Anyone who has ever played a D20 based system knows to hate the dreaded 1 roll and love the 20. I have long argued with many a game-master over the nonsense that is a critical fail chart. My problem with it extends not from early on in game-play, such as in traditional low level campaigns, however it truly begins at mid-level and becomes a large upset towards high levels. The problem is that as a character advances beyond the 10th level or possibly lower depending on your campaign, they are greatly beyond the real of normal men, and into the realm of legendary hero's. With the standard base attack bonus system implemented in D&D 3.5, Starwars, and D20 Modern, a high BAB class such as a fighter, has many more attacks each round than a low BAB class such a wizard. The lower BAB classes also have unique class abilities, or magic, or Jedi powers that counter this over sight against melee smash characters. This one action per turn character is significantly less likely to roll that dreaded 1 than a ranger making five attacks with both weapons. This could be logical since doing more things raises the opportunity of screwing up, however the whole point the BAB system is that it measures proficiency and a truly heroic character of meta-human capabilities, as most characters should be, is beyond the realm of a normal man's failure.
My philosophy as a GM is that the characters are always individuals who answer the call to become more than they could be as non-heroes. It's not about realism, or really bringing the players down, its about being in a fantasy world where you can achieve that greater than normal feeling, whether heroic or villainous, no one wants to be average. Most of the time, my NPC's and monsters are incapable of scoring that devastating critical hit on players, this may lesson some of the suspense for the characters in the drab between boss fights, but at the end of the day I actually want my players to become more attached to their characters and not keep that bit of detachment that comes from the inevitable fear of failure or poor luck.
As a GM I don't agree with any of this. Lets start with Item A. Critical Fails and Success.
ReplyDeleteNow I personally enjoy the equal chance for Crits on both sides, Monsters and Adventurers. It's true your character is better than the normal man, you have set about to save the kingdom, the world, the Universe. But No man, beast or Even God is above Failure. Failure is always an Option. If it were for not the failure of some man or god you wouldn't have the Enemies to fight. If you need to stroke your ego about not failing and Killing everything, then Break out the Dynasty Warriors to go through and Kill thousands. Play what ever video game you need to to Stroke the ego. But When it comes to pen and paper you are at the mercy of the roll of the Die. You drop your weapon, you broke it or maybe it was so catastrophic you hit another party member. Failure is always an Option. And when you go to recant you tales of Valor to others You don't just Tout how awesome you are, you tell of your failures first and the Overcoming of that failure to gain victory. Battles are no fun, even with just a run of the mill monster, if you just walk up and kill it. There has to be a challenge, that tinge of fear in thinking, " My character might die, and I like this character. I don't want to start another one." It makes you think, and betters you as a player.
Now Lets Talk about High BAB suck. Actually I don't even have to touch this one which a real explanation. Fighters and High BAB characters are what you cut your teeth on in the pen and paper world. Hey it's your first time playing, you play a fighter or a thief. From then on if your continue to Play the High BAB Classes then put forethought into it. if need to read something I suggest this rant:
http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2009/11/powergaming-making-a-powerful-fighter-or-monk-in-core-3-5-dd/
I can give you that anyone can fail, however failing critically is ridiculous, I can give you an automatic failure on a 1, but to make it a "critical failure" I draw a line. Your campaigns always rely on extreme punishment, that doesn't work for everyone. I'm more of the happy awesome Game Master. Now characters can still die from normal things like fireballs to the face or getting eaten alive. I just don't want it to be because they were fulfilling their role in the party.
ReplyDeleteI run my campaigns based on the characters playing. At low levels I feel out how the person plays and try to go from there. I try to keep challenging and entertaining as I try to cater to everyone's style of playing. It's true I am a graduate of the Gygax school of save or die. But the extreme punishment I deal out is based on extreme actions of party members.
DeleteNow critical fails make it so combat is more than just you swing and miss. If you want a system like that then go play video games. PPRPG's get boring as shit if there are no highs and lows of a battle. The d20 system eliminates the doldrums of battle. Dodge, parry, glance, miss. That's boring as shit. Put in crits, now it's gun jams, weapon breaks, dropped your weapon, threw you weapon, hit an ally, dropped your grenade at your feet, you hit but broke your sword off inside the dragon. With critical hits it more damage, massive damage saves and the epic kill. It's no fun when it's just cut and dry, black and white, miss miss miss hit crit. You wouldn't read a fiction novel if the fights were described as he swung and missed for two pages.
In my experience as both player and DM, I have to say critical fails and successes have been some of the better parts in my experience and also as a DM I've seen some terrible rolls which lead to players becoming bored and downright sad about playing the characters they've invested time into. sometimes just as a miracle and to save the player's interest I will give them a second chance not out of pity but to restore hope to one's that have lost it and to see their faces light up as they raise up triumphant in their toils against a foe or challenge makes me feel like a better DM.
ReplyDeleteAs a player character who has multiple actions gained by BAB or feats or even magic, I feel as long as its just a crit fail and doesn't follow up into consequence through a crit fail chart, the player should have a chance to redeeem themselves. For example: a player rolls for attack, calling it a charge attack, the roll is a 1, the crit fail chart roll is the player falls, the player calls a tumble, passes, the player is not proned but the attack missed and the player has another attack allowed through a 6/1 BAB, player is allowed the second attack. does this example make sense? I hope to see GM's use the guides given to use but to also branch outside the box would make you a unique and deserving GM...Just saying and this is all in my Opinion.
Crit fails are funny sometimes because as Mongku has stated" When it comes to pen and paper you are at the mercy of the roll of the Die. " also crit fails can rearrange character actions sometimes springing forth a player-phoenix rising from the ashes of a crit fail to overcome a coup de etat because they were proned and helpless but they managed to save from an instant death or a trap or a hazard. the endless possiblities are allowed when RPGing through Pen and Paper
I understand it's a DM/GM's duty (not job) to make the players feel challenged, never have I once hated my previous DM/GMs for allowing me to crit fail into some catastrophe, It's always made me want to try harder and rethink my plans for strategy. I will also add it's never fun in my experience to play a campaign where the GM's goal is to kill the players(unless it's CoC but we just kill ourselves HAH!)but rather challenge and immerse them.
long post is long. YOLO.
Well of course Call of Cthulhu style game play needs a critical fail system and chart. That chart should also probably contain the words, "the players horrible fumble breaks the time/space continuum and summons...."
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