Planning on running a campaign, and just trying to get some rules straightened out in my head.

Question 1: Critical hits/damage in general. I think I have this right, but I just want to make sure I'm right because it sounds a little silly. You have damage reduction equal to armor on location + Toughness bonus. Let's say we have a character with 35 Toughness and and armor everywhere at AP3, so a total damage reduction of 6 (right?). Let's say he has 12 wound points.

He takes shot one, for 11 damage. 11-6 = 5, so we subtract 5 from 12 to get 7 damage. The character suffers no ill effects.

He takes shot two, for 13 damage. 13-6 = 7, so now we are at 12 damage taken. The character is still fine.

He gets shot again in the chest with a lasgun, for 10 damage. 10-6=4, so he is at a 4 on the critical damage chart (1d10 levels of fatigue).

Then he gets 9 points of impact damage in the head. 9-6 = 3, but because he took 4 points of critical damage already, he gets the 7 effect on the critical table for the impact head (stunned).

If he got punched in the arm next, that dealt 7 damage, 7-6 = 1, with means now he's an eight on the arm table, which means his arm falls off?

Seems kinda silly, but maybe I'm wrong.

Question 2: What is the point of the parry skill? It does exactly the same thing as dodge, but only works for melee. Am I missing something?

Some quick answers:

1) That is my impression as well. It's somewhat jarring when a "successful" hit doesn't do more than cosmetic damage, but them's the breaks.

2) Parry has a number of strengths and weaknesses compared to Dodge. While Parry is indeed limited to melee, Parry is tied to WS; increasing WS bolsters both offence and defence directly. Agility increases defense directly, but offense only indirectly through mobility and the like (barring select Talents). Additionally, it is generally far easier to accrue WS/Parry bonuses than Dodge bonuses (a Balanced/Best-craftsmanship/Defensive weapon, Ganging Up, etc.). Most ranged and Flexible weapons shut Parry down, so everything checks out in my book.

1: Yes, you've got it right. It's a bit of a sudden jump from minor damage to "oh god it fell off help".

2: Parry is tied to the same stat that melee characters use to attack, putting points into it is the only stat that aids both offence and defence (aside from certain Agility based talents and..warp lock I think (?) for Pyskers). As Asymptomatic said, it's also easier to get positive modifiers on it, with Counter Attack you can make a free attack on a successful parry. With a Power Sword, you can stand to destroy your opponents weapon while saving your own skin. Plus it's really **** cool.

Okay. Next question: is there any reason not to dodge or parry an incoming attack?

Okay. Next question: is there any reason not to dodge or parry an incoming attack?

Also, I just want to confirm my reading on Page 79 on aptitutes:

"Note that if during creation a character gains the same aptitude from different sources, he does not gain it twice. He instead chooses and gains a Characteristic-based attribute which he does not already have."

Does this mean if my background and role both automatically have toughness, for example, does that mean I could swap one of them out for Weapon Skill instead?

Also, I just want to confirm my reading on Page 79 on aptitutes:

"Note that if during creation a character gains the same aptitude from different sources, he does not gain it twice. He instead chooses and gains a Characteristic-based attribute which he does not already have."

Does this mean if my background and role both automatically have toughness, for example, does that mean I could swap one of them out for Weapon Skill instead?

Yes, that is correct.

Planning on running a campaign, and just trying to get some rules straightened out in my head.

Question 1: Critical hits/damage in general. I think I have this right, but I just want to make sure I'm right because it sounds a little silly. You have damage reduction equal to armor on location + Toughness bonus. Let's say we have a character with 35 Toughness and and armor everywhere at AP3, so a total damage reduction of 6 (right?). Let's say he has 12 wound points.

He takes shot one, for 11 damage. 11-6 = 5, so we subtract 5 from 12 to get 7 damage. The character suffers no ill effects.

He takes shot two, for 13 damage. 13-6 = 7, so now we are at 12 damage taken. The character is still fine.

He gets shot again in the chest with a lasgun, for 10 damage. 10-6=4, so he is at a 4 on the critical damage chart (1d10 levels of fatigue).

Then he gets 9 points of impact damage in the head. 9-6 = 3, but because he took 4 points of critical damage already, he gets the 7 effect on the critical table for the impact head (stunned).

If he got punched in the arm next, that dealt 7 damage, 7-6 = 1, with means now he's an eight on the arm table, which means his arm falls off?

Seems kinda silly, but maybe I'm wrong.

Question 2: What is the point of the parry skill? It does exactly the same thing as dodge, but only works for melee. Am I missing something?

In response to Question 1 , my group houseruled that we keep track of crits for each hit location because we felt it was silly to take 6 to the chest and have major issues, then take 2 more to the arm or leg and die.