HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: SATELLITE@eldi.epfl.ch (Uncle Alias)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Rules that Players in SF games should live by....
Date: 30 Mar 92 13:20:54 GMT
Organization: Satellite -- Enjoy!.. -- EPFL Students pub
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.21


	Well, here's a nice advice, even if it shouldn't be of much help for
most of you players..:

	When someone asks you to find his long lost twin brother (VERY LONG
lost... say, twenty thousand years...), who might be somewhere in the galaxy,
or perhaps in another one, or even in a different universe, don't laugh and
don't say something stupid as "no problem", because you may soon realize that

	1) Said guy is a master in Higher Arcanas (ie very powerful psi-like
powers)
	2) He's also possessed by a Fire Elemental, whose spirit blended with
his, giving him fire-based powers (LOTS of them), immortality (sort of, anyway)
and destroy most of his sanity in the process
	3) Many people, and not of the weakest and kindest type, don't want the
two brothers to ever get together
	4) You're still a member of a merc company which needs you to storm a
planet.

	My players are not that much happy, you know... And the universe they
know isn't that big...

	"Fire in Harmony!.."						Alias


################################################################################
################################################################################
                                                 ##
            //||              =================  ## Stephane "Alias" GALLAY
          //  ||         (O    \\                ## c/o satellite@eldi.epfl.ch 
        //    ||                 \\              ##
      // \\---++---      ||  ||\\  \\            ## "Tout est dans rien
    //    \\  ||  ||     ||  ||  \\  \\          ##  et rien est dans tout
  //       \\ ||  ||     ||  ||    \\  \\        ##  et reciproquement..."
//          \\||  ||___  ||  ||__________\\      ## (Pierre DAC)
                                                 ##
################################################################################
######################################### ALIAS.SIG v.2.0b Comments welcome! ###
From: JLM@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Humanoids (Orcs, etc.)
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:04:08 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

In article <1992Apr8.163846.1681@vax1.mankato.msus.edu>,
mscs057@vax1.mankato.msus.edu says:
>
>Orcs are ugly but basically human in what they can wield.
>
>Strength       9-18/00%  +1
>Intelligence   2-16
>Wisdom         2-16
>Dexterity      3-17      -1
>Constitution  10-19      +1
>Charisma       2-16
>
>If you want classes reply.
>
>Thorin the Dwarven Cleric

  Neat idea; I'll contribute to the list by adding
what my source has for Kobolds:

 Strength       6-11       Class limitation:
 Intelligence   4-11
 Wisdom         4- 7       Cleric ....... 2nd
 Dexterity      7-15       Mage ......... 4th
 Constitution   9-14       Thief ........ no limit
 Charisma       4- 7       Assassin ..... no limit
                           Fighter ...... 4th

  I must point out, however, that my source gives stats for
orcs which are just a little different (but not much).

Jose L. Martinez
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov
Subject: Re: SR : Geeking Spirits
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 23:01:36 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.235550.4287@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen) writes:

>  Someone was saying that spirits are difficult to geek with mundane
>weapons.
>Nyah not a chance ..
>In a run I did a couple of weeks ago the group met a force 9 Free Fire
>Elemental. To scare them they met it while it was manifest...

>Unfortunately they had with them two similar ultra chromed samurai,
>both carrying BIG guns (an ares LMG and a Vindicator Minigun : both on
>gyros). Such as it was they saw the spirit and let fly on full auto with
>explosive ammo. Now a 15 shot burst from a Minigun does 20(D++++)5 damage

Hmmmm...as far as I remember to attack spirits you MUST engage in
melee.  You use your willpower as your combat skill and you cannot use
guns (your anger doesn't transfer or something).  Then again I may
have read the rule wrong I'll check the Grimoire tonight.

>	       Veltyen (I'm still no good at this)
--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction
From: seawasp+@pitt.edu (Ryk E Spoor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: GM's Pain
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:23:01 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


>vanor@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes:
>
>>Hello, here's a intersting new thred to folow up on the stuped pc tricks
>>GM'S PAIN
>>What I am thinking of is posting of stories of when the pc's have done somthing 
>>to totaly destroy a GM's well laid plans and to start it off here's mine

	Well, several years ago I was running a group through the Temple of
the Unheard Scream, the nastiest dungeon crawl in my world (originally a
huge temple of good giants, totally corrupted with a monstrously powerful
being cursed to stay inside, at the bottom, until adventurers freed it).

