Internal Consistency Fun Rant

I was researching on shields, and find it quite unusual that something people actively use to cover up more than half their body target area only grants 5% improvement in defense while having rules regarding coverage which grant variable bonuses of -2 to -10.

I've gotten back to looking at my old DnD books: ADnD revised, the black books. Such a nostalgia trip.

Doesn't learning more about history, the real world and the basic physics involved in fighting give one the power to describe a scene in greater detail?

I mean, can't I just tell the GM that I use my shield in a way to cover an area about the size of my body adjusting to my opponent's movement?

If the opponent is hovering within reach to strike my character, with his 74cm blade, 60cm arms reach, and 50cm step my scutum, which occupies 1sq m. area that adjusts and adapts to his movement as I track him through my helmet as I peek over my shield, occupies 80-90% of his threat area. Why the heck would it just affect 5% of chances to hit?

a few OSRIC.

• At 2gp for 1 days ration - All non-leader mercenaries earn less 4sp a day! So a hireling cannot afford a days ration! At such costs mercenaries will demand rations from their employers.
• 15lb of Silver Coins is comparable to worked 7lbs steel!
• At 10 coins equaling 1lb! a character cannot carry more than 25 coins in his small pouch.
• Laborer is paid 1sp per day, but is paid 20sp in a month.
• Heavy Horseman earns 12gp a day, It will take 4.7 years saving up ALL income to replace all his equipment! Selling the loot of a heavy horseman is worth more XP than defeating one!
• No price for helmet, but it if one would extrapolate it would cost +13.34gp!
• It takes 45 days for an armorer to make Mail armor. In which time he earns 300gp yet produces an item that costs 75gp! If that was a dwarf, he would be earning 450gp for 22.5 days of work while selling that 75gp scale armor. I wouldn't say efficient, more like overpriced.
• On the flipside: a Tailor or a Leatherer making Scale will cost 3gp of services! A human tailor is more cost efficient than a Dwarf Armorer! I guess the reason why the gnome and the dwarf armorer can't stay more than a year is because they are incurring huge losses!
• A scribe is better paid than a Man-at-Arms at 300 sp per month yet still cannot afford a days ration!
• Only Sergents and PCs can afford Days ration!
• It is cheaper to hire a Cook and Eat everything you can kill than to purchase rations.
• Light footmen costs as much as laborers but can fight. Another way to look at it, dress up a laborer and you got a Light Footman.
• Characters who "run" 240ft in 1 minute is merely moving 1.2m/s or 4.4kph or 2.7mph! Technically thats walking. A character "Charging" actually just walking briskly up to an enemy! In scale mail a character moving at 1kph/0.685 mph! Whoah Slow Down! Imagine a charge that takes an Entire 60 seconds! pretty anti-climactic.
• Marching 120ft per minute is moving at 2.2 mph or 3.5kph or 0.98 m/s. Marching 24 miles a day is marching for 11HOURS!
• Arrows weigh 3 to 1lb! The heaviest arrows weigh 1/10 of a lb.
• Does Armor Get a Item Save? If it does, doesn't being attack successfully constitute that save? If the armor succeeds does that mean the wearer doesn't take any damage?
• One survive many Encounters, just carry a shield and don't wear armor and run! unless your a dwarf.

Hazards of not following common sense and going by RAW blindly.