Criticals and Fumbles in TFT

[ecz]

Fantasy trippers,
Straight to the point:

In the RB there are only four possible effects for critical and fumbles, double/triple damage and drop/break weapon.
Nothing special for Wizards and Spells critical successes or failures.

It works in its basic semplicity, but it is easy add variety and fun just rolling just a further dr.

In my games I have tried a more complex approach using a table for crits and fumbles that is checked when a 3,4 or 17,18 is rolled.

Basically in case of 3 roll d6-1; in case of 4 roll d6+1 on the Critical Hits table (listing 8 entries from 0 to 7) . Thus a Crit hit can still make triple or double damage (even bypassying any protection in case of 0,1,2), but also lesser or different results, to add variety to the combat. Nothing expecially lethal, but it adds new elements in the battle.

Same for Fumbles.
with a 17 the (N)PC rolls a 1d6-1 on the Fumble table, with a 18 the roll is 1d6+1.
As usual an higher dr leads to worst effects, so if the Chracter rolls 18 in a attack and 6 on the table, he gets the worst possible effect : he hits himself! Harsh but, after all, it happens only in one case on 1296.
For example a weapon that drops can now land in the owner hex or at 1-6 hexes away in a random direction and so on... there are 8 possible different effects ranging form the lighter penalty to the worst possible. The GM can create his onwn table including the basic effects of the rules (double/triple damage, drop/break weapon) and also a special table for HtH combat.

Same for wizards.
Spells could be cast at no ST cost or give positive side effects in case of a very good critical effect, or - in case of 17-18- lead to a disaster. For example The ST cost doubled and the spell fails, or - the worst possible event - 1/1296 (i.e. 18 and a following 6) a Lesser Demon appears and attacks the wizard!

The idea is to modulate the effect based upon a modified dr following the critical success or failure. Any GM can invent the bizzarre or fun results he likes or also create more sub-tables.

I have playtested for years these tables and we had a lot of fun. The important thing is keep things simple, with effects of the table clear and immediate and not too lethal, but the extreme results.

Anyone experimented a change of the TFT rules on crits/fumbles?

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by ecz

Fantasy trippers,
Straight to the point:

In the RB there are only four possible effects for critical and fumbles, double/triple damage and drop/break weapon.
Nothing special for Wizards and Spells critical successes or failures.

Rule book not at hand, but don't critical results apply to spells in different ways? For instance, a 3 for illusion allows a tripling at the behest of the caster, such as 3 illusions, or 3 times as long, etc.? What about loss of strength and spell failure for an 18, etc.?

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by ecz

Fantasy trippers,
Straight to the point:

In the RB there are only four possible effects for critical and fumbles, double/triple damage and drop/break weapon.
Nothing special for Wizards and Spells critical successes or failures.

It works in its basic simplicity, but it is easy add variety and fun just rolling just a further dr. ...

Hi Everyone, Kirk, ecz.
I agree with Kirk, spells have double and triple effects on 4's and 3's. And you spend the full fST cost on 17's, and spend full fST cost AND fall down on 18's.

That said, I like your idea, especially for spells. But the real cost is not an extra dice roll, but a table look up.

One of the advantages of TFT is that there are darn few tables. D&D is rotten with them; it is hard to play that game without the rule reference handy. In TFT, weeks can go by without my friends and I having to refer to the rule books.

I am not saying that this is a bad idea. I've in fact agreed with suggestions for a spell failure table. But I am aware of the cost of this innovation.

Warm regards, Rick.

[ecz]

just to point the fact I'm NOT suggesting anything.

I'm just telling what we did in our group sharing my experience and asking if someone had a similar or better idea on this topic.

PS I agree that the lack of tables and sub-tables is the ST of the system!

As GM I'm always at the search of the right compromise adding realism and fun at the lower possible cost of new tables, rules or DR.

[larsdangly]

I think TFT already has plenty of special stuff that kicks in when you roll high or low. Double and triple damage; automatic hits; hit location specific effects (if you use those rules); dropped and broken weapons; various spell consequences. The game is so tactical already that I'd say it doesn't really need any more special effects like this.

[Steve Jackson]

So . . . should the revised TFT adopt the convenient, and now generally understood, terms "critical success" and "critical failure" ?

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

So . . . should the revised TFT adopt the convenient, and now generally understood, terms "critical success" and "critical failure" ?

Hi all, Steve.
I don't see why not, providing it is defined in the rules. e.g. "A critical success is a 3 or 4. A critical failure is a 17 or 18. The effects are: ..."

Thereafter rules can be written tighter.


Warm regards, Rick.

[Skarg]

Note Advanced Melee also has the Crippling Hits optional rule (that IMO could use a tweak so the damage & armor are taken somewhat into account).

[JLV]

Regarding the main point, I wrote a while back about a table published in The Spacegamer way back in the day which talked about Magic Backlash (if you rolled a 17 or 18). Basically, all kinds of interesting things could happen there. As I recall, it was a 3d6 table, so some of the more extreme events were on either end, and the less extreme ones were in the middle, but it was a well done table and, if used in the game, adds a lot of excitement to those boring 17 and 18 results. I don't see why something similar couldn't be done for the 3 and 4 results too...

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

So . . . should the revised TFT adopt the convenient, and now generally understood, terms "critical success" and "critical failure" ?

I would say that it would simplify entry for both new players and those converting from other systems, as well as simplifying crossover to other systems (*ahem* GURPS) by using portable terminology. If we are thinking of TFT as sort of the perfect introduction to RPGing (which many of us are), then using common terminology would support that concept.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by ecz

... Anyone experimented a change of the TFT rules on crits/fumbles?

Yes, we added some various random possible effects of critical success and failure of attacks and spells, and especially for magic items.

After my first TFT campaign had been running for 5 or 6 years and some surviving characters had accumulated magic items and powerful friends and foes with magic items, we started to dislike how many magic items were like built-in super-powers that always got used and rarely lost unless someone died due to lightning. So we added a whole Magic Item Breakdown system where each item had a Breakdown Number where using an item involved a roll against that number with an increasing modifier for using it on subsequent turns, and then a very long result table where if you exceeded that roll, you'd add more dice to how much you exceeded by, and then got a result which could be adding to the cumulative penalty, stopping working for a while, permanently reducing the item's breakdown number, or at the high end, more and more scary things you don't want to happen. And of course the GM would roll so it was often unclear what had happened or how risky it might be to keep using it. The intended and usual effect is that most people only use their magic items fairly cautiously, when they think they need to, rather than just always using them. I still tend to use similar tables.