Winds of Chaos

Greetings!
So this situation came about... Char one hits char two with 5 SL on his melee (basic) skill. Char two rolls his opposed roll and gets a standard success with a critical. (had a skill of 35 and got a 33).
The way we played it was that the massive difference in SLs during the opposed test allowed char one to disregard the critical as he had "won the opposed roll".
However there was significant ambivalence on the matter in the group and the rival argument of "it's successful roll and as a critical it has its effect irrespective of relative SLs"
We did achieve consensus on the solution mentioned above, but I for one would appreciate any input from the fine people of this forum.

So, rules as written on crits on page 159, "Any successful Melee or Ranged Test that also rolls a double causes a Critical. This means you have dealt a significant blow, and it even happens when you are the defender in an opposed Test."

Since it requires a successful Melee Test from the defender I would say that, no. You need the the defender to also score a higher SL on the opposing test to win.
Remember, Criticals in WFRP 4e aren't automatic successes, they merely mean that you score a critical injurie.

The same thing applies to Fumbles. If character A Fumbles an attack with -2 SL, they would still wine the opposing test should their opponent score an SL of -3 or lower.

Yeah as written any double on a success is a critical, with the converse for fumbles. My group were not entirely happy with that so we play a slightly modified version:

A roll is a critical if 1) It rolls a double, 2) has positive SL, 3) beats the opposing SL (only applies to opposed rolls)
A roll is a fumble if 1) it rolls a double, 2) has negative SL, 3) loses to the oppose SL (only applies to opposed rolls)

This makes criticals and fumbles less likely however, to compensate I made armour less awesome at absorbing criticals

Thank you for the response, it's these small details who at times kill characters, so it is important to get them right.

I ditched the entire rolling doubles. I wanted to root the entire game on Simple and Opposed tests and SL levels. So a critical hit is +6SL and fumble is -6SL.

I generally dislike all game system designs that don't stay true to their single core mechanic but wander off to do some fiddly mechanisms.

I really like the critical hit rules are written as it keeps game more dangerous. Even a lowly snotling can get lucky and so combat should always be approached with respect. If you are always doing highest SL then advanced characters are relatively immune to lesser foes.

I don’t see this as being untrue to their core mechanic, it is a complete necessity for the rest of the core mechanic to not become unbalance and break the realism of the Old World. Having played so many other games my players love this mechanic in particular as they feel it solves issues that creep up in other game systems.