It started with me vlogging about an all-out attack in order to end combat abruptly.  Then a guy who follows my YouTube channel and Twitter account, Rob Couture, suggested something that kind of reminded a few of us of 13th Age's escalation die in combat.  I did some thinking and laid out my version of that idea, and then finally playtested it earlier today.

Basically, it's this... every round the critical-hit range widens by one.  So, on the first round everyone crits on a natural 20.  On the second round, everyone crits on a 19 or 20.  Third round, 18-20 are crits, and so on.

From the start, I knew it had promise, and today's trial confirmed my suspicious.  It's awesome!

If you want more info, here's my blog post about it: https://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2021/08/crimson-escalation.html

But I'd love to get more feedback, so if you want to playtest it, that's great.  Do that and let me know what you think.

Thanks,

VS

Actually, I really like that idea. It's one of those ideas that makes you wonder why it wasn't widely used years ago. I'll be using that for my personal games moving forward.

Sweet!  Let me know how it goes...

Very cool idea Venger!

Thanks, hoss!

I went ahead and Kickstarted a standalone PDF to officially codify Crimson Escalation throughout the d20 universe.  $1 gets you the PDF.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/crimson-escalation

Quote from: VengerSatanis on August 28, 2021, 03:42:25 PM

Thanks, hoss!

I went ahead and Kickstarted a standalone PDF to officially codify Crimson Escalation throughout the d20 universe.  $1 gets you the PDF.

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/crimson-escalation

Wow, you reached your goal in record time! With more than $100 raised, your stretch goals should be suitable impressive. What are you thinking? An extra bloodstain on page 2?

Two extra bloodstains!

Haha, I do have a stretch goal if we reach $1k, it's a top-ten list of things to do to get, keep, and/or improve immersion.

I made a rough draft visual aid that can be printed-out (eventually) and used to keep track of what round it is and corresponding crit range:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/crimson-escalation/posts/3287210

Update where I answer the most important question... what makes Crimson Escalation exciting, realistic, and fun?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/crimson-escalation/posts/3289979

The "visual aid" tracker can be seen in this KS update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vengersatanis/crimson-escalation/posts/3294165

Lots of opinions on this one, and I'm not surprised.  Visually, it's not really like anything else I've commissioned...