Revisting an old problem: THAC0 WTF?

[Noneoyabizzness]

It just depends on your own experience. For a long while I considered it "unintuitive" or "unnatural", so I was surprised to discover that my girlfriend found THAC0 a much easier concept than AB. Similarly, I was surprised to find people who really found THAC0 a hard concept even after explaining it in the simplest possible terms I could think of. As with preferences towards games, not everybody is the same, what is unintuitive for one, may be intuitive for another.

As I mentioned above, though, THAC0 is just one step ahead of AB, giving you the target number for armour class 0, rather than the number to add.

A) D20/3e = 1D20 + modified attack bonus = target armour class
B) AD&D/2e = 1d20 + target armour class = modified THAC0

A) Player: "Okay, I rolled a 15 for a total of 22." *Game Master checks armour class* "That's a hit, roll damage."
B) Player: "Okay, I rolled a 15 and have a THAC0 of 13" *Game Master checks armour class* "That's a hit, roll damage."

b) yes nce you get it thac0 is easy. because 15 with thaco 13 is ac -2
a) rolled 15+7 to totql 22which equals ac 22.

they both equal the same result but 22=22 is a quicker more natural jump in logic than 13-15=-2

realized shoulda had 3e ac 10=10 -10=30. my err