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Every Damage Type Ever

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bottercot
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Hello,
Recently I've been culminating a list of every damage type ever. For each one I have a color to represent it as well.
Here is the list I have as of yet:

Impact (white)
This includes any damage coming from blunt objects, such as fists, clubs and boulders. This is basically all physical damage.

Puncture (black)
This includes anything pointy, from spears to shrapnel from grenades. This is all damage from things that pierce.

Slash (red)
This includes anything sharp, including such things as swords and axes. This is all damage from things that slice.

Heat (orange)
This includes anything hot, such as fire and sriracha sauce. This is all damage from things that burn.

Ailment (green)
This includes poison, disease, nausea, and any such thing. This is all damage that makes you sick.

Suffocation (blue)
Lack of oxygen, basically. This is all damage from things that make you cease to breathe.

Emotion (yellow)
Anything that hurts you emotionally. This is all damage that makes you cry or wish you were dead.

Mind (purple)
Anything that damages your brain's ability to work properly, or makes you unable to think straight. The name is dumb, I know. Please, I am open to suggestions.

NOTE: The names for Emotion and Mind are pending. The current names don't entirely fit; they feel awkward. Saying, "I deal 2d emotion damage to your character" just sounds weird. Suggestions for new names for these are welcome.

Special (offwhite, it was the only color of die I had left)
Basically, this color is for unique forms of damage that are only used in certain situations. i.e. arcane, cold, etc.

Here is the rubric I use to grade whether a suggestion merits its own damage type. All are graded out of 2:

a) Its effect and/or the way in which it damages the human body is unique and cannot be replicated by other damage types.

b) It is common enough to merit its own spot on the list.

c) It is something that causes actual damage to an individual. i.e. it would cause a unit's health to deplete.

d) It is useful in combination with other damage types to be able to recreate certain attacks. i.e. Ailment can be combined with Puncture to create poisoned arrows.

Usually, a suggestion has to get at least a 7/8 to count. Maybe a 6/8, but there are some other factors which matter.

In addition to these damage types is also a Shock effect which can be added to some attacks.

All of these damage types are meant to be combined in different ways to recreate certain things. Radiation is Heat + Ailment. A bullet from a gun is Puncture + Impact.

One other thing to mention is that the main point of all of these damage types has to do with defense. Just as each of these is a damage type, it is also a defense type. i.e. steel plate armor protects well against puncture and slash damage, but not really impact or any of the other damage types. An energy field protects against impact and heat really well, and possibly puncture and slash to an extent, but it is useless against ailment, emotion or mind damage.

These are all the damage types I have come up with, as well as those suggested by all of you that I have accepted. Are there any I possibly may have missed? It would be helpful to know!

Stormyknight1976
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How about

Biting?

I was going to put scratch or scratching but this is in the impact category with fists damage.

Jay103
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electric? cold? I'd be

electric?
cold?

I'd be willing to bet there's an online reference that contains all the D&D damage types..

In most systems, poison and disease are separated. They have different types of cures, and usually different time frames over which they act.

bottercot
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Biting falls under Puncture

Biting falls under Puncture damage, because teeth "puncture" things. Scratching would probably fall under Slash.
Electricity is basically just Heat, so it doesn't need its own category.
I considered Cold, but when does cold actually damage anything. When you're cold, you just sort of slow down. Unlike heat, which burns you, cold just sort of stops you.
Part of what I'm trying to do is create categories of damages that can be combined to create different things. Like, a sword could be a combination of Slash and Puncture damage.
A baster from Star Wars would be Heat and a little bit of Impact damage.
A gun would be a mix of Puncture and Impact, and explosives would be Impact, Heat and Puncture damage.
The main thing I'm looking for is any possible categories that I may have missed. For the sake of historical combat, I think I have caught most of them, but I'm also wondering about fantasy or sci-fi things that are commonly used.
I'm sorry if it's difficult for me to explain what I mean. :/

wob
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it really depends how much

it really depends how much you want to separate things. some games just have " damage"
others say "ranged" and " melee"
then others have loads. sentinels of the multivese has about 12 including psychic and sonic.

let-off studios
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Corrosives, et al

How would you classify acids or other corrosive substances?