	The Temple had, besides the ground floor, TWENTY levels. However,
the party, among other things, had a psionicist and another person who
had psychic powers. The psionicist realized (watching a "worship" ritual
on the first level) that what the priests were really doing was psychically
contacting the Real Bad Dude and getting him to channel power through them.
"Great." said the other psychic. "Here's what we do..."
	The psychic contacted the Real Bad Dude directly, during the next
worship session; it, of course, prepared to blast the psychic's brain to
borscht, but asked him if he had any last words. The psychic calmly said,
"um... yes. Where ARE you?"
	Now, naturally, no matter how hard you try NOT to think of something,
that thing comes clearly to your mind. (DON'T THINK OF PINK ELEPHANTS! 
STOP IT OR YOU DIE!!) So a clear and definite image of the Real Bad Guy's
location shone out. Realizing the trick, the Bad Dude tried to fry the psychic,
but the psionicist was waiting, threw up a Tower of Iron Will and beat off
the attack. Then the psychic transferred the image directly to the mage.

	The mage then teleported straight down to the Big Bad Dude's home
cell, circumventing 19 levels of horrid nasties.

	Of course, he ALSO avoided getting the items and experience that he
would have needed to BEAT the Bad Guy...


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;
From: mstorer@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Mark)
Subject: SRUN: Limiting magic
Keywords: SR magic
Organization: University of North Texas
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 07:50:11 GMT

Problem:  Magic can get too damn powerful in Shadow Run.

Solution(maybe, haven't tried it yet, I'll tell you Tuesday):

Background Count:

	Its mentioned in the Grim-thingy (hey, I know I can't spell, so I 
	give up).  The background count is added straight into the target
	numbers for magic (there are exceptions... read about it).  With a
	rating from 1 on up, its pretty easy to put a stop to all that anoying
	magic (if you REALLY want it to be GONE, asign a planet-wide count
	of oh... say 12 }).

Magic pool:

	Remember all those anoying mages with reflexes faster than the Sams?
	Take away a die from their spell pool for every point of force they
	quicken.  (This won't include spell locks... I'll get to them.)

Spell locks:

	I've pointed this out earlier, but I'll mention it again.  A  
	magician can only have <INT> magic items bonded to them at once. (!)
	I don't want to hear any more of this *17* spell locks bull.  Cut it
	out!  

Everything else:

	If a GM thinks a character is getting out of control, either retire
	them ("Remember Sable?  She's been hired to kill you..."), or KILL
	THEM.  An AVM will do it (almost... goddam full heavy armor) every
	time.  I AM going to geek my ONLY PC necromancer (he made up the rules,
	not me...) and I AM going to geek anyone who comes up with a Physical
	Adept with all 6 magic points in athletics (skill web.. 6 auto's in
	unarmed... GRRR!)



"When in danger
 when in doubt
 run in circles
 scream and shout!"
	-- some poet
From: sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Stelter)
Subject: Re: Silly GM tricks
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 18:25:11 GMT

pentangl@spdcc.com (Scott Moir) writes:

>Sometimes the simple things work best.

>20x20 room, door on opposite side of the room. The floor of the room
>is covered in sand, some six inches deep. In the cieling is a hole
>a foot across.

>They wouldn't step one foot into the room. They went elsewhere.

>The hole was just a hole, the sand was just sand. :)

Cool!  I can just hear the furtive whispering amongst the paranoid 
players when they came across this one...

Player #1:  All right, then I'll put on my boots of levitation, you 
            hand me that cube of force and ring of spell turning, and
            the rest of you stay back here.

Player #2:  No!  That's what he *wants* us to do... [Frightened glance
            at GM]


                                            --Steve Stelter
                                              sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: cbergstr@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Chris N Bergstresser)
Subject: KAOS pbm arena!!!
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:29:38 GMT

     All right, I've posted tons of rules, and I've been answering reams 
(gigabytes?) of questions about the fine points.  So I'm posting a deadline.

     I will accept characters until Sunday night.  I am leaving Ohio State for 
the weekend, and will return Sunday.  During this time I will not be available 
for answering questions.  If you want to play, either finish your character and
mail him to me by then, or mail me a notice saying you will be playing, here's 
your character so far, and here's a list of the questions you need answered 
before you can finish him.  For those who need a repost, I'll post the rules in
a reply to this message.

