HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar)
Subject: Thanks for the ideas on galactic conquest
Organization: School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:34:51 GMT

Wow, go away for a week and looks what happens! Thanks to everyone (and
there were a _lot_ of you) who mailed or posted suggestions for the
galactic conquest game I am trying to design. Some of the stuff is really
helpeful and, yes, I have grabbed some stuff on Galactic Bloodshed from
the ftp site.

Thanks again - newsgroups are great things.

David Mar.                              mar@astrop.physics.su.OZ.AU
Astrophysics Department, University of Sydney  NSW  2006, Australia.
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Killer or Assasin instructions/info requested
Reply-To: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, N.H.
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 22:11:32 GMT

jmn@crown.berkeley.edu (J. Mark Noworolski) writes:
>I am planning to organize a game of 'killer' or 'assasin' at school and
>would like to hear some suggestions for rules from those who have either
>played or organized one before.

You could just buy the newly re-released "Killer" by Steve Jackson Games.
It has all sorts of rules, scenarios, safety precautions, etc.  Ask your
local retailer - he can get it quickly if he doesn't already have it.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Subject: Re: Call for Playtesters
Originator: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 19:41:52 GMT

From article <78876@ut-emx.uucp>, by dfn@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David Nalle):
> Ragnarok Games is looking for a few good playtesters.  We're going to be
> starting playtest of our forthcoming game Nightmare Realm in a couple of
> weeks and we could use a few more groups to test it.
> 
> If you are interested, have a group which plays multi-player strategy
> games, and can promise to play the game at least four times in a two
> month period, drop me some mail.  Include a list of your five favorite
> board/strategy games of all time (or your group's favorites).  This might
> help us pick appropriate groups.
> 
> Oh...this playtest is limited to players in the United States or at APO/FPO
> addresses because we'll have to distribute materials by mail.
> 
> dave

Well I might be interested in doing this if I had a better idea what the
game is like. Playtesting a game is likely to be a lot of work. Even so the
amount of time needed may vary quite a bit. Also I would be more interested
in working on a game that I was likely to want to buy.
It would have been nice if you had included some description of the game in
the post. Things like playing time, complexity, and a brief summary of the game
would be of great help in deciding whether or not I wanted to volunteer for
a playtest.
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mwasson@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Michael Wasson)
Subject: Re: The ultimate weapon
Organization: University of Hawaii
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 01:32:28 GMT

>>   In summary - many types of troops may be ultimate in one way, but none
>>   will be ultimate in all ways. The skill of a general is in maximsing
>>   the strengths of your units, while exploiting the weaknesses of your
>>   opponents forces.
>
>Wonderfully put.  Agreed.  
>
>However! Shall I bother?  Oh why not.  If the deathstar hadn't been beaten
>by magic then its purely physical weaponry was ultimate.  Say a wrong word and
>your planet gets it.

I think the point made was that it had strategic limitations -- they could
only base it in one system at a time.

>But all in all I'm happy so it can be dropped.  Actually, no one replied saying
>if they had played a game like that - kind of a who lasts the longest I guess.

GDW made a game of Agincourt [sp?] ... I've never seen it ... The thing
to do is balance the victory conditions. That way the player on the other
end of the Doomsday Device can win by making the best of a hopeless 
situation. Victory conditions can also reflect politic realities ... 
bringing out the nukes could cost you victory points because it upsets the
folks at home (the U.S. considered bringing atomic weapons to bear against
the N.Koreans but didn't, presumably for that reason).

Or try to build in some of the strategic limitations. e.g., in GDWs
Imperium the imperial side had supply problems b.c. the player was some
regional administrator who had to go begging the Emperor for more ships.

Or the Ultimate Weapon can really be a Nearly Ultimate Weapon. SJ's Ogre
is balanced if the GEV player is competent (the Ogre player has an easier
time of it...) -- a system like that takes a lot of playtesting.
_______________________________________________________________________________
"There was nothing to be    |  Michael Wasson     | "'Dead-on balls accurate'?"
done; a circumstance that   |  U of Hawaii        | "It's an industry term."
happily suited our disin-   |     and             | (from My Cousin Vinny)
clination to do anything."  |  Fat Messiah Games, |____________________________
--Herman Melville           |  S. Pacific HQ      | [standard disclaimer]
_______________________________________________________________________________
From: huw@siesoft.co.uk (Huw Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Killer or Assasin instructions/info requested
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:22:44 GMT
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Ltd.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

My favorite killer variant is "Circle of Death".  Each player is given
a photograph, name and permanent address of another person.  The people
are arranged so that the photographs make a ring.  Last person alive wins.

