D&D General Thaco the angry clown... really?

[Hussar]

Well, NATO's pronunciation could be based on the word "Nation". But not on the word "National", I suppose...

Honestly? I think it's more the fact that Nayto sounds better. Nahto sounds like a Japanese thing you put on rice. And it tastes godawful. Also, since we tend to stress syllables with long vowels, it rolls off the tongue better. NAY to is just easier to say. But, then when I say that, it does tend to support the whole THAY co thing too since we do stress the first syllable, even when we pronounce the first syllable with a short a sound.

It's ... complicated. Wibbly wobbly and all that.

 

[Thac0 the Barbarian]

Child playing with phone, sorry!

 

[embee]

Nahto sounds like a Japanese thing you put on rice. And it tastes godawful.

How dare you denigrate the Secret Ingredient in the single greatest episode of Iron Chef!!

 

[Scars Unseen]

For some reason, a lot of these variant pronunciations of "THAC0" sound to me like names of mummy lords.

edit: Here's a few from earlier in the thread, with minor mods in spelling:

• Thak-Oh
• Thak
• Tuh-Hak-Nil
• Thay-So
• Thak-Not
• T'Hay-Soh
• Thakth

I think there's some good potential in that list!

Ask your doctor if Tihaczed is right for you.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I love natto! I'll readily admit that it's an acquired taste, and the slimy threads don't exactly look appealing, but it is very nutritious. Good natto, to me, tastes a bit like a cross between refried beans and chocolate, with a ton of umami.

To get back on topic, I always pronounced it Thack-oh.

Honestly? I think it's more the fact that Nayto sounds better. Nahto sounds like a Japanese thing you put on rice. And it tastes godawful. Also, since we tend to stress syllables with long vowels, it rolls off the tongue better. NAY to is just easier to say. But, then when I say that, it does tend to support the whole THAY co thing too since we do stress the first syllable, even when we pronounce the first syllable with a short a sound.

It's ... complicated. Wibbly wobbly and all that.

 

[CleverNickName]

WotC has a new NPC in it's latest book, Witchlight.

Thaco the CN retired clown who doesn't want people touching his stuff and hates kids.

Very subtle. Like a brick through a window.

If I were to place an NPC in my campaign named THAC0, this is pretty much how I would describe him. Actually, this is a bit more kind and tactful than I would be.

If I were going to place an NPC named Minmax, for example, he would be a thuggish playground bully with no social skills, and toadies instead of friends. He's flunking every class but the teachers all cover for him because he's the school's star sportsball player and they need him to take state. (This is how I imagine every highly-optimized D&D character, of any race or class.)

 

[Blue Orange]

I lean right (something I've only admitted to myself after the tenth time they told me), but the THAC0 thing just made me roll my eyes and chuckle. The designers want to attract new, younger customers, and older folks not happy with the new rules are going to get OSR games copying their favorite old edition--something a lot easier in the modern era.

THAC0 was an improvement over the attack matrices of 1st edition, anyway...

I do disagree that the grognards have more power than the designers, though. The designers of D&D have a lot more cultural power than any old player does, just by virtue of making the new edition of the game--it's their vision all the new players will see. The grognards can only sit and grumble--thus the name, French for 'grumblers', derived from Napoleon's original imperial guard who were allowed to grumble by the Emperor of the French given their status. (And you'll remember D&D evolved out of wargames, which had a strong Napoleonic contingent.) So it's actually a very-oblique historical in-joke humblebrag.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Ok, that's funny as hell. Love it.

It was one thing when I was just a joke about a old, unpopular, bad mechanic, but it turns out it's actually a sneaky personal attack on an actual person, that is uncool and I'm not impressed. Is there no adult in the room at WotC anymore? The give away btw is Thaco's pipe.

Really feels like punching down. WTF does WotC feel the need to do this, this person, who shall remain nameless is critical, but no real threat to them?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That's Wizards of the Coast sending a clear message that they are confident enough in the new fans to keep the game alive. They don't want anything to do with us grogs anymore, so they can afford mocking us.

It's actually worse then that, at first I thought it was just harmless teasing about an old, often critized mechanic, but it's based on a particular, actual person in real life, who is very critical about various things in the game. I don't like when multinational corporations punch down at the little guy, bullying them.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It's a dumb joke, not mockery. Perish the thought D&D should include dumb jokes...

It's not just a dumb joke, it turns out it's actually a personal attack on someone in the D&D community, or rather the OSR.