On the fly info dump for those interested -

When you play games like Baldur's Gate or Icewind 1, you will see a stat called THAC0.
It's short for "To Hit AC 0".
In those games, the lower your AC can be, the better. It's more than a little unintuitive, considering that games are typically always about bigger being better. But it's the opposite in this case.

A level 1 character with no Dexterity bonuses, no armor, and no magical bits that provide protection will have an AC of 10.
Against a very low-level monster who has a THAC0 of 20, this will give them a 50 percent chance of hitting you. ( THAC0 20- AC 10 = 10. Since to-hit rolls are done with a 20-sided die, that's a 50 percent chance that the little ankle biter will manage to harm you.)

At the same time, if you take a level 20 character with magical armor, bonuses, a nice big shield and some protective spells to boot, they could have an Armor Class (AC) or -10, or possibly even lower if you have enough spells stacked on. (One of many reasons why keeping a cleric around is fairly crucial for survival, they are the masters of things that will keep you alive while others want to butcher you.).
Take that high-end character, put them against that same low-level monster, and suddenly the monster's probability of a hit plummets. (THAC0 20 minus -10 = 30. With a 20-sided die being the standard for all rolls to hit, that gives them the lowest chance possible, at 5 percent. They have to roll a natural 20 in order to do the high-end character any harm at all.)

You always, always, always want both your THAC0 and your AC to be as low as possible. The lower the THAC0, the better your chance to hit, the lower your AC, the worst chance an enemy has of hitting you.

(When you see a dragon that has a THAC0 of 1? Either be ready to kill it fast, or be ready to run. Otherwise, it will splatter you all over the walls, high-end characters or not.)

Howdy Crow, good to see you, and awake too, whilst I’m here for a change,
though I figure some of the time you’re here, just snoozing at the keyboard.

I’m keeping busy, going through my notes for the books, not only are there thousands of them, all hand written pencil and paper, but I used to write really small text, in engineer style print, so now I have to use a large magnifying lens that

I call “my eye”. I thought you two might appreciate that little detail. heh!
I’m still stuck on Earth, in chapter 4, but getting ready to take the party on their journey across the Sea of Stars, to meet their destiny on distant worlds.

I would also add to make sure you always have at least one Thief in your Party to spot, and disarm traps!

*big hug* That is so sweet of you!
Also you should get a gogwiki wishlist, you are missing out of all the ninja gifting :P

"Hi, my name is Ixamyakxim, and I love THAC0"

Good evening, everyone! *hugs and waves*

I'm finally home and exhausted....too much theoretical and methodological stuff about urbanism...:)

How are you all doing?


Please send Moon as many +1 as possible because she gifted me Dust: An Elysian Tail ! *big thanks hug*

Good evening, everybody !!!
**Hugs and waves, and... any drink you like**

Good morning. =)

Yes, my schedule is a bit...somewhere between psychotic and nonexistent, to put it mildly.

I envy your ability to put everything together cohesively to tell the story. Everything I have is fragmented to the point that it will take years to put together, at best.
The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is formulating a retort to a quote that D mentioned a while back that's stuck with me ever since she posted it. Not exactly grand storytelling by any means.

It's definitely understood, given that without my glasses, I'm blind as a bat. Add a couple more decades onto the wear and tear, and I'm going to need lenses thick enough to stop a rifle round to be able to see at all.

It sounds like you're pushing forward. With that motivation, you'll be able to get your characters wherever they're meant to go. I look forward to seeing the results on Amazon, at which point I can playfully gloat to others that I was able to pass the time chatting with you as it all came together. ;)

And yes, you are absolutely right. Thieves are essential. Even if you use a wizard or cleric to detect traps and doors, you'll never have the efficiency and ability that a good thief brings to the table.
A memory from Baldur's Gate 1 - infiltrating an enemy camp, killing the leader, getting ready to pillage their treasure chest, and getting a lightning bolt trap to the face that hit hard enough to annihilate Imoen past the point of resurrection. (Didn't have the mechanics down, and I paid for my forgetfulness.)

So, I bought Last Dream from the developers site.
The 'rental' was on sale but I wanted DRM free. I'm a little miffed that the version on their website isn't the latest but the Steam one is. It came with a Steam key so all is good but I wrote the developer anyway.

Anyway, in playing the game I found the dialogs far and above those in other games similar to this.
Most are useful hints, tips, clues, directions, quests, etc. After a short time I was getting attached to the characters, very odd for me.
They bill it as an ode to the FF games, no idea if it's true but it sure is a fun one.
It certainly puts Pier Solar and Skyborn to shame.

Sounds like someone should get on the horn and get this here ;)

Good evening Owl :) *big hug*

Comment ça va ?

Yes indeed.
Thank you for the very generous offer, but I do actually have Planescape, but couldn't get into it because it's very text and story heavy and the lack of combat and stat stuff put me off (cause, that's what I love in RPGs), plus at the time I didn't have the time to get involved with it.
And I think I'll try Icewind and see if I like it before committing to any of the others.

But thank you very much for the kind thought :D +1

I'll always have a soft spot for 2nd edition in general. That was the first pen and paper RPG I ever bought.
(Amusingly enough, it took a convicted murderer to convince my mother to let me buy it. Story for another time. -laughs-)

Thanks Crow, will keep that in mind :)

High praise, and since it's from you, I now have another RPG on my overall mental wishlist.

Might have to schedule it for some time in 2017 since I'm up to my eyeballs in RPG's, but I'll still grab it when I can.
Thank you. =)
Not a problem. That always seems to be the most arcane mechanic that those games have, got the urge to blab about it for the sake of (hopefully) added clarity.