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<blockquote data-quote="loseth" data-source="post: 4022536" data-attributes="member: 54535">For those really interested in realism in combat, I'll just chime in with one important point that I find is often ignored in such debates:Military weapons and civilian sidearms are not the same. Not by a long shot. This is true of the modern age (military assault rifle or .50 cal sniper rifle vs civilian pistol), of the early modern period (military broadsword vs civilian rapier or smallsword) and of the medieval period (military pike or lance vs civilian dagger). Civilian sidearms usually insert a small quantity of metal into the target with a relatively low total force. As such, they don't usually kill on a single hit, and they tend to be all or nothing--either they hit a vital spot and deliver a fatal wound, or they hit a non-vital spot but can't cause enough tissue damage to actually impair the target. Military weapons, on the other hand, insert larger amounts of metal into the target with much greater total force. If they hit a vital spot, then you get the same effect as a civilian sidearm--a fatal wound. The big difference comes when the weapon fails to hit a vital spot: unlike a civilian sidearm, a military weapon has sufficient damaging surface area and sufficient force to cause significant trauma to muscle tissue, tendons/cartilege/etc. and to bone. It may not kill you, but it very likely will either put you out of the fight or significantly impede your combat performance for the rest of the fight. Surviving a few hits from a civilian sidearm is not especially unusual. However, most combat-oriented RPGs deal mainly with military weapons, and surviving even one hit from such a weapon while still maintaining full combat effectiveness is--although by no means impossible--certainly quite unlikely.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="loseth, post: 4022536, member: 54535"] For those really interested in realism in combat, I'll just chime in with one important point that I find is often ignored in such debates: Military weapons and civilian sidearms are not the same. Not by a long shot. This is true of the modern age (military assault rifle or .50 cal sniper rifle vs civilian pistol), of the early modern period (military broadsword vs civilian rapier or smallsword) and of the medieval period (military pike or lance vs civilian dagger). Civilian sidearms usually insert a small quantity of metal into the target with a relatively low total force. As such, they don't usually kill on a single hit, and they tend to be all or nothing--either they hit a vital spot and deliver a fatal wound, or they hit a non-vital spot but can't cause enough tissue damage to actually impair the target. Military weapons, on the other hand, insert larger amounts of metal into the target with much greater total force. If they hit a vital spot, then you get the same effect as a civilian sidearm--a fatal wound. The big difference comes when the weapon fails to hit a vital spot: unlike a civilian sidearm, a military weapon has sufficient damaging surface area and sufficient force to cause significant trauma to muscle tissue, tendons/cartilege/etc. and to bone. It may not kill you, but it very likely will either put you out of the fight or significantly impede your combat performance for the rest of the fight. Surviving a few hits from a civilian sidearm is not especially unusual. However, most combat-oriented RPGs deal mainly with military weapons, and surviving even one hit from such a weapon while still maintaining full combat effectiveness is--although by no means impossible--certainly quite unlikely. [/QUOTE]

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