I'm working my way through the Uther years of the GPC. Most of it seems to be fine - but we keep having horrible, game-crashing criticals on PKs each session, which is leading to a lot less enjoyment of the sessions.

I know that in later periods have much better armor, but I'm wondering if changing the critical rules to simply grant a +2D6 damage would be a better way to handle them for now. What do you think?

We are using the following Houserule:

"Critical hits have a confirmation roll vs. skill. If it succeeds, the critical does +4d6 damage. If it fails, the critical does +2d6."

This reins in the real one-shot killers (6d6+ hitting for double damage), averages the results out some more and thus make those high damage outliers rarer, and finally lowers the damage (occasionally) that the spear-fodder manages to do when they get lucky.

The other thing is to give the PKs access to good (or even great) first aid. First Aid 20 is excellent in giving a big buffer to keeping the PKs alive.

Your lowering the critical damage to +2d6 would accomplish it, too, but nerfs criticals too much, IMHO.

Another thing that comes to mind, what kinds of opponents are you using? If the damage is more than 6d6, especially if they are impassioned, that might be the reason why you are seeing so much death and destruction.


EDIT: You might wish to read this thread, too:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2279-Lethality-of-Pendragon-When-it-is-and-when-it-isn-t&p=19191&viewfull=1#post19191

We suck up a fair number of criticals, but even 12D6 is "only" 42 damage (and is enough dice to make large variation from that uncommon) , less 10 points of early period armour, leaves 32 that most Cymric Christian knights seem to be in with a chance of surviving. Especially if they got their shield in the way as well. Yes, it's a Major Wound, probably direct to Unconscious, and they're not going to be participating in any physical shenanigans for the rest of the year, but that's one of the tropes of the game, isnt' it? And shouldn't a lance plumb in the gut, without any shield getting in the way, be a death-risk? Dynastic roleplaying in a high mortality setting is another trope.

Getting critted by Giants or other 7D-plus monstrosities is another and deadlier matter.

We suck up a fair number of criticals, but even 12D6 is "only" 42 damage (and is enough dice to make large variation from that uncommon) , less 10 points of early period armour, leaves 32 that most Cymric Christian knights seem to be in with a chance of surviving.

32 damage is on the edge... Many of our PKs have that, but they are all SIZ 16+ monsters. The 'Average' NPK has 28 hp, which means he would be dead without a critical First Aid roll. Also, while 42 is the average of 12d6, it means that a significant fraction is HIGHER than 42 (47%, in case you were wondering). So almost half of the criticals with 6d6 base damage would be, with a good chance, a one-shot kill. (The shield helps a lot, but oftentimes, the enemy crits when you are at a disadvantage, like being ganged up on, or fighting on foot against a horseman... All situations where you are less likely to get your shield than normally.)

However, if instead of doubling the damage, you use simple +4d6 damage, 6d6 combat monsters still do 'only' 10d6. If we take 42hp as our 'death stalks you' value, as in above, the chance is a bit more than 8%. Which should help Danharms to keep his PKs alive much better. It also gives them some chance of surviving the rare 8d6 berserker, which under the doubling rule, is pretty much a sure instakill (98% chance of 43+ damage).

The other thing: lowering the critical's damage bonus to +4d6 instead of doubling the base damage doesn't really have an impact on the PK's success rate, except against very rare, high armor opponents like dragons and huge giants. Most of the time, the damage is well enough to knock the enemy unconscious anyway, with a major wound or crossing the unconscious threshold. So the PKs are still heroes, cleaving their way through the (normal) enemies, and in turn, they are less likely to be one-shoted. Win-win all around.

Another house rule that I find helps with survivability, is that if you defend with your shield, you can voluntarily block an additional amount of damage equal to your shield's reduction value (usually 6), but for each additional point you block, the shield's reduction value is reduced by the same amount; shields can be repaired by your squire with a Squire roll, success repairing up to 1d3 and crit 1d6, fumble will damage the shield further by 1. Since I started using that rule, things are right about the right level of lethality for me

I have crits do a flat +4d6 damage. This makes the 6d6+ big hitters more manageable while also making rabble more dangerous.

What about having a critical success in combat bypass all armor?

What about having a critical success in combat bypass all armor?

We did try that in the other campaign. It worked reasonably well in keeping the knights on their toes (4d6 = 14 armor on average), and allowed them to do damage against giants. However, it lacked the satisfying THUMP of hammering a poor bandit with a 10d6 mace hit. :P

(We also added that the critical caused an automatic fall, to keep the knocked on your behind effect of the damage doubling.)

We use the following tables for crits and fumbles in combat (lifted from the Pendragon GM reference, roll d6 after crit/fumble):

Critical Hit
1 — Foe is disarmed (sword) or weapon is smashed.
2 — Opponent knocked to the ground.
3 — Opponent’s armor is damaged by 1d6 points. (We are about to implement Morien's and Mr.47's ideas for armor from this thread (http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2860-Armor-reducing-damage-dice&p=24299#post24299), so it is going to be changed to "Opponent's armor is damaged, one less d6 is removed than usual")
4 — 1d6 extra damage.
5 — Flurry! Immediately attack again unopposed!
6 — Double damage!

Fumble
1 — Fall down! Weapon dropped (swords) or broken.
2 — Weapon dropped (swords) or broken.
3 — Bad sprain; take 1d6 damage (armor doesn’t protect)
4 — Dehelmed. Lose 25% armor Protection. (Again, as we are going to change the armor system from the standard, this will be changed to +3 damage against the fumbler)
5 — Strap breaks. -5 until you spend a round to fix it
6 — Stumble! -5/+5 to your next attack