HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kabreuer@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Breuer)
Subject: BTech Conversion for MS-DOS Beta ready
Organization: Student Pool, CSD, University of Erlangen, Germany
Distribution: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 04:09:19 GMT

Hi all!

Looks like the previous release had a bad header in the ARJ -
sorry about that.
Have now releaseed Version 0.2b, including a preview of what
the game itself will look like.

Package includes now: * Mech Editor  Finished
                      * Warrior Editor  Finished
                      * Map Editor  Finished
                      * MechWar  Beta Version to look at, fulla bugs

Available vie ftp from: 131.188.1.43 in /pub/pc/incoming 
as mech02b.arj

Ciao,
Klaus
From: kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: Questions from the Minotaur: The Next Generation
Date: 14 Sep 92 23:42:30 CDT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <ggynatb.boserj@netcom.com>, boserj@netcom.com (Jeffrey Boser) writes:
> pmwg1641@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter M. White) writes:
>>mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (steven mancini) writes:
>>>1.  How do you other GM's deal with the glut of Magically Actives? It 
>>>    seems more and more people are wanting to play magicals and the 
>>>    traditional street samurai is losing his appeal. Is this prevalent 
>>>    in any other gaming groups?
> 
> For the most part, magicians are the worse choices..  they are expensive
> as all hell to maintian (will cost individuall about the same as 5 to 6
> other characters), hard as hell to play (keep them in roll, with totems
> and such).  The spell locks are pretty inexpensive, I multiplied their
> cost by 10, and since only initiates can quicken that takes care of
> that possibility.  With a magicians problem with healing, this all makes
> it hard to play.  With the spell lock lack, and the penalties for
> maintaining a spell, reaction adjustment spells are no problem.
> 
>>[Stuff deleted.]<<
Second Edition also makes it more costly to be a Hermectic mage.  Have
you seen the cost of Hermectic libraries?  Rating squared times 1000
(that's for the CD version, which is the cheapest.)  This may have bad
effects in our campaign.  We already have a problem with people only
wanting to play shamans.  I guess we are going to have to be real
sticklers about them role playing their totems.
-- 
+-------------------------------+
| kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu	|
| bkreed@oread.cc.ukans.edu	|
| EGARC\BKREED			|
| Bryan "Use a bigger gun" Reed |
+-------------------------------+
From: klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Matriarchal Societies...Fact or Fiction
Date: 15 Sep 92 11:31:33 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

lib1p@rosie.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino) writes:

>How much do people take for granted as true without really
>thinking about it, yet run in fear of anything that smacks of
>matriarchal or matrilineal?

There is a great difference between matriarchal and matrilineal.
I have heard the claim, from an expert (in a radio science program),
that we have no evidence that a matriarchal society ever existed.
You will not get any expert to say the same about matrilineal
societies, they are quite common.

Klaus O K

PS I am not saying that the expert mentioned above was right, I
know that other experts disagree, I am just saying that that was
what she said. I don't really like the word "expert", but I don't
remember if she was an etnograf or an etnolog, I don't know what
the difference is, and I don't know what either is called in
English.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: peters@physics.ubc.ca (Dan Peters)
Subject: Re: Gaming boards
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 01:51:40 GMT

>>I have no rec.games.rpg on my system :-(

>Don't worry, it gets very little traffic. Once every 3 weeks or so, someone
>makes a short post saying something to the effect of "hello, is anyone there?",
>and that's about it. You're not missing anything.

Oops. Just as I was writing this stuff above, a real rpg-related post appeared
on rec.games.rpg . I've never seen this happen before....

Drin
--
-----------------
Gutted - Flame NA
From: Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Let's talk REAL sci-Fi systems
Date: 11 Sep 92 07:22:55 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

v057qkmm@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (BABBLING SAGE) writes:

> In article <j+6y!zd@rpi.edu>, cleggp@aix.rpi.edu (Paul Jason Clegg) writes...
> 
> Oh boy, this is going to be a FUN thread!

        I hope so.

It sure is.  I'm glad you invited flames; otherwise I might have felt guilty
about roasting the game.  :)


> Hmmm.. dont want psychic powers? Dont play a MC race. And if you do want them
> and youre a non-MC, try Latent Extraction.

What if you don't want psi powers to exist at all in your campaign universe?
Good thing there are other game systems to choose from...

--

Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: sci-fi suggestions
Date: 11 Sep 92 12:51:12 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology

In article   writes:
>From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (jeff zeitlin)
>   The conversion module from Mega/Traveller to New Era is expected
>   sometime late in September.  The core of New Era is expected at the
>   beginning of November.  I fully intend to get it, as I consider
>   Traveller to be the best SF game available.

  At Origins/Gencon they said that the actual TNE rules has been delayed until
february next year. The folio 'Survival Margin' containing the conversions
will of course come out sooner, but I don't know if they mentioned the date,
so I'll take your word for it.

