OD&D - The Original Intended Audience & Basic Assumptions - 03 - More Follow Up

Another thing that occurred to me while we are on this subject is that so many people object to Descending Armor Class. As many know the founders were familiar with other games that used Descending Armor Class IIRC in regard to ships.  So again it comes down to background.

In my case I grew up on a farm and here are two quick examples: Shotguns come in .410, 32 Gauge, 28 Gauge, 24 Gauge, 20 Gauge, 18 Gauge, 16 Gauge, 15 Gauge, 12 Gauge, 11 Gauge, 10 Gauge, 8 Gauge, 4 Gauge, 3 Gauge and 2 Gauge. Some of these are rare, uncommon, or collector only and the .410 is roughly 67 Gauge. In shotguns the smaller the number the larger the diameter of the bore.

A similar situation exists with wire gauge. Wire gauge runs from 0000, 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, ...  ... 37, 38, 39, 40. With 40 being the smallest and 0000 the largest.

These are two real world examples that I dealt with from early childhood, which made Descending Armor Class simple to both understand and to learn.