So, Critical Hit Decks.. Are They Worth It?

By RodianClone, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

I love the adversary decks, they are great and really useful. A couple of my players seem to like their career decks, one uses the mechanic deck, the other uses the merc. soldier and the doctor decks.

I bought the Slicer deck to check it out and maybe use it for one of my main npc`s, but I didn`t find it too useful.

So what about these new critical hit decks, are they any good? Sell me or unsell me on them. Thanks.

My LGS said they could order them, but they have not come in yet.

To me, the benefit would be to give the player the card representing their critical hit (I guess this means having multiple decks or improvising if the same one is triggered multiple times) as a reminder of what it is. Then when it is no longer in effect, they can give the card back.

I'm getting them. Since a PC may pick up a couple and it's easy to forget you have an effect during the heat of an encounter it's nice to have a card with all the info right there and in your face.

The need for multiple decks turns me off. I would like cards with just the dice icons for crit severity. I'd like it to just hand them to PCs to paperclip to their hard copy sheets so they can track the # and severity of crits they carry over between sessions. I just have them jot down the name and if we forget it's ez enuff to refer to the GM screen.

Double post.

Edited by 2P51

Ehh.....it might be more fun to just shuffle them and draw whatever is on top for critical injuries. :ph34r:

Ehh.....it might be more fun to just shuffle them and draw whatever is on top for critical injuries. :ph34r:

That sounds fun. But how would you add so and so tens of percents for Vicious weapons, the Lethal Blow talent and built up critical hits?

It's a nice idea, but kind of pointless in my eyes. You hit a wall when any of the characters get the same crits (mostly unlikely, but still a potential issue), and as mentioned by RodianClone, you can't exactly just shuffle and pull randomly since crits can be modified, and you have to deal with managing the cards for crits over 100 and such. And the issue mostly applies to the critical hit deck as well.

Much like the specialization decks, it's a nice little tool for beginners to get an idea of everything, but when it comes down to it, you're going to be better off just marking it on your character sheet (or printing out your talent tree, as the case may be).

It's a nice idea, but kind of pointless in my eyes. You hit a wall when any of the characters get the same crits (mostly unlikely, but still a potential issue), and as mentioned by RodianClone, you can't exactly just shuffle and pull randomly since crits can be modified, and you have to deal with managing the cards for crits over 100 and such. And the issue mostly applies to the critical hit deck as well.

Much like the specialization decks, it's a nice little tool for beginners to get an idea of everything, but when it comes down to it, you're going to be better off just marking it on your character sheet (or printing out your talent tree, as the case may be).

I guess you could take out the higher cards when there`s no + percentage and take out the lower ones when there is..?..

I used mine for the first time in a session I was GMing last night. They were useful, because I could read the critical injury from the chart on the back of the GM screen and simply hand the player a card with the details, rather than waiting for the player to write down the details of the critical injury on a character sheet. The art is entertaining.

Are they necessary? No, but I've found them to be a convenience. As a side note, I wouldn't draw them randomly. Doing so would make it nearly impossible to combine multiple crits or ranks of Vicious and Lethal Blows.

I used mine for the first time in a session I was GMing last night. They were useful, because I could read the critical injury from the chart on the back of the GM screen and simply hand the player a card with the details, rather than waiting for the player to write down the details of the critical injury on a character sheet. The art is entertaining.

Are they necessary? No, but I've found them to be a convenience. As a side note, I wouldn't draw them randomly. Doing so would make it nearly impossible to combine multiple crits or ranks of Vicious and Lethal Blows.

Edited by rowdyoctopus

Actually you could factor in lethal blows and vicious. Add up the total modifiers for the particular crit and modify the deck. For example, +40? Ok, now take out any crit that is 1-40, then put in 101-140. It just feels different because normally you roll, then add. In this case you are just modifying the deck rather than adding to a number.

That's possible, yes, but that's going to take a lot more time than simply rolling the dice, adding a number, and handing out the appropriate card. It also means not shuffling the deck prior to receiving a critical injury, building a deck specifically for the critical injury, and then unshuffling afterwards. It also makes it impossible for two characters to receive the same critical injury. Obviously, if your group prefers that method, then go for it. I just wouldn't do it at my table.

Actually you could factor in lethal blows and vicious. Add up the total modifiers for the particular crit and modify the deck. For example, +40? Ok, now take out any crit that is 1-40, then put in 101-140. It just feels different because normally you roll, then add. In this case you are just modifying the deck rather than adding to a number.

That's possible, yes, but that's going to take a lot more time than simply rolling the dice, adding a number, and handing out the appropriate card. It also means not shuffling the deck prior to receiving a critical injury, building a deck specifically for the critical injury, and then unshuffling afterwards. It also makes it impossible for two characters to receive the same critical injury. Obviously, if your group prefers that method, then go for it. I just wouldn't do it at my table.

Darn you and your use of the word "nearly"

On the subject of multiple crits of the same type- (say two players get the same injury)

Would it be reasonable to say that if a crit falls in the same result- you simply push to the next critical injury?

Or is that too punishing?

On the subject of multiple crits of the same type- (say two players get the same injury)

Would it be reasonable to say that if a crit falls in the same result- you simply push to the next critical injury?

Or is that too punishing?

Potentially devastating.