     Oh, I'll accept anyone who makes it in before the deadline with a valid 
character.  If you miss the deadline, but have a decent reason for it, ask me 
and I may let you in anyway.  But let's try and make this deadline, people?
From: seawasp+@pitt.edu (Ryk E Spoor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Ravenloft info
Date: 14 Apr 92 15:25:53 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <167C5D55E.MHART00@ricevm1.rice.edu> MHART00@ricevm1.rice.edu (mason hart) writes:
>Power checks are usually small, and are made in response to evil actions
>made by the PCs.  Casting a necromantic spell isn't of itself an evil act,
>but the powers of Ravenloft are attracted to necromantic magic.  I still
>find it hard to imagine anyone who isn't truly evil becoming a Lord of
>Ravenloft.

	Our party: LG Paladin, CG Barbarian-Wildmage, and CG Dwarf Priestess
of Hades.

	Priestess had trouble in combat; only useful spells were Necro.
	Priestess starts blowing Power Checks. Gets red eyes. Gets short
temper. Gets fangs. Gets scales. Gets blood drinking for strength.
Keeps losing temper; keeps needing more power to fight. Ravenloft keeps
tempting. Paladin makes lots of speeches. Priestess can't stand
speeches with short temper.

	Priestess goes CG->CN->NN (Paladin got in a good speech) ->CN
->CE. Priestess betrays entire party, goes mad for power, stabs Paladin in
back, accidentally creates a Death Knight along the way, fails SIX
Ravenloft checks, becomes new lord of Ravenloft.

	So even the Good go bad. 

				Sea Wasp
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: apearlma@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Andrew Pearlman)
Subject: Re: champs: immortal
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 14:51:25 GMT

In article <92107.185608TKUSTER@auvm.american.edu> <TKUSTER@auvm.american.edu> writes:
>I'm trying to make an immortal champs but can't come up with an effective
>means of doing this.  When I say immortal I mean he doesn't die.  He can go
>down apear to be dead etc.  but eventually he'll be back.  Life support is
>half of it but doesn't cover when he's beaten to a pulp.  Any ideas?

Lots of body.  Say around 30.  Toss the life support except for immune to
aging/disease.  Get *at least* 1 body regen, only when dying(-1 1/2).  You
may want some actual regen or change the above into 1 body regen, only when
dying(1/turn) or 1/day(-3/4).  You also probably want some kind of defenses
that increase at some point, once you've taken a bit of damage.  Staggered
works nicely.

You won't be totally immortal, but damn hard to kill.  Unless you severely
violate someone's psych limits :-)

Andy Pearlman
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: markg@engrg.uwo.ca (Mark Gagnon)
Subject: Re: Sex and RPG's - Why Oh Why ?
Organization: University of Western Ontario, London
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 14:20:13 GMT
Keywords: sex and Roleplaying, RuneQuest, Hi! MaryKate!

One female roleplayer that I had the good fortune to game with in a
RuneQuest campaign almost invariably played characters who were named
"Tiger Lily" or "Lotus Blossom" - and could usually castrate a fly at
300 yards with a longbow or some such... In one rather long and very
interesting RQ campaign her character became involved with one of the 
local "indignitaries" and eventually married him. That didn't stop her
from adventuring though... She had special armour made and kept right 
on going. I think that by the time the campaign finished she had had
five children... (Most of the rest of us, all male, sat around the table
in varying states of distraction... ;->

-- 
Did Elvis act alone in "Blue Hawaii"?  New evidence supports the
second stand-in theory!  Remember, Elvis had a twin brother who
SUPPOSEDLY died at birth...
From: jalkanen@vipunen.hut.fi (Janne P R Jalkanen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Shadowrun.  The effects of Essence ?
Date: 7 Apr 92 17:30:05 GMT
	<1992Apr3.125241.16725@yang.earlham.edu>
	<1992Apr4.184923.18983@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

In article <1992Apr4.184923.18983@acsu.buffalo.edu> hennessy@acsu.buffalo.edu (Mathew A. Hennessy) writes:

   here's a usable one

	   1	left arm	
	   2	right arm
	   3-4	left leg
	   5-6	right leg
	   7-11	torso/abdomen
	   12	head (+2 Damage codes sounds about right)

I really would like to see to score a hit to the left arm ;-)
("1 on a 2d6? Sheesh, guys... I think our GM is cheating...")

