ORACLE

6/03/2010

[LL Supplemental] Critical Hits and Fumbles

As written the rules for combat in Labyrinth Lord are very simple and straight forward, which is a big reason I enjoy the game so much. Normally, when making an attack roll, if a 1 is rolled it is considered an automatic miss, and a natural 20 is considered an automatic hit. There is a lot of potential here to spice things up during combat without making these rules noticeably more complicated than they were to begin with. In my own Labyrinth Lord games these rolls have a bit more significance, and can dramatically affect what happens during a round of combat, for better or for worse.

If a natural 20 is rolled it is considered an automatic hit and also deals out maximum damage to the opponent. In addition to this, another d20 roll is made to see if there are any additional effects that might occur. If the second roll is not good enough to be considered a hit then the natural 20 is handled as explained before. If the second roll is a successful hit then a Critical Hit has been landed and an additional roll is required to see how it has affected the opponent. Also, if the second roll is successful and the roll is an 18 or 19, add an additional +25% when rolling on the Critical Hit chart. If another natural 20 is rolled add +50% to the roll.

Critical Hit Chart
Roll % Effect:
01-10 Knocked back, Attack last next round
11-20 Disarmed, 1d4 Rounds to retrieve weapon
21-30 Stunned, 1d4 Rounds
31-40 Confused, Take -4 on next Initiative roll
41-50 Winded, Move at half speed and -4 Initiative for 1d4 rounds
51-60 Knocked down, Prone for 1d4 rounds
61-70 Weapon damaged, Half damage until repaired
71-80 Armor damaged, 1d4 points lost from armor rating
81-90 Weapon damaged, Unusable
91-99 Grievous wound, Double max damage
00 Roll again, Keep results of both rolls

If a natural 1 is rolled then a Fumble has occurred. Roll on the chart below to see how the attacker has been affected due to the bad roll.

Fumble Chart
Roll % Effect:
01-10 Lose footing, No movement next round
11-20 Lose footing, No attack next round
21-30 Weapon goes flying, 1d4 rounds to retrieve
31-40 Bad tactics, Opponent gets free Attack
41-50 Knocked in the head, Dazed for 1d4 rounds
51-60 Weapon becomes lodged, 1d4 Rounds to free
61-70 Weapon damaged, Deals out half damage until repaired
71-80 Weapon damaged, Unusable
81-90 Friendly fire, Closest ally hit
91-99 Friendly fire, Closest ally hit for max damage
00 Roll again, Keep results of both rolls

4 comments:

Sean Robson said...

Great stuff, Shane. I usually just make up something appropriate whenever a '20' or '1' is rolled, but sometimes my creativity wanes and that's when charts like this are invaluable.

P.S. I got my LL Society Membership today. You should really think about becoming a newsletter columnist - you have so many great and interesting ideas to share.

Anonymous said...

Nice. Very nice.
Good blend of bonus and consequences, not at all dickish like the old Rolemaster crit/fumbles.

You should definitely submit this and other posts for the LLS newsletter.gran

Anonymous said...

Savage! I love it!

Nick said...

I'm not a really huge fan of critical hit and fumbles, especially in the form of tables that need to be consulted during play, but yours actually seems really well put together.

I like it!