Can you say a bit more aboutthese decks, as I don't own them?
As for Ilium, no idea. But I miss him, too. He plays a paladin in my game.
The idea of the decks is to give a bit more color to combat, rather than just making it about dealing max hp damage. I'm not completely sold of them, but I'm interested in giving them a try.
Basically the Critical Hit Deck works like this: When a player confirms a crit, that player draws one card from the deck and follows the result appropriate to the weapon's damage type. For weapons with crit multipliers of x3, the player draws two cards and chooses which effect to use (x4 weapons draw three cards).
Examples of these cards can be found
HERE.
The Critical Fumble Deck works in a very similar fashion: Whenever an attacker rolls a natural 1 on the die, the attack misses and there is the threat of a fumble. The attacker must immediately make a confirmation roll, using his full base attack bonus (and accompanying modifiers). If the confirmation roll would miss the target, the attacker fumbles and must draw a card from the deck.
Examples of these cards can be found
HERE.
On the subject of Ilium, if he does not return soonish we should think about whether we want to replace him, or just drop his character completely. Any preferences there?
BrOp
p.s.: Anyone know what's up with the ENWorld server?