I have been using the following table in my campaign...
	2 = Head (left half) (1 Wound level up)
	3 = Leg  (left, lower = below the knee)
	4 = Torso (left, upper)
	5 = Arm (left)
	6 = Leg (left, upper = above the knee)
	7 = Abdomen
	8 = Leg (right, upper)
	9 = Arm (right)
	10 = Torso (right, upper)
	11 = Leg (right, lower)
	12 = Head (right half) (1 Wound level up)

Now this may seem to be a little confusing, but it is actually pretty
logical... This gives chances for a head hit as 1 : 18 (~ 5 %)
Calling a shot to somebodys head will NOT increase the damage a second
step...
An imaginative GM will soon devise penalties for different location hits,
for instance a leg hit will cut down Quickness by 1 point / inflicted wound,
an arm hit cuts down Strength by 1 pt/Wd Lvl.

Armor will of course cover only certain points of the body. For instance:
Form fitting body armor lvl 1: covers chest and abdomen only
                        lvl 2: covers as lvl 1 + legs
                        lvl 3: covers as lvl 2 + arms

I suggest that you also make all ff body armors rated as 2/1, as the
given ratings compensate the fact that SR has no damage location system.
--
Janne Jalkanen           !
jalkanen@vipunen.hut.fi  !        Life is about making the right moves.
-'Good Die!'             !
From: sue%miracle@merk.com (The Dragon Queen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: DMs AID
Date: 11 Apr 92 07:50:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: miracle.11Apr92025028
Organization: Miracle Computer Consultants

John_Morgan@mindlink.bc.ca (John Morgan) writes:
>Someone had asked about a DMs aid for the computer.
>What I would like to know is what would you like to see in this AID?
>What would a DM like to have at his fingertips?
>What do you folks out there on the net think would be nice to have?


Anything except SSI's DM's Assistant!  Man, is that a lame program
or what!!!



---
|	  _\|/_          |This posting compliments of The Dragon Queen|
|	 /     \         |                                            |
|      	| O   O |        | Any imaginative suggestions about what can |
|__ooo__|___ ___|__ooo__ | be writen in this box are welcome at:      |
|  UUU      U      UUU   |           sue%miracle@merk.com             |
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: rayres@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Russell W Ayres)
Subject: Re: Character Names
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 14:55:56 GMT

I remember seeing such a name generator for the Mac about three years ago, in 
the games section of sumex-aim.stanford.edu.  I pulled it down, and it was LAME
in all senses of the word.  It was really aweful.  Not even the Welsh have such
impossible-to-pronounce spellings.  If you find a *better* one, let me know.

--Bill
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: kdmiller@m4-035-11.MIT.EDU (Kenneth D Miller)
Subject: Re: Stupid adventures
Keywords: Smurfs, Burger King, Aiiiieeeee
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 03:23:40 GMT


Heh heh heh....

That brings back memories of TWO... count 'em *TWO* adventures I ran.  I had 
never GMmed before, so I have an excuse.  Okay here's the rundown.  There's 
this RPG called "Morpheus", which for all intents and purposes is the "Virtual
Reality Game".  You get the idea.

Anyway, being a first-time GM, I decided to run their (ahem) pre-packaged
adventure (in the back of the book).  Unfortunately, I realized too late that I
hadn't read it enough to really run it.  I assumed (incorrectly) that I could
just read along in the adventure and do fine.

	<<<WRONG>>>

Okay, about half-way through, I realized this was going the get ugly really
soon.  So, clever me, I decided to write my very own adventure.

Only problem is, during the design phase, I broke two cardinal rules of GMming

1.  Make sure that the PC's can fend for themselves without outside help.
2.  Make sure that the PC's don't have to depend on NPC's for everything.

Without these two rules in mind, here we go...

	The two characters in this game (drat...only suckered in two people ;)
were a Clint Eastwood-style super-Cowboy, and a Fire Mage.  Right.  Now what do
you do with a cowboy and a mage?  Yes, that's right, you put them in a Science
Fiction campaign...

