HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (steven mancini)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRUN: Questions from the Minotaur: The Next Generation
Date: 29 Aug 92 06:24:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center


1.  How do you other GM's deal with the glut of Magically Actives? It 
    seems more and more people are wanting to play magicals and the 
    traditional street samurai is losing his appeal. Is this prevalent 
    in any other gaming groups?

2. Do your magically actives assense EVERYTHING? It seems like no matter 
   what room, it is assensed, no matter who the person is, as soon as 
   he/she/it is introduced, it is assensed, no matter what the object, 
   it is assensed. 

3. Can a person who has a Quickening walk through a non-friendly Ward?
   How about a spell lock? (We have allowed for people to specially
   design Wards to allow spirits to pass, but it is written into the
   Warding, so basically, by non-friendly I mean those wards made up
   to keep people, spirits, etc. OUT).

4. Obviously fire blinds those with thermographic vision. How could you
   reasonably create something to do the same to Lowlight? Ultrasound?

4. Okay now to physical adepts. We have enhanced physical sense so people
   are buying themselves: Lowlight, Mag Eyes, thermo, etc..
   Does anyone else out there allow people to develop -protective- senses?


		
							-Minotaur

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Steve Mancini (a.k.a. The Minotaur) | mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu   |
|    Grad Student {Dazed & Confused}  | mancini@vm.cc.purdue.edu        |
|    Political Science Department     | phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu 	  	| 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "We are in a Universe with more and more information, and less and    |
|  less meaning." - Jean Beaudrillard					|  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: lee@coredump.npac.syr.edu (Lee C Brink)
Subject: Re: SRUN: A few observations
In-reply-to: burke@vxdesy.desy.de's message of Sun, 30 Aug 1992 15:51:32 GM
Organization: Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC)
	<LEE.92Aug28143125@coredump.npac.syr.edu>
	<1992Aug30.155132.1@vxdesy.desy.de>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 14:50:51 EDT

   In article <LEE.92Aug28143125@coredump.npac.syr.edu>, lee@coredump.npac.syr.edu (Lee C Brink) writes:
   >every side had an equal chance or coming up.  How do you get the 50% better
   >chance of getting a 5 over a 6?  Of course, if it's a biased die....

   You're trying to roll greater than or equal to the target number; thus
   P(5|6)=1/3; P(6)=1/6 = P(5|6)/2. QED. However, in SR you get to re-roll if
   you get a 6, so getting exactly 6 is impossible! Thus:

	 Target      Probability
	   1              5/6        (1 always fails)
	   2              5/6
	   3              2/3
	   4              1/2
	   5              1/3
	   6              1/6
	   7              1/6
	   8              5/36
	   9              1/9
	  10              1/12
	  11              1/18
	  12              1/36
	  13              1/36

   and so forth. This is a little weird, and I'm not sure that FASA really knew
   what they were doing when they invented it, but in practice it seems to work
   pretty well, and if you start trying to change it you're likely to unbalance
   things.


Here's the text I responded to:

>	   Everything can be statistically computed, that's not the problem
>   with the d6.
>	   The real problem with the d6 system is the statistical difference
>   in rolling a 5 or a 6.  You have a 50% better chance of rolling a 6 than
>   a 5.  


  My mistake was in the interpretation of the phrase "rolling a 5 or 6."  I
thought he was trying to compare the probability to rolling a 5 to rolling
a 6.  What he meant was the probability or rolling a 5 or a 6 compared to
rolling a 6.  
  I never said that my English was good.  I'm an engineer; I don't have to know
english well :-).

      Lee


--
+---------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Lee C Brink	            | Office Support Co-ordinator at NPAC	   |
| lee@nova.npac.syr.edu     | Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 |
|			    | 315-443-1722				   |
+---------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
From: loewenst@cs.rutgers.edu (David Loewenstern)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: A few observations
Date: 30 Aug 92 12:09:31 GMT
	<1992Aug27.132907.9734@uoft02.utoledo.edu>
	<1992Aug28.115137.1@vxdesy.desy.de>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Whippany, NJ
In-reply-to: burke@vxdesy.desy.de's message of 28 Aug 92 11:51:37 GMT

... On 28 Aug 92 11:51:37 GMT, burke@vxdesy.desy.de said:
} Nntp-Posting-Host: vxdsyc.desy.de

} In article <1992Aug27.132907.9734@uoft02.utoledo.edu>, steiner@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (jason "Think!" steiner) writes:
}> sorry, but anyone with a programmable calculator & stats book can
}> "work out the best option." *guilty grin* i know. i did it.

} OK, a test. Suppose you're a mage with magic 6, willpower 5, sorcery 6, and
} you're going to cast a mana bolt (learnt at force 4) at a target with unknown
} willpower - what's the best force to cast at, and how many dice do you allocate
} to resist drain? (Working must be shown :-).

