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Damage Types:

Although there are variable and variables to spare, you can break the damaging attacks of an edged weapon down into three pretty broad categories: Chop, Slash and Thrust. You can also bash with an edged weapon, but you aren't really using it as an edged weapon at that point. Arguably every weapon should have the option to Bash, with the effectiveness based on the characteristics of that weapon.

(Descriptions are, of course, somewhat simplified)
A chop is when the edge connects more-or-less straight, with the force going inwards towards the target - the blade is driven into the target. Chopping attacks are tighter than slashes and create deeper, if smaller, wounds.
A slash is when the blade is primarily moving across the target, and the cutting action is caused by the blade slicing the target as it travels across. Slashing attacks create the largest possible wound sizes, but they are often shallower and require large movements to execute.
A thrust is when the weapon is inserted into the target point first, using its point to part the target and allow the blade entry for a significant length. Thrusts are good at penetrating armor and have a greater chance of an instantly fatal wound, but produce less bleeding than chops or slashes.
A bash is any blunt force attack made with the weapon; with a sword this would usually be using the pommel as the contact point, but it could be elsewhere. Bashes bypass most armor and cause concussion damage instead of bleeding.

Each of these broad damage forms corresponds roughly to a type of attack and weapon handling. In general, I think the wielder of the weapon should have the choice of which attack form to use, with the different damage types causing different wounding effects. Most weapons are best at only one or two damage types - the Katana (my own personal weapon of choice) would come out strong on the slash, weaker on everything else. Other weapons wouldn't be able to do some damage types at all. In game system terms, this helps to give weapons more meaningful differences other than just a single pure damage statistic: when fighting an unarmored opponent you might use a slashing attack for maximum damage, but if your opponent has chain mail on you'll have to switch to thrusting (or precision slashing, but I'll cover that later) which your weapon might be much worse at.

Just like weapons have strengths and weaknesses in various damage types, so does armor; chain armor is excellent against slashing attacks, only decent against thrusts and not very good at all against crushing. Most armor doesn't provide equal coverage to the entire body - a mail hauberk may leave the lower arms and legs exposed, and a cuirass leaves the limbs with weaker protections than the torso. There should be some ability to choose not only your attack type but the general target of your attack, with corresponding adjustments to the difficulty of the attack and its results.
The proposed level of detail would be something I'd like forward to in a video game. As of now, I have worries as to our ability to create mechanics that will make the suggested distinction more than a minor benefit.

I have always had an interest in games where I could target specific areas. Thus far, after the many I've encountered, none of them have done the idea justice. The rule of thumb is to always aim at the head. With the ability to armour body parts, this would merely change the dynamic to aiming at the least armoured place.

To my knowledge, mail is quite good armour, and isn't weak against penetration. Swords, arrows, spears and lances have difficulty with mail. The weapons which do not have difficulty penetrating mail, are made for the destruction of armour. Mail's failing against these weapons should not be attributed as weakness, but instead that the weapons in question are impressive.
Even bashing, championed as the nemesis of mail, has not been effective in testing as would be expected. Since mail is always used with padding, with rare exceptions, the benefits were not so strong as expected.


With a computer to manage the numbers, I think detailing this would be a very worth-while endeavor. For now, I'm unsure about these options being applied in a tabletop game.