Rules:

0.  The Games Master's word is final.

1.  Anyone who is dead becomes a policeman.  Policemen are allowed to kill
    anyone who they catch red handed except the perpetrator of their
    own death.  Anyone who breaks any of the other rules has their name
    turned over to the police, after which (s)he is fair game even if not
    caught red handed.

2.  You may only kill the person whose photograph and name you have (but see
    rule 3).

3.  You may defend yourself to the point of killing someone else but only
    if you can prove self defense (self defense is pretty difficult to
    prove (see rule 0)).

4.  If you spot people behaving suspiciously, you may not kill them.  Report
    them to the police.

5.  When killed you must pass the photograph, name and address of your victim
    to your murderer.  This person then becomes your murderer's new victim.
    If you do not find out the identity of your murderer at the time of the
    assassination then report immediately to the Games Master.  In any case
    you must report your death to the Games Master within 24 hours.

6.  You must stay at your permanent address for at least 8 hours in every 24
    (e.g. to sleep).

7.  If a murder takes place in a public place then the murderer must wear
    a mask.  The mask must be put on and taken off in private.

8.  If the murder weapon is a projectile weapon then the projectile must be
    provably able to hit the victim (for example a water pistol must be fired
    and must hit, a banana (another gun) must be thrown and must hit).

9.  All fixed bombs and other traps must be detectable.  They must be
    physically connected to the trigger object (e.g. door handle).

10. Parcel bombs and letter bombs may be taken to the Games Master to be
    defused.  If a parcel bomb or letter bomb is opened by anyone else, it
    is assumed to have gone off.

11. Poison must be detectable and it must be obvious to the victim when (s)he
    has been poisoned.  If necessary, leave a note ("Check your hands for
    pickle/ketchup/treacle: You have been poisoned").  

12. Bombs set up on a timer must go off audibly (and preferably visibly) so
    that the victim knows he's been killed.

13. Any action which is liable to bring you to the attention of the real
    police results in instant death.  This does not necessitate your capture
    by the police mentioned in rule 1.

I hope this is of some use
Huw
--
Huw Roberts (huw@siesoft.co.uk) Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Ltd.
+44 344 850982                  Oldbury, Bracknell, Berks. RG12 4FZ England
From: tomk@westgac3
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Mapping to hex sheets
Summary: another alternative....
Keywords: copying hex_sheets
Date: 23 Aug 92 22:59:29 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: West Georgia Color Computer 3

c1741@moncol.monmouth.edu (MICHAEL CARSON) says:
Another alternative to this is:
   I have to make transparencies for presentations from time to time. 3M
makes a transparent film for copiers that can be run through just like
standard copier paper. Only the end result is a clear film with the 
necessary info imbedded. As a suggestion, you could copy the map or hex
overlay to a transparancy. Then recopy the other one imposing the 
transparancy between the top of the copier and the paper. Thus when the
copier puts it out onto another paper, the result will be the hex overlayed
onto the map. And you can crank out as many as needed!
-- 
Thomas Kocourek                               : UUCP on an OS9 system,
UUCP: ...!{emory,gatech}!wa4mei!westgac3!tomk : Multitasking in 512K---
LD: (404) 834-4685                            : What a concept!
From: jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Ideas for a galactic conquest game?
Date: 27 Aug 92 08:22:33 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, London Rd, Harlow, Essex, CM19 9NA, U.K.

In article <1992Aug24.065628.13430@ucc.su.OZ.AU> mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:
>   Briefly, I want to make this a multi-player game, in which each player
>   decides her moves without the other players watching. If you know the
>   game _Empire_, then it's a bit like that. The game is to be a "galactic
>   conquest" sort of affair (yeah, I know, it's cliched, but what the heck).

>   - When you happen to be in the same star system as an "enemy" ship, you
>     may either fight it out, or attempt to bargain a trade (of resources,
>     ships, prisoners, slaves, whatever). You will be able to enter any text
>     message, which will be transmitted to the enemy player during his turn.
>     In this way, agreements can be made or broken, insults hurled, etc.

Players will usually end up being friends of each other.  The idea of including
message sending seems sound but I had a similar game and it just wasn't worth
the work.  The players found sending messages in the game far too slow so they
just chatted to each other as and when they wanted.  As to agreements being
made, my game was very war like and so no one bothered after a while.  ie I
promise I won't attack (the old 'I come in peace shoot to kill' syndrome).

A few more positive ideas would be:

- Make trade between empires the major source of wealth.  ie a trade route
has so many cargo vessels put to it and then it runs itself.  At any point
the ships can be re-allocated.  Each 2nd go they simply move from one end
of the route to the other with one go to fill up.  The worth of the trade
is tied to the wealth of the planets at either end.  You could even set up 
routes between two empires which aren't your own.

- Piracy.  Since trade is big piracy would be big aswell.  Computer or player
funded pirates to throw into other players works.