Any thoughts on disintegration? Would that simply be high heat? Or maybe would you classify that as your catch-all "magical" effect?

I'd be concerned about a nuclear blast (heat) versus radiation poisoning (sickness) coming from the same kind of source, but causing different types of damage. Any thoughts on this combination?

Jay103
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Well, electricity isn't

Well, electricity isn't really just heat.. it's not a laser. That would be heat. If you get hit by lightning, you don't die of burns.

And cold can literally kill you.. or make you lose fingers, etc. It's not as obvious in terms of "hit points" how you'd do it, but still.

let-off studios
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Cold Damage = Rapid Freeze

bottercot wrote:
I considered Cold, but when does cold actually damage anything. When you're cold, you just sort of slow down. Unlike heat, which burns you, cold just sort of stops you.
Freezing, frostbite, and death by cold are typically caused by liquids crystallizing inside the body. I do think you should reconsider this as its own damage type. It's discrete and radically different from anything else you have on the chart at the moment.

Cold damage might be some form of "petrification," but that could be confused/combined with magical effects.

let-off studios
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Decoding Damage Types

wob wrote:
it really depends how much you want to separate things [...] sentinels of the multivese has about 12 including psychic and sonic.
Codifying this is actually kind of fun.

For example, I'd classify sonic damage (as seen in Sentinels) as Blunt damage, as it's sound waves that batter you.

Psionic/psychic damage could be interpreted as a Piercing, Slashing, or Blunt damage, depending on the desired effect, combined with Magical.

Fri
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Mental Damage(pink)

How about mental damage. Basically any type of psychological trauma that would inhibit normal function.

evansmind244
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Sound?

Sound is debilitating and can easily stop an attack. May go along with psychological/mental damage. Now days we have devices that scatter crowds or stop pirate attacks.

Mosker
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Sound+

evansmind244 wrote:
Sound is debilitating and can easily stop an attack. May go along with psychological/mental damage. Now days we have devices that scatter crowds or stop pirate attacks.

I like this. Think about waves (of all types), vibrations--and not just against living tissue, but structures.

Taavet
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Sound also!

I was going to add sound, but others beat me to it.

Sonic weapons, concussive force. I guess it could be impact, you just can't see what's impacting you.

Maybe radiation separate from sickness?

Sunburn
Radioactive materials
Microwave

What about phantom pains? Just like mental. Mind over matter is a real thing and people get damaged from stress, just like a placebo can make you feel better.

apeloverage
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Jay103 wrote:I'd be willing

Jay103 wrote:
I'd be willing to bet there's an online reference that contains all the D&D damage types..

https://open5e.com/combat/damage-and-healing.html

Tim Edwards
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Crushing It's not really the

Crushing

It's not really the same as blunt impact trauma. Then bite would be a combination of crush and puncture.

bottercot
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Oh My Goodness

A lot to reply to! I will try to answer as many suggestions as I can.
@Wob - The damage types I'm trying to list have to do with ways the human body takes damage.
@Let-Off Studios Q1 - Acids would fall under Heat. Disintegration would be very extreme heat. Radiation would be a combination of heat and Sickness.
@Jay103 & Let-Off Studios - I'm not sure about how to handle these. I have a second effect called "Stun" which isn't a form of damage, but instead is just anything that immobilizes but doesn't damage, so I might just put cold and electricity under that blanket. Idk how to handle those tbh.
@Fri - This is actually a damage type I've decided to add. I'm calling it "Trauma", and it encompasses both mental and emotional pain.
@evansmind244 & Mosker - I might put this under Trauma as it hurts your brain.
@Taavet - Again, I'm trying to be very general with damage. Combinations of different types are completely possible. Sunburn is Heat. Radiation is a combo of Sickness and Heat, maybe with lasting effects. Radioactive materials are Heat, as are Microwaves. Phantom pains fall under the new Trauma damage type.
@Tim Edwards - I have been thinking about some sort of internal damage type, but I can't think of what to call it. "Crushing" may work, but it's still very similar to Impact, which encompasses basically all physical blunt damage.

