NFRs2000NYC
Caught the Bug
Up front, you're more likely to blow a u-joint than to break a shaft. Assuming this is what you break, you are EXTREMELY likely to take out your ball joints and then you're really shit out of luck. Assuming you break at the shaft, you're more than likely to bind up and break your ring and pinion. Breaking a rear shaft isn't as likely to happen for MOST people but again, if you were to keep driving with one that is broken, you will most likely bind things up and break your ring and pinion. That would be really bad. You really need to pull what's broken to help prevent further damage.
I guess those of us that have never broken a shaft don't really know what it takes to break a shaft, so it's hard to gauge when that breaking point is. You say "someone that doesn't have the tools has no business doing shaft breaking things" and I totally get that, but it's hard to know how far you can go.