THAC0 and decreasing armor are not that bad. What I found complicated was the combat. Divide combat in to segments and then have your second attack at the end of the round, except if you cast a spell that took 5 segment but you were suppose to have the 6'th segment so it would have been cast the next round. It made a bit of confusion. AD&D also had you roll a d6 for initiative vs d12 and d20 later on. This caused a lot more of at the same time attacks.
But true, it did keep normies out. As Gygax himself said, the game was designed for intelligent and creative people. Is surprising how much you preserve if you keep games hard to play.
THAC0 keeps the normies out.
THAC0 and decreasing armor are not that bad. What I found complicated was the combat. Divide combat in to segments and then have your second attack at the end of the round, except if you cast a spell that took 5 segment but you were suppose to have the 6'th segment so it would have been cast the next round. It made a bit of confusion. AD&D also had you roll a d6 for initiative vs d12 and d20 later on. This caused a lot more of at the same time attacks.
But true, it did keep normies out. As Gygax himself said, the game was designed for intelligent and creative people. Is surprising how much you preserve if you keep games hard to play.