HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: WARP WORLD
Date: 5 Sep 92 15:14:07 GMT
Organization: Purdue University




Ah, WarpWorld, a most excellent product, and had I found it four years
ago (which would have been impossible) I'd be using it for my current
fantasy campaign.  Unfortunately, players being a conservative, parsimonious
lot, I use what I still have.  (Although the combat system does tend to
spin one's head a bit until you're used to it--WarpWorld's combat system.)


However, I have played TimeLords, which is the same system, and I've found
it to work very well.

A few hints;


Know the rules intimately.  The combat system is quite intricate.  It's
a playable system, but since many of the assumptions we have about combat
in rpgs are not used in the WarpWorld system, there is very little that one
can fake.

The skill modifier system takes getting used to.  Each +/-1 modifies skill
by 5% of the VALUE of the skill.  This means that a -4 modifier subtracts
4 from a skill of 20 but subtracts 2 from a skill of 10 (-4 means -20% of
the skill value.  

Given these two weaknesses--intricate combat system and non-intuitive
skill modifiers, the game is still quite good.  Perhaps a bit of a reformat
and re-presentation might help in the next edition.
From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: A Guide to Gamer Species
Date: 15 Sep 92 21:08:54 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <5000@rosie.NeXT.COM>, (Robert Walton) writes:

Well, as much as I hate pigeon-holing people like that, I must say that 
the descriptions are extremely accurate as far as my experience goes. 
So, which one are you?

> Know any other species?  Can you stereotype your friends?  Yourself?  Are  
> you a 'breed?

Just two.

The Pseudo-Celebrity: This person is always working on some pipe-dreamish
project that is going to put him/her on the literary map in the RPG world.
The most common claim to fame for P-Celebs is co-authoring a knock-off, 
copy-cat, as-of-yet-unpublished game system. But some P-Celebs are working
on pulp fiction, gaming magazine articles, artwork for other games, etc.
Most P-Celebs have other smaller claims-to-fame, such as: having his/her
name mentioned in an obscure gaming publication, play-testing some unheard
of game system that never went into production (but was VERY good), or 
having ``helped'' with a convention seminar on writing. Although it's 
admirable for someone to try to ply a trade in his/her area of interest,
what is irritating about the P-Celeb is that he/she plays a LOT (too much),
but leads on that gaming is only a preoccupation, and that after their
publishing deal goes thru (run into a few copyright problems), they won't 
have time to game. P-Celebs are constanly reminding those around them of 
their ``status'' and always berating this game or that magazine in favor of
projects that the P-Celebs has worked on -- ``Well, when I was on the staff
of White Gnome, we ALWAYS had full-color layouts.''

The Vice Gamer: This person is, for all appearances, a normal, well-adjusted
member of society. He/she has a job, other interests, and a respectable place
in society, but never out-grew an interest in gaming. So the Vice Gamer plays,
but thinks of gaming as a dirty, shameful vice, second only to mastubation.
The Vice Gamer's worst nightmare is some of his ``normal'' friends find out
about his hobby, so he/she plays only infrequently and in small, inconspicuous 
groups and NEVER will associate/socialize with game buddies outside game 
sessions. A V-Gamer will also never attend game club meetings, conventions, 
or anything else that might expose his/her vice to the public.

Members of these species are known to me personally. 

Okay,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chadd VanZanten SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU + ``We're all naked when we're inside out.''
--David Byrne, Buck Naked
From: v054nn84@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Foto...Taking pictures again, and Happy for it!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Incomplete Posts
Date: 11 Sep 92 23:28:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Loren,

   Of COURSE it was incomplete!  I was still trying to use the VT emulation in
JRComm!  With handicaps like that, what else did I expect.  It is not as if I
am some  budding mystery writer trying to put dramatic pauses in my posts...
But, technology advances after a while and I d/led an 'older more primitive'
programme that actually WORKS!  Now, I still don't know about the quote...
why should I have to?  Isn't citing an example good enough for college students?

