Since this is one of the grayest, "do as thou wilt" sections of the rules, I'm curious how everyone uses the aiming rules describe on page 201 of the Core Rulebook (no page number, just a pic of Han in Stormtrooper armor screaming at a complaining Chewbacca)..

Personally, I add a simple automatic effect, and then allow players to actually select specific critical injuries by first activating a crit with their weapon and then spending any extra Advantage, as follows;

Head Shots: Add one extra Setback die (3 total, or 2 with double-aim); Automatic +1 damage; automatic Discouraging Wound critical injury or spend 1 extra Advantage for automatic Stunned or Head Ringer critical injury, 2 extra Advantages for automatic Overpowered critical injury, 3 extra Advantages for automatic Blinded or Knocked Senseless critical injury, 4 extra Advantage for automatic The End is Nigh critical injury, and 5 extra Advantages for automatic death.

Neck Shots: Add two extra Setback dice (4 total, or 3 with double-aim); Automatic +1 damage; automatic Slightly Dazed or Winded critical injury, or spend 2 extra Advantages for automatic Knocked Senseless critical injury, 3 extra Advantages for automatic The End is Nigh critical injury, and 4 extra Advantages for automatic death.

Arm/Hand Shots: Automatically drop anything held in targeted limb; spend 1 extra Advantage for automatic Agonizing Wound critical injury, 2 extra Advantage for automatic Compromised critical injury, 3 extra Advantage for automatic Crippled critical injury, and 4 extra Advantage for automatic Maimed critical injury.

Torso Shots: Automatic Stinger critical injury or spend 1 extra Advantage for automatic Agonizing Wound or Winded critical injury, 2 extra Advanages for automatic Compromised critical injury, 3 extra Advantages for automatic At the Brink critical injury, 4 extra Advantage for automatic Bleeding Out critical injury, and 5 extra Advantages for automatic The End is Nigh critical injury.

Leg/Foot Shots: Automatically knocks target prone; spend 1 extra Advantage for automatic Hamstrung critical injury, 2 extra Advantages for automatic Compromised critical injury, 3 extra Advantages for automatic Crippled critical injury, and 4 extra Advtaneges for automatic Maimed critival injury.

I don't mind the idea of an auto crit on an increased Aim difficulty, but I think I'd just pick a base difficulty/advantage requirement and not track all the different options you have listed for simplicity's sake. I wouldn't allow crit selection past 100 though without them at least having access to the Lethal Blows/Vicious ranks necessary to achieve the result as it would make Lethal Blows and Vicious pointless.

Not totally pointless, as Lethal Blows/Vicious means you need to roll far fewer Advantages to get auto-kills. The reason I came up with this stuff is that I have a new player who's a combat veteran with mixed martial arts experience, and he's REALLY descriptive with how he fights. Trying to stay prepared for what he has to pull off.

Someone with a big enough dice pool wouldn't need to bother with the talent and effect. Your table and your rule, but at mine I wouldn't let them pick a crit result they don't have the combination of LB and V to achieve.

I definitely like the idea of capping it at 100 without Vicious weapons or Lethal Blows. Gonna be retooling things to that effect when I get the opportunity later today. Thanks!

My approach would be something like this.

Pick a body part shot with Aim. 4 setback on a standard Aim, 3 setback on a double Aim. Score a crit with the given attack, and then if you have additional AD equal to crit rating +2 you can select a crit result you have the capability through talents and weapons effects to roll. Something like that. Then they can narrate the location and what the shot actually does to the target.

That's not bad, although it's a bit different than the rules on page 201 suggest (2 Setbacks, 1 with double aim). Then again, Setback dice aren't all that detrimental so adding more isn't a bad idea at all. It's definitely an interesting conundrum, one the rules leave pretty blank.

Thus far, the only time I had to deal with this was when three PCs on a side mission were dropped into a rancor pit with only three vibrospears and a thermal detonator to handle it with. They did things like throw the detonator in its mouth for extra damage and hurl the vibrospears (Ranged [Heavy] modified by Brawn) into its eyes to ignore soak. Once its eyes were gauged out, they had to climb it and stab it in the soft parts of its (now charred) mouth.

It was a fun battle to be sure, but the wole time I kept on thinking, "Man, what happens when they try using these rules on people sized baddies?"

Then sure enough, along comes this new player, and now I need to be prepared for detailed, called shots before dice are even rolled. I love a good challenge, but this is a tricky one.

We are talking about a player being able to kill outright a target on a single shot as long as they have the ADs and LBs/V buffs to achieve it. Seems like it should be a pretty big hurdle to get over and would require a big dice pool to achieve.

It does, although I don't want to be too strict. Hired Guns get Last Man Standing, after all. As noted, I'm taking your suggestiong to heart and I'm going to rework these rules later on tonight. I know for a fact it's gonna come up in tomorrow's game.

