Official Critical Hit Thread

Events
162

I’ve run a few CH at my local arcade to decent success and here’s what I did:

  • Earn cards by playing the arcade games. It was basically donate $X to get matched up with someone and then play a random arcade game, winner gets a card. I also had a mini-tournament where the top 4 players who earned a card would get 1-2 extra cards and be able to swap cards in their hands for random new ones from the deck.

This was somewhat controversial but a pluarlity of players indicated to me they liked the idea of doing something other than pinball or donating $$$ to earn cards. It felt “different” to them and they felt they had a better shot at the “pros” haha. (Tourney results seemed to not prove this.) Others also liked having it be skill based as opposed to straight $$$ or something “weird” like lose weight/something else.

I house ruled the following:

  • Can’t play Invert round 1 to give people a chance to use their cards.
  • Darkness can be played on ANY game, not just your group…I believe @kdeangelo said this was a mis-print and it’s meant to be used on ANY game.
  • You don’t have to trap up to play Whisper, and it lasts the whole game. (I think Whisper was played <5 times over two tournaments, definitely the card I’ve heard the most grumbling about being “useless” which is funny since watching some people play…they don’t know the games as well as they think they do haha.)

People in general had a lot of fun, I think CH is a lot like FF in that it appears to be extremely polarizing: some people really love it and others despise it. It probably depends on how seriously you take it ha. (Also on whether you got to play powerful cards effectively or got messed up by someone else doing the same…)

2 Likes
163

IMO it’s 100% useless if you do know the games well. It’s also untradeable; no one wants it.

Probably the best use of this card is to offer yourself as rules help, get someone to burn it, then refuse to help. Nothing on the card says the helper is obligated to actually help.

164

I’d never allow trading of cards willingly. Breaks a bit of the spirit of the game.

165

I’ll have decks back in stock on the website this week, finally. No change from previous printings.

3 Likes
166

House rules also break a bit of the spirit of the game, but they seem to be ok.

In the few CI tournaments I’ve played, trading was allowed at any ratio, open or secret, and it worked well. It provides an “out” for people who draw a shit hand and would otherwise have an awful time while everyone else is playing the fun cards.

167

This has been me. Every. Single. Time. Still love the format though.

168

I give that as a warning / have heard it as a warning when using Whisper.

Trading of cards is disallowed in my events…I often see a lot of novice/first timers so I feel if trading was allowed then there’s be some hilariously predatory trades that remind me of CCG days haha. I do need to remind everyone of this, especially the “return all cards to ME” when you are eliminated rule. Obviously TDs can do what they want in terms of house rules. I like disallowing invert for r1 so people have a shot to play any good cards they earned (if we are doing that) if they want.

I usually sit out when I run CH and have decent rules knowledge, so I suggest myself as Whisper as I’m the most unbiased person present.

When I play, I often hold this card as my last card so when people ask me if I have cards I say “yes” and then if they swap/steal/contagion whatevs haha

169

Will any be on sale at INDISC / available as a reward for volunteering X hours? Asking for a friend :wink:

170

IMO, it also could allow for immense amounts of collusion beyond what the cards already do. Honestly, I’m surprised your group is ok with it.

:thinking:

2 Likes
171

It’s probably because no one I’ve played it with takes this format seriously, so it’s just for fun.

172

Hi all.
I am planning to have a critical hit tournament in march, as part of a memorial tournament for my wife that passed in may 2018, due to brain cancer. She was really a fighter, always in optimistic mood and always with a lovely dark sense of humor. So in that spirit, in the same way life can be so f***ing unfair and cancer so brutal, what better format than critical hit to remind people of sudden unfairness and live life now to the fullest :slight_smile: I think she would have loved it. The tournament fee will be donated to brain cancer foundation.

Anyways, I thought id sketch my initial format idea and would be great to have some feedback on schedule and rules, based on peoples experiences.

I assume we will be 16-20 people. lets assume 16 for the sake if simplicity. I have the matchplay deck.
As it stands I have one deck, and based the format of that. might buy another before to be more flexible.

At registration, everyone gets 1 card. (that leaves 38 cards).
random groups of four and random games.
Ive put one round with one game to around 20-25 minutes, considering all groups must finish before next round starts. Is this a reasonable assumption? In each round I am thinking of giving 1st place and 4th place a card. That means for each round, 8 cards will be deducted.

After playing 4 rounds, 6 cards will remain. Im considering to auction these 6 last cards of, and the money goes to the norwegian brain cancer foundation.

After this, there will be two more rounds and then the top 8 players advance to playoffs.

Playoffs consists of two groups of 4 people, playing 3 games. top two advance to the finals.
Finals are 4 players, playing three games.

As I havent really organized a CH tournament for real (had a strike version in 2017 but dont remember much), does the above sound like a good running tournament? Im open for suggestions on all aspects…more cards (an additional deck, distribution of cards, time schedule etc).

Thanks, all input appreciated :slight_smile:
/Morten

173

and if you need any tiebreaker games play cards in them yes/no?

174

Hmm not thought of it, thanks for bringing it up. Pros/cons? Might have automatic tie breaking, depending on time frame.

175

cons can cards that pull in other players can make stuff messy or cards that do group stuff.
Or even the skip round cards

176

Is your 20-25 minute round estimate including card play before, during and after games? If so, that may be ambitious. Card play can really draw out a Critical Hit tournament.

177

Yes, my initial schedule though was 30 minutes, maybe Ill revert back to that, with timing. Our games are quite hard set up, so that will at least reduce the game time a little.

178

If a card like Invert is used, to swap your entire hand with a player in your group, MUSt the players show how many cards they have, or can they choose to hide the amount of cards so it is more of a risk for the player if he will get 1 or more cards? @kdeangelo

179

I’m not kdeangelo, but we have allowed players to not disclose their hand size.

180

Haha all answers appreciated, Øyvind :wink:

181

As an aside: Next time we run a critical hit tournament, I’m going to bring something like this to get people’s attention whenever someone plays a Modica: https://www.biltema.no/batutstyr/elektrisk-utstyr/signalhorn/signalhorn-gass-2000042071

If nothing else, I’m looking forward to see the effect it has on people who’re playing when the alert goes off. Mwa ha ha.