Help a noobie understand critical hits

[Colonel__Klink]

Originally Posted by Purple Snit

Part of what puzzles me is the choice of genre; picking Cyberpunk, then saying you don't want death by gunfire, seems odd. Kind of like picking high fantasy and disallowing magic. Why go with Cyberpunk at all, unless it's an espionage-themed game?
And are you going to nerf the PC weapons, too? That might annoy them a bit as well; " What do you mean my M-16 does damage like a thrown dagger!?!?"
If big vampire dudes sinking axes into their enemies is what you want, maybe After The End or a Fantasy game would fit your ideas better?
I'm not trying to rain on your parade - I just think that your expectations of a Cyberpunk campaign are outbif synch with the traditional weapons.
If you don't want the PCs dying in a firefight, you have every right as GM to fudge and describe rolls to make it dramatic. I don't think rewriting all the damages is the best way to go. But ymmv.

I don't want *instant* death by gunfire....

Ok, imagine you boot up the video game cyberpunk 2077. You have that first mission with the cyber ghoul haunt right? Ok, you mistep and two of the goons notice you. They shoot you ONCE and it's game over. You try it again and discover yes you can stealth it but that means all the weapons in the game are pretty much pointless because whenever you actually shoot someone and go into combat you get shot ONCE and it's game over. It starts to feel pretty hollow doesn't it?

There's games and places for that. Games like Red Orchestra where you spawn in repeatedly, not a game where you spent quite some time designing and falling in love with your character only for the rules to be structured such to discourage any playstyle but one and the instant you slip up or do the wrong thing? Instant death.

Fudging the rolls would be an option, I think it would be better to find a consistent non arbitrary solution. And yes, the tighter the wire you make your players run, the less margin for failure you allow in your game that means the fewer play styles they are allowed. You make the margin for error too tight then you have worked out of your game all playstyles but one. Preeeeeeeetttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyy lame.