So, this might be a question that is clearly explained in the rules, but I don't personally own a copy of the core book (yet!) so it's much more practical for me to put this one to the community.

My GM insists that it's possible to activate a critical hit on attacks that fail to deal any damage, from the precious few glances at the core book I've had, this *seems* to be borne out in the attack resolution rules, but we're beginning to see the fatal flaw in that (accurate?) interpretation of the rules. In the last couple of sessions, criticals caused by attacks that failed to deal damage have severed a total of four limbs, inflicted permanent brain damage once, and flat out killed an uninjured Guardian PC.

Is the GM playing the rules straight? Or has he made a mistake/just really wants to kill us?

No, damage must be caused to inflict a critical. Its actually covered in the Equipment chapter when describing weapon characteristics.

From Force and Destiny core, p.165:

A Critical injury can only be triggered on a successful hit that deals damage that exceeds a target's soak value.

Yeah you can't crit if you inflict zero damage.

There is how ever a weird loop hole that should be discussed...

Is it possible to crit off Supressing Fire?

Is it possible to crit off an activation of Blast?

Is it possible to crit off that silly acid bullet gun that inflicts 1 damage regardless of soak?

Is it possible to crit off Supressing Fire?

No, you didn't hit, so no Crit.

Is it possible to crit off an activation of Blast?

if you successfully hit and spent 2 Advantage to activate Blast then yes, but only on the original target.

If you missed but spent 3 Advantage to activate Blast then no you cant Crit, since you missed.

Is it possible to crit off that silly acid bullet gun that inflicts 1 damage regardless of soak?

No idea! Is it an automatic Wound, or is that gun a Stun only weapon causing Strain? If its stun only then no Crit. If its normal Wounds then yes it classifies as a Hit with wounds inflicted so a Crit is fine.

Or has he made a mistake/just really wants to kill us?

Yes to both, by the sounds of it.

I'm actually kind of surprised at the frequency of perna damage. Perhaps my DM simply chose not to crit as much as he could do, but that figure sounds about accurate for 2 year campaign that I am part of. Perhaps recommend to him other uses for spending the advantage? I know it's a very DnD thing to go for maximun damage efficiency all the time, but the fantasy flight games system should be more about story writing then attempting to murder eachother. XD

I'll have to peruse that section before the next game, but that's great news! Much obliged.

Exception to the rule: You can Crit against vehicles without doing damage provided the attack hits and the damage exceeds the Armor value.

This really will only come into play when talking about using personal weapons against vehicles, as vehicle weapons that hit and exceed the armor will cause damage.

So if you fire a blaster pistol at a 0 Armor landspeeder and only do 8 damage, and a triumph, the landspeeder takes no Hull Trauma (as it requires you do at least 10 damage), but you can still activate a Crit.

This is an important note to keep in mind as several personal anti-vehicle weapons really only work if you pile on Crits as they are otherwise not able to damage certain vehicles.

This does remind me of a situation that I was curious about.

What about things like Shock Gloves, or that other glove weapon that Staggers a target when triggered?

How would you replicate the classic "shake my hand *ZOT*" maneuver?

If you must inflict damage, then you can basically never pull this trick off.

I mean, I'm pretty sure we've seen this kind of thing happen in the Star Wars cartoons at some point. Some infiltrator sneaks up, casually puts a hand on someone, or shakes their hand, they do the Electric Shuffle, and then collapse to the ground.

So, if the RAW doesn't allow this, how would you handle it? I was thinking a Skullduggery check. A success would mean you were able to put your hand on the target without them noticing the weapon, but if you didn't roll enough advantage, you still couldn't trigger the Stun/Stagger effect. A failure would mean they notice your attempt to touch them, and find it to be suspicious, and either move aside, or grab your wrist to stop you. Does that sound reasonable?

This does remind me of a situation that I was curious about.

What about things like Shock Gloves, or that other glove weapon that Staggers a target when triggered?

How would you replicate the classic "shake my hand *ZOT*" maneuver?

If you must inflict damage, then you can basically never pull this trick off.

I mean, I'm pretty sure we've seen this kind of thing happen in the Star Wars cartoons at some point. Some infiltrator sneaks up, casually puts a hand on someone, or shakes their hand, they do the Electric Shuffle, and then collapse to the ground.

So, if the RAW doesn't allow this, how would you handle it? I was thinking a Skullduggery check. A success would mean you were able to put your hand on the target without them noticing the weapon, but if you didn't roll enough advantage, you still couldn't trigger the Stun/Stagger effect. A failure would mean they notice your attempt to touch them, and find it to be suspicious, and either move aside, or grab your wrist to stop you. Does that sound reasonable?

Not sure how that wouldn't still be a normal attack check. I mean, out of initiative, with a bonus for being sneaky (possibly require a deception check preceding) but still the usual brawl check to make sure you hit a good spot or grab their hand with enough strength to ensure they don't yank away at the first jolt.

snip

Not sure how that wouldn't still be a normal attack check. I mean, out of initiative, with a bonus for being sneaky (possibly require a deception check preceding) but still the usual brawl check to make sure you hit a good spot or grab their hand with enough strength to ensure they don't yank away at the first jolt.

Because Skullduggery covers trying to be sneaky, and doing things without people noticing. Given the way this scenario is usually portrayed in a movie/show, it feels more skullduggerous than brawly. Because they aren't actually "hitting" a person. They're shaking their hand, or casually laying a hand on their shoulder, etc. I mean yeah, I guess you could say "any application of your body to another person is brawl", but it just doesn't feel like it to me. You could say that pickpocketing someone is "brawling" with that logic, as you are "punching their pocket" or something. It just doesn't thematically make sense to me

On a handshake? It is is skullduggery. Or better a coercion check for the poor victim if it will notice the strangelooking Gloves the friendly man in front of him is wearing and than it is Storytime.

Woudn´t make it a combat check.

I like crits. They add a lot of flavor and interesting effects to a fight, so possibly I use them more then I should. That said, I compensated a bit by giving the characters one of the medical backpacks that reduces the difficulty to heal a crit by one. They almost always are able to heal the crit once the fight is over.

That said, even I won't try to crit you if no damage gets through.

On a handshake? It is is skullduggery. Or better a coercion check for the poor victim if it will notice the strangelooking Gloves the friendly man in front of him is wearing and than it is Storytime.

Woudn´t make it a combat check.

Well the description of the gloves says they can look like any kind of glove. So they don't automatically look like a strange, bulky type, unless that's the type you say you bought. They could very easily be designed to look like normal gloves.

Depends really. Sometimes if a player works it into a narrative in a compelling manner, a player should just succeed in stunning a non-important NPC out, or by staggering a major one by surprising him with a underhand trick. Just naturally most nemenesi/non-narrated social encounters might involve this.