Official Critical Hit Thread

[drunkonmusic]

I am so intrigued by this format and I am waiting with bated breath for more decks to be made to try it out with friends.

Thanks for all the clarification on game play in the discussion above.

[GLD]

Hi everyone,
I have a project to create a version of both decks, with Karl’s approval, for France (as I am French).
I would need to know if someone could provide me with the quantity of each card in the 3-strikes deck, because Karl couldn’t find it.
Thank you very much!

[GLD]

It seems the rules are quite flexible for the TDs. The documents for the 3-strikes and the Matchplay differ significantly in tournament preparation (such as the number of cards given initially). Is it possible to apply the same starting rules for both?
And is there a specific reason why the rules differ so much? (I’m not referring to the specific rules of 3-strikes, for example, about the one-loss system, but about the rewards, the number of starting cards in hand, etc)
Thx

[djreddog]

Those are just guidelines, not official rules. You have 100% control of how you want to run your event including how many cards you want to start out with and how the rewards are handled. Just be careful that you don’t run out of cards.

[GLD]

Thanks you Djreddog, that clarifies all a lot !

[Tinkerdame]

We want to run a Critical Hit tourney at the Idaho Pinball Museum. Since the cards are no longer available, I’ve been tasked with creating (re-creating?) a deck. Not for sale, just for our own use.
The Tournament Directors Guide lists all the cards (Thank You!!) but not how many of each card is in a deck of 54.
Any information about the make up of the deck, would be greatly appreciated! Or if someone has a full deck (always risky with pinball folks lol) for sale, let me know.
Thanks in advance.

[TracyLindy]

I’ve been reading this thread and the google docs out there in preparation for a large (~80 player) Critical Hit event in December. While I have participated in a Critical Hit run by Karl, I’ve not run this format myself. I have a lot of clarification questions and would love to draw on the wisdom of those who have run this format to help me with some nuances. Thank you for the help! @kdeangelo see, I told you I was going to post a bunch of questions

Questions:

1. Time - About how long did rounds take for those who ran this format? If I’m at a location that averages about 30 minutes per round, would I be safe to estimate an hour per round between extra balls, extra games played, and all the card playing in the global phase? Do I need to estimate even higher?

2. Number of cards - I see references to 1 deck for 20 people which is 54 cards. Then I also see a reference to giving people 3 cards upon check-in and those numbers don’t add up since you’d need 60 cards to give out 3. I also see a reference to a maximum of 5 cards. How do you police that?
   I had been thinking 2 cards upon check-in plus rolling a D-20 and a few numbers will get you one more card so most will have 2, but some will have 3 to start. Also planning to do bounties for cards to flow into play, but I fully recognize that this is a LOT of cards for the global phase and I’ll be limiting Insanity. Any feedback on this card plan is appreciated!

3. Contagion: How is a card “randomly” discarded? Does the player who is playing the Contagion card have the other player fan out whatever cards they have and they pick a random card from their hand, or does a TD do the random selection? There’s a reference in a google doc to allowing a player to do so privately with a TD so that other players don’t know how many cards are in their hand. Is that standard to need a TD to use this card? I am balancing out the time consuming nature of contagion and possess object while finalizing my rules.

4. Similar to Contagion, for Possess Object - Do you get a TD to randomly select a card from a person’s hand to play/discard? How does everyone feel about Possess Object? Do you see it work out for a card to be used or does it most often turn into a discard because it is the wrong time?

5. Darkness - If a player plays Darkness and later Insanity is played to redraw the round, does the Darkness follow the player (i.e. do you give the player the backbox cover when the card is played and they use it regardless of what final game they play in that round)? Or does Insanity cancel out Darkness?

6. Whisper - How have you managed this - if it’s the middle of the ball, does the person tell another player in the group who they want help from and someone goes to grab that person while they trap up? Do they stay trapped up until the requested person can be located? Or do they get the rules help from someone in their group? Again, 80 player tournament, large arcade, could take a bit of time to find the person (and the selected person could also be actively playing their own ball).

7. Shatter, Local - I am assuming this card can be played during the global phase provided the spell they are trying to shatter is played by someone within their assigned group. So Confusion, Forbiddance, Darkness, Shard of Chaos (if it’s your group that is affected). I also assume Shatter, Local, cannot be used on Insanity even though it affects your group since it affects all groups. Please verify.
   If Forbiddance is played and not blocked by the selected player from the original group, can the randomly selected player who is being swapped in play a Shatter, Local before the people are swapped in matchplay to force a different random player to be selected? Or would that cancel the swapping entirely?

8. Fortune - If two players in the group have fortune cards, after one person plays theirs, for instance on the other person who has a fortune card, can the 2nd player play their fortune card to effectively negate the card and keep the positions as-is?

9. Invert - Is Shatter the only thing that can stop this card? Could a player play an invert card from their own hand before swapping in order to cancel out the swap? Or since you have to resolve the first card before other cards are played, would the other player’s invert be irrelevant?