- I like the idea of the 'road building' metioned by another poster.  If you
don't have a hyper way there you can't get there.  Makes the planning of such
roads very strategic.  Could even give such roads many 'lanes'.  Could charge
for use or whatever.  Many uses for such items.  Also want cross country route
which takes alot longer but which still gets you there though.

Jonathan

--
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  With fearsome eyes and fiery breath the dragon burnt the girl to death
                    -- from "Too Late Saint George"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: jwoods@cmptrc.lonestar.org (Jeff Woods)
Subject: Re: The ultimate weapon
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 05:59:20 GMT
Organization: CompuTrac Inc., Richardson TX

In article <1992Aug24.133401.1378@bnr.co.uk> jrd@bnr.co.uk () writes:
>
>In the referenced article jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons) writes:
>>Can anyone think of a game where the ultimate weapon is allowed?  This would
>>be the equivalent of the death star.  The real example I'm thinking of is
>>medeaval.  The ultimate weapon then was the long bow.  The English used it
>
>In summary - many types of troops may be ultimate in one way, but none
>will be ultimate in all ways. The skill of a general is in maximsing
>the strengths of your units, while exploiting the weaknesses of your
>opponents forces.

Excellent commentary on the reality of "ultimate weapons"!

The only example I can think of is the Nuclear bombs in Command HQ by Dan 
Bunten and published by MicroProse.  In it, nuclear bombs are allowed which
can be dropped on cities and/or armies and which destroy them and leave a 
relativiely large circle where fallout causes rapid attrition to units crossing
the area.  However, they are not without negative side effects.  Using nukes
increases the chance of some cities/nations changing allegiance.  Also, 
capitals are protected from being nuked.  (Capturing the capital of all the
major powers is how you win the game.)  After 3 nukes from one player without
a nuclear retaliation, that player is restricted from using nukes again until
the other player might use nukes, presumably because UN or someone else 
intervenes or world opinion forces the issue.  And finally, even if nuclear
weapons are used by both sides, after about 12 or 13 nuclear weapons the game
ends.  The idea is that the exchange made Earth uninhabitable and so their
is nothing more to fight for and no one to do the fighting.

Not exactly perfect, but potent nonetheless.  In practice, I've VERY rarely
seen nuclear weapons used.  But then, I almost always play the far-future
version where nuclear weapons are not an option.  

[While I'm here, if anyone in the DFW area is interested, I'm looking for
modem opponents for Command HQ and/or Global Conquest.]
-- 
Jeff Woods    214/235-7161 x3180    jwoods@cmptrc.lonestar.org
CompuTrac, Inc.   222 Municipal Drive, Richardson, TX  75080-3539
stdinfo: "My opinions are my own."
"You don't need a programmer so much as you need a exorcist." - A. Chambers
From: jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Ideas for a galactic conquest game?
Date: 27 Aug 92 08:38:26 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, London Rd, Harlow, Essex, CM19 9NA, U.K.


In article <1992Aug24.065628.13430@ucc.su.OZ.AU> mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:
>   Briefly, I want to make this a multi-player game, in which each player
>   decides her moves without the other players watching. If you know the
>   game _Empire_, then it's a bit like that. The game is to be a "galactic
>   conquest" sort of affair (yeah, I know, it's cliched, but what the heck).

>   - When you happen to be in the same star system as an "enemy" ship, you
>     may either fight it out, or attempt to bargain a trade (of resources,
>     ships, prisoners, slaves, whatever). You will be able to enter any text
>     message, which will be transmitted to the enemy player during his turn.
>     In this way, agreements can be made or broken, insults hurled, etc.

Players will usually end up being friends of each other.  The idea of including
message sending seems sound but I had a similar game and it just wasn't worth
the work.  The players found sending messages in the game far too slow so they
just chatted to each other as and when they wanted.  As to agreements being
made, my game was very war like and so no one bothered after a while.  ie I
promise I won't attack (the old 'I come in peace shoot to kill' syndrome).

A few more positive ideas would be:

- Make trade between empires the major source of wealth.  ie a trade route
has so many cargo vessels put to it and then it runs itself.  At any point
the ships can be re-allocated.  Each 2nd go they simply move from one end
of the route to the other with one go to fill up.  The worth of the trade
is tied to the wealth of the planets at either end.  You could even set up 
routes between two empires which aren't your own.

- Piracy.  Since trade is big piracy would be big aswell.  Computer or player
funded pirates to throw into other players works.

- I like the idea of the 'road building' metioned by another poster.  If you
don't have a hyper way there you can't get there.  Makes the planning of such
roads very strategic.  Could even give such roads many 'lanes'.  Could charge
for use or whatever.  Many uses for such items.  Also want cross country route
which takes alot longer but which still gets you there though.