	They are asked by The Federation (tm) to investigate some really weird
stuff happening on this Cyberpunkish frontier world.  Yeah.  Right.  I managed
to come up with some really vile things for them to encounter...sort-of like
the War of the Worlds TV show (if anyone remembers that).  Nasty bio-tech
genetically engineered creatures and weapons.  But I digress.  I manage to
latch up these two level-1 characters with a level-6 character which I had
created (can you say "mismatch"?  sure you can...).  In the progress of this
godforsaken game, this level-6 guy hosed down scads of NPC villains and 
critters.  The two level-1 people had to use the (overpowered) weapons I
gave them, as their own attacks weren't strong enough.  So, anyway, the three
followed a weird creature in the shadows all the way to an abandoned warehouse
that served as (all together now...) The Enemy Base (tm).  They break in, and
manage to wreak some havoc, mostly due to the level-6 character's inordinate
firepower.  Well, about this time, everybody decided that it was time to quit.

The game never got finished, and I don't blame them for not wanting me to
continue it.

Fortunately, I'm one to learn from my mistakes.  I'll write an adventure that
the PC's can actually use their very own abilities to get things done...

-- 
kdmiller@athena.mit.edu   |  Yep, it's KENNY MILLER... 
    ///                   |  The Nth Greatest Programmer EVER!!!
\\\///  Amiga Makes It    |
 \XX/     Possible!       |  (Where N is any very large integer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: cleggp@aix.rpi.edu (Paul Jason Clegg)
Subject: CHAMP:  Racial Packages:  Ripoff?
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:10:41 GMT

Is it me or are Racial Packages totally bogus when it comes to increasing
maximum characteristics values?  I mean, you can pay points equal to the
value of the characteristic to increase the maxima.  This means you don't
have to pay double up until that point.  But you don't get any points out
of it, so when you DO get to that point, you still have to pay the points to
get there.  What's the difference between the two following options:

1).  You buy your Strength (for example) up to 20.  Then you pay 10 points to
bring it up to 25 (twice normal cost).

                   -- OR --

2).  You buy your Strength up to 20, and you pay 5 points with a racial 
package to increase the maxima to 25.  Then you pay another 5 points to put
your Strength up to 25.  5+5=10.

What's the difference?  And if you DON'T buy your strength (or whatever you've
improved) up, it's basically a waste of points, yes?

I'm only going by the Hardcover 4th ed., has it been changed, in like the Hero
System Rulebook (where I know they fixed a lot of typos), or have I just missed
some rule (like Racial Packages only cost 1/2 their normal cost anyway or 
something silly like that)?  Has anyone encountered this problem before?

...Paul

|FQT 1.10| Apathy Error: Don't bother striking any key.
From: onder@ISI.EDU (Bruce Onder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Why not a NET.RPG?
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:37:05 GMT
	<35003@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
	<1992Apr8.083209.17125@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>
	<1992Apr13.191607.16943@yang.earlham.edu>
Organization: USC-ISI
In-reply-to: dsimkins@yang.earlham.edu's message of 14 Apr 92 00:16:07 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.191607.16943@yang.earlham.edu> dsimkins@yang.earlham.edu writes:

>In article <1992Apr8.083209.17125@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>, cjudd@esk (Craig Thomas Judd) writes:
>> In article <44275@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) writes:
>>>
>>>Once again, it will be stated:
>>>
>>>There is a net.rpg project going on over in the rec.games.design
>>>newsgroup, and it has been for a while.  Take a look over there
>>>some time.
>> 
>> Which game? I have been there for a while, but have only seen people talking
>> about their games in general, and have only seen two games actually posted -
>> mine... :-)
>> 
>> Is there a concerted project I am unaware of?
>> 
>There was.  I think that it went as far as it was going to go. Their 
>system was extremely simple and fast.  I think that they focused primarily 
>on combat sections rather than skill lists and skill resolution, etc.  The 
>combat system was abstracted, like DnD, where all actions are incapsulated 
>into a round of combat.  Some people were trying to add different 
>maneuvers to vary combat, but really they were only using the roll of two 
>six sided dice to determine combat effects, I think, so there was really 
>very little room for variability.  Sorry I cant give any more information.

I did one of the write-ups for one of the combat systems.  It only
used *one* open-ended d6 roll.  I might add that my middle name is
"Minimalist."  :)

But now I'm working on a d20-based universal skill system in which
combat is treated as a macro-level skill, just like everything else.
This is a reaction to complaints I've heard that all players seem to
do is fight.  Well, take a look at your game system's combat rules.
Now compare them to the rest of the skill section.

Any questions?  :)

>David Simkins

Bruce
--
		Bruce W. Onder		onder@isi.edu

	But still I'd rather be famous than righteous or holy
		      Any day, any day, any day