HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: smayo@wang.com (Scott Mayo)
Subject: Re: Sex and RPG's - Why Oh Why ?
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 18:39:59 GMT

c9036971@cc.newcastle.edu.au writes:

>I'd like to call on the experience of you all to answer me a question.
>It seems to me that the number of female roleplayers (not characters!)
>is surprisingly small - in my experience of role playing (about 8
>years, mainly AD&D) I have seen fewer than ten females who were at
>all serious about gaming.

>I was wondering if this is the case with the rest of you. Is the fairer
>sex poorly suited to gaming, perhaps? Do they just have better things
>to do than sit around a table roling dice, speaking in jargon (whether
>fantasy, futuristic or whatever) and wandering in imaginary places? Or
>is it just me?

>For the record, I am a bloke (that's MALE to all you non-Australians),
>and an avid gamer.

In my vast experience, females make up a small percentage of the players.
Maybe they aren't into powertripping, which is what a lot of campaigns
are. Maybe having a full set of X chromosones selects additional common
sense, and they know better then to start a hobby that will eat hours
of free time. Maybe they prefer to hang around with guys that lift
weights and disassemble cars. Who knows? The only females I've met that
talk about this are the ones who play, and they don't seem to know why
other females aren't into it.

I'm make a highly inflammatory statement, since we're wasting time trying
to probe the psyche of players in general and females in particular: in
my experience, female players are rare, but the ones who do get into it
tend to get into it much more seriously - they seem to take their
characters as more "real", and do more much roleplaying than rulegrunging.
Direct your flames to alt.null - this is just my personal experience and
it may not hold for anyone else.
--
These are only my opinions.  You should hear my convictions.
smayo@wang.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: rayres@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Russell W Ayres)
Subject: Stopping PC Hive Mentality (attach to GURPS COMBT TIME)
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 15:04:54 GMT


On final suggestion that occured to me regarding the long discussion on GURPS 
combat time and players' tendencies to form party "hive minds" and swarm all 
over enemies:  Many players (including myself) find the Impulsive disad almost 
irresistible.  Maybe we all like to think, deep down, that we're impulsive.  In
any case, players whose PCs have Impulsive should be HEAVILY penalized for 
stopping to think and coordinate for five minutes on a one-second combat move -
and should probably be reminded periodically that they will be so penalized.

Just another thought into the fray.

--Bill
From: kinnema@wkuvx1.bitnet (Mark Kinney, Attorney at Chaos)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Stupid adventures
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:23:51 GMT
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

> In article <1992Apr9.104630.15038@wpi.WPI.EDU>, dnab@wpi.WPI.EDU (dnab, I wanted dna) writes:
> |> 
> |> 	Okay, all you DM's, GMs, Storytellers and Judges out there- here's
> |> a fun new thread to while away the hours...  What was the _dumbest_ 
> |> adventure you ever refereed?  Preferably one of your own, but if you ran
> |> a prepackaged adventure badly enough, you should include it, too!

My entire Price of Freedom campaign, not because of me though.... this is
perhaps the only game where a sawed-off shotgun can stun at point-blank range
one minute and absolutely obliterate a light armored vehicle the next.
-- 
Mark Kinney [KINNEMA@WKUVX1.(BITNET)(WKU.EDU)] | Don't just eat a hamburger,
PhoneNet: (502)745-4246	  (Bowling Green, KY)  | eat the HELL out of it!
This has been a test. If this had been an actual emergency, you'd be dead.
Quote of the Week: "Quaker-pop Rice Sparkies and Quaker-pop Wheat Sparkies,
	those delicious, nutritious breakfast cereals shot from guns!"
				-- Negativland, "Guns"
From: tkogoma@carina.unm.edu (Gym Z. Quirk)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Steve Jackson Games is gone?
Date: 8 Apr 92 00:34:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.cjqjtkh
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Apr7.192106.23252@cco.caltech.edu> laurence@cco.caltech.edu (Dustin Lee Laurence) writes:
>IK20001@MAINE.MAINE.EDU (Society for Creative Solipsism) writes:
>
>>Oh for Christ's Sake....  Loyd????  Loyd Blankenship?  Settle all
>>this *please*.
>
>What was the net.consensus for the value of Psych. Lim.: No Sense
>Of Humor?  -5 or -10 points?

