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Inactive Forums => The Riddle of Steel => Topic started by: Stephen on June 17, 2004, 04:35:20 PM

Title: Blunt Swung vs. Blunt Thrust Damage Tables
Post by: Stephen on June 17, 2004, 04:35:20 PM
I've recently been looking at the compacted Damage Tables produced by Alan (they were linked to in my thread "A leaner damage system"), and I noticed something:  The damage-by-location results for Cut and Puncture are identical whether the cut/puncture's delivered by a thrust or a swing.

I then compared the Blunt (Swung) vs. Blunt (Thrust) damage results, and noticed that only 20% of the possible wounds differ depending on attack type... and only six or seven very specific boxes differ significantly (i.e., the numbers change by more than 1 or 2) from table to table.  A swung blunt Level 5 wound to the elbow, for example, tears off the forearm (Shock 20, BL 12); a thrust blunt Level 5 only shatters it (Shock 9, BL 3).  But this is by far the exception.  Most blunt damage wounds are identical regardless of whether it's a swing or a thrust, and many of the differences are only by 1 point.

So the question is:  Do people think it's worth collapsing the two tables into one, for a single table of Blunt Wound Damage by location, for the price of sacrificing a little realism and variety?