May I please have another weekend entirely about masturbating and thinking about D&D (lest you wonder these things aren’t related)? Next weekend I’m already planning to do my taxes, which is only KINDA like trying to hit something in 1e.
Long AD&D tangent
For the perplexed; 1-2e had AC opposite from now. Lower was better, so a PC might be AC 10 to 2 (then they introduced armors with even better AC). Monsters had arbitrary AC - the system didn’t really reflect armor wearing monsters. AD&D was rooted in historical wargames, so there was a chart of weapon modifiers to reflect that f’rex a bec de corbin or a falchion hit plate armor differently EXCEPT not only did AC not reflect armor type (that could be Dex, magic, arbitrary)…
Long AD&D tangent
@Leucrotta I had no idea! I didn't know anyone with 1e stuff when I was a kid. Part of me wonders if that wouldn't actually be kind of fun with some of the automation that Computers now offer. Just have the VTT calculate the bonuses and give the DM a little blurb about how certain attacks might go based on all that
re: Long AD&D tangent
@Lumin_esc I can only assume "this would be a great thing to automate" was a pretty logical next step to get to stuff like Zork or MUSHes. Everyone house ruled making attacks easier, and of course TSR's designers decided to simplify it as well eventually.
Long AD&D tangent
… but matching weapons vs armors from different periods and places wound up being arbitrary- Gygax liked “long swords” so they had huge bonuses. The chart also listed weapon speeds (f’rex a two handed sword is so slow you might attack at the end of the round even with good initiative rolls) and minimum space to use (no two handed swords in sewer fights). Only one player I know of used this chart, and even I gave up on it.