10. Finals:

• Banned cards - Planning to ban confusion, forbiddance, insanity - can’t change games, can’t swap which players are in your group.
• Do you have players turn these in before they leave after day 1?
• Or do you have them turn in all cards and place them in an envelope for each finalist so they don’t forget them and are lost?
• If someone has a card that can’t be used in finals, do they get to swap for a new card? Or just relay they should use those cards and not hold on to them, and they discard them at the conclusion of qualifying if they still have one in their hand?
• What do you do if a player doesn’t show for finals and you take the next player in the list. That person would have discarded their cards the day prior - would they just get to pick X number of cards, or are they out of luck?
• How many more cards do you give to people for finals?
• How to prevent collusion (ex. A non-finalist gives cards to a finalist)?

11. Anyone knowledgeable about the format willing to read through my rules to see if you have any advice for me?

12. What cards caused the most confusion for players or clarification was required? Any cards cause TD’s problems?

• Ex. I am thinking about not using Trollololo. We use earplugs at this location so the tilt bob is going to settle quickly, and it seems like it’s unnecessarily time consuming for TD’s to be watching over in case a comp ball needs to be assigned.

[JoeTheDragon]

@TracyLindy

Darkness - If a player plays Darkness and later Insanity is played to redraw the round, does the Darkness follow the player (i.e. do you give the player the backbox cover when the card is played and they use it regardless of what final game they play in that round)? Or does Insanity cancel out Darkness?

also have to deal with games that can’t have the scores covered. And some games may need an differnt sized cover.

[djreddog]

Good luck with this event! Phew, 80 person Critical Hit seems daunting. I have ran 4-5 critical hit events with each event having 30-40 players, all group matchplay events and every time is complete chaos, no matter how much prep I put into the event. But, I love the chaos and I love the format!

Here is some general feedback, and then I will try and answer each question.

The “guidelines” for Critical Hit are just that, guidelines. Do what you want, just make sure it is communicated to the players in advance so they are aware. Same with IFPA rules, just a guideline and you can modify them anyway you like.

For rounds, easily 45 minutes to an hour each round. Stats for one of my events which was 6 rounds, averaged 44 minutes per round. I don’t have stats for the other events.

@TracyLindy

I’ve been reading this thread and the google docs out there in preparation for a large (~80 player) Critical Hit event in December. While I have participated in a Critical Hit run by Karl, I’ve not run this format myself. I have a lot of clarification questions and would love to draw on the wisdom of those who have run this format to help me with some nuances. Thank you for the help! @kdeangelo see, I told you I was going to post a bunch of questions

Questions:

1. Time - About how long did rounds take for those who ran this format? If I’m at a location that averages about 30 minutes per round, would I be safe to estimate an hour per round between extra balls, extra games played, and all the card playing in the global phase? Do I need to estimate even higher?

At least 1 hour.

2. Number of cards - I see references to 1 deck for 20 people which is 54 cards. Then I also see a reference to giving people 3 cards upon check-in and those numbers don’t add up since you’d need 60 cards to give out 3. I also see a reference to a maximum of 5 cards. How do you police that?
   I had been thinking 2 cards upon check-in plus rolling a D-20 and a few numbers will get you one more card so most will have 2, but some will have 3 to start. Also planning to do bounties for cards to flow into play, but I fully recognize that this is a LOT of cards for the global phase and I’ll be limiting Insanity. Any feedback on this card plan is appreciated!

All of my events I have given out 2 cards when they check in. I also allow them to roll a D-20 and if they roll a 20 they get a free card (this usually only accounts for 1-2 additional cards).

Be careful with the bounties. The first event I did “normal” bounties like Collect Monster Fish on Fish Tales, or Start Lady Justice on Metallica. The problem with objective based bounties is that the higher skilled players tend to earn the extra cards and not the lower skilled players. I did away with the bounties and now after a couple of rounds I will announce anyone who got last place in the previous round gets a card, or I will spin a wheel to randomly give out a couple of cards. Additionally, I will let players spend $5 to roll the D-20 and if they get a 20 they get a card. I usually cap this at like 2-3 attempts. Finally, for player order, I allow each group to roll a D20 to determine player order and any time someone rolls a D20 during the player order process they also earn a free card (again this doesn’t happen often but sometimes it accounts for 1-2 additional cards).

As for the 5 card limit, it’s honor system.

3. Contagion: How is a card “randomly” discarded? Does the player who is playing the Contagion card have the other player fan out whatever cards they have and they pick a random card from their hand, or does a TD do the random selection? There’s a reference in a google doc to allowing a player to do so privately with a TD so that other players don’t know how many cards are in their hand. Is that standard to need a TD to use this card? I am balancing out the time consuming nature of contagion and possess object while finalizing my rules.

Here is where you get to decide the process you want to use. For my events, when this card is played I simply have the players pull out their cards, shuffle them, and then they get to randomly discard one without looking at them of course.

