I'm sure this has come up before, and I remember seeing Greg suggesting it. I'm seriously considering replacing the doubling of damage from critical hits in combat with just rolling the normal damage dice and ignoring all the armor. It goes something like this:

- When two opponents roll critical hits, the hits are just considered normal hits. In effect, the criticals cancel each other, but you consider who rolled higher and lower to determine partial successes and successes. Example: a Player-Knight has Sword 25 and the opponent has Spear 32. The PK rolls 17+5 = 22 and the opponent rolls 12+12 = 24. In this case, there are no critical results, but the opponent rolled higher than the PK, so he rolls normal damage, and the knight is protected by armor + shield as result of his partial success. Under the normal rules, the maximum result is 20, so both would have rolled 20 and the PK would have won (sword trumps other weapons). However, nothing would have happened if the PK had a mace and the opponent a spear.

- Whenever someone rolls a critical and the opponent is merely successful (i.e. does not roll a critical), then whoever rolled critical, just rolls normal damage dice and ignores any armor and shield. This will avoid a bit of the "tink, tink, boom" effect of the game without compromising much of its grittiness and lethality. I still have to test this rule to know exactly how it plays in combat but will certainly avoid a lot of deaths for the more unlucky players.

Anyone tried any of these?

I'm sure this has come up before, and I remember seeing Greg suggesting it. I'm seriously considering replacing the doubling of damage from critical hits in combat with just rolling the normal damage dice and ignoring all the armor. It goes something like this:

- When two opponents roll critical hits, the hits are just considered normal hits. In effect, the criticals cancel each other, but you consider who rolled higher and lower to determine partial successes and successes. Example: a Player-Knight has Sword 25 and the opponent has Spear 32. The PK rolls 17+5 = 22 and the opponent rolls 12+12 = 24. In this case, there are no critical results, but the opponent rolled higher than the PK, so he rolls normal damage, and the knight is protected by armor + shield as result of his partial success. Under the normal rules, the maximum result is 20, so both would have rolled 20 and the PK would have won (sword trumps other weapons). However, nothing would have happened if the PK had a mace and the opponent a spear.

- Whenever someone rolls a critical and the opponent is merely successful (i.e. does not roll a critical), then whoever rolled critical, just rolls normal damage dice and ignores any armor and shield. This will avoid a bit of the "tink, tink, boom" effect of the game without compromising much of its grittiness and lethality. I still have to test this rule to know exactly how it plays in combat but will certainly avoid a lot of deaths for the more unlucky players.

Anyone tried any of these?

Yes and yes.

Criticals cancelling each other out and results being compared:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?1474-Question-For-Greg-Crit-vs-Crit-With-Mismatched-Weapons&p=12590&viewfull=1#post12590
(I am sure I have mentioned it in other threads, too, but this was what I found on a quick search.)

Critical Hits ignoring armor:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?1048-Critical-hits-and-fumbles&p=9243&viewfull=1#post9243
(We also had automatic knockdown on a critical hit. Nowadays we use +4d6 damage instead on a critical, which has about the same effect but gives a more satisfying beheading effect when fighting against bandits and such.)

By the way, swords do not 'Win' on a tied result. They simply break non-swords; no damage is dealt. There is also Greg's houserule / amended rule of crit-crit dealing 1d3 damage (armor doesn't protect). I couldn't be bothered to search for that, since it is a bit beside the point anyway for this answer.

The d3 option is mentioned in the GPC page 24 under ties in combat. The effect of a tie is then related to whether both crit (both get 1d3 damage, only magic protects), succeed/ failure (no damage) or fumble (both get 1d6 damage, nothing protects).

Thanks, Cornelius. It didn't occur to me to check GPC. :)

I've gone with a flat +4d6 damage for crits. Its about the same as ignoring Chain+shield while still allowing it to show the differences in armor. Ignoring a footman's 4 armor and a rich knight's gothic plate are very different things and it would be a bit of a let down to crit a footman and then have him hardly more affected than normal.

Granted I also use a rolling system more like BRP than the standard KAP one complete with crits, specials and normal successes. So crits are less frequent and passions don't immediately make most fights a forgone conclusion.