commentary

They're playing D&D, but this way of determining critical hits comes from Rolemaster (known as "Chartmaster" by gamers, due to the many many charts one has to reference in the game).

Rolemaster had a bunch of wacky critical hit tables: you punch someone, roll on critical table for bludgeoning, find you've got to roll on Bludgeoning Crit Table D, roll a 67 and you've managed to crush your opponent's collarbone, driving the bone shards into his throat and he dies in 1d4 turns.

There were many strange ways to kill other creatures and things in Rolemaster.

Monika's dice: The percentile dice with a tens die reading 10, 20, 30... is something relatively new. Old school gamers like myself prefer to use two different colored dice numbered 1 through 10, and declaring which one is the tens die.

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