Ordinal Fallbacks

Game designers often lecture (or bemoan) that nobody can possibly make a realistic game, which sounds like giving up on a challenge nobody mentioned. The real challenge a game should attempt is keeping the ordinals in check.

If a sword deals 10 damage, that’s fine (what does it even mean to deal 10 damage?). If a player character punches someone for 10 damage, that’s fine too. People have a problem with the system when they deal 10 damage with a kick, then pick up a sword, and still deal 10 damage.

Whether the sword gives you +1 damage, +10 damage, or even +0 damage and +2 to hit doesn’t annoy anyone (aside from rare people, who were already annoyed by everything anyway).

The same goes for comparing weapons. People don’t much care how swords vs halberds work, but if one gives strictly better bonuses than the other, then the ordinals have been violated. Everyone knows that if all of Europe failed to identify an all-time ‘best ever weapon’ then most likely no weapon is the best.