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With the release of More called shot options in the adventurer's companion, my group were discussing the difficulty of using called shots in our game last night. My players are always loathe to use them. Although they kind of got the idea when they were facing a pair of hill trolls.

We discussed the idea of an opponent fumbling (rolling a Gandalf) setting up a chance for a easier called shot. The PC who was the target of the fumbled attack sees an opening and on his next attack can do a called shot on a normal hit next turn (doesn't have to roll a tengwar and hit, he just has to hit).

We also applied it to the bad guys as well to make things more interesting (normally an eye rolled by a player triggers a called shot attempt anyway but this makes it more likely to actually work).

It seemed to work out well, and as the Loremaster it helps as handy combat narrative cues for the ebb and flow of battle and helps make things more interesting.

We did have a moment where a player hit hard, (two 6 and a 5) but also rolled an eye. We narrated it as getting his weapon stuck in the hill troll's hide and being open for a savage blow called shot from the troll, which promptly sent him flying back (he rolled with it) but freed the blade.

I thought I'd share the idea. I admit it is one more thing to track in combat and I haven't tried it in a combat with many adversaries yet.

Let me know what you guys think. Am I missing any glaring problems with this house rule

I can see why you might want to rule it this way--do they really not have much luck rolling called shots? They might just need to have higher weapon skills to really see them play out.

There was a long thread on this here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4671&hilit=called+shot+adversary. Might be worth a look.

Ah thanks, wasn't aware of the other thread.

poosticks7 wrote:We also applied it to the bad guys as well to make things more interesting (normally an eye rolled by a player triggers a called shot attempt anyway but this makes it more likely to actually work).

The only house rule I've adopted and kept for Called Shots is with regard to Adversaries. I kept how they are triggered but when rolling for the adversary if they meet the TN for the attack but don't achieve a great+ success they still hit normally.

I think the new and expanded Called Shot rules in the AC will help tempt players more but I still see them as being options for high skill characters or in very circumstantial (or desparate) situations. I don't think that's a problem and would suspect it is a deliberate design decision of the system.