Oh I don't think 4 setback dice would be too strict or that big a speed bump to Joe Gun with a well modded firearm and proper skills. It wouldn't be a guaranteed outcome by any stretch but doable, and it would make certain aspects not doable at all for a non Joe Gun to achieve rightfully so.

Most things are triggered through the spending of Advantage. If there is a particular thing someone wants, like a non-lethal limb shot or a shot at a weapon, I'll call for a called shot. It hasn't happened often, but it's happened (most recent was aiming at the pilot of a speeder bike). I don't think called shots for the head or neck make any sense. If you hit with an abundance of advantages, get your +20 to your crit or whatever and call it a headshot.

I think it's an effort to reward those that are truly gifted when they "skin that smokewagon" and score the crit, that their reward isn't something like impacting the target's ability conjugate verbs for the remainder of the encounter.....

For called shots that simply do more damage (a called shot at the head for instance) I just use the standard Aim rule of add 1 Boost for Aim, 2 for double Aim.

Boost dice give a chance for more advantages and more chance to hit. Advantages give more chance to Crit, and Crit auto-kills minions. Successes add more damage. Seems like a headshot to me.

For other called shots, I run them like component criticals, using the other standard Aim rules. Aim and add 2 setback, or twice for 1 setback. If you hit, you don't do damage but you do the effect that you were going for. Leg hit knocks opponent prone or makes all movement difficult (p.213) till you make an easy medic check, weapon hit knocks weapon away or sunders it, arm hit adds a setback die to use that arm till you make an easy medic check, etc.

I think there's a clear difference between Last Man Standing destroying a room full of mooks and a sharpshooter one-shotting a Nemesis in the brainpan. The former very much fits the Star Wars narrative; the latter, I'd argue, does not. But i'm generally against hit locations and "bonus damage" from head shots; it creates an unpleasant arms race for both players and GM.

I think there's a clear difference between Last Man Standing destroying a room full of mooks and a sharpshooter one-shotting a Nemesis in the brainpan. The former very much fits the Star Wars narrative; the latter, I'd argue, does not. But i'm generally against hit locations and "bonus damage" from head shots; it creates an unpleasant arms race for both players and GM.

Agreed, but that's where I'm at right now. I'd rather my players get excited about describing action scenes than pour over rulebooks, and this is a situation where I feel I need to hit a very careful balance between those two things. If someone wants to describe the shooting techniques and wrestling moves they're doing I'd rather be prepared to say, "go ahead and do that" rather than "well, the rules don't quite allow that." It's tricky, to be sure, hence why the developers left it all pretty open-ended.

It's just me, but I think good descriptions are worth Boost dice or inflicting Setbacks on the enemy, not creating a quick path to death-level crits. If you allow your players to do that I strongly suggest also using the same rules on them when they come across skilled opponents who want them dead, not captured. Fair is fair.

I judged in a game session when a player wants to say find a weak spot in the armor of either a character or a vehicle, I add 3 setback dice and a challenge dice to the difficulty to just add some kind of penalty for the payoff which they get to ignore the armor (and only the Armor of the soak) and reduce the soak of a character, or Armor of a vehicle, but as far a auto Crit. I don't allow that, even if they are aiming for a vital weak spot or vulnerable area, doesn't mean they Crit it even if they do only hit that spot. Maybe a player making a head shot that fails to "bulls-eye" the guy right between the eyes as he had envisioned the shot, but instead because the target moves suddenly at the last moment the shot hits off the mark resulting a glancing blow perhaps merely burning some hair instead. I just think that just because the players make a called shot they shouldn't get off so easy!

I feel this is a throwback to earlier games. I understand how/why people want this in the game, but I feel that this ruleset goes completely against it. The players can aim, but I don't really look at this system as a player trying to describe what they are doing in detail, and setting a target number to roll against. This system just has a player saying what they are doing...Shooting at that guy. rolls the dice pool, then the results tell the story, and it should usually be the player that describes what happens.

Ok, I roll a total of Whoa! 4 success'! That is going to be 13 damage before soak, and I got three advantages! Lets see a I will crit, rolls 100%. ok, 36, that turns into 56 for my talents...Agonizing Wound!, increase difficulty for agility and brawn by 1. Ok, so I shoot at dude "X" a powerful blast grazes the side of his head, good thing he HAD a helmet on, he staggers to a knee, putting a hand on his head to help clear away the stars!

That is my idea of a "called" shot. This game is not hard to crit in, unlike some others. Actually my players crit about 75% of the time now.

