So combat in a game is important, however I really don’t like huge damage ranges with weapons. D&D is bad in that respects, if you hit someone way is there the chance that you could only do one damage, I suppose it could be a slight scratch but why do you still get all the strength bonuses to such trivial damage?

So in my RPG survival/horror game the damage will be pretty consent, or at lest there will be no “damage” rolls. I think the best way to handle this is to have damage based on how well you hit the target and what you hit them with. For example if you aim at someone’s torso, and you get a direct hit then you deal full damage. If however you miss slightly but sill hit the torso they may deal half damage to the torso. If they miss entirely but still hit the target (they hay hit the opponents arm or something) they may deal a quarter damage to whatever part of the body they manage to hit.

I think player could use this to their advantage, by knowing how much damage they will most likely take they can better prepare themselves in combat. However, I think balancing how much damage is dealt could a problem – you don’t want players to be taken down in one hit as you always want them to have a second chance, even in survival/horror games.