Skeksis
From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Why TW2000 eats wormy dog turds.
Date: 13 Sep 92 16:45:37 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Sep13.060829.8129@fang.att.com>, 
 bcd@fang.att.com (Brendan Dwyer) writes:
 
>     TW2000 has got some major flaws to it.

[Portions of how T:2000 characters overeat and can survive head shots from a
.45 deleted]

Okay, so what? You're going to throw a game system in the trash becuase 
there are one or two points which are unrealistic? Every single game I 
have ever played (I haven't played 'em all, but I've played more than my 
share) has aspects which are not realistic. I'd be willing to submit that 
90% of all games have unrealistic PC damage rules. It's unavoidable. PCs
have to be tougher than real people, or they would die too easily and RPGs
would be unending and frustrating character generation sessions. 

If there are rules in a game that you don't like, change or throw them out.
I know there are games with too many flaws to correct, but IMO T:2000 isn't
one of those. 

Okay,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chadd VanZanten SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU + ``Ahm just a hunka' hunka' burnin' luv.''
--Elvis, Burning Love
From: v057qkmm@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (BABBLING SAGE)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Real Sci-Fi Games
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:11:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <15032@mindlink.bc.ca>, Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow) writes...
>v057qkmm@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (BABBLING SAGE) writes:
> 
>>    Ok, since you _asked_ about the races, I will give a quick summary:
>> 
>>      Chatilian Empath: Small "Asparagus Men" with mental powers.
>>      Cizerack: Female cats with incredible agility.
>>      Eridani: Warriors dedicated to the perfection of the Self.
>>      Gen Humans: Genetically engineered humans.
>>      Humans: What needs be said?
>>      Mazians: Amoeba-like creatures with the ability to change shape.
>>      Mutzachans: "Melon Heads" with the power to manipulate energy.
>>      Orion Rogues: Seven-fingered humanoids who like to party.
>>      Phentari: Bipedal squids that eat Humans.
>>      Python Lizards: Aquatic huge reptilian beasts.
>>      Ram Pythons: Jungle-dwelling miniature dinosaurs.
>>      Zen Rigeln: Skeletal beings with the power to heal.
> 
>Hmmmm, sounds like a list from a bad B-grade sci-fi movie.  Humans with rubber
>mask "gimmics".  Do the races and their quirks have serious bases--biological,
>evolutionary, economical, etc--or do they only have shallow excuses as attempts
>to justify what the developers thought was a "cool idea"?  In my experience,
>the latter process usually results in weak products (aliens in this case).
> 

	Actually the races are covered in far more detail than I've given here,
including a summary of their history and a lot more information on their 
culture. It is impossible for me to summarize that information here without
cutting out a lot of it. And that, of course, would make them seem 
underdeveloped. Sorry, but I can't justify every race's characteristics in
a post of reasonable length.

>--
> 
>Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca

Bluerazor
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
From: swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim)
Subject: Re: test
Organization: Rice University
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 21:45:53 GMT

In article <4SEP199207393656@rosie.uh.edu> lib1p@rosie.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino) writes:
>In article <Bu0G5A.LM3@rice.edu>, swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim) writes...
>>  And one of the foundations for Naval Law is that sailors are idiots
>>and should be considered wards of the court. 
>
>Now, Now, didn't you know that about 1/3 of the navy comprises
>gamers, HARD CORE GAMERS.  Just ask my salty sailor, gaming whore 
>(his words) husband.
>
>Does that mean that gamers should be warts of the court?

  Only if they're frogs, or regularly handle them. Are you french?



-- 
Mike Swaim            | I can see clearly now my brain is gone.
swaim@owlnet.rice.edu | I can see all the bicycles in my way.
Rupp doesn't even know who I am,
 much less care what I think
From: v054nn84@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Foto...Taking pictures again, and Happy for it!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Melee rounds
Date: 5 Sep 92 09:56:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Regarding the subject of length of melee rounds, I have always found a time of
5 seconds to be satisfactory to me.  Not too much happening so that players and
myself lose track of what is going on, not so short we can't get a little
cinemagraphic detail into the proceedings.  This is of course a biased view,
but then aren't all views biased in one way or another?