If I recall GURPS Cyberpunk (and GURPS Time Travel, and GURPS
Supers/2, and GURPS <Insert sourcebook here>) "No Sense of Humor" is a
10 pt. dissad. ;-)

>laurence@alice.wonderland.caltech.edu


-- 
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk  (Known to some as Taki Kogoma)  tkogoma@triton.unm.edu
  I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior to
                           what I have now...
From: lwl@pixmap.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Sex and RPG's - Why Oh Why ?
Date: 8 Apr 92 04:42:06 GMT
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow

In article <1992Apr6.174247.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au> c9036971@cc.newcastle.edu.au writes:
>
>I'd like to call on the experience of you all to answer me a question.
>It seems to me that the number of female roleplayers (not characters!)
>is surprisingly small - in my experience of role playing (about 8
>years, mainly AD&D) I have seen fewer than ten females who were at
>all serious about gaming.

I've known, in eight years of gaming (AD&D), two other women who played
regularly, and one who played sporadically. I've met others at conventions
and such, but in terms of friends, I've only known three other females
who were 'into' gaming.

>I was wondering if this is the case with the rest of you. Is the fairer
>sex poorly suited to gaming, perhaps? Do they just have better things
>to do than sit around a table roling dice, speaking in jargon (whether
>fantasy, futuristic or whatever) and wandering in imaginary places? Or
>is it just me?

Most people get into gaming during junior high or high school. In
junior high, most girls are busy squealing like all their brain cells
were suddenly and violently nuked. The last thing they want to do is
to hang around 'those geeks who play those weird games'.

Role-playing is not a 'cool' thing to do, in your average high school.
The types of people who play RPGs are usually also science/technology
types, and often 'nerds'. The number of women who share these interests
is much lower, so your average female usually doesn't have much in common 
with the guys who game.

Oddly enough, there are a lot of women who read sf/fantasy novels.
But they just don't get into computers and gaming and related hobbies
as much. It probably has to do with a society which still quietly
pushes the idea of a meek domestic female who's sensitive, good
verbally, and bad in math.

(My younger sister, who is thirteen, bright, and fairly typical of
 others her age, still insists that, "Computers are for boys.")

The other thing is, guys often don't ask women to game with them.
A lot of the nerds I knew in high school were painfully shy; asking
one of them to go up to a female they didn't know well and simply
talk to her was akin to asking them to try to make friends with
a circling hungry shark.

I have the feeling we'll see an increasing percentage of female
gamers if we can increase the percentage of girls who have strong
interests in mathematics, science, and technology.

-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------
Lydia Leong, CSE '94     | C code. C code run. Run code run... please!
lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu | Backup not found:  (A)bort  (R)etry  (P)anic
lwl@imsasun.imsa.edu     | "man reboot" (-n option): Avoids the sync(1). It
Amberyl on the MUDs      | can be used if a disk or the processor is on fire.
-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: stinerkt@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Kevin T Stiner)
Subject: Re: CHAMPIONS: Endurance Batteries
Reply-To: stinerkt@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu (Kevin T Stiner)
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:18:27 GMT

> This brings up another point.
> In my campaign I do not allow characters to buy End reserve batteries  
for
> inate powers.  That is what his normal End is for.  I would only allow
> an End btty for a focus, or completely disconnected power.  (And I
> severely limit foci!)
> 
> How do other people handle this?  An End btty is just too damn cheap,
> and if allowed, every hero would give every one of his powers end
> batteries.  Comments?
> 
> 
> 							John F Sasso


I have never had anyone ask for an End Battery for innate abilites.  If I  
had to make a quick decision about it I would say no.  The only way I  
would allow it is if one of my players wanted it as a magical focus (Ex: a  
ring that stores energy with absorbtion and then allows you to use it as  
an END reserve).  I would not allow it to have a REC score.  I would make  
the player buy it with absorbtion (make those players spend those points)  
which would be the only way to power it up to feed off of it.