-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.misc
From: rrn@milton.u.washington.edu (H++ Visser)
Subject: Re: Women Gamers
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:45:50 GMT

Part of me resists saying this, as it is uncomfortably close to backing ADnD,
the great precursor of RPGs. The problem is that I, apparently alone among
those who post, don't feel that the wargaming origin of RPGs is a `bad thing',
but rather, the best thing about them. Perhaps it is my personal worldview
(which is basically `Peace is what you do when there's no one worth fighting'),
but I find a great carharsis in RPG combat. Much like watching gun battles in
movies, or what have you. Social interaction, romance, etc., can all be done 
in the real world, by myself or most others. Combat could not, at least not in
a fashion that could be dissoicated enough to be fun. RPGs, or fiction, are the
only opportunity to do so. As a result, I am getting quite unhappy with the
way the `women in RPG' thing is going. I have no problem with women playing, or
with combining feminist themes with more macho ones. Just so long as they don't
replace them. 

It's not so much that people play for the power or glory that they can't get at
home, at least most of those that I have seen (not all, of course though).
Rather, in real life if you fail at romance, you get depressed for awhile and
life sucks. Then you get over it, and you're wiser, etc. In a gun battle, it
would seem that you should only expect to lose once. The cost is just so much
higher. There are just some sorts of things that you can only reasonably do
in a game. Or things like being a criminal, etc., that you might not be able
to live with yourself if you were, but to be one in a semi-detatched fashion
for a few hours is something entirely different.

The fun, for me, is simply that in a RPG, you can play `Cowboys and Indians'
and not have to argue about whether you got hit first or not. Its the same
reason play wargames (some osrts of them, anyway). No one involved spends their
lives hoping it was real, nor does anyone really want to be a member of the
group one is playing. Its close to fantasizing, but it is not quite the same
thing. Fantasy is when you wish that you WERE someone, someplace, or somehow
different. Games are when you try to DO something different, within a neutral
rules framework (games that fiat to run aren't games, just as diving isn't a 
real sport - it may be great entertainment, but t'ain't the same thing), not
out of despair, but curiousity. Not out of wish-fulfillment, but rather 
amusement. When you play a game, you fully expect and want the ral world to
not only co-exist, but to retrun in full force when you are done. With wish-
fulfillment, maybe not. 

All these posts seem to say we should make RPGs so damned serious,
with 3-D characters and so much reality that PCs need to use the outhouse.
This, it seems, is where the danger lies: I can tell a Shwartzenegger
adventure from real life easily; a social adventure with romance, economics,
etc., maybe not so easily.

Why can't we just play games?  Is it really necessary to try to escape from
reality?


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner)
Subject: Re: Looking for "women's" rpg.
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 18:33:09 GMT

millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:

>What other aspects of play or design should be emphasized or de-emphasized in
>order to attract non-roleplayer women to our games?
>Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu


Less jargon and nomenclature to learn would make the game seem less
threatening.  A first time player is often confronted by a mass of
specialized terms she's never heard before, and this is scary and
distracting.

More generally, I know that if I join a new group playing a new system, I 
spend the first several sessions sweating blood over whether I'm doing 
things according to the rules--I don't want to 'cheat'.  A system which
has a loose, non-restrictive approach to rules, like Amber, will be less
threatening than one which has a lot of binding rules.

Small groups are better than large groups. I noticed, during a
disasterous Gurps came at Dragonflight, that I couldn't make myself
heard over the seven excited men in the same room with me, and was
mildly afraid to try.  My sample size is small, but it seems to me that
female gamers may have more trouble with noisy, crowded, chaotic gaming
sessions than males do (on the average, many exceptions no doubt exist).

When I was an undergrad I played in an all-female group of 5.  We used
AD&D, and the game wasn't that different from others I've been in,
except for a very strong romance element provided by the GM (a romance
fan)--PC/NPC marriages, children, rape, abduction, seduction, etc.  I
don't think choice of system was particularly important with that group.
In general I'm not sure trying to slant the system towards some
perception of 'what women want' is a good idea.  A lot of individual
women are likely to find your choices offensive.  Slanting towards being
quick to learn, easy to play, free from jargon, and suitable for
cooperation as well as competition should be enough.

But then, what do I know?  I got hooked by the very first RPG I ever
saw; I'm not really representative of your target audience!

Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@genetics.washington.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cassidy@juniper.cps.msu.edu (John J Cassidy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Alignments
Date: 8 Sep 92 19:38:37 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University


>In article <1992Sep4.033840.4246@Princeton.EDU> mfterman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU >(Mutant for Hire) writes:

>...
>   In a fantasy game, where gods have created the universe and imposed a
>   framework of ethics, one can allow those laws of ethics to be woven
>   into the fabric of the universe. Doing good deeds builds up positive
>   karma (or local equiv) and doing bad deeds builds up bad karma which
>   brings bad luck which in the end will punish the wrongdoer. One can
>   detect the karma of a person and tell if they are the type who does
>   lots of good deed or bad deeds, hence good or evil.
>
>Why does this last sentence makes me think about Santa Claus???
>
>"Ho ho ho, have you been good this year my boy? Ho ho ho"
>
>--
>/---------------------------\
>| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
>| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
>\---------------------------/

	Does it surprise you, Patrick?  I think that Santa Claus is the exact 
type of thing that he was talking about.  It is an example of fantasy where
a mystic discernment of the the difference of good and bad is possible.


