Gallows said:

Sounds like a great idea. It's true that the whole critical wounds of this system is pretty much only against players, no more epic critical against npc's that used to be the stapple of the earlier editions...

How are you using critical hits guys?

I apply them to Monsters as normal so the effects still happen to the NPC's in my games.

The Strolling Bones said:

I deal extra damage equal to the crit's severity rating (to monsters, not PCs) in addition to the crit's effects. I generally add 1-2 to their wound thresholds to accommodate that.

Doc, the Weasel said:

I like that idea! I've been doing either of both, but never at the same time, excellent, and yet extremely simple, idea

Hi,

Yes, I add damage for the crit severity to monsters, and add crit effects for named/nemesis opponents. Gives those guys who dont go for max damage weaponry, but a classy delivery and get multiple crits on good hits a fair chance of taking mooks down in one hit. Speeds up combat too, which IMHO is always a good thing!

On reading the serious injuries being mixed into wound deck, I immediately thought tailoring the wound deck is more of an advantage than anything else. Eg, facing some hapless gobbos design a wound deck on low lethality/high pain and embarrassment, got a big finale with a chaos knight and retinue then make a high lethality/high fear deck.

I think when the severe injuries come into play I will let the severe effect always hit NPCs (depending on how many of them there are). That alone will make criticals worth the boons and comets, because you have a chance of killing someone in one blow or shop of their leg.

For major NPCs they will follow the regular player rules (like they also have fatigue/stress instead of taking wounds).

BUT I'm affraid that these severe injuries may unbalance the vicious weapon quality.

Gallows said:

It should feel like having someone pull a gun on you when you are buying milk at a grocery store (ie. Woa woa hey hey let's not get hasty we can talk this out) : )

Callidon said:

I'm not opposed to combat being lethal. Already I feel that the fast quality can be a bit over the top for some action cards. With severe injuries the vicious wuality could become very powerful. But it all depends on how the severe injuries work in actual play against NPCs.

After looking over the Severe Wounds, I'm concerned that they are really only bad for PCs. I want my players to get excited to pull one when they score a crit on an enemy.

So here's my fix. For enemies, the bad effect occurs when their wounds go over the threshold (rather than total crit severity). That way, when you score a severe crit on someone, you are going to see the effect that fight. It makes up for permanently crippling my players.

Doc, the Weasel said:

For NPCs I'll simply have the effect of the severe wounds happend right away. If you draw headshot on that orc, then you cut off his head even if it's the first swing.

I also have these house rules to make critical wounds better against NPCs

Buying critical effects
When hitting NPCs with criticals you can buy critical effects by adding up the total severity of the criticals you inflicted with one attack. Average severity of the critical wounds is 2,3.

• Total severity 5: you may either give yourself a fortune die to your next attack against that NPC or give the NPC a black die to his next attack. Your opponent is slightly unbalanced.
• Total severity 7: You severely injure the NPC. You knock him prone and rob him of his free maneuver. You may instead inflict any negative condition on him that makes sense.
• Total severity 10: You may kill the NPC, completely immobilize him, knock him out or whatever you like to do to him.

NPC death by critical severity
If a NPC has critical wounds with a total severity rating equal to or greater than his wound threshold, he dies.

Fortune favors the brutal
A character killing a NPC with a critical effect or the total severity gains a personal fortune point.