That is just my oppinion,
KEVIN T. STINER
From: laird@django.think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: GAME SYSTEMS
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:45:55
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com
In-reply-to: gandalf@maths.tcd.ie's message of 13 Apr 92 11:17:01 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.111701.20527@maths.tcd.ie> gandalf@maths.tcd.ie (Peter McEvoy) writes:
From: vehaag@crocus.waterloo.edu (Viktor Haag)
Subject: Re: CHAMPS: question on turn sequencing
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 15:30:15 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.203220.16385@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim) writes:
>...
>>Its really a movement power, *not a DCV or defensive bonus,
>>as you suggest, so, like constant movement, it must be maintained.
>
>	The rules list dodge as a combat maneuver just like any other - 
>the way it's CV modifiers apply should be no different than, say, a 
>martial punch. Anyhow, this still allows you to have your dodge bonus on 
>almost all the time. 

I meant to imply only that the special effect of the Dodge was movement based,
and thus it makes sense that it takes the character some time investment to
get the DCV bonus -- he has to actually dodge around in order to be harder to
hit.

>	Let's say you have a character of SPD 4, DEX 20. On phase 4, he 
>aborts to a dodge, thus using his phase 6 action. His dodge bonus will 
>continue until his next action on phase 9. 
>	He attacks on phase 9, then on phase 10 aborts to a dodge again. 
>He can be hit without his dodge bonus, but most of the time he still 
>has it. 
>
>	Remember that he can always be hit at the time he attacks by 
>those who are holding actions. Thus by sacrificing half his attacks, 
>he can dodge those who are not
>
>	I suspect there are those who will say that his dodge bonus goes 
>away on phase 6. Does this mean if he aborts to a dodge on phase 6, DEX 23, 
>that it lasts only until DEX 20? If he does not abort, but instead takes 
>dodge as his normal action, does this mean that he gets the bonus for no 
>time at all? I don't think so.

I am not sure that I follow the last bit of this.  If the character aborts to
Dodge he gets the bonus until his next action (I would count this as the 
DEX point of his action in the segment). 

If he aborts to Dodge on segment 6, DEX 23, then of course he is Dodging all
through his Phase (his second of four phases in this example), and that would
mean he would get the bonus until segment 9, DEX 20, when he would get to act
again.

If he Dodges as his normal action in segment 6, at DEX 20, he is considered 
dodging until segment 9, DEX 20, when he would get to act again.  Is there
something here I am missing, I though this was all pretty straight forward?




-- 
Viktor Haag 
		            |  "We are not thugs.  We are not fanatics.
vehaag@crocus.uwaterloo.ca  |   We are vitamin supplements to justice."   
viktor@watdcs.uwaterloo.ca  |				: a Selector
From: robert@isgtec.com (Robert Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Inter-Party Conflicts
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:50:36 GMT
Distribution: usa


BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu (Brian Panulla) writes:
> Huh? I'm sorry, but I've played in games like that, where everybody
> backstabbed and got pissed at someone else. The biggest reason I've heard
> for playing an evil character is to be able to do anything you want; which in
> almost every case caused the destruction of fellow party members.

Evil doesn't mean stupid.  We had a short campaign of evil characters
including assassins, evil clerics and evil magic-users.  Everybody
cooperated well (with some bickering) and we easily defeated the
good guys (our DM thought there would be more in-fighting :-) and
stole all their treasure.

Of course once we HAD the treasure I managed to kill everybody
in the party by nightfall :-).

> In fact, I experimented with an evil cleric once (Lawful, cleric of Wee Jas).
> everything was going well until one of the other players (an evil mage named
> "Gargamel") began to needle me about me being in charge. I couldn't take it
> after a while, and pulled the same stunt the their did in the earlier post:
> I found a chest full of yellow mold. I didn't tell Gargamel about it. He opened
> the chest. I had already taken precautions, so I didn't die with half of the
> party.

I don't understand this at all.   What could you possibly gain by the
sudden death of half the party?  Why do most people play evil characters
like rabid pit bulls; frothing at the mouth and killing everything in
their path?   Is that how your DM runs the bad guys?