bottercot
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I've thought more about the

I've thought more about the internal damage type, and I'm thinking I may be able to throw Cold under its name, since cold damages your insides, and also possibly electricity, since it harms your nerves.
Another idea I have is that maybe internal damage is the result of other damages. Impact breaks your bones, causing internal damage. Puncture damages organs and blood vessels, causing internal damage. Being Heated over a slow fire probably cooks your insides as well.
If each damage is represented with a die roll, and defense is represented the same way, any damage that gets through would harm you. Perhaps cold and electricity would have the ability to surpass this die roll.
Another option would be to throw these under the Special damage category that I think I may add, which would encompass anything that is unique and hard to counter.

bottercot
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Edited the first post

I edited the first post to be a bit more clear on what I'm going for, and I also added the damage types you all suggested and I agreed on.

X3M
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Here are a few

So, do these have to be realistic? Or are some scifi allowed?

Anything related to space-time bending or other physics effects:
-Graviton waves; bending space in such a way that parts of the body are smaller or enlarged. In other words, pushed together or ripped apart.
-Chrono particles; accelerating or stopping time in parts of the body.
-Gravity; suddenly increasing the gravity on certain parts of the body.
-Super magnetism; extracting electrons from the body. Also known as reversed radiation of the gamma kind.
-Magnet mine field; where tiny pellets of iron are laying on a field of electronic magnets. Once activated, the pellets shoot upwards. But can even be pulled down with a greater force.

Another one that fits in the air pressure category:
-Vacuum blasts; where the air pressure suddenly drops to 0. It is so sudden, that gasses are released in the blood. Diver sickness effects.

-BEMP; like an EMP, but than biological added to it. It simply resets the nerves. But any victim will be paralysed for a short time. Including biological functions like the heart.

bottercot
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No, no, I'm not getting

No, no, I'm not getting nearly that specific. I think all of those would fall under the "Special" damage category.
I am allowing sci-fi in a way, but not with specific damage types only for sci-fi, if that makes sense.
The Special damage category is really nice for this kind of thing.
All of those examples you give are a little specific. Did you base them off of something?
Air pressure is interesting. I wonder if it could fall under "internal damage". Again, I might make that its own damage type, but it's still a bit weird.

AdamRobinGames-ARG
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You could break Trauma into two types

Your Trauma could be broken into 2 different damage types. Keep the Trauma related to more emotional things (incendiary pigs, losing units [PTSD], demoralization type stuff). The other could be more neurological damage (brain damage, psychotropic or neurological drugs/plants/poisons/toxins, sanity, etc.)

Isegrim
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I hear you are not grown up

I hear you are not grown up in the north of the wall ...

Isegrim
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Dehydration and starvation,

Dehydration and starvation, but you could say you already covered these within the one you got.

Tim Edwards
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AdamRobinGames-ARG wrote:Your

AdamRobinGames-ARG wrote:
Your Trauma could be broken into 2 different damage types. Keep the Trauma related to more emotional things (incendiary pigs, losing units [PTSD], demoralization type stuff). The other could be more neurological damage (brain damage, psychotropic or neurological drugs/plants/poisons/toxins, sanity, etc.)

I agree. I don't think you can make emotional trauma and a concussion the same. As it stands, I am more vulnerable to the effects of a stun grenade if I've recently received bad news about my grandmother.

bottercot
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Should the BGDF add a character limit?

@AdamRobinGames-ARG - I could. Not sure what I would call each, but might be interesting. A character could have an emotionless personality which makes them immune to emotional damage, but not to mental damage.

