Editing Hit Effect Vs Hit Damage (section)

==Stopping Power vs Lethality==

In order to understand the difference between Hit Effect and Damage we must think in terms of Stopping Power besides Lethality: many lethal wounds do not instantly kill or even disable the target, they being capable of fighting for a short time; similarly there are many non-lethal wounds which knock out the target at once, rendering them helpless.

Some examples (note that I'm no expert and they might be inacurate):

*Lethal and Stopping Wound: Beheading
*Lethal but Non-stopping Wound: Puncturating kidney
*Non-lethal but Stopping Wound: Head sapping
*Non-lethal and Non-stopping Wound: Punching

Obviously both Lethality and Stopping Power are no all or nothing concepts, we should rather refer to High or Low Lethality or Stopping Power hits. Crude, blunt weapons tend to be more stopping than lethal, whereas low-caliber firearms can have a relatively low stopping power but be highly lethal.

So, now that we have introduced both concepts, it's easy to relate them to the Hit Effect vs Hit Damage paradigm:

*Stopping Power ---> Hit Effect (during combat)
*Lethality ---> Hit Damage (after combat)