> Do you thin that evil characters should be the rule in a campaign. When
> played correctly (read: within alignment) they will most probably destroy the
> party. A single evil character can add much flavor to a game, but the entire
> group?

Basically an evil character is somebody who has few or none of the
moral reservations 'good' characters do.  This doesn't mean that they
need to kill or even like to kill.  In my campaigns the average footpad
could be considered 'evil' but wouldn't kill except in self-defence (or
by 'accident' if the patsy resists too much :-).

When the DM makes all evil characters psychotic butchers who get off on death
and torture their players are robbed of a lot of the fun that comes with
distinctive villians.

I've had a vampires that hated killing but had to feed or starve to
death.  I've had the party defeated by a highway robber who, after relieving
them of the their money (and only their money), bandaged them up.
When my party runs into a truely evil character their focus shifts
from accomplishing their objective to destroying this monster.

Rob.
--
Robert A. Osborne   ...!uunet.ca!isgtec!robert or robert@isgtec.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: alongley@cape.UWaterloo.ca (Allan Longley)
Subject: Re: ADND2: Help with Dual-Class
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 03:33:52 GMT

In article <1992Apr4.213229.3410@beaver.cs.washington.edu> tsang@cs.washington.edu (Donald Tsang) writes:
>But charge at least a week or two of training per proficiency.  In
>fact, one reason Dual-Classing isn't done very much is exactly that it
>takes *too* much bloody time to train in a new class. 

I disagree, the reason dual-classed is rare is the AMAZING ability scores a
character would need -- 15 is old class prime requist and 17 in new class
prime requist!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Longley, University of Waterloo, Department of Chemical Engineering
e-mail: alongley@cape.uwaterloo.ca
voice: (519) 885-1211 x3816		Tough set of scores to roll
home: (519) 746-5747
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: foxx@foxxjac.Berkeley.EDU (Andrew "AJ" Foxx)
Subject: Re: Funhouse traps for superheroes
Reply-To: foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 18:12:50 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.225741.14128@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>,
jsanders@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (John Eric Sanders) writes:

|> Was wondering if anybody had any interesting traps for
|> superheroes.

|> My guys are being trapped in a funhouse to die, and I am
|> looking for interesting ways of killing them (or at least making
|> them think I am going to kill them :-)

|> -- 
|>  The Jester (John E. Sanders)       jsanders@symcom.math.uiuc.edu       

One fiendish method I used in a similar situation was creating a
special mirror maze.  Some walls were heavy stone, and all the
rest were all one-way mirrors that could reflect many
super-energy attacks, and were virtually invisible from the
other side, letting attacks pass through. Energy shots would
bounce through the maze until they hit someone in the there.

At the start of the maze the party, being spread out, entered
multiple corridors where the mirrors fooled them into believing
that they were all still together.  When a number of the bad guys
they were chasing appeared ahead, the party tried to take them
down.  The results were chaotic.  Characters that could see each
other would coordinate attacks only to find out that they were
seeing each other's reflections.  Some of the bad guys turned
out to be reflections, and people from both sides would move
around causing their reflections to appear and disappear.

Until the party figured it out, they were sure that it was the
big bad guys assistant doing it all.  He had illusion, force
field, and invisibility powers.  It all made them extremely
wounded, especially when their own laser blasts which had just
"disappeared" early in the fight began shooting back into the
party.


I had another device to build up paranoia.  The party was caught
in a trap where there was limited time to escape (unless they
could breath toxic fluids with poisonous fumes).  The exits were
not too extremely obvious.  Most of the exits were normal, and
the characters that went through those found themselves in the
next fun-room.  Two of the characters took a "bad" exit where
they passed through a "slow space" (the big bad guy had time
warping powers), and were teleported to beyond the next
fun-room.

So most of the party spent ten minutes beating through the killer
punching-dummies and made it through to find the missing two,
slightly disoriented and with no memory of the past ten minutes
(which didn't exist for them, but don't tell anyone that!).  A
few cruel hints about mind control later and the party was not so
trusting of those two.  When the campaign ended they were still
worrying that some long term implanted suggestion was going to
surface.

