How does it feel to get cut by a sword or getting shoot?

[RhombusHatesYou]

Try to avoid getting stabbed. Pro tip.

Nah, Pro Tip is "If there's a stabbing, better to be the stabber than the stabbee."


OT:
Both types of wounds differ from things like how and where and what with and then vary even further depending on the physiology of the wounded person.

Basically, once your body realises it's badly wounded the typical reaction is a weird mixture of severe pain, a 'frozen splash of piss down your spine' as your adrenal system amps up to overload and a weird feeling of disconnection as your brain tries to stop processing all the incoming unpleasant nerve impulses.

 

[Shadeovblack]

The best way I've found to make combat more "gritty", is to reduce PC hit points and then give PCs health points below zero, at which point all they can do is lie there, or maybe try to crawl away. So if they get hit, they're down but still have to get to -10 HP before they are actually dead.

 

[RatRace123]

I've been stabbed and slashed with a knife, by myself on accident but I think it still counts.
It basically just hurts, the initial cut hurts well enough, but the stinging, burning after pain is worse.

Granted, the only thing that's ever felt my slashy stabby wrath is my hands, so I'm not sure what it feels like on other body parts.

But, as I said my experiences with getting cut were an accident and with a knife. With a sword, or getting shot, in a combat situation. I'd imagine it to be damn near crippling after one good strike.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I almost sliced my thumb off once. I flayed off a few layers of skin by accident while chopping vegetables, and it hurt like crazy for weeks. I've still got the scar from it.

That' about as far as my mangling injuries go however.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I sliced my little finger off and part of my ringfinger off when I was younger (not on purpose of course). It hurt, a lot, I couldn't really concentrate on anything else, and I passed out. I think there was a tiny bit of time before it hurt, but only for a fraction of a second.

 

[Sonicron]

Well, I participated in a few duels of academic fencing, which basically means trying to cut the other guy's head with a razor-sharp sword. From the two slashes I sustained I learned the following:
- In addition to sharpness, the angle of the blade determines the degree of initial pain (perfect 90 degree angle hurts the least).
- It is quite possible to keep your wits about you after being wounded, possibly allowing for a quick and accurate counterattack.
- Even though it may only be a shallow cut, a freely bleeding head wound is enough to 'cripple' you in game terms, as the flow of blood severely impairs your eyesight.

Oh yeah, and make sure your doctor/healer isn't the mischievous kind. The old codger who stitched me back up sewed a wooden button on top of my head. (Yes, this actually happened in real life. )

 

[lacktheknack]

I've dropped a knife on my foot. ;_;

It's sort of a surreal and squicky serrated scratching feeling, like how you'd imagine it feels to a steak when you cut through the more stubborn fibers. Your heart kinda stops as you parse what just happened, and then... PAIN! It's sort of like a red hot something being shoved into your flesh.

Thank heavens it only glanced off my foot... I'd hate to think of what would have happened if it hit me straight on. I limped for three days after.

 

[Magicmad5511]

I'm gonna take a guess and say not pleasant.

OK seriously. I have never been stabbed or shot but what I can work out from books and films is a sword hurts enough to cripple a person from the pain. This can then be further manipulated though to increase pain.

A bullet hurts even worse with the pain being enough to stop a person in there tracks and possibly knock them unconscious from pain, which I believe is why people who are shot seem to die immediately.

I could be wrong but this is what I think.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

... Try to avoid getting stabbed. Pro tip.

LOL!

I've never been shot or stabbed. But from what I've heard, being shot is like getting hit really freakin' hard. Getting stabbed is supposed to be painless for a few seconds and then it's supposed to be really really painful.

 

[matt_newgrove]

You're lucky to be alive, bro. A katana is folded over 10,000,000 times because the metal is so pure. They can cut through a tank with ease.

It might be the sleep deprivation talking, but I think that might be the best thing I've read all week!

A katana is folded over 10,000,000 times because the metal is so pure. They can cut through a tank with ease.