Skeksis - Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.misc
From: gdg019@cch.coventry.ac.uk (Ridley McIntyre)
Subject: Re: Reichstar (sp?)
Organization: Ironpig Arcadia, Coventry, UK
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 12:37:35 GMT

In article <1992Sep15.073420.27144@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> braca2@cspyr1.cs.adfa.oz.au (BRAY CHRISTOPHER) writes:
>The Computer.... <MABBC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:
>
>
>>Hello everyone,
>
>>    Does anyone know anything about this game or Werewolf, which is
>>put out by White Wolf...  I heard a little about Reichstar but nothing
>>that makes me want to invest money in it.  Can I hear some input on
>>this please....
>
>Re: Reichstar
>
>	I am not sure how the system runs, but I was definately unimpressed
>	by the gaming world.  Poor quaility artwork ( I could have done
>	better than some and I'm and engineer) and badly laid out ideas.

I know the guy who designed the Reichstar Imperial logo, and he had to go to
court just to get paid for it. He also came up with some of the game mechanics
and the company refused to credit him. So, I can't say this is an unbiased
opinion, but he thinks the game (as it ended up) is shit. Bad artists
ruined his designs and bad designers ruined his art. I took one look at the
cover and decided I'd rather play RUS as a cheap game. Or that copy of MWWG
we have lying around. Or maybe even my *own* (it's THAT bad).

Werewolf looks a lot better.


-- 
        	 **Ridley McIntyre - Ronin Ironpig**			
		     gdg019@cck.coventry.ac.uk
		 -----------------------------------
     		    "He's in a world of his own."
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.advocacy:2199 rec.games.frp.misc:5339
From: v057qkmm@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (BABBLING SAGE)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Let's talk REAL sci-Fi systems
Keywords: The best, the worst
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:18:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <davis.716196910@cwis>, davis@cwis.unomaha.edu (James J Davis) writes...
>v057qkmm@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Bluerazor) writes:
> 
>Bluerazor's critique of Battlelords hardly leaves me wanting to go out and
>pay 50 clams for it.  It has 12 races, when both Star Hero and GURPS/Aliens

	Why did you think that the game costs 50 dollars? The basic 
book is 20 bucks and Lock N Load is 15.

>offer an unlimited number.  (Note: he stated 'COOLEST' races, which hardly
>makes the critique objective as he claimed...)  He praised the combat system
>highly, pretty much on the basis that it was 'quick, efficient, and deadly.'
>Well, he failed to support these with why.  Or, more importantly, if being
>deadly is really a good thing.  If more deadly = better, and quicker = better,
>then my combat system stating "any time a character attacks another, the
>victim of the attack is killed" is best, right?  (Wrong!  It just proves
>that just being deadly doesn't make it good.) 

	It is deadly, however a deadly combat system does not imply that the
victim of an attack dies every time. In such a case there would be no PC
development whatsoever. The combat system is efficient and fair. A person
in armor has a fair chance of survival in a fight; however if you are 
unarmored, you would be wise to avoid combat.

 [Side note: paying 50 bucks
>for a game hardly proves it's a good choice.  It only proves that a fool
>and his money are soon parted.]  Bluerazor goes on to praise Battlelords
>for having lots of equipment.  (160 pages worth)  This is pretty silly,
>since equipment past a certian point is either trivial or repitive anyway.
>He harps about how it doesn't have magic, and that is a good thing.  Once
>again, this is an opinion, and hardly makes the critique objective.  His
>post is full of praises for Battlelords, and lacking in reasons for them.
>He notes how the system will get more historical development, more equipment,
>more races, and a section on tactics.  I already noted the pointlessness of
>all these races and all this equipment.  Historical development is fine for
>some gamers, but I'd just trash it anyway.  A section on tactics is just
>short of worthless in a supposed 'RPG'. 
And, in closing, Bluerazor 
>challenges me to match his 50 dallor investment.  Alright: 20 dallors buys
>the Hero System Rulesbook.  It has infinite equipment, infinite races a
>combat system that can be made quick and deadly (make a blaster do 30d6
>killing at +10 OCV...).  No worthless background to mess up your gore-
>fests.  (Read: no background that I would not use anyway, but I had to
>appeal to Bluerazor here...)
> 
>In summary, I would like to thank Bluerazor for warning me not to waste
>my money on this game.

