Where did you first see THAC0?

[johnsemlak]

If I may hijack my own thread

PWD, you got me thinking about my own transition to AD&D I was 11, and my funky little group of friends had gone to Level 3 from the old boxed basic D&D - the one that included Keep on the Borderlands and cutout chits instead of dice.

Anyway, I remember being confused by why Basic would be in a box, but Advanced was in books. But, I had outgrown the 3 levels of Basic, so time to go to Advanced, right?

lol. In other words, I got into AD&D on accident, because I was just a dumb kid I never regretted it though, AD&D was such an improvement IMHO over boxed set.

Though getting used to Elves being a race, not a class, was rough...

Sorry but I thought I'd continue you're own hijack, if you dont' mind

RE transition from D&D --> AD&D, one of my fondest (A)D&D memories was getting the 1e PHB after playing basic/expert for a while. I as so amazed at all the possibilities not available in Basic. Demihumans taking their own classes. Gnomes! Even Half-orcs. Some many multi-class options. And the new (to me) classes...Assassins, Paladins, ... Bards! Plus the really cool spell names.

I remember the first AD&D character I created was a very UN basic D&D character...a half-elf Cleric-ranger. I believe I was up late into the night creating characters...

 

[Altalazar]

It was the summer of '83 <Cue Wonder-Years soundtrack> - I was just experiencing the beginning of adolescence. Bobby-Sue was coming over that night and we ... oh wait, that doesn't have anything to do with gaming. I really can't remember. I do recall first hearing it pronounced as a word ('Taco') when i was gaming in college, but that was '89. I know one old player who misses THAC0 for the simple reason that he liked saying the word. But then he also liked the old money system that wasn't base-10 for everything - he liked it "because it didn't make any sense." Ah, those were the days...

 

[Mystery Man]

Hell, I don't even remember how to calculate THAC0 anymore.

I suppose if I had to though...

 

[GravyFingerz]

Ahhhhhh, good ol' THAC0. Explaining it to new players was always difficult, and when it became early morning, it was hard to calculate it. Acronyms for acronyms sakes, that was the way of 2e. The good ol days.

 

[WayneLigon]

First place I remember seeing it was in the first Judges' Guild products, particularly City State of the Invincible Overlord. I'm pretty sure they came up with the term so I was amused when TSR started using it as well.

 

[Wombat]

THACO was something I heard about. Never used it myself, but heard all sorts of jokes about it.

It was something that convinced me I was correct in dropping D&D when it became AD&D

Didn't come back until 3.0; haven't budged to 3.5

 

[Turgenev]

Hmmm...I think the first time I saw it was in the UK series of mods (Sentinel, etc)...I think they even had a special note explaininghow it worked...gotta check dates on those mods, but I think that was one of the first "official" uses of it...

The first time I came across the term THAC0 was in the module, "UK5 - Eye of the Serpent" (1984) by Graeme Morris, and later in "UK6 - All That Glitters..." (1984) by Jim Bambra. I also have "UK1 - Beyond the Crystal Cave" (1983) which doesn't use the term. Don't have UK2 - UK4 though, so I don't know when they started using the term in the module series. Technically, the 1st Edition DMG did have "To Hit A.C. 0" listed in Appendix E, but I never called it THAC0 until after the later references.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Epametheus]

Most boards make me feel old. This one makes me feel young

I believe I saw THAC0 for the first time in '87 or '88, maybe a little later -- whenever the heck I noticed the Pool of Radiance game that my big brother was playing on the Tandy. All of the old SSI games that were based on 1st Edition had THAC0.

 

[Taren Seeker]

The 1e Rogues Gallery book, can't remember many details but it did have several of the "named" spell casters plus one really cool assassin (had several rings on chains attached to his bracelets for easy donning, his pic was pure black)

What is...Lassiviren the Dark Alex.

Damn that was a cool pic. The book itself was pretty nice too, stats on Bigby, some Lizard Man (another cool pic) a centaur, I think Melf was there...Basically you were peeking in on Gary's campaign.

Ahh good times.

 

[jrients]

... and I think you win the prize for correctly identifying the first products to use THAC0.

DL1 came out before the UK series?

EDIT: According to Schick (Heroic Worlds) DL1 and UK5 both were published in '84. UK2 was published in '83. Does anybody know if it used THAC0?

EDIT2: I first encountered THAC0 as an acronym in UK5. I had already seen 'To-Hit AC 0' in the DMG though.