The hard part is not calculating the odds, but deciding how to balance
maximizing your attack power vs. minimizing your chance of drain.
That's a question of values (or tactics), not probabilities.

Now, the way I balance off the two:

Quick guesstimate: If I throw the spell at force 4, I'll succeed in resisting
drain with about half the dice, so I'll need at least 6 dice to have
a good shot at resisting drain.  If I throw the spell at force 2,
I'll succeed with 5/6 of the dice; I only need 3 successes, so my 5 willpower
by itself would be enough.

Since I've got a 6 sorcery, I'll guesstimate that only about 1 in 6 of
their dice will negate a success.  So, they've got about a 50% shot
at negating 1 success at high willpower, or almost no chance at low willpower.
Force 2 + 6 dice = 8 dice.  If the target has a will of less than 5, that
should be enough.  If the target has a will of more than 5, the
chance of killing the target won't be very good (I really need at
least 30 dice to be sure if the enemy's willpower is 6), 
but 2 dice won't help much.  I'll just hope the opponent doesn't have
a 5 willpower, and go with force 2 backed by the whole magic pool.

The slow method is pretty straightforward, but tedious.  There are
many possibilities (4 successes, no negations ... 8 successes, <=4
negations -- all for 6 different possible willpowers), but not too
hard to do on a programmable calculator.  It yields the same result --
force 2 with the full pool is about 75% likely to kill the enemy
(assuming willpowers from 1 to 6 are all equally likely), with a
chance of getting any drain at all of about 4%.

Program listings by request.

These opinions are shareware.  If you like the product,
please send your $0.02 to
               David Loewenstern
   <davel@homxc.att.com> || <loewenst@paul.rutgers.edu>
From: jester@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Jester)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Battletech and WH40k
Date: 3 Sep 92 14:38:19 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

For all those who are wondering where they can find a news group
discussing Battle tech and WH40k try rec.games.board

thats right rec.games.board  now why you ask..because both
games are usually played on a tabletop which cnstitutes a board
game in net-land.....

so try rec.games.board forr all your Battletech and WH40k pleasure
and be sure to ask about the 40k mailing list..yes one
really exists

Jester is now returning you to real space


-- 
	 Two thousand years have passed since bold Priam said,
        "Don't open the gates, who the hell needs a wooden horse
                that size?"
        -Shawn O' Shaun from Woody Allen's "Irish Genius"
From: dunning@chainsaw.ecn.purdue.edu (GALACTIC COMMANDER)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Champions: Throwing Things around...
Keywords: Champions
Date: 27 Aug 92 14:57:07 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <meharg.714878707@sfu.ca> meharg@fraser.sfu.ca (Gersham William Meharg) writes:
>Bif the superhero (STR 50) picks up a Toyota truck and whacks Grog the
>evil villian with it.  How much damage does this do? Is it just 10d6
>normal damage? I know that the rules say to treat it as an area attack,
>a move through. What if Bif were to throw the car (12"-14") at Grog,
>would this do more damage than the strike above?

If Bif is using the truck to hit somebody then he can do a maximum of
10d6 or the total BOD + DEF of the truck.  If the truck ever takes its
total BOD + DEF in one blow it is utterly destroyed.

If Bif decides to throw the truck then he gets the velocity and the extra
STR he has over the minimum to throw the truck.  Let's say it takes a 30
STR to throw this truck.  With his additional 20 STR he can throw the truck
20".  If he wishes to hit a target at 20" he only gets the velocity of the
truck since he has no extra STR (STR used for 20" throw of truck).  Therefore
he would get 7d6 damage for the truck (I round 1" up - personal choice).

If Big Bertha (STR 80) wishes to throw the same truck 20" she would get
6d6 (extra STR) + 7d6 (velocity) for a total of 13d6.  But the truck is
only a combined 12 DEF+BOD, so she only does 12d6 and the truck is now
destroyed.

I hope this clears some of this up.

Chip
--

-----------------------------\_/-----------------------------
 Elwood H Dunning III         |     I am a pirate, I don't
  GALACTIC COMMANDER          |           DO decency!!
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:4865 rec.games.frp.advocacy:2009 rec.games.frp.dnd:3429
From: wt0b+@andrew.cmu.edu (William Henry Timmins)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Alignments
Date: 2 Sep 92 21:10:01 GMT
	<1992Sep2.044630.9689@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

I had an (IMO) interesting way of doing alignments:

Alignments describe psychology. They are divided into Identification and
Method, with Intensity moderating.

Identification: Altruism - Egoism
	(Whose rights are more important?)
Method: Orderly - Fluid
	(How should things be done?)
Intensity: Balanced - Average - Intense - Insane
	(How reasonable?)

You can also add alignments for other aspects:
	An alignment listed for how you act.
	An alignment listed for how you view yourself
	An alignment listed for how you view the world.