-- 
   ] Andrew "AJ" Foxx           ] Software Analyst - Mapping Sciences Division
   ] foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com ] Intergraph Corporation
   ] voice (205) 730-1921       ] M/S IW17A4  Huntsville AL U.S.A.  35894-0001
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: alejanrd@victoria.cs.rose-hulman.edu (Raymond D. Alejandro)
Subject: Re: Why have street samauri? WAS: SRUN magicalness
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 22:45:07 GMT

You must remember that there are very few magicians in the WORLD.  Plus, a
beginning mage has no karma, therefore no spell locks, so he has increased
reaction +4, assuming he makes the drain he still has a +2 to all targets because
he has to maintain the spell.

In the campaign I play in, HEALTH spells can not be locked or quickened (actually
we don't have any initiates, but don't think the GM would allow quickened HEALTH
spells).  With this GAME BALANCE rule I will take a well built Samurai over a
mage (beginning levels of course).  As soon as the Samurai can go, say goodbye to
the mage.

Ray Alejandro
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: cbergstr@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Chris N Bergstresser)
Subject: Kaos pbm Arena Combat (AD&D2)
Organization: The Ohio State University
 <1992Apr6.232213.941@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 21:49:31 GMT

     More clarifications and explanations.

     HP are determined by using the average HP, table follows:

          4: 2.5
          6: 3.5
          8: 4.5
         10: 5.5
         12: 6.5

     So a 6d8+12 HP character would have 27+12 or 39 HP.  No dice, no 
arguments, just nice, simple mathematics.


     Racial Maximums apply, as do racial minimums.  (Some one asked about give 
themselves a 25 Str, I shuddered)

     Magic Items of varing power:

          If the exp varies, easy.  If not, then, you have to ask.

               A girdle of giant strength gives you Hill Giant, Str 19
                    (No hissing or booing, please.  That's my ruling)
               A pearl of power gives up to 5th level spells.
               Any others you gotta ask.

     You have about a month to prep for this, so magic items can have been 
worn, spells are memorized, etc...

     You may choose all spells you have.  Remember mages can only have up to 
their INT limit in their spellbooks, and you can't memorize spells not in your 
spellbook.

     Character can do whatever they want in the dungeon.  Stand on their heads,
strip naked and kill themselves, COOPERATE.  I really don't care.  But _I_ 
handle character interaction, you tell me what your character says and I say it
to the other character.  And how can you _really_ know your opponents 
alignment?  And in order to win, eventually, _one_ of you is going to have to 
die.  I'll bet your buddy isn't thinking about selflessly sacrificing himself 
for you.  And it's really easy to kill people on backshots.  Specially with 
nasty magic.  (Don't save against this Cure Light Wounds!)  So it's your 
choice.  Just watch your back.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Subject: Re: GURPS/GURPS/GURPS
Reply-To: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:44:11 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.025624.13017@ringer.cs.utsa.edu> mcdougal@lonestar.utsa.edu (Jon . McDougal) writes:
>If you want to topple the players-hivemind, just do not allow talking 
>during a fight, and allow only 5secs of thinking for each player, but I 
>think somebody already said that. 

Only allowing 5sec of thinking for a player introduces the problem of 
player vs. character proficiency - but that has already been beaten to 
death in another thread. 

>
>MY PROBLEM: The players all team up on one enemy at
>a team and beat the living snot out of him. SOLUTION: Have the NPCs do
>the same, and see how long the players stand for it.

Do you think that this will *discourage* them from teaming up, or convince 
them that it is *neccessary*? I think the latter. 
Double teaming is the best way to beat people in GURPS. If you don't like 
this - change the rules. Don't penalize the players for being intelligent.

>
>    Supers: What is so wrong with bullets bouncing off of players, I
>thought that was part of the game plan of being a Super.

The trouble is high DR's and low HP's (because DR is cheap and HP is 
expensive). This means that with all the high dice attacks being thrown 
around - a character tends to be either unhurtable or dead. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kim                    | Alice: "But if I wasn't real, I shouldn't be
jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | able to cry."  Tweedledee: "I hope you don't 
Columbia University         | imagine those are *real* tears."