07-25-2018, 06:00 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jul 2018
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Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
I've never really understood the relationship between these optional rules. They seem to cover some similar ground without being 'normalized' to a certain set of results. I'm curious if the new edition will attempt to normalize these, 'justify' some divergences (ie. between an aimed shot with a sword to head vs. a dagger thrown or stabbed through the eye-slit), or advise against using them in conjunction with each other.
I'm also curious how people have historically ran these rules. As an example: if you use all of them as written you end up with: HEAD:
While it makes some sense to me that daggers have a bit of an additional bonus against face attacks (although this should apply in HTH and normal attacks as well) the divergence between the crippling hit against a head and an aimed attack against a head doesn't make much sense to me - and ditto for any other case where the effects of an attack against a body part has various damage thresholds for effects in the Aimed Shot version and operates regardless of damage (and therefore also regardless of armor) in the Crippling Hits version. Even in the case of Dagger Marksmanship's head attack, while bypassing armor makes sense, it feels like double damage is operating in place of the effects in Aimed Attack when they could have similar effects with only one change to represent the utility of daggers when going for weak points. I've generally played with no Crippling Hits as a result - leaving Dagger Marksmanship and Aimed Shots as is - but I've always felt like I've missed out a bit on the random special damage effects! I believe that the way I'll play in the future - at least until the new edition is released, assuming there are changes to these rules - is that Crippling Hits work 'automatic success' aimed shots to the relevant body part, using the damage of the 'regular attack' that resulted in the crippling hit. So If I roll triple damage with a broadsword against an unarmored opponent and then roll a 12 for a hit to the head, it will almost certainly still have the "unconscious" effect, but if I use a cutlass and roll a normal hit that just happens to be a Crippling Hit to the head, there's a good chance it will bounce off an enemy in plate armor. |
07-25-2018, 06:17 PM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
In general, we found these rules far too devastating against the PCs when employed by the enemy - when compared to "regular damage".
Therefore, we generally only used them (as a coloring device) with the justification that they had to enhance the dramatic release of tension at the climax of an encounter/combat. JK |
07-25-2018, 06:20 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
I like the presence of these rules in the game (and note they are also closely related to the rules for bolas and lasso's!). BUT, it is crazy how different they all are. They should be unified into one little sub-system for aimed shots, and the crazier extremes pruned off.
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07-25-2018, 06:22 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
Concur. Didn't we discuss this back about in March or so? I seem to remember a lengthy discussion about "special weapons" (lasso, bola, Sha-ken etc.) and I seem to recall the subject being brought up at the time as something that needed streamlined, reorganized and pruned.
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07-25-2018, 06:51 PM | #5 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
We did, but it was more focused on Peculiar Weapons, and not so much on the aimed shots and critical hits rules.
JK |
10-23-2018, 11:38 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
It seems the incongruities are still present in the released pdf of the new ITL. Any word on if these are being addressed in the final version?
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10-23-2018, 12:32 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
Agreed; I feel like this was a missed opportunity to unify and streamline a bunch of related ideas. I'm sure it simplified the editing process, but we are left with literally a half dozen different ways in which attacks might target specific body parts (net, bola, whip, lasso, dagger marksmanship, critical hits).
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10-23-2018, 07:45 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jan 2018
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
crippling hits is an optional rule I never used for one reason: it is too lethal for PCs in a game where the casualty rate among PCs is already high enough...
about the other rules I find they work pretty well and are not certainly the parts that urgenlty need a fix |
10-23-2018, 08:08 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
I am not suggesting I think any of it needs a fix; the crippling hit rules don't come into play often and don't increase damage, so they aren't really any more lethal - they just occasionally impose a specific consequence for a wound. What I point to as poor practice is the fact that there are a bajillion different sets of sub-rules for the same thing, and most of them are mutually inconsistent, appear in different sections, and are impossible to remember. This should have been systematized in some fashion.
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10-24-2018, 03:22 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jan 2018
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Re: Aimed Shots, Crippling Hits, and Dagger Marksmanship
Quote:
about lethality I think that a PC losing the use of a leg or of a arm in battle suddenly becomes an easy target and attracts more hits even if per se the crippling injury does not add any extra damage. sorry for my poor English |
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