I can totally understand the allure of doing the called shot thing, but I won't do it at my table. To me it drives away from the narrative aspect of the game. So for me, it is as simple as a player I want to shoot at the head, ok well roll your pool and lets see if you do or not. I don't think there need to be any bonus/penalty here, just the dice pool, and the result determines the severity off the wound. This system is simple and elegant in my opinion, and adding in more charts/rules/subsets/flow charts/venn diagrams/Nassi-Schneiderman charts really just takes away from the game not adds to it. My guys say hey I want to shoot the gun out of that guys hand, ok, I will need three advantage for that.

I think there's a clear difference between Last Man Standing destroying a room full of mooks and a sharpshooter one-shotting a Nemesis in the brainpan. The former very much fits the Star Wars narrative; the latter, I'd argue, does not. But i'm generally against hit locations and "bonus damage" from head shots; it creates an unpleasant arms race for both players and GM.

Agreed, but that's where I'm at right now. I'd rather my players get excited about describing action scenes than pour over rulebooks, and this is a situation where I feel I need to hit a very careful balance between those two things. If someone wants to describe the shooting techniques and wrestling moves they're doing I'd rather be prepared to say, "go ahead and do that" rather than "well, the rules don't quite allow that." It's tricky, to be sure, hence why the developers left it all pretty open-ended.

I think the balance is already there. It was built into this game by design. "If someone wants to describe the shooting techniques and wrestling moves they're doing I'd rather be prepared to say, "go ahead and do that" rather than "well, the rules don't quite allow that." It's tricky, to be sure, hence why the developers left it all pretty open-ended." I feel you are going about this the wrong way. It should just be "What is your action?" They should not be retelling the first 5 minutes of a Jackie Chan movie, then rolling the dice. They should just say I am going to brawl with that dude, roll the pool, then the dice tell the story of how good or bad it went. It is really counter-intuitive to what most gamers have done in the past.

​Jonahex you have put a lot of thought and work into this, that is clearly evident, I just feel it was unnecessary. But hey, if you and your guys like it, then good luck to you with it.

I feel this is a throwback to earlier games. I understand how/why people want this in the game, but I feel that this ruleset goes completely against it. The players can aim, but I don't really look at this system as a player trying to describe what they are doing in detail, and setting a target number to roll against. This system just has a player saying what they are doing...Shooting at that guy. rolls the dice pool, then the results tell the story, and it should usually be the player that describes what happens.

Ok, I roll a total of Whoa! 4 success'! That is going to be 13 damage before soak, and I got three advantages! Lets see a I will crit, rolls 100%. ok, 36, that turns into 56 for my talents...Agonizing Wound!, increase difficulty for agility and brawn by 1. Ok, so I shoot at dude "X" a powerful blast grazes the side of his head, good thing he HAD a helmet on, he staggers to a knee, putting a hand on his head to help clear away the stars!

That is my idea of a "called" shot. This game is not hard to crit in, unlike some others. Actually my players crit about 75% of the time now.

I can totally understand the allure of doing the called shot thing, but I won't do it at my table. To me it drives away from the narrative aspect of the game. So for me, it is as simple as a player I want to shoot at the head, ok well roll your pool and lets see if you do or not. I don't think there need to be any bonus/penalty here, just the dice pool, and the result determines the severity off the wound. This system is simple and elegant in my opinion, and adding in more charts/rules/subsets/flow charts/venn diagrams/Nassi-Schneiderman charts really just takes away from the game not adds to it. My guys say hey I want to shoot the gun out of that guys hand, ok, I will need three advantage for that.

I think there's a clear difference between Last Man Standing destroying a room full of mooks and a sharpshooter one-shotting a Nemesis in the brainpan. The former very much fits the Star Wars narrative; the latter, I'd argue, does not. But i'm generally against hit locations and "bonus damage" from head shots; it creates an unpleasant arms race for both players and GM.

Agreed, but that's where I'm at right now. I'd rather my players get excited about describing action scenes than pour over rulebooks, and this is a situation where I feel I need to hit a very careful balance between those two things. If someone wants to describe the shooting techniques and wrestling moves they're doing I'd rather be prepared to say, "go ahead and do that" rather than "well, the rules don't quite allow that." It's tricky, to be sure, hence why the developers left it all pretty open-ended.

I think the balance is already there. It was built into this game by design. "If someone wants to describe the shooting techniques and wrestling moves they're doing I'd rather be prepared to say, "go ahead and do that" rather than "well, the rules don't quite allow that." It's tricky, to be sure, hence why the developers left it all pretty open-ended." I feel you are going about this the wrong way. It should just be "What is your action?" They should not be retelling the first 5 minutes of a Jackie Chan movie, then rolling the dice. They should just say I am going to brawl with that dude, roll the pool, then the dice tell the story of how good or bad it went. It is really counter-intuitive to what most gamers have done in the past.