4. Similar to Contagion, for Possess Object - Do you get a TD to randomly select a card from a person’s hand to play/discard? How does everyone feel about Possess Object? Do you see it work out for a card to be used or does it most often turn into a discard because it is the wrong time?

I use the same method as above, let the player pull out their cards, shuffle, and then the player pulls a random card. Most of the time this card ends up being used.

5. Darkness - If a player plays Darkness and later Insanity is played to redraw the round, does the Darkness follow the player (i.e. do you give the player the backbox cover when the card is played and they use it regardless of what final game they play in that round)? Or does Insanity cancel out Darkness?

You decide. For my events, I have the darkness follow the group, so if they get re-assigned it moves to the new game. Also, I have numerous pieces of poster board pre-cut to fit all the different style games.

6. Whisper - How have you managed this - if it’s the middle of the ball, does the person tell another player in the group who they want help from and someone goes to grab that person while they trap up? Do they stay trapped up until the requested person can be located? Or do they get the rules help from someone in their group? Again, 80 player tournament, large arcade, could take a bit of time to find the person (and the selected person could also be actively playing their own ball).

Again, you decide. For my events, player has to trap up, present card, then we grab the player (if the player is currently PLAYING a ball, we fizzle the spell). To be honest, this card rarely gets played.

7. Shatter, Local - I am assuming this card can be played during the global phase provided the spell they are trying to shatter is played by someone within their assigned group. So Confusion, Forbiddance, Darkness, Shard of Chaos (if it’s your group that is affected). I also assume Shatter, Local, cannot be used on Insanity even though it affects your group since it affects all groups. Please verify.
   If Forbiddance is played and not blocked by the selected player from the original group, can the randomly selected player who is being swapped in play a Shatter, Local before the people are swapped in matchplay to force a different random player to be selected? Or would that cancel the swapping entirely?

I allow Shatter Local to be played against anything within their group. So if a player in the group plays Insanity, another player in the same group can play Shatter Local.

For the Forbiddance, this can only be blocked with a Shatter Local within the same group.

8. Fortune - If two players in the group have fortune cards, after one person plays theirs, for instance on the other person who has a fortune card, can the 2nd player play their fortune card to effectively negate the card and keep the positions as-is?

Yes, multiple fortunes can be played within the same group.

9. Invert - Is Shatter the only thing that can stop this card? Could a player play an invert card from their own hand before swapping in order to cancel out the swap? Or since you have to resolve the first card before other cards are played, would the other player’s invert be irrelevant?

Only Shatter, and yes, first card played gets resolved first, so no cancelling out.

10. Finals:

• Banned cards - Planning to ban confusion, forbiddance, insanity - can’t change games, can’t swap which players are in your group.

I don’t ban any cards in Finals, with the exception of Modica if I am low on games.

• Do you have players turn these in before they leave after day 1?

Never ran this event across 2 days. Probably would be best if you had them turn them in and placed them in labeled envelopes.

• Or do you have them turn in all cards and place them in an envelope for each finalist so they don’t forget them and are lost?

See above.

• If someone has a card that can’t be used in finals, do they get to swap for a new card? Or just relay they should use those cards and not hold on to them, and they discard them at the conclusion of qualifying if they still have one in their hand?

They don’t get to swap it out for a new card. They should keep it in their hand because someone may play an Invert or Posses Object.

• What do you do if a player doesn’t show for finals and you take the next player in the list. That person would have discarded their cards the day prior - would they just get to pick X number of cards, or are they out of luck?

Not sure how I would handle this. I would probably say they are out of luck and should just be happy they made it to the finals due to someone not showing up.

• How many more cards do you give to people for finals?

I give each player 1 additional card.

• How to prevent collusion (ex. A non-finalist gives cards to a finalist)?

Honor system once again.

11. Anyone knowledgeable about the format willing to read through my rules to see if you have any advice for me?

I will gladly take a look.

12. What cards caused the most confusion for players or clarification was required? Any cards cause TD’s problems?

ALL CARDS. There is a lot of hand holding during this format. I’ve gone as far as to provide each player with a cheat sheet that shows examples of how to use the card, but lots of players still get confused.

• Ex. I am thinking about not using Trollololo. We use earplugs at this location so the tilt bob is going to settle quickly, and it seems like it’s unnecessarily time consuming for TD’s to be watching over in case a comp ball needs to be assigned.

Your call, but this card is one of my favorites.

The other card you need to be mindful of, and all of the players need to be mindful of is Desistance. Players that have a Shatter in their hand need announce out loud immediately that they have Shatter and then they have to trap up ASAP to present the card. If they don’t produce the card, they dump the ball(s) and no Comp ball awarded.

[neonranchpinball]

Im excited to run my first Critical Hit Matchplay event. Does someone have a “cheat sheet” for these set of cards to attach to my tournament rules and have on hand during the event to help players?
Thanks in advance!

[djreddog]

I do. Shoot me your email.

[neonranchpinball]

neonranchpinball@gmail.com

Thanks!!!