested), so feedback is greatly appreciated, both rules-wise and language (as english is not my native tongue).

Edit: I can’t upload files or even include links in my posts, so I’ll ´have to wait until I am trusted enough. :sweat_smile:

I’ll be back.

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So much nice memories, the head roll 1d4 meters away in a random direction

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