... ?! *shrug* The steel in katanas is only folded eight to twelve times (sixteen at most), any more and the steel becomes too homogenous and there is no point crafting a blade from it (i.e. edge is too soft, spine is too brittle).

PROTIP: I think you missed the point.

 

[Erana]

I was shot in the kneecap with a pistol once.
It hurt REALLY FUCKING BAD.

Aaaand there's my nightmare for tonight.

That being said, OP, if you want to get a better idea of what its like to be in the action, go find a local fencing group or something and ask to give it a try. Its not really all that dangerous, but you usually will wind up with some smart bruises, and it would be a good point to find out at what point you can easily ignore pain and when it starts to bother you in a fast-paced situation.

And, of course, play with some swords. Just don't let them know you're doing this for anything roleplay-related. Lots of fencers dislike anything that reminds them too much of lARPers.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Get cut by a knife is really strange, it feels almost like nothing for a second until the pain sears through the wound. I've been attacked by a guy with a knife and I found it most... displeasing. The blade felt like it just cut through every bit of flesh like butter which then lead to the inevitable bleeding. I've never seen so much blood before.

Pretty much this.

Getting cut barely feels like anything at first. Just a slight stinging/burning sensation, which grows in intensity as time goes by. Along with the "wetness" of you leaking blood of course.

Getting stabbed hurts more though. Mainly because the blade penetrates so deeply. I got stabbed in the upper part of my ribcage once (thankfully though, the blade got lodged between two of my ribs so it didn't go all the way down to mu lung) and that hurt like hell and was nowhere near as trivial as a simple cut/laceration.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I got a paper cut... stung like a *****.

Yeah, I'm feeling really inadequate for this topic. And lucky... mostly lucky.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Sword...Second long spike of pain and then the pain replaced by slow numbing cold.
Being Shot...pretty similar.

If you want to get close to the level of pain without permanently injuring yourself, find a hair around your ankles, nose and tug hard.

Now put ice directly onto that.

If you can imagine the hair pain upgrades with the size of the wound, then you've basically got it.

(Background: I've taken head wounds three times, drove a spike through my foot, been hit in the face with a metal bar, headbutted, tore three muscles and broke two bones.)

If you're already running/fighting though, imagine hanging a bag of ice directly off the area with a meat hook - which then tears open as you stop.

RPG rules are VERY VERY light on how much swords damage you. Any properly landed blow should cause a CON check against the damage, lose that round and make a DEX check to stay upright - with a permanent wound penalty of the damage until bandaged, and then it drops to half; repairing at the cost of 1 point per day's R&R.

Being shot has three basic results: Instant Death, Slow debilitating wound (-1 to all rolls cumulative) or no effect.

Saving Private Ryan has quite an accurate portrayal of war, if not the nationalities of those involved.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Very painful. I had a small wooden spike go through my foot and had to have it removed without freezing my foot. That hurt ridiculously. Using that as a standard, I'm probably guessing it's about eight times worse.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

RPG rules are VERY VERY light on how much swords damage you. Any properly landed blow should cause a CON check against the damage, lose that round and make a DEX check to stay upright - with a permanent wound penalty of the damage until bandaged, and then it drops to half; repairing at the cost of 1 point per day's R&R.

I don't know how you reached that conclusion, but if it's from being accidentally hurt then I should tell you that being hurt in a fight and being hurt outside of one are two very different things.

I've been kicked, punched, cut and even stabbed fighting against one or several opponents. The adrenaline really tend to take the edge of the immediate pain even to the point where you don't even feel it.

In fact, in regards to my anecdote about being stabbed in the ribs, the real pain didn't set in until afterwards where I had to pull the blade lodged in my ribs out. By then I had time to think and reflect of what had happened, and that's when the real pain sets in.

But "during" the actual fight, you'd have to sustain an injury that knocks you out cold immdiately (we're talking excessive force here in the realm of being smacked across the head with a club or a warhammer or getting your head chopped off completely with a sword or axe), most people can take a rather high level of punishment as long as the damages don't cause immediate organ failure that is.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I don't know how you reached that conclusion,

Taking an elbow to the face from the guy in front of me.

but if it's from being accidentally hurt then I should tell you that being hurt in a fight and being hurt outside of one are two very different things.

