Who puts the "class" in Armor Class?

[Theo R Cwithin]

I was always of the opinion that Morgan Ironwolf puts a lot of class into her armor class.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Well, when you think about it, "hit points" should actually mean the opposite of what they mean. However, I guess that "hits-to-kill points" would be quite a mouthful.

Actually HTK was used in the Mayfair Roleaids supplements instead of hit points.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

The Navy.

 

[AeroDm]

My understanding is that both armor class and hit points came from a miniatures game for ship to ship battles. They were terms applied to battleships and the like. Gygax and friends simply adapted the terms to their proto-RPG rules in Chainmail (as mentioned above).

The D&D rules grew directly out of various other games, so the terminology doesn't always make much sense when approached fresh. Oh well...

Also cool and makes sense. So would that be classes like "wooden, "armored," or "steel plated"? Basically the term makes more and more sense as the groupings it references become more and more broad. Also, is there a reference or is this just personal knowledge?

 

[Croesus]

Also, is there a reference or is this just personal knowledge?

I believe I read it in one of the early Dragon issues, but maybe not - that's a lot of years ago and the old memory's not what it used to be...

 

[Gentlegamer]

Also cool and makes sense. So would that be classes like "wooden, "armored," or "steel plated"? Basically the term makes more and more sense as the groupings it references become more and more broad. Also, is there a reference or is this just personal knowledge?

Early Dragon or Gary Q&A threads . . . hit points were hull points in the original source.

 

[FireLance]

Early Dragon or Gary Q&A threads . . . hit points were hull points in the original source.

But this still doesn't explain why they opted for "hit" instead of the perhaps more analogous "health" points.

 

[Gentlegamer]

But this still doesn't explain why they opted for "hit" instead of the perhaps more analogous "health" points.

Gary realized the abstract nature of hit points as applied to higher level man characters. That is, a Fighting-man with 45 hit points can take as much damage as a heavy war horse, but not because he's as physically durable.

 

[AeroDm]

There is something to be said for reasonably evocative but sort of vague terms, especially if you can imbue those terms with meaning to the community that uses them. Armor Class and Hit Points are entirely clear (at this point) and flexible because they are ambiguous. If Gygax foresaw this utility from ambiguity he was a genius. If it just caught on, then he was lucky (or accidentally tapped into something). The fact that there are a fair number of these terms lends itself towards the former.