So how is Critical Damage meant to be applied.

In our Group I've ruled that it applies to each location seperately with multiple effects being given to the player for critical damage to different areas, this makes it interesting as a Character can sustain a lot of injury before going down and out for the count.

Also with Explosive and flame damage I have ruled that if any part of the person is not covered then that area is the one that takes damage (until critical damage is applied and then it affect each location equally), however this makes for difficult combat as we have a very shooty guardsman and a sniper assasin (and a combat assasin) who can easily target the head if they dont wear helmets and completely ignore the armour.

Is this the way it should be run, I think it is but I'm just curious.

If that's the way you like it, then that's the way it should be run ;-)

But I reckon your asking about the RAW. In that case, it's done a bit differently.

By the RAW, all critical damage is cumulative. An illustration: Character01 has 10 wound points. On round one, he gets shot in the left leg and, after armour and toughness, takes 8 points of damage. On the second round he gets shot again, this time in the chest and after all soak, he is dealt 5 points of damage. That takes away his last 2 wound points leaving him with 3 critical wounds to the chest and breaks his ribs. Now that he's stunned, another nasty fellow decides to take this opportunity to knife him and dose a further (after soak) 4 points of rending damage to the chest. Since he has no wound points left and 3 critical, that raises him to 7 points of critical damage and results in knife-man gutting him.

Character01, while in grievous pain, is still not quite dead. Then a stray kick from a scuffle happening right next to him strikes him in the right arm while he lay on the ground trying to hold his guts in. The kick only dose 1 point of damage after soak, but that one point raises his critical point total to 8 and results in that stray kick ripping his arm off and sending it flying as a fountain of gore erupts from his new shoulder-nub. Poor Character01 has to test his toughness to stay alive and is starting to secretly hope he fails the roll... he doesn't.

So, Character01 has 8 critical points of damage total resulting in him laying on the ground holding in his blood with his one and only hand now while his intestines spill out across the muddy ground and he thinks it can't possibly get any worse when he sees a bratty child who's been watching the bloodbath from his sand-box. He gets a real Dennis the Menace kind of look on his face, picks up a small rock, and out of shear mean-mindedness, hurls it at our poor hero, Character0, scoring a hit to the head. Now, Character01 wasn't expecting to have a bratty kid throw rocks at his head today and even if he thought it would happen, he probably felt he would be able to take care of the situation instead of laying on the ground bleeding to death with a stump for a right arm because of a stray kick and his intestines bursting from his abdomen -today, he learns what hind sight is. Thinking he could handle any bratty kid that would pop up during his day out, he failed to put on his helmet. That rock, while small, ended up doing a whopping 3 points of damage on a 1d5-2 roll. Now, granted, that would not have been a problem if Character01 had just 50 more XP before the session to buy his Toughness up from a 29 to a 34 but he didn't so one point of damage gets through raising his critical total to 9 and resulting in a crit 9 to the head. Just like at little Denises' last birthday party, Character01's head explodes like an over-ripe pinata (remember, you should always buy your pinata's a little green and firm to the touch, place them in a brown paper sack, and they will ripen nicely in 3 days time, but use them up soon after or they'll get too mushy and the paper meche will get all mealy) sending sweet brain-meat giblets and eye jelly splashing across everyone and everything in a 4 meter radius... it was one hell of a gnarly rock thrown by one hell of a gnarly 8-year-old-brat!

And that's how critical wounds work by the RAW

I don't think anyone else could have explained it in quite an... illustrated manner.

That's critical damage in a nutshell. Not at all pleasant in any way, shape, or form. Though there is something to be said about the "do unto others" factor.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

Yes, Graver certainly has a way with words . And what comes to Critical injuries...remember, AdMech is your Friend. Trust the AdMech. They can rebuild you . Leg blown off? Routine. Eye gouged out? Have a new one with IR- sight. Brain? Oh dear, too bad. But don´t worry, our Servitor Conversion Program is the most efficient on the planet.

Aajav-Khan said:

Cybernetic ressurection from Inquisitor's handbook. Not even death can stop the Admech.