You mean the bit above where you quoted. Yeah, dealt with that. What it feels like and what it does to your body though are two very different things.

PCP yourself and you'll keep going at no wound penalties at all. But you'll be losing hitpoints permanently.

But, if you get a "stunning" result, even if that's only a backhand - the next good hit will floor you. Hollywood tends to use this as the "blood" moment, where the hero spits blood.

That's what's really represented in Hitpoints - rather than the Structural Damage Capacity of someone, it's the ability to lessen a killer blow. If you're asleep, or being sniped at, or being gassed...it really doesn't matter how many hit-points you have: You're toast.

Case in point: Chap in town here was kicking off outside the local "rough" pub. One guy brought a machete. Chap raises his arm to protect himself - slice - plop goes the arm.

At that moment, he's not worrying about hit points, or Dex penalties or even his attacker - he's looking at his arm. You could push him over with a feather at that point.

It's only the adrenaline keeping people going. Once that goes, they drop.

And a bottle to the back of the head drops anyone, no exceptions.

 

[ChaoticKraus]

I've been lightly cut in my forearm once. It's a very weird kind of pain. At first there was this flash of sudden hurt, kinda like putting your hand on a stove. After that i felt nothing for half a minute and then the pain gradually appeared. I felt like there was someone gnawing at the insides of my arm, kinda freaky.

Broken bones generates some kind of throbbing ache, if you move it it feels like someone set fire to the part in question.

I've only been punched in three places, the head, the gut and the chest. The chest blow was no big deal, it knocks you off balance but didn't hurt very much. Getting hit in the head stunned me, white light, head jerks off to the side and i got a momentary blackout. I returned to my senses pretty quick but i had a headache that persisted for a day or two. Getting hit in the gut feels pretty freaking bad. Imagine choking and trying to vomit coupled with intense pain deep inside your innards.

That's all the wound experience i have when it comes to fighting. I always try to defuse the situation before anything happens.

 

[OldRat]

You're description are actually very helpful, so no need to apologize The system I am using is Exalted by White Wolf, so perhaps a bit obscure (at least the game is around my part of the world), but if you have stuff for that then that would be great!

Oh, well good then! I know of Exalted, yeah. Haven't played it, but I guess it's kind of a different beast to my usual fare. Still, if you want to make combat seem less appealing, do emphasize the brutality, the chaos, the ugliness of it. There's some very simple reasons why real people in real life don't want to get down and dirty unless they have to, and that's the fact you quite literally live by, die by and live with the direct consequences of your actions. Just a tiny little mistake and it could be all over. There's so many other ways that could be so much better.
If you're brutal enough, hammer them down hard a few times if they're too eager to fight. That always works. Hit them and make it hurt. They'll start looking at combat as a more serious thing.

And since this is Exalted, I guess being shot at with arrows is actually relevant! And I've been shot with an arrow (which had to do with a neighborhood bow hunter, the really overkill draw strenght requirements of any bow used to hunt even small game and me being where I really shouldn't have been).
The thing about arrows is, when one hits you, it will punch. A lot. Bullets, at least certain bullets, don't discharge all their energy on you on impact (some are designed to, for stopping power), they go through you and much less kinetic force hits you than is retained by the bullet. But when an arrow hits you, it will punch. The shaft, shaking every which way, will actually enhance that. There's a very strong impact. And there's a certain interesting aspect to it, too.
You see, a strong bow hits with so much force it won't just incapacitate a certain part of you. It will incapacitate you as a whole. Getting hit by a properly loosed arrow will make you fall, unless you take it in the arm or somesuch. The force of impact will simply make your muscles stop functioning for a bit. You'll fall over, even if the shot shouldn't have made you drop. Unless you're freakishly tough or something, I guess. It just feels like this really strong, really painful impact on your body, and suddenly you're toppling down. It makes getting shot with an arrow even more distressing, really.

And blunt weapons hurt in all the ways of their own. In both better and worse ways.