​Jonahex you have put a lot of thought and work into this, that is clearly evident, I just feel it was unnecessary. But hey, if you and your guys like it, then good luck to you with it.

Keep in mind this isn't technically a "house rule" I'm trying to implement. Page 201 of the core rulebook clearly states that you can aim at a particular body part before making an attack roll in exchange for two Setbacks (one if you double aim). I like this rule, because it means Obi-Wan chops people's arms off in cantinas on purpose , not because he happened to roll a certain way. It also means you can aim for the eyes of a charging reek like Jango Fett in Attack of the Clone s or throw a thermal detonator inside the mouth of a rancor like my players in the example I posted earlier. (I don't think anyone is going to argue that these rules are much easier to use against monsters than humanoids.)

I fully agree with what everybody is saying, particularly the bit about allowing for critical injury effects above 100 since that's normally impossible to achieve without a Vicious weapon and/or the Lethal Blows talent. However if you guys DON'T allow called shots, keep in mind that YOU'RE the ones implementing house rules, not me. I'm simply going by the book, and in this instance it seems to me that the RAW essentially states; "Get creative!"

I think called shots is already built into the game- frankly combat in EOTE is very lethal, basically one good hit will take out a non-combat character.

Let's say a sniper with Ranged(Light) 5 decides to draw a bead on a Colonist without armor, and he has a bunch of talents in Lethal Blow- well, there's not really much the Colonist can do, except hide in total cover.

Much of the 'combat difficulty' in the game comes from actually landing a hit. There isn't a whole lot that your character can do about taking hits better- getting hit with a heavy rifle by someone with a bunch of talents is going to HURT, even if you have cover or armor. Making a called shot is more likely to do LESS damage than more damage, because it's going to subtract successes and advantage that might totally negate the point of your called shot in the first place. Whether it will actually make killing your target easier is highly dubious.

If two combat monsters are fighting each other with heavy weapons, it really just boils down to who has initiative first..

I think called shots is already built into the game- frankly combat in EOTE is very lethal, basically one good hit will take out a non-combat character.

Let's say a sniper with Ranged(Light) 5 decides to draw a bead on a Colonist without armor, and he has a bunch of talents in Lethal Blow- well, there's not really much the Colonist can do, except hide in total cover.

Much of the 'combat difficulty' in the game comes from actually landing a hit. There isn't a whole lot that your character can do about taking hits better- getting hit with a heavy rifle by someone with a bunch of talents is going to HURT, even if you have cover or armor. Making a called shot is more likely to do LESS damage than more damage, because it's going to subtract successes and advantage that might totally negate the point of your called shot in the first place. Whether it will actually make killing your target easier is highly dubious.

If two combat monsters are fighting each other with heavy weapons, it really just boils down to who has initiative first..

Yup, called shots are built into the rules, alright. Check out page 201.

There are 923 words that break the "i before e" rule. Only forty-four words actually follow that rule.

So you see, it's more what you'd call a "guideline" than a rule.

It's not like page 201 states "Here's the scoop on called shots...oh, and don't murder people irl. Remember, these are the rules." So go right ahead and do what you want, JonahHex, 'cause the stuff on page 201 is more what you'd call guidelines.

There are 923 words that break the "i before e" rule. Only forty-four words actually follow that rule.

So you see, it's more what you'd call a "guideline" than a rule.

It's not like page 201 states "Here's the scoop on called shots...oh, and don't murder people irl. Remember, these are the rules." So go right ahead and do what you want, JonahHex, 'cause the stuff on page 201 is more what you'd call guidelines.

LOL good stuff, and I absolutely agree. I've been saying that all along. I'm just curious as to how other people handle this, but evidently I'm one of a handful of people who saw page 201 and thought "hmmm..."

If someone in my group wants to hit a specific body part (for example), I just give them the boost die and it cost the player a maneuver..the results of the dice will determine the narrative of how accurately they hit the target they are aiming at.

The talents are what make characters more effective in being so precise in combat (vicious, pierce etc..).

If someone in my group wants to hit a specific body part (for example), I just give them the boost die and it cost the player a maneuver..the results of the dice will determine the narrative of how accurately they hit the target they are aiming at.

The talents are what make characters more effective in being so precise in combat (vicious, pierce etc..).

That's how most of my players handle things as well. But what do you do when someone wants to use a lightsaber to chop off someone's arm as opposed to sticking them through the heart...? Or, more relevant to my new player, what do you do when someone wants to use a double-leg takedown before they make another unarmed attack?

There's no right answer to any of these questions, and I understand why most people avoid called shots in general. However if anyone else out there uses called shots as described on page 201 of the core rulebook, by all means let me know how you handle it!

Everyone's answers so far have been informative and interesting, though. THANK YOU!