[andrewas]

OK, rules 101. Any questions can wait till later.

AC AND THACO:

AC is Armour Class, THACO is To Hit Armour Class Zero. (The pedant who just asked "THACZ?" can and will be shot at this point) The way they work is simple - You take your TAHCO subtract your targets AC from it, and try to roll over that number on a d20. You make it you hit, you dont you miss. Go through that procedure and youll see why lower numbers are better - it makes it work out that higher die rolls are better, and therefore is more natural in use. Thats only an issue in PnP though, and is reversed in the new 3rd edition rules.

Exceptions - a natural 1 always is a critical miss - not only you dont hit (Even if your THACO and targets AC say you do), but you miss your next attack). A natural 20 is always a critical hit - even if you need more than 20 - and causes double damage. Unless you opponent has a helmet or is immune to critical hits, in which cae you hit for standard damage. Some weapons get a critical on a natural 19 as well.

D-NOTATION:

This is a system for specifying die combinations and modifiers. 1d12+4 mean roll 1 12-sided die and add 4. 2d6+4 means roll 2 6-sided dice and add 4. The two seem equivalent, but the latter will tend more to the average result, which is the way I like it. Judge your weapons by minimum and average damage - do not calculate based on maximums.

The pictures - I hear that they are from d&d but havent looked for myself yet.