@Isegrim - Starvation. I'm not sure about this. It's certainly a damage type, but I'm not sure if it's significant enough to merit it being its own category. Maybe Special damage? I'm not sure. Dehydration is a somewhat similar case. It's not exactly heat, though maybe it could cause a stroke. I might but it under Ailment, and maybe do the same with starvation, since both make the body unhealthy and can cause death. It's a bit abstract, but whatever.
A certain balance needs to be made between covering everything and having too many damage types.

@Tim Edwards - Concussions would be a mixture of Trauma damage and Stun. By stun grenade, do you mean a flashbang? Because that would purely be Stun, I think.
You do bring up a valid point with the way in which emotion is different than mental damage. Again, I think it's about striking the balance between too many damage types and not enough to cover everything important.

The main things that determine whether something deserves its own damage type are:
a) Its effect and/or the way in which it damages the human body is unique and cannot be replicated by other damage types.
b) It is common enough to merit its own spot on the list.
c) It is something that causes actual damage to an individual. i.e. it would cause a unit's health to deplete.
d) It is useful in combination with other damage types to be able to recreate certain attacks. i.e. Ailment can be combined with Puncture to create poisoned arrows. For instance:

Impact:
a) It flattens and crushes human bones and limbs. 2/2
b) Maces, clubs, wrecking balls, boulders, and anything travelling fast fall under this category. 2/2
c) It literally breaks bones, so it definitely qualifies. 2/2
d) Impact + Puncture creates bullets. Impact + Heat creates explosions. Very useful as a damage type. 2/2

Heat:
a) It burns off skin and melts stuff. 2/2
b) Fire, explosions, heat waves, lightsabers and energy blasts all fall under this category. 2/2
c) It burns and melts human parts, so it definitely damages. 2/2
d) Heat + Impact creates explosions. Heat + Puncture creates flaming arrows. 2/2
Here are a few that didn't make the cut:

Radiation:
a) Isotopes cause poisoning in the blood (or something), and it can burn human skin. This is the same as Heat and Ailment, so it is not unique. 0/2
b) Nukes. Nuclear meltdowns. Maybe some things in sci-fi, but really not many things fall in this category. Radiation is not a super common thing. 1/2
c) It definitely damages the human body in a real way. 2/2
d) Ehh... Not really. 0/2

Electricity:
a) Damages nerves and burns off hair. It's sort of Heat, and could be explained with Stun. Maybe even Trauma. 1/2
b) Magical spells, broken wires, and perhaps sci-fi weaponry fall under this category. Electricity is pretty common in fantasy for some reason, but not as much sci-fi or historical situations. 1/2
c) It messes up nerves, which is not exactly damage in a hitpoints way. The heat is certainly damage, though. 2/2
d) Not many things this can be combined with. It's kind of its own thing and object. 0/2

Cold:
a) Freezes fluids in the body. Causes hypothermia and frostbite. 2/2
b) Freezing spells, Canada and basically anything extremely cold falls under this category. Weather effects can utilize this, but it is not nearly as common as other existing damage types. 2/2
c) It's not completely a literal "damage", except where frostbite is concerned. In most minor cases cold is not a lasting impact, and can go away once one finds a toasty fire. 1/2
d) Mostly fantasy items, I would say, can utilize combinations with Cold. i.e. ice sword (cold + slash), frostburn spell (cold + heat), and pretty much any combination because fantasy makes no sense. 2/2

This is the grading system I use to determine what merits its own spot. As a final one, I'll grade Trauma as two separate damage types: Emotional and Mental.

Emotional:
a) Nothing can replicate the pain of losing a friend or getting a 99.99% on a test (where did you go wrong?). 2/2
b) In large scale battles and dramatic adventures, emotion is certainly a big thing, although having emotional damage is another level of complexity that may be partially unnecessary. 2/2
c) It's certainly an unconventional damage, but it sort of is. It can certainly be more painful than other damage types. 2/2
d) It doesn't really combine with any other damages. 0/2

Mental:
a) The way in which it damages is kind of similar to emotion. It torments one's brain, damaging one's ability to move or do anything. 1/2
b) It is a bit difficult to define, in whether it's physical damage or psychic damage. However, such things as soundwaves, hard blows to the head, Math diplomas, and things in sci-fi could utilize this. 2/2
c) Again, it's not super defined, but it sort of counts as damage maybe. 1/2
d) Doesn't really combine with any other damages, except maybe Emotional, which is why I would like to combine them into one type. 0/2

So this is what I have done to decide. I will add a rubric to the original post for reference.
Also, thank you to you all for the feedback! It's really been super helpful!

