Crits=dull

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

Having played a few sessions of beginner and using the beta finally played our first session using core book.

Everything went well and players were enjoying all the dice except criticals. To hit and roll 3 advantages they were like woooot.

And then the enemy was nicked. 1 strain.

Or disorientated.

they seemed so anticlimactic. against players the tables seems fine. But i really cant see the point of it. Most characters will be at zero wounds before they take even 2 critical injuries...so for rivals, and even nemeses the table seems a bit poor.

Anyone else found this? I reckon my players will give up on criticals and just burn the advantages for black and blie dice on future rolls.

We had an enounter where one player rolled a crit and got a free attack. Then another player rolled the exact same crit and got a free shot in as well. That was quite awesome. Not all crits are awesome, but as players get talents and atachments to help modify the crit roll, then they will roll higher and get better crits.

Crits also instantly kills a minion.

Against high soak enemies they are better as you can build the bonus up, while they may only take a few wounds with each hit.

Edited by Gallows

One thing you can do is have the Nemesis get away, since if you're using a Nemesis they really shouldn't be a character the Players can get rid of after one fight. If the next encounter doesn't leave the Nemesis with a lot of time, they might still be suffering from that Critical Injury, and when you tell a player who gets a crit that they get +10 because of the last encounter, they'll be more likely to think that's useful.Obviously they should be able to heal the critical injury eventually, but it's a nice way to give players some continuity.

But I've also had players roll 4 crits against a Nemesis in the first round before a Nemesis gets to do anything, the party was plenty happy with that.

See against minions crits are great. Against a nemesis they might be useful. I would agree on those.

but we got our crits against rivals. And rival crits are pretty pointless. and rivals make up most of the game. Btw this was using the second beginner adventure.

Just wait until you can consistently get 100+ bonus to your crit rating. One shot kid! One shot!

We had an enounter where one player rolled a crit and got a free attack. Then another player rolled the exact same crit and got a free shot in as well. That was quite awesome. Not all crits are awesome, but as players get talents and atachments to help modify the crit roll, then they will roll higher and get better crits.

Crits also instantly kills a minion.

Against high soak enemies they are better as you can build the bonus up, while they may only take a few wounds with each hit.

This... When weapons start to get modded, things will get nasty it appears. Especially for PC if they have no way of getting rid of previous crits. Long battles or no medical means to fix things up while out.

Crit results are gonna depend heavily on the dice rolls of your players.

As others have said, against minion groups a critical injury is great because it gets rid of a minion, even if using something as dinky as hold-out blaster or brass knuckles for a low Brawn PC.

I had played a Hired Gun/Bodyguard/Merc in a Skype game, and I had pretty good luck with critical injuries, such as getting the free attack or other nasty effects. And when running Shadows of a Black Sun for some friends, they inflicted enough critical injuries to render the BBEG nearly impotent.

Also, a player doesn't have to spend that Advantage to trigger a critical hit, and in some cases might be better off spending their Advantage on other things, such as providing boost dice to their allies or recovering strain, or even giving themselves a defense boost until their next turn.

The first ever crit of our game was against a rival, a sniper. Our marauder got the jump on him with a vibroblade. She rolled a 91 and had a plus 10 talent. Permanent maiming, off went his hand.

They actually synth skinned the stump, then left him there. I may have to bring him back,sometime. That's how a nameless rival NPC can get a promotion.

During the beta, the group I played with was used to Warhammer 40k criticals, and found the table lame, so we simply instituted a modifier to all critical rolls. Just say all critical rolls are 1d100 + 25, or + 50, or whatever floats your boat. Just pick the minimum effect that you want and add that much to the roll.

Instantly, the system gets more lethal and criticals get more interesting.

Having played a few sessions of beginner and using the beta finally played our first session using core book.

Everything went well and players were enjoying all the dice except criticals. To hit and roll 3 advantages they were like woooot.

Bad dice rolls, dude.

But remember: Minions simply drop from crits. Each crit on a Minion squad is a dead minion.

And also: DESCRIBE DESCRIBE DESCRIBE. The better you describe the injury indicated, the more fun it will be.

The thing about crits is that they aren't mandatory. You have to choose to spend your advantages and triumphs to inflict them. Those triumphs and advantages have many other great uses.

So when you say that crits don't do much against x type of enemy, my question would be "why didn't you do something else interesting, instead?"

Everyone takes a deep breath when our Wookiee Marauder Crits, it usually gets messy!

The game is very flexable, you could let a player spend a destiny too get a +10, or maybe a re-roll take the new/best result, you've got options, just remember it's your game make it fun.

Edited by CharlieBananas

Yea, occasionally crits are boring. I think someone reduced a combat droid's presence to 1 from 2. Ooooo bit deal. But when I got crit, I was bleeding (well oiling but whatever) profusely. It was badass.

Simple fix for you thinking they are boring. Go look at the chart and remove the Easy Critical rolls (I think it's 1-40). Perhaps just remove the Easy ones that are boring to you if that is too much. Then, redo the roll table on the left side for results of 1+ to fill in the missing rolls. Make sure you keep the top end as is to not suddenly make the game more deadly, just more gory for you.

At low levels, player characters aren't all that special. They can hold their own, but they may only have one or two talents to speak of, and their crits don't do much (except against minions).

But as they level up, everything gets more dynamic, including crits.

Also to point out. Weapon critical's aren't the boom effect they are in other games. The BOOM roll in EotE should be coming from rolling a Triumph. Weapon crits are meant to start leaning a fight in one direction, then progressively become more extreme the longer the battle lasts.

Also to point out. Weapon critical's aren't the boom effect they are in other games. The BOOM roll in EotE should be coming from rolling a Triumph. Weapon crits are meant to start leaning a fight in one direction, then progressively become more extreme the longer the battle lasts.

I think this says it pretty well. In most games a critical success or roll means you've done something spectacular. In EotE, a critical hit just means you scored a potentially very injuring shot. A Triumph signals you've done something spectacular.

Even triumphs aren't "Wicked Kewl Insta-Kill" - they are pretty much just 3-5 advantage (depending upon Crit Rating).

They're way too common to be akin to crits in, say, BRP; they're equivalent to BRP's Special Success (aka impale chance), not Critical.

Triumphs don't need to be "Wicked Kwl Insta-Kill" to be "Wicked Kewl". A critical injury can be a good use of, or at the very least a decent default fallback for, a Triumph, but there's plenty of other ways to use them. I put them about on par with a Destiny point, maybe a bit below, for general purpose awesomeness.