[FunGuyFromYuggoth]

Hit locations are entirely optional in "Call of Cthulhu" and one would have to hunt for it in a supplement to even see it. Combat in "Call of Cthulhu" is alot more freeform than RQ3, which IIRC RQ3 was criticized by some RQ2 players for making combat (and the system) a little more complicated than it needed to be. It was OOP by the time I came to the game, so I had no reference point.

I GM'ed RQ3 for several years and found the rules very playable and a huge leap over D&D, but I disliked the strike rank system and the sorcery section. The people who I played with were more passionate about the skill system and the magic system, plus the setting, and were unlikely to wax on about the elegance of strike ranks.

To me, strike ranks and hit locations are mechanics and don't stand out when there are so many other plusses to RQ3. Plus, in RL, people shoot or stab each other milliseconds apart, and double wounds/kills are more common than movies would have you believe. In my actual campaigns, the hit locations were used, but I preferred using one set and giving a plus or minus on the D20 to achieve a result that made more sense. I'd probably not use strike ranks and in the case of determining who hits first, use distance (missiles first), then skill level, then DEX to determine who gets to attack first. It gets the same thing done and I find it forces the player to think about the situation more tactically than relying on a static number generated weeks and months before based on numerous tables that produce similar results without any awareness of why they attack on Strike Rank 4.