	John J Cassidy		cassidy@cps.msu.edu
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: v054nn84@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Foto...Taking pictures again, and Happy for it!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Music and Lights
Date: 7 Sep 92 00:45:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

To the poster who asked what a LeMarchand Cube was, sorry for not making that
clear (also sorry for all of the typos in that post, it was early, I was
rushing to get to work).  A LeMarchand Cube is the fancy name for the gold
cube/key from HellRaiser, HellRaiser II, and I would guess HellRaiser III...

Skeksis - Let me get this straight.  I'm driving a 91 Geo and he's driving a 93
Vette and you want me to drag?  What are you, some kind of optimist?
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN II Screwups
Date: 9 Sep 92 00:47:56 GMT
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu's message of 4 Sep 92 05:57:51 GMT
X-Get-A-Clue: Have two, they're small.
X-Signature-Virus-Protection: Version 1.51
X-Posting-Software: GNUS 3.14.1 [ NNTP-based News Reader for GNU Emacs ]

>>>>> "JMS" == John M. Scheibeler <uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu> writes:

JMS>    All this work for a new Shadowrun edition, and I still can't buy
JMS> a simple @#$%&*@ two-way radio!

Oh, jheeze. You want the rulebook to hold your hand while you select your
dice, too? :-) Look in an electronics catalog (or even a ham catalog if
you're ambitious), find something you like, point it out to the GM and say
"I want this." Shell out some money and you've got a radio.

--Rat

||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
                                                   __        ___ 
Richard Pieri, Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat/   | /| / /   | The Worlds
Internet: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu   /__  |/ |/ / /| | Welfare Works
    UUCP: ...!northeastern.edu!meceng!ratinox  /   | /| / / / | | Association:
  BITNET: UA_RLP@NUHUB{.BITNET}               /__  |/ |/ / /  | | I will solve
  USNail: 14 Westdale RD  Holbrook, MA 02343 /   | /| / / /___| | any problem
 ICBMnet: 42 deg 1 min N, 71 deg 0 min W    /    |/ |/ /_//_____| for you.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: JLOCK00@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (Joseph L. Lockett)
Subject: Re: GURPS: Knockback
Organization: Rice University  
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 02:33:07 GMT

In article <u894793.716026298@bruny>
u894793@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (Timothy D Little) writes:
 
>It seemed strange that a gun that exerts no force on the firer's hand should
>knock the target 15 yards down a corridor.  Where is the 'equal and opposite
>reaction'?  In the case of weapons producing 'surface explosion', I can
>understand it, but otherwise the knockback should be proportional to the
>recoil force rather than the damage.
 
I'm not at home, so I don't have my GURPS books handy.  But I've read
somewhere (was it in High-Tech, or in the High-Tech 2nd Edition playtest
files?) that knockback from guns is limited to a maximum of one hex.
Fairly well solves the problem right there -- Knockback is for BIG damage
from stuff like a giant's club in a Fantasy scenario.  Yeah, I'd use it
for a fire-hose, too.  But probably not for normal gunpowder weapons.
 
Joseph L. Lockett
jlock00@ricevm1.rice.edu
From: batemanc@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Mad Chris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:09:06 GMT

v054nn84@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Foto...Taking pictures again, and Happy for it!) scrawls:

>I really do not know
>what started this whole thread but the main point is that you AND (let me
>repeat that because it is important *AND*) your players are having fun.  So
>your style is different from my style and my style is different from the
>ALmighty Favod's.  That is the way life is...

I've followed this thread since day one and I don't think I'm wrong in 
saying it was started by two people one of whom was an Imp and the other
was a Prep. After three posts the Imp said something along the lines of
'Well, each to there own' and the Prep replied 'Don't wimp out on me! Almost
all the discusions on the net could be solved like that and no-one would
learn anything. I WANT to hear about Imp because I don't do it at the 
moment and so I have a lot to learn.' So the thread continued.

DON'T TRY AND KILL AN INTERESTING THREAD BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE IT!
That's what your kill files are for.

Oh, and your anti-'I prepped everything' missed a point: if the players
didn't ask for the colour of the socks of the Mobil attendent, then you
didn't need to Prep it, did you? This is in case your post was directed
at my 'I used 100%' post, which made it clear that I usually Imp anyway,
and was just shocked when I used 100% and got 100% from it.

Blood and souls for my Lord Arioch!

Mad Chris.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: tmartin@nyx.cs.du.edu (Thomas Martin)
Subject: WANTED: Clip Art
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 20:36:38 GMT

Does Clip Art for Fantasy/Sci-Fi exist? If so, please e-mail me with
either an address (if it's commercial) or an ftp site. Thanks in advance.

Thomas Martin
tmartin@nyx.cs.du.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jjohnson@ccscola.Columbia.NCR.COM (Jeffrey H. Johnson)
Subject: Re: GURPS Combat - Step & Wait vs. All Out Attack
Organization: NCR CCSD Columbia SC
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 20:03:16 GMT

In article <92255.