	-> The deal with the 50 dollars was a mistake. It was not intended to
mean that the game costs $50. 

> 
>-james

Bluerazor
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Time mechanics
Date: 11 Sep 92 12:35:01 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology

In article <cmqTqB1w165w@swob.nullnet.fi> maxxon@swob.nullnet.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio) writes:
>However, if the fuse _did_ work (is there a mechanic for this in TW2000?
>I don't recall) I must still disagree with you. Again, the missile is
>designed to work against tanks. The jet of superheated metal is only 1
>or 2 inches wide. If hit on arm or leg, yes that limb would be a goner
>but the man might survive. 

  Don't forget that the jet is generated by an explosive charge between
a few kilos (manportable) to tens of kilos (maverick), and having that size of
charge going off at a range of about a meter or less is bad for anybodys
health.

>maxxon@swob.nullnet.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio)

-bertil-
--
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
 strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
 exercise for your kill-file."
"This is the famous Hasan B Mutlu-trigger, insert it in your .sig file today!"
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly)
Subject: Re: Time mechanics, healing and aiming
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 17:25:15 GMT

millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:

>Let me turn your example around. In AD&D you have a paladin with a really good
>armor class. He gets into a fight with two ogres and a hill giant. His armor
>class is so good they can't hit him. Every round he is pummeled by powerful
>blows from extremely strong enemies who bounce 10 lb clubs off his armor *much*
>harder than little pieces of lead and yet it doesn't hurt his aim even a little
>bit. Even if they hit and connect it doesn't hurt his aim.

Well, with a minute to manuever, you can get hit, roll with the force of the
blow and then have time to attack. (I'm not defending ADD's combat system,
but the time frame does give you time to roll with a punch.)

>As for the bullet hitting with 800 foot pounds of force, the impact is largely
>absorbed by armor, and that's why it doesn't hurt the character or throw off
>aim. If it actually had penetrated armor then the character would have a
>penalty equal to the number of points of damage to its attack roll. I fail to
>see any such rule *at all* in AD&D or any other D&D variant, and I've played
>them all.

Kevlar may stop a pistol round, but the impact will carry through. Modern armor
does not absorb impact, it prevents penetration of the body by the projectile.

If you get hit with anything .357 Magnum class and above while wearing Kevlar,
you should definitely have some sort of modifier to fire, if you are able to
fire at all. 

>Now I agree that GURPS has some problems with realism, but anyone who seriously
>thinks that AD&D has the advantage on GURPS in the area of realism is not
>playing with a full deck. AD&D is simply not designed to be a simulation of
>tactical level combat; GURPS is descended from a tactical one-on-one combat
>boardgame.

Well,if you are using modern weapons, Pheonix Command has probably the
best realism for that sort of combat.  
I found it real interesting that the person who favored ADD used a modern
combat problem he had with GURPS to say ADD was better. Well, ADD is
medieval combat, so it would be more constructive to examine GURPS combat
system examples relevant to that time period and tech level. That is, unless
the average paladin carries an M-16.

Axly


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
From: reynolds@cs.iastate.edu (Owen Reynolds)
Subject: Re: Killing rolemaster pc's
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 20:40:46 GMT

Marijan_Madunic@panam.wimsey.bc.ca (Marijan Madunic) writes:

>I have a problem (guilty complex) about killing pc's. After all they do
>spend a couple of hours creating these pc's. Can anybody help me in getting
>over this problem.

    Most role-master characters risk their lives on a fairly regular
basis, and they enjoy doing it. Players very quickly come to the
realisation that if they can't die, they aren't risking their lives,
and they may as well roll-play shopping for socks.

    Your players need you to be able to slaughter them if they do the
wrong thing. There's nothing worse than a GM who lets you get yourself
into a really bad situation and then bullshit your way out. Your
players need to know, for example, if they hadn't made that grappnel
cast on the first throw, the worm of death would have caught up with
them and would very probably have slain them all.

