From: davidc@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Rec.games.frp.cyber
Date: 5 Nov 1992 09:52:55 GMT
Organization: The University of Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au

CS341A002@Husky1.StMarys.Ca (Loki) writes:

>davidc@tartarus.uwa.edu.au writes:
>>I am against the idea of rec.games.cyber.

>rec.games.cyber exists *now*. Voting against it is, well, silly. ;)
Well, I missed the CFV. Perhaps I should have said this then
Well, I missed the CFV. Perhaps I should have said this then. . 

>>                                          The big problem is exactly
>>what games would be discussed. OK, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberspace. But
>>what about Shadowrun? What about Traveller:TNE which will have extendedve
>>cybernetics rules?

>Games which claim in some respect to be a cyberpunk game would be
>discussed.
That 'in some respects' is the unclear bit. Ok, if its got 'cyber' in
the name, its cyberpunk (at least in the sense that the term is used
within the games community). But there is also Shadowrun, and lots of
games with bits of cyberpunk style tech, but where it is not very
central (like traveller 2300, the upcoming Traveller:TNE, and Dark
Conspiracy), and people who play these games are a little unsure of
where to post. If you play these, you have to read two newsgroups to get
everything, and good ideas may get not reach the widest interested
audience. And with Cyber HERo you have the opposite problem, much of the
discussion should really be in with the Champions folks. 

>>                   What about Dark Conspiracy?

>Quoting the Dark Conspiracy rulebook: "a horror game, not science-fiction."
>Seeing as cyberpunk is a form of SF, I think that makes it pretty clear. ;)
So you should talk about Dark Conspiracy cyberbetic arms with the Call
of Cthulhu players? Game designers say all sorts of silly things. I
think they meant 'we know our science is dodgy and we don't care'.re'. 

>>                                               Whith the gaming world as
>>it is now, I think that the border of what is Cyberpunk and what is not
>>is too vague. I personally am in favour of keeping as much on
>>rec.games.frp.misc as is reasonable, and separating if it seems really
>>important.

>Short list of common cyberpunk games:
>     Shadowrun
>     Cyberpunk 2020
>     Cyberspace
>     Cyber HERO
>     GURPS Cyberpunk
>Hm. I think I see a trend... Shadowrun seems to be the only one that
>doesn't have the phrase "cyber" in it. :) I'd say that makes it pretty easy
>to identify cyberpunk games in itself.

>>           The rec.games.dark idea is much worse, for the same reasons
>>but more so.

>The only game that is questionable whether it's a "dark" game or not is
>Paranoia. I think it's pretty obvious that Toon & Star Wars are light
>games, whereas BattleTech & Call of Cthulthu are dark games...
I thought Battletech was just a violent game. And the question becomes a
pretty silly one when you talk about games without a sepcified genre. Is
GURPS a dark game, or a light one? 'dark' is a very vague and subjective
idea. I see no use in separating games out on the basis of 'feel'.
Especially as I suspect that the Dark Conspiracy and Call of Cthulhu and
Warhammer 40K players will have very little to say to one another. 

>rec.games.frp.misc is (once again) growing hard to deal with. To be
>completely honest, it's a pain reading it all, even for somebody like me
>who is interested in most of it...
Why not just read the interesting threads? No one says you have to read
it all. And if you already do read onoly the interesting threads, you
must be saying you want less interesting stuff.

>         Loki         | cs341a002@husky1.stmarys.ca | Brynjolfr Myrkjartanarson
> often sysop of TWWOL | cs341a002@stmarys.bitnet    |    Compaignie Mercurie

>   The coward believes he will live forever if he holds back in the battle,
>  But in old age he shall have no peace though spears have spared his limbs.

>                 --- The Havamal (verse 20

							Dave Cake
)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc