Resolution Deck Pips

I like that, really. On average a crit would be slightly more damage, but there would be that small chance of the stars aligning and throwing a huge amount of damage.

There could even be awesome on-crit effects, like Keen Blade: On a critical hit, flip three cards, and choose the best one. Repeat if one of those is a critical hit.

Basically would increase the chance of chain-crits, but as crits would be subject to armor, it rarely would go totally insane. It still might, once in a while.

A blue skilled player with a blue weapon could do between the following damage.

(3Crit+3BluePip)+([2nd] strikes)=6 and
(3C+3C+3C+3BP+3BP+3BP)+([4th] 3+2BP)=23(!)

So 6-23 damage for a 0 skill low quality weapon hit. But a red skilled player with a red weapon could do much better.

(3C+6RedPip)+([2nd] strikes)=9 and
(3C+3C+3C+6RP+6RP+6RP)+([4th] 3+4RP)=34(!!)

That'd be 9-34 damage for a high skilled player with a godly weapon, more variance, but I still think on average it'd hit much harder.

I thought about how armor could work in this multicrit situation. Perhaps the defender would get a separate defense flip for each extra 'attack', gaining more damage reduction pips. This way a strong armor could still reduce your damage taken significantly, and make you feel awesome for getting it.

And this is just damage, think of all the other possibilities. For example, on the first time I tried the demo adventure with a friend, I added 3 guards to the first combat, but then forgot to actually use the friendly NPC and got my character killed. Oops. On act 2 my friend tried to use Charisma to recruit a henchman to help in the final combat, and he got a crit. This was so awesome I declared he inspired the bartender to join him, because my slain character was his brother (I had given him the profession Barista just as a quick something, but it actually made the story awesome.)

Had this multifilp way been in and he would've got an impressive 20+ 'damage' on his multicrit charisma check, I'd have said half the bar would've been enraged for losing their favourite barista, and started a riot. This would've given my friend and my now effectively resurrected character an advantage in the last fight, perhaps one less or weaker guards as the city would've called up reserves to quell the unrest.

Just some thoughts on this.

I've made another change to the pips, now critical failures will have 1 pip in each color. This won't have any effect on damage (since critical failures are always misses) but it will be useful for resolving other game effects (such as setting cards that refer to pips to resolve their effects).

I've also changed the number of checks and strikes on critical successes and failures, from 1 to 4 (ascending in the case of checks, descending in the case of strikes). This will make resolving critical successes and failures easier. For example, if you flip red and get a critical success, you will do 4 checks and 6 pips worth of damage, for a total of 10, which automatically bypasses armor. That is basically best case scenario, without taking into account skills or powers that can improve damage.

I know 10 armor piercing damage may seem like a lot, but keep in mind you would have to have at least red level skill and a red level weapon. Also, stronger opponents can have more than 10 life points (and large opponents/vehicles multiple components each with high life point totals). If you have read the Hobbit you may recall that Smaug was basically impervious to attack, except for one missing scale. A precisely placed harpoon takes him out in one shot, taking advantage of this weakness. Critical successes are basically story elements, even in combat, changing the narrative in drastic and interesting ways and making the 'impossible' possible every so often, just like in the movies!

Correct.

This also means the resolution "ladder" goes, from best to worst:

Red Crit Success
Yellow Crit Success
Green Crit Success
Blue Crit Success
Triple Check
Double Check
Check
Strike
Double Strike
Triple Strike
Red Critical Failure
Yellow Critical Failure
Green Critical Failure
Blue Critical Failure

Higher Initiative wins ties, mirror flips broken with a reflip.

Correct?

I would also add "Quadruple Check" and "Quadruple Strike" to your tiered list, for multiflip criticals that aren't the last card. (If I understand it correctly.)

Yes, but there are four checks on the red section of the critical success card now. If you're 3x red and you flip:

Crit (4 checks), 1 strike, 1 check

...then your result is 4 checks, which beats everything except a true critical success. If that critical had been the last card, it would have been a critical 4, which beats everything.