Fri
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Entrapment?

Entrapment as a type of damage. I am not sure about this one. The example I keep coming back to is being stuck in a net. It does impair the ability to move. It doesn't really fit neatly into on one of the other damage categories. But, is it really a type of damage at all?

bottercot
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@Fri - From now on, I'll use

@Fri - From now on, I'll use my grading system to explain my thoughts.

Entrapment:
a)It's not exactly 'damage', as you said. 0/2
b) Nets are pretty common, as are other forms in which one traps themselves. 1/2
c) Entrapment doesn't really damage at all, unfortunately. 0/2
d) Being trapped in a net of sharp things like wires can certainly create combinations. Still though, it's not super versatile. 1/2
Thank you for the suggestion, though. I really appreciate it!

Jay103
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Lol emotional damage

Lol emotional damage

I haven't played in decades, but Call of C'thulu had sanity damage (basically)

Tim Edwards
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bottercot

bottercot wrote:
@AdamRobinGames-ARG - I could. Not sure what I would call each, but might be interesting. A character could have an emotionless personality which makes them immune to emotional damage, but not to mental damage.

@Isegrim - Starvation. I'm not sure about this. It's certainly a damage type, but I'm not sure if it's significant enough to merit it being its own category. Maybe Special damage? I'm not sure. Dehydration is a somewhat similar case. It's not exactly heat, though maybe it could cause a stroke. I might but it under Ailment, and maybe do the same with starvation, since both make the body unhealthy and can cause death. It's a bit abstract, but whatever.
A certain balance needs to be made between covering everything and having too many damage types.

@Tim Edwards - Concussions would be a mixture of Trauma damage and Stun. By stun grenade, do you mean a flashbang? Because that would purely be Stun, I think.
You do bring up a valid point with the way in which emotion is different than mental damage. Again, I think it's about striking the balance between too many damage types and not enough to cover everything important.

The main things that determine whether something deserves its own damage type are:
a) Its effect and/or the way in which it damages the human body is unique and cannot be replicated by other damage types.
b) It is common enough to merit its own spot on the list.
c) It is something that causes actual damage to an individual. i.e. it would cause a unit's health to deplete.
d) It is useful in combination with other damage types to be able to recreate certain attacks. i.e. Ailment can be combined with Puncture to create poisoned arrows. For instance:

Impact:
a) It flattens and crushes human bones and limbs. 2/2
b) Maces, clubs, wrecking balls, boulders, and anything travelling fast fall under this category. 2/2
c) It literally breaks bones, so it definitely qualifies. 2/2
d) Impact + Puncture creates bullets. Impact + Heat creates explosions. Very useful as a damage type. 2/2

Heat:
a) It burns off skin and melts stuff. 2/2
b) Fire, explosions, heat waves, lightsabers and energy blasts all fall under this category. 2/2
c) It burns and melts human parts, so it definitely damages. 2/2
d) Heat + Impact creates explosions. Heat + Puncture creates flaming arrows. 2/2
Here are a few that didn't make the cut:

Radiation:
a) Isotopes cause poisoning in the blood (or something), and it can burn human skin. This is the same as Heat and Ailment, so it is not unique. 0/2
b) Nukes. Nuclear meltdowns. Maybe some things in sci-fi, but really not many things fall in this category. Radiation is not a super common thing. 1/2
c) It definitely damages the human body in a real way. 2/2
d) Ehh... Not really. 0/2

Electricity:
a) Damages nerves and burns off hair. It's sort of Heat, and could be explained with Stun. Maybe even Trauma. 1/2
b) Magical spells, broken wires, and perhaps sci-fi weaponry fall under this category. Electricity is pretty common in fantasy for some reason, but not as much sci-fi or historical situations. 1/2
c) It messes up nerves, which is not exactly damage in a hitpoints way. The heat is certainly damage, though. 2/2
d) Not many things this can be combined with. It's kind of its own thing and object. 0/2

Cold:
a) Freezes fluids in the body. Causes hypothermia and frostbite. 2/2
b) Freezing spells, Canada and basically anything extremely cold falls under this category. Weather effects can utilize this, but it is not nearly as common as other existing damage types. 2/2
c) It's not completely a literal "damage", except where frostbite is concerned. In most minor cases cold is not a lasting impact, and can go away once one finds a toasty fire. 1/2
d) Mostly fantasy items, I would say, can utilize combinations with Cold. i.e. ice sword (cold + slash), frostburn spell (cold + heat), and pretty much any combination because fantasy makes no sense. 2/2

This is the grading system I use to determine what merits its own spot. As a final one, I'll grade Trauma as two separate damage types: Emotional and Mental.

Emotional:
a) Nothing can replicate the pain of losing a friend or getting a 99.99% on a test (where did you go wrong?). 2/2
b) In large scale battles and dramatic adventures, emotion is certainly a big thing, although having emotional damage is another level of complexity that may be partially unnecessary. 2/2
c) It's certainly an unconventional damage, but it sort of is. It can certainly be more painful than other damage types. 2/2
d) It doesn't really combine with any other damages. 0/2

Mental:
a) The way in which it damages is kind of similar to emotion. It torments one's brain, damaging one's ability to move or do anything. 1/2
b) It is a bit difficult to define, in whether it's physical damage or psychic damage. However, such things as soundwaves, hard blows to the head, Math diplomas, and things in sci-fi could utilize this. 2/2
c) Again, it's not super defined, but it sort of counts as damage maybe. 1/2
d) Doesn't really combine with any other damages, except maybe Emotional, which is why I would like to combine them into one type. 0/2

So this is what I have done to decide. I will add a rubric to the original post for reference.
Also, thank you to you all for the feedback! It's really been super helpful!

You might want to rethink your 'puncture' vs 'slash' rubrics then. An animal bite has more in common with a sword slash wound than it does with a gunshot wound, but your system gives both animal bite and gunshot wound 'puncture' damage. It seems a bit arbitrary to me. First Aid manuals make the distinction between puncture and gashes for convenience because there are generally different methods for patching them up - but are they really different categories for your purposes?

In other words, under your system I do puncture damage if I poke you in the leg with a box cutter, but if I then draw the box cutter 4 inches along, I move into a whole new damage category (slash.) Is that a useful distinction while elsewhere you have conceded to combining some quite different damage types in order to keep the number of rubrics down?

bottercot
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The way I picture it is that

The way I picture it is that slashing a sword across someone's belly is different than thrusting a spear into it (this is a strange conversation).
A bite from an animal could be a combination of Slash and Puncture damage.
The distinction has to be in place or else there won't be any difference between an axe and a spear.
The other main reason has to do with armor. Chainmale is very effective against a slash from a sword. However, it is not nearly as effective against a poke from a spear. Plate armor is the same way, except way more effective against both.
It's for reasons like this that I want those two distinguished. It allows me to make armor with different defenses against different attacks.
I understand the concern with this. Stabbing and slashing are quite similar. However, for the purpose of adding more diversity in mundane historical weapons, I want to have this distinguishment.
I realize it's a bit hypocritical. It's more of a personal preference, if anything.

bottercot
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The combat is not going to be

The combat is not going to be overly complicated. In fact, I may just keep it as opposing die rolls, since most of the emphasis will be on damage types. Any weapons with the ability to slash or puncture will have a combo of both as their attack.
i.e. sword is 2d slash, 1d puncture, since you mainly slash but you can also stab.

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