    You own it to your players to make a situation really be as dangerous
as it looks.

    Does that help?


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.misc
From: nasato@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu (Neil Asato)
Subject: Re: WARP WORLD
Organization: University of Engineering, College of Engineering
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 02:35:05 GMT

In article <92248.07474634ZBTXQ@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> <34ZBTXQ@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> writes:
>  I just recently accquired a copy of BTRC's WARP WORLD (traded my copy of
>MYTHUS for it-I feel that I got the better deal). I was just wondering if any
>of you out there are playing any campaigns with this, and how you like it.
>                                   Allen Shock

     Nice game. Although this might set off that ever popular "munchkin
alert", a variant setting is one in which magic is a part of the
the way reality works, therefore does not really run out (it still costs
Power to create the necessary conditions though). Basically, magic always
stays and influences evolution accordingly (a fairly high tendency for
magic, or at least power, by plants and animals). Trees and whales (dinosaurs
too) tend to be very resistant to magic(all that living mass translates
into a fairly large amount of Power). Despite what most think, magic
and technology get along fairly well. In fact, a working knowledge of 
how to use scientific principles as a focus (not the same as a Focus
of course) to best apply magic would be used.
     Roughly TL 16 campaign is the one that I favor. While some may disagree,
a higher AP and SP to take into account technological and magic developments
(especially genetic augmentation) are used. It is primarily played like
a combination secret agents/medium powered super heroes/ free-lance
adventurers type of setting.
     Maybe a couple weeks from now, I will post the things that seems to
work for that campaign (if I have time), like new magic types (one type
is a plant-based magic (different from the Earth magic) in which
the power of a specific type of plant is tapped (one type is based
on grass/grain plants for farmer sort of wizard NPCs, another is based
on trees for woodsmen type of NPCs).

     The one trick for wizards to maximize their power is that they
should always apply their Power indirectly so that they do not have to act
directly against the opponents Power. Example: use a teleport (I think it
has enhanced effect) spell to teleport a flat piece of land above the 
opponents head. Spell regulation, like gun regulations, exist.
From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Btech and Shadowrun, the newsgroups
Date: 12 Sep 92 05:04:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.ward1.716274281

cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters) writes:
>FWIW (for what it's worth),      I do read all the rec.games.frp.* groups.
>I have an advantage in TRN instead of RN, which lets me kill whole threads

As much as I hate to comment on this whole new newsgroup thread, this
made me throw in the following:

Try the 'nn' news reader.  If you don't have it, push like hell for it.
It is blazingly fast.  It automatically sorts the subject lines of
articles, which groups them together.  It presents you with a list
of the subjects, then you can select the articles you want to read in
a menu style.  Most importantly, you can select articles by regular
expression. For example, I read only Shadowrun articles, I just type
a command, then 'sr' or 'shad' and all the articles I wan't to read
are selected.  Then I read them and move on, I .never. have to deal
with articles I don't want to see.

Its kill feature is also .very. fast (invisible, in fact).

Wordman
From: wright@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Michael G. Wright)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Info on Cthulhu wanted
Summary: Want to know more about 'Call of Cthulhu'
Keywords: Cthulhu, beginner.
Date: 9 Sep 92 00:54:59 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia


	Hi. I'd like to know a bit more about Chaosium's 'Call of Cthulhu',
i.e. what sort of game mechanics are used and a brief desc. of what sort of
storyline / adventure plots that players get into. I have played AD&D before
(1st and 2nd ed.) but no other system. What are the differences in stats etc?

	If interested enough, I'm going to start up a campaign, but I'd like
to know a bit more before I invest the cash.

	Thanks.

-- 
Michael Wright            _-_|\     Peg- "Al, can I have a thousand bucks?" 
LaTrobe University,      /     \     Al- "Why sure honey, have you got change
Melbourne, Australia.    \_.-_*/          for a million?"
wright@latcs1.lat.oz.au       v                Married with children. :-)