Critical hits are a bit different now. I don't expect them to change either when the 2e version comes out.
A natural 20 is a critical hit. Exceeding the opponent's AC by 10 on your Strike is a critical hit. There are no more confirmation rolls. You meet one or both of the requirements for a critical hit and you have it. I like that myself. What is possibly subject to change is the damage on a critical hit. In the Playtest, a Strike's critical hit is always double damage. Note that is for weapons only. Spells have their critical hits based on other factors and it is outlined in the spell description.
I am wondering if they might now change some damage for weaponry in 2e's release. I would not be surprised to see some of the heavier weapons get 3x, but then again that may not happen. Since weapons now get additional damage dice on Strikes when they're magical, x2 can be pretty lethal on its own. Consider that any +1 weapon now does 2dX damage on a hit and 4dX on a critical before any other bonuses.
For pbp the critical hits are a pain because as a GM, you don't want to turn the encounters into a mechanical exercise by revealing the AC. You could state that an encounter with creature Y requires a 33 for a critical hit. That gives away the AC. But on the other hand, let's say the player rolls it but doesn't know it's a critical hit. The GM could roll the damage on their own and communicate to the player that the hit did do a lot more damage because it was a critical hit. That wouldn't give away the AC. The other choice is for players to begin including critical damage in the dice roller on the chance they had a critical hit.
Either way we're going to have to adapt to doing something along these lines because otherwise the GM informs the player there was a critical and then we have to wait for that damage to be rolled by the player which drags out the pbp games. I'm of two minds on what to do about it. In the end, the community will ultimately make the decision on it based on their preferences.
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I'm on the boat the GM rolls the critical to help with PBP. And I've done it several times in the playtest.
On the side note, I'm quite keen to run doomsday dawn with 1.6 rules, but that will have to wait until March when I've moved places. So if any of you are interested, let me know and i'll keep that in mind.
I completely agree that the GM should make any additional rolls need to complete the pbp turn processing. (Forgotten saves, extra critical damage, ...)
I’m look forward to seeing what the final rules when published.
GM, if you're keen on running it, I'll gladly jump in there.