Jonathan

PS Think of it a bit like the old European powers expanding into new lands and
all the nastiness they did to each other.

--
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  With fearsome eyes and fiery breath the dragon burnt the girl to death
                    -- from "Too Late Saint George"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Subject: Re: Killer or Assasin instructions/info requested
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 10:33:07 GMT

I found the "Circle" variant a serious pain in the rear end (i.e. you
get a photograph and can only kill that person), since I had no idea
where the guy was or how I could find him, and short of spending hours
on end walking around trying to spot him among 5,000 people, so I simply
gave up in the end. Better to have a selection of targets.

--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mmj7455@ultb.isc.rit.edu (M.M. Jacyszyn )
Subject: Milton Bradley Address?
Originator: mmj7455@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 02:37:53 GMT

Can someone please give me the address for the Milton Bradley game
company?  Thank you!

mmj7455@ultb.isc.rit.edu
From: mperry@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Ideas for a galactic conquest game?ad
Date: 28 Aug 92 09:43:11 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <JPG.92Aug27083826@holly.bnr.co.uk>, jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons) writes:
> 
> In article <1992Aug24.065628.13430@ucc.su.OZ.AU> mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:

[stuff deleted]

> 
> Players will usually end up being friends of each other.  The idea of including
> message sending seems sound but I had a similar game and it just wasn't worth
> the work.  The players found sending messages in the game far too slow so they
> just chatted to each other as and when they wanted.  As to agreements being
> made, my game was very war like and so no one bothered after a while.  ie I
> promise I won't attack (the old 'I come in peace shoot to kill' syndrome).
Message sending becomes necessary if there is to a computerised version as
players may be in totally different places and may play at different times of
the day. As to the promise not to attack, this can be avoided by having a
number of statuses that players may have between each other.
Eg Treaty
   Allied
   Recognized
   Netural
   Unrecognized
   Hostile
   War
   Genocidal

and players can only change 1 or 2 levels per turn (or update). So if a treaty
player enters anothers territory with miltary force it will take 3-6
turns/updates to go to war. If two players are Netural then it takes 2-3 turns
to go to war. This then gives some warning of deteriating diplomatic circles.
You can still have the case where two waring nations declare a cease fire, but
neither trusts the other enough to retreat from their war status, and one
player breaks the cease fire with a surprise attack. With this system, only an
idiot will remain at treaty with another nation while the other nation has
declared its hostile intentions.

Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: jmn@crown.berkeley.edu (J. Mark Noworolski)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Killer or Assasin instructions/info requested
Date: 1 Sep 1992 22:44:35 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: crown.berkeley.edu

I am planning to organize a game of 'killer' or 'assasin' at school and
would like to hear some suggestions for rules from those who have either
played or organized one before.

This will be held on campus amongst graduate students predominantly in EE
or CS so I am already thinking of modifications to the rules along the
lines of:

1. No killings in front of advisors.
2. No killings in the office (spraying computers with water is a bad
thing)


I have never played in one of these before so all advice would be appreciated.
Especially useful would be a sample on-line rule book or sheet.

Thanks
mark

PS: Excuse the cross-post but I really don't know where this belongs.
Followups to rec.games.misc? In any case I will summarize and post once I
have sufficient information.


Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: skrenta@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Rich Skrenta)
Subject: Re: Killer or Assasin instructions/info requested
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 19:05:44 GMT

huw@siesoft.co.uk (Huw Roberts) writes:
> 13. Any action which is liable to bring you to the attention of the real
>     police results in instant death.

I heard a story about a killer player being shot by the real police.
Probably an urban myth.

Although in high school, I was caught by the real police while on a
killer hit.  Some nosy neighbor saw a couple of sinister figures
sneaking through the bushes with guns.  The cop told us that he had
his gun "loose in the holster".  So be careful.

--
Rich Skrenta
From: kr1@csug.cs.reading.ac.uk (Kevin Richards [METOFF])
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: 1.3d++
Keywords: xtank
Date: 26 Aug 92 15:23:43 GMT
Reply-To: kr1@csug.cs.reading.ac.uk
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., University of Reading

Okay, so when are we going to see the revised Beta version.	What was the result
of the vote ! I thought it was pretty adamantly Yey

Any response would be grateful
	
	Kev


  ____________________________________________________________________
  Kevin Richards                                     kr1@reading.ac.uk        
                   University of Reading, Whiteknights, 
                          Reading, Berkshire, Uk

                       Phone +44 734 875123 ext 7642
From: rtiger@vax1.umkc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Xtank Programming
Date: 29 Aug 92 23:08:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: vax1.1992Aug29.170806.1
Organization: University of Missouri - Kansas City


Does someone have some instructions on how to program in XTANK?

Is it like ohpascal?

RTIGER
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer