quite a stupid question

Hi there,
I have been playing IWD for the second time now and i'm at lower dorm's keep. I have a very stupid question, about weapons: when you look at damage it says (for example) 2d4, what does this mean? and the +2? I think it isn't in the manual and i'm not a very experienced rpg player. I'm doing quite well though but this was the one thing I couldn't figure out!

[Wrath]

There's never a stupid question, as long as it's sincere AD&D uses the traditional dice to determine rolls, and that is what the "d" stands for. So when you see a weapon that says 2d4, for example, it's saying that the damage inflicted will be the sum of 2 4-sided die. Simplified, this means the weapon will do 2 to 8 damage, or 2-8. An easy way to find the exact value is to take the first number, which gives you the minimum value, and multiply it by the second number, which gives you the maximum value. So a weapon that says 3d4 would have a value of 3-12. Make sense? That's as simple as I can put it.

Second, if you see a +1, +2, etc. at the end of the damage, this signifies a bonus to the final damage. Example, a War Hammer does 1d4 +1 damage. First, you calculate the damage, which is 1-4. Then, you add the +1 afterwards. So, a War Hammer does a final damage of 2-5 damage. And a +2 Bastard Sword, which does a damage of 2d4 +2, would have a final damage of 4-10. Understand?

Basically, all the calculations in any AD&D game use these principles, to calculate to-hit, AC, saving throws, etc.

-Wrath