After a few disappointments with Amazon's delivery here in Germany, I finally got the crit and fumble decks. And they look awfully delicious…
Now I'd be interested in your experiences with the products and what (optional) rules you apply. Right now, I'm tempted to use the "damage as listed + (crit mult. - 1)", as just picking more cards would make the big damage weapons seem more precise, never mind that more damage equals more fun.
Not as sure about who can draw cards. Major NPCs definitely, but whether it's anything with a name/class levels or just the "end bosses" is still open for discussion. Let's see what the rest of the group (and you guys) think about this…
I use both decks. For the crit deck, I do as you suggest (crit damage multiplier -1 and one card drawn). So an axe does x2 damage plus a card draw on a confirmed crit. A longsword does normal damage and a card draw.
I let anyone who confirms a crit or fumble draw a card. It adds real drama and danger to the game.
I use them regularly and often! ;-)
In my games, right now, you get 50 XP for each card you get, whether it's a crit or fumble you make or survive. Everyone you get into combat with draws one too, although the XP goes to the person who benefits from their opponent's fumble or survives their opponent's crit. I'm also trying to come up with someone similar for the plot twist decks regarding critical successes and failures with respect to social encounters- but in this case, the player must decide whether or not it functions with Diplomacy or Bluff.
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I use them regularly whenever I DM. Any player character may choose to use the critical hit deck on a crit-by-crit basis; named NPCs use the critical deck all of the time, while other NPCs aren't allowed access. I do that because I'd hate to have a random schmo cut two of a PC's fingers off and not even be able to give the player a name to remember the NPC by.
For the crit deck, I go with -1 to the crit damage multiplier and you get a card, but don't do multiple cards.
All characters use the fumble deck, whenever they confirm a fumble.
They've added a lot of fun moments to my game, especially in big dramatic fights. I'm sure my neighbors have heard more than one collective "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH" late at night from a PC rolling a natural 20 during an important fight.
We are using the fumble deck on any 1s rolled.
The critical deck we are using is optional. If a player rolls a critical, they can choose to do critical damage as normal, draw a critical card and do critical modifier-1 like you, or they can save the critical card before looking at it and use it that night only to negate a fumble card.
So far in the first five weeks of using it everyone is getting a kick out of it and almost always choose the card over the extra damage. We have had some funny and memorable moments already with both sets that wouldn't have happened without them.
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I've used both in the past. Players seem to hate both, but tend to hate the critical fumble deck less. The main reason is that giving up a double damage or triple damage modifier on the off-chance you'll have some awesome effect is usually a losing proposition, and they realize this pretty quickly. I tend to like both decks.
Our latest incarnation will be as follows:
Critical Hits:
To determine the outcome of a critical hit you may chose to forgo one point of the damage multiplier (x2 becomes x1, x3 becomes x2) to instead draw one card from the critical hit deck.
This allows the players who enjoy the flavor of the deck can continue to use it, but those who think it's silly can just go with the straight-up bonus.
Critical Misses:
Critical misses occur when rolling a natural one on an attack roll followed by failing a DC 10 BAB check using the BAB used for the attack that missed. The critical miss deck will be used to determine the outcome of the critical miss on players and important NPCs. A critical miss by a non “boss” monster will provoke an AOO instead.
I have a number of reasons for using this unusual system. I have two significant problems with critical misses. One, they occur far too often, and two they tend to penalize the fighters (who are the most proficient in making attacks in the first place) because of their multiple attacks.
By requiring a roll to see if you critically fail, and tying it into your combat ability, you're making it so critical misses have a mechanic similar to a critical hit (eliminating how often they occur). The better your are at fighting, the less chance of having a critical miss in a method similar to the better you are at fighting, the better chance you have of a critical hit (eliminating the penalty to fighters). Secondly, by limiting the deck use to "boss" creatures I don't have to adjudicate and remember as much and the players feel like they get an advantage when it happens.
[EDIT] OR Intimidate! For the plot twist cards, that is. The post I made above. You know what I mean.
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For my groups, the way we've done it has always been you draw a card for every x* above two, so if you have a x2 you draw one card, x3 you draw two, x4 you draw three.
Then you look at the cards to figure how many times you're multiplying damage,
for each instance of double damage you add your damage dice again, for triple damage you add you damage dice twice more.
So if a character got a crit with a scythe he would draw 3 cards. He instantly gets all effects (makes high crit weapons more desirable) and then he looks at what the damage effects are.
lets say he gets lucky and gets a double damage, a double damage, and a triple damage card, then with that scythe he crits for 2d4+2d4+2d4+4d4, for a crit of 10d4 damage.
If he got a normal damage, a normal damage, and a triple damage, he'd crit for 2d4+4d4 for 6d4.
If he got a normal damage, a normal damage, and a double damage, he'd do a measly 2d4+2d4 for 4d4, but he'd have three bonus effects on the target.