Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Irrational Hatred of Thaco

I spend quite a bit of time on old school gaming Forums, and have come to see something that is driving me crazy. The interchange usually goes something like this:

1st edition player: "2nd edition AD&D sucks!"
2nd edition player : "Why do you say that?"
1st editon player: "Because it had Thaco, and Thaco is lame."

Ignoring for a second that Thaco was actually present in 1st edition, this may be the single dumbest argument against any edition of Dungeons & Dragons that I have ever heard of. It is basically the equivilent of arguing that π is dumb, just because you can type 3.1415926...

Thaco is simply a shorthand way of notating the same basic combat tables that existed in 1st edition. Now if you dislike the changes that were made to certain classes, or the nearly innumerable splatbooks that came out for the system, that is one thing. But if the best thing you can come up with to hate on a system is that the shorthand notation for combat numbers is lame, then you really don't have much of a leg to stand on, in my opinion.

Somewhat tangentially, it amazes me that there is such a rabid disdain between players of 1st and 2nd edition. The games are very similar, so much so, that it is easy to use 1st edition books and adventures in 2nd edition, and vis versa. When you compare that to the differences between 2nd and 3rd, or even 3rd and 4th, the differences are hardly noticable, and definately not enough to cause the kind of split within the community that seems present on most of the old school forums.

Now I don't have problems with people discussing the different editions and their weaknesses (I'm looking at you 3.5), but when a little light edition bashing turns into personal attacks, it makes the entire community look like argumentative, petty, douchbags. I wish everyone would try to remember that at the end of the day, as gamers there is far more that unites us than divides us, regardless of which edition you play.

No comments:

Post a Comment