Hey, you rolled a 20! You get a crit!
Well, not really. It isn’t rare enough that a crit only happens 5% of the time. We’re going to make you roll again to make sure you got a crit. And while you’re at it, get a copy of the dictionary, open it up to “anti-climax,” then smack it upside your own head.
And even if you do get a crit, you can still roll shit for damage. Roll a 1 and you get–Gods Alive!–a grand total of 2 hit points! Yeah, that makes me feel like a hero!
With that in mind, let’s come up with a system that lets players call their own critical hits and let’s make critical hits actually mean critical. How do we do that? Let’s take a look.
First, when you attack an opponent, you roll a number of dice equal to your character’s Prowess+The Sword+any other bonus dice against your opponent’s dice pool. That’s usually Prowess x 3 unless he makes an active defense. In that case, he rolls a die pool and the highest roll wins.
If the attacker succeeds, damage equals his Strength+Weapon. But, the attacker can wager dice (remember wagers?) to increase the effect of his attack. Every die you wager before the roll adds one to the damage. That’s base damage that you always get when you succeed boosted by your wagers. You take the risk, you reap the reward… or the consequences.
Player choice. Choosing how many dice you set aside to decide when you act, setting dice aside to boost your effect. Getting a better look at that big picture?
I’ve got another idea that I’m toying with, but it isn’t ready yet. Maybe more tonight.