Example:
Joe the Mage
Act-
	Average Ego/Insane Order
He works mostly for himself, but does care for the desires and feelings
of others. However, he has an insane obsession with rules and
regulations, doing everything in accordance with some code (could be
internal or external imposed), to a degree which makes for great tension
between himself and others. He is also very predictable.

Self View-
	Balanced Altruism/Average Fluid
He sees himself as no different than others, as being on equal footing
with others, and, in fact, helping others. He sees rules and regulations
as unnecessary, but occasionally useful, and prefers his own path.

World View-
	Intense Ego/Intense Order
He sees the world as favoring individual strife, as every individual on
their own. Mercy and kindness are unusual, and only useful as tools. The
world is organized, a clockwork structure which may not be apparant, but
runs according to grand plans.

Synthesis-
	Identification-
	Joe likes to think of himself as part of the community, as caring for
others. In reality, his rational view of the world spills into his
actions. He sees the world as rarely rewarding kindness or mercy, but
feels that this makes it a more valued commodity. He thinks he SHOULD
feel kindness to his fellow man, and that, thus, he does. In reality, he
works for himself, and kindness is not strong in him.
	Method-
	Joe sees the world in a Western deterministic way. Things happen in
accordance with the structure of reality. Whatever free will exists runs
along patterns which are apparent at the highest levels of organization.
He sees himself as choosing which rules and laws to follow, as laws are
artificial human creations, having little to connect with reality.
However, he is very obsessive and habit-bound, following patterns of
thinking, and rarely investigating his own behaviour.



There. As you can see, taking the three views and synthesizing them
leads to interesting character development. We have a character who sees
himself in much different light than others do. (If someone pointed out
his orderly nature, he'd likely say he is simply acting on his desires,
or that the universe is organized anyway.)

Or, if you like less detail, use less alignments.

Alignments are good to spur on character development, not as a game
mechanic. IMO.

-Me
[Pooh Bear incarnate.]
<B1 c+ f+ w g+ k+ s+ r- e+ p>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: A few observations
From: bkreed@oread.cc.ukans.edu
Date: 29 Aug 92 15:03:17 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Serces

In article <1992Aug27.193343.26898@u.washington.edu>, mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner) writes:
> v125qj86@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Jeffrey B Rogers) writes:
 >>>>[STUFF DELETED]<<<<<  >>>[I'm sure everyone's read it by now]>>>

> 
> I had a problem with this too.  Sure, it's part of the genre that
> employers will sometimes screw their hirelings over, but if it *always*
> happens (and this seems to be the rule in the modules) why will anyone
> Shadowrun?  Better to do free-lance theft with no employer, therefore no
> doublecrosser....
> 
> An occasional straightforward run makes the doublecrosses more
> interesting, and is good for player morale, something we found to be a
> real issue in Shadowrun.  Life in the shadows was so difficult, and
> the rewards so small, that the players and characters became depressed
> and stopped trying.  Neither player nor GM enjoyed this, and we had to do
> a series of 'successful' runs before the game regained its sparkle.
> 
> Continual defeat (and getting screwed out of your pay is a pretty big
> defeat for a mercenary) gets very old after a while, just like continual
> victory.
> 
> So I guess I agree with your players.  Doublecross occasionally, sure,
> but not every run.
> 
> Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@genetics.washington.edu
-- 
>>>>[One thing that I've noticed is that Fixers who give you jobs hardly
ever screw you over, they've got a rep to maintain.  It's the corps,
chummer.  They don't care who they have to screw over, just as long as
they can cut the costs and keep the information out of the hands of
the SINless.  Some corp even went so far as to snatch the fixer we
were working for so that they could renegotiate the deal.  They better
hope we never find out who they are]<<<<
				-Jake<15:07:09/8-29-53>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are very few personal problems  |	Ghostrider@f120.n280.z1.fidonet.org
that cannot be solved by suitable     |      bkreed@oread.cc.ukans.ed
Aplications of plastic explosives.    |            EGARC/BKREED
   ---Anonymous                       |          Bryan Kennedy Reed
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ericg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Eric Chris Garrison)
Subject: Re:  RE: GAMES....
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 16:42:02 GMT

Thanks for the OPIGS Supers installment!

Please post any other OPIGS game additions, I think it is a 
fun system.  (still trying to convince my group to play a 
1 week scenario in it...).

Eric

-- 

------
Eric Chris Garrison			      UCS Support Center
ericg@ucs.indiana.edu			      Indiana University
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: francis@dogwood.atl.ga.us (John Stracke)
Subject: Re: Humorous bumper sticker...
Organization: National Science Center Foundation
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 16:56:53 GMT
	<28AUG199219302387@jane.uh.edu> <19957@plains.NoDak.edu>
	<92244.084748BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu>

In article <92244.084748BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu> Brian Panulla, MooCow <BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

>Along these lines, a shirt has been sighted here at Penn State saying:

>Campus Crusade for Cthulhu

Remember, Cthulu Saves!--in case He's hungry later.

--
/===========================================================================\
|John (Francis) Stracke         |My opinions are my own.                    |
|Natl. Science Center Foundation|===========================================|
|Augusta, GA                    | Cogito ergo Spud.                         |
|francis@galois.nscf.org        |    (I think, therefore I yam.)            |
\===========================================================================/
(Formerly francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu)
-- 
/===========================================================================\
|John (Francis) Stracke         |My opinions are my own.                    |
|Natl. Science Center Foundation|===========================================|
|Augusta, GA                    | Cogito ergo Spud.                         |
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov
Subject: Re: BattleMech Game for MS-DOS
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA
Distribution: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 00:09:43 GMT


In article    From: kabreuer@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Breuer)

>   Hi everyone!

>   I'm busy translating the BattleTech game for the PC, as our group doesn't
>   meet very often. And yes, I know about Infocom's games, but I was looking
>   for a Strategy version closely following the board game.

>   Not having found one, I'm writing my own.
>   But surely, I'm not the only one with this problem? Except for 'MechForce'
>   on the (ugh) Amiga, are there any other programs like that around?

It is simply amazing the number of PC owners that are so insecure with
their "state of the art" 486 machines that they must bash the 1985
vintage technology Amigas...to which most Amiga owners respond "I spent
$699 for a multi-tasking, multi-media platform that plays some great
games...how much did you spend on your 486/SVGA/SoundBlaster game machine?"

>   Anyone else working on a program like that? Who can give me some tips?

Yes...don't bother.  If you do a good job of implementing BattleTech
FASA will sue you if you release it public domain or attempt to sell
it.  BattleTech is a copyrighted and trademarked game.  If you hack it
sufficiently that FASA will ignore you then you aren't doing
BattleTech anymore.  Not necessarily a bad idea but it wouldn't be the
same...  

Given the way FASA has dicked over Ralph Reed (Author of MechForce)
and dropped the ball on a PC release of BattleTech I think PD game
writers should be very leery of writing computer games based on FASA
products unless they have a good lawyer on retainer...

If you don't plan on releasing it then hack away but it'd be a shame
if you put a lot of effort into it and no one else could play it.

You may also think twice about the Mech Designer programs if they use
a lot of FASA terminology.  Didn't TSR have a snit fit a few years
back with AD&D character designers?  Maybe not...but in this sue happy
country (yes, I figure you aren't in the US by your mail address but
FASA may have trademarked BTech in your country as well) I wouldn't be
surprised.  IMHO it is a stupid thing for game companies to slam
people helping their market penetration...

>   Ciao,
>   Klaus

>   PS: No, it's not done yet, it won't use ClanTech, and the 'Mech Designer
>       is finished, if anyone is interested in it...



--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction
From: mehawk@agora.rain.com (Michael Sandy)
Subject: Re: GURPS: Chainsaw damage?
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 10:49:15 GMT

The problem with wielding a chainsaw as a weapon is that you aren't
going to live long enough to become proficient in it.  Its like this,
if you hit a steel blade with a chainsaw, the chain will break and
whip around killing both its wielder and its target.

That is if you are lucky.  If you are unlucky the chain will trap the
blade and pull it towards the grip of the chain saw.  This happens when
some poor fool tries to block an overhead swing with a chainsaw.

Think of tree spiking.  One industrial strength chain saw, (probably a
circular saw, but same principle), hits a spike.  Don't try this at
home kids!

Of course, wielding your cursed Berserking Adamantine Chainsaw, _some_
of the deletrious consequences don't happen.



-- 
Michael Sandy
mehawk@agora.rain.com
michaels@m2xenix.psg.com
"The above does not reflect the views of any organization."
From: djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: cluelessness in mystery games (prep vs improv)
Date: 29 Aug 92 21:56:23 GMT
Organization: =CSE Dept., U.C. San Diego

>> I would add a third reason: sometimes the characters do not have the
>> skills/temperaments to solve mysteries. 
>
>I have found that the success of a mystery game 
>has alot more to do with the players than it does the characters.  

Actually, how I interpreted the statement was as "sometimes the *players*
do not have the skills/temperaments".  In things like mystery dinner
parties and the like, it doesn't matter too much, since even if no
one even comes close, it's still fun.  But if it's in the middle of
an ongoing campaign, or the characters are expected to solve the
mystery (ie, they used to be a famous detective), it can be annoying
to rely upon the players skills.  In this case, if the character has
a high skill in solving/detecting or whatever, then you can secretly
slip notes to the player reading "your intuition says that was an
important clue".
-- 
Darin Johnson
djohnson@ucsd.edu
  - Grad school - just say no.