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bizarre ones such as
Internal Disruption and Essence criticals), every combat plays out differently. Critical results vary from simple additional hits, and added bleeding and stuns to limbs lopped off and internal organs destroyed. Player characters are not immune to the effects of a critical hit in this system.
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is that it is not the normal hits that kill, but the critical. By integrating criticals even on low results by varying the critical severity (from A (minor) - J (extreme)) and the large variety of criticals (e.g. Slash, Krush, Puncture, Heat, Cold, Electricity, Impact, Unarmed
Strikes and even some
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Many tabletop and video games use "ablative" hit point systems. That is, wounded characters often have no game differences from unwounded characters other than a reduction in hit points. Critical hits originally provided a way to simulate wounds to a specific part of the body. These systems usually
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uses a
Critical and "Mini-Crit" system. Criticals deal three times the normal damage (and are not weaker at long range, unlike most damage), whereas "mini-crits" only increase damage by 35%. In addition to most weapons having a random chance to crit, some weapons have mechanics that guarantee them
308:), but few computer role-playing games implement critical misses except where the game is directly based on a tabletop game in which such rules appear. Video games are more likely to have a separate system for determining whether attacks miss, using mechanics such as accuracy and evasion.
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The most common kind of critical hit simply deals additional damage, most commonly dealing double the normal damage that would have been dealt, but many other formulas exist as well (such as ignoring defense of the target or always awarding the maximum possible damage). Critical hits also
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Both role-playing games and video games may also opt to use a less traditional version of critical hits, either by using different names, offering different effects than dealing more damage, including specific targets or weakpoint(s), and rarely by the inclusion of critical miss effects.
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have a "Luck" attribute will often base the likelihood of critical hits occurring on this statistic: a character with high Luck will deal a higher percentage of critical hits, while a character with low Luck may, in some games, be struck by more critical hits. In the role-playing game
328:'s head area or other weak spot, which is generally fatal, or otherwise devastating, when successfully placed. Headshots require considerable accuracy as players often have to compensate for target movement and a very specific area of the enemy's body. It is commonly used in
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introduced the concept of critical hits (though not the phrase) into role-playing. Using these rules, a player who rolls a 20 on a 20-sided die does double the normal damage, and a 20 followed by a 19 or 20 counts as a killing blow. According to creator
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occasionally do "special damage" to represent the effects of specific wounds (for example, losing use of an arm or eye, or being reduced to a limp). Critical hits usually occur only with normal weapon attacks, not with
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Critical hits are meant to simulate an occasional "lucky hit". The concept represents the effect of hitting an artery, or finding a weak point, such as a stab merely in the leg causing less damage than a stab in the
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with a "lost leg". Most systems now simply award extra damage on a critical hit, trading realism for ease of play. The effect of a critical hit is to break up the monotony of a battle with high, unusual results.
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subseries, critical hits are known as "lucky hits", whereas the word "critical" is instead used for attacks that are elementally effective (e.g. fire against plants). Players frequently use the abbreviation
372:, which began location testing in 1968 and released in January 1969, the player could shoot anywhere on the screen, including anywhere on the target's body. It awarded the player a higher
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use lookup charts and other mechanics to determine which wound was inflicted. In RPGs with non-humanoid characters or monsters, unlikely or bizarre results could occur, such as a
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von
Hilgers, Philipp (2008): Kriegsspiele. Eine Geschichte der Ausnahmezustände und Unberechenbarkeiten. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag. p. 32.
170:. Critical hits are almost always random, although character attributes or situational modifiers may come into play. For example, games in which the
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attacks an opponent the player typically rolls a 20-sided die; a roll of 20 (a 5% chance) results in a critical hit.
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is known for its extended system of criticals. One long-standing claim from its company
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or other special abilities, but this depends on the individual game's rules.
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referred to an enemy's critical hits as "heroic attacks". In the
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Many games call critical hits by other names. For example, in
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use some variation on this concept (such as a "botch" in the
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The concept of head shots had been around in arcade
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629:"New Sega Gun To Bow at ATE: Sega Duck Shoot"
133:Critical hits originate from the Reiswitzian
100:The concept of critical hits originates from
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69:Learn how and when to remove this message
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637:. Cash Box Pub. Co.: 34 4 January 1969.
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604:"ablation"
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238:double hit
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464:1 October
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403:TF Sniper
370:Duck Hunt
248:smash hit
181:, when a
143:in 1827.
47:verifying
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1158:Survival
1080:Emergent
1064:Strafing
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936:Spawning
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891:Password
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696:cite web
634:Cash Box
602:Farlex.
385:for the
322:headshot
312:Headshot
269:critical
199:Beholder
102:wargames
81:In many
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686:5 April
659:5 April
530:"Botch"
41:Please
1090:Twitch
1043:Skybox
767:Health
654:Kotaku
592:, p34.
344:, and
207:Tagmar
129:Origin
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906:Quest
782:Magic
409:Notes
398:Quake
374:score
296:, or
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161:Types
119:level
961:Warp
871:Item
803:Boss
772:Life
702:link
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366:Sega
265:crit
236:, a
106:JRPG
95:crit
93:(or
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