What Would be the Perfect Realistic-type Tabletop Game?

[Rhynn]

My point is that to defeat something as 'unrealistically' powerful as a dragon you have to use equally unrealistic elements to make the defeat believable.
Now Our Dragons Are Invincible is a perfectly good trope, but the setting should acknowledge that in a why haven't dragons taken over sort of way (yes there are lots of answers to that question IMHO the most interesting is 'They Have')

Obviously you'd want / need magic, although I should point out that dragons breathing fire (or anything) or even flying aren't a given (even in Middle Earth, the winged fire-drakes are the most terrifying dragons there are; the much more common cold drakes neither breathe fire nor fly). Intelligence isn't even a given. And without one or more, or even any, of those traits, they can still be dragons perfectly fine.

I'm not saying, though, that they need to lack any of that stuff.

Also, the flying is actually one of the easier bits to deal with - wing membranes aren't going to take terribly well to being pierced several times by javelins, arrows, or ballista bolts.

In Hârn, I'd start dealing with a dragon by finding a mage (Shek-Pvar) to enchant me an big fireproof shield and a long spear that can pierce armor... then maybe another 9 for a bunch of other guys... then either "clipping" its wings in flight or luring it into a confined space.

There's all sorts of "heroic" but not outrageous or cinematic ways, too - an ambush from under some water (possibly getting it in the throat or underside; even dragons will need to drink sometimes, most likely), etc.

According to Wikipedia, they were about 40 feet long and 13 feet high. That's quite sizable...maybe a difference in physiology allowed them to get so large without their internal organs exploding?

Haw. I get the feeling N. Robin Crosby must have based Hârnic dragon size on dinosaur size, now... since they generally don't exceed 40'.

You need really small amount of force to well, force the spear right trough human torso. 'Damage' is not really simple matter of force against most targets.

Yeah, apparently it takes surprisingly little force to penetrate the human body with a blade. Other than bone and hard cartilage, the skin offers the greatest resistance...

And piercing weapons won't go 'straight trough' actual mail. Accurately made mail can resist them pretty well, and there are records of men in mail unhorsed by the lance blow, but without actual wounds.

I was under the impression that depending on ring size and tip size ("armor-piercing" weapons tend to have really sharp tips), you could get an inch or so of penetration, which might be a nasty wound in the right place? (If it pierces the quilt backing.) It also seems that the mail will bunch around the tip, through, quite likely catching it and requiring some force to pull it free...

Not as a matter of course, obviously - you'd have to hit the ring pretty dead on, and that won't happen nearly every time.

Most hammers and maces aren't very heavy.

Aren't most one-handed "main weapons" pretty much 2-3 lbs. in weight? So 1-1.5 kg? Sword or axe or mace or hammer, that seems to be the average.

And yeah, hammers in particular rely on tiny contact area - as do most maces, they'd be either flanged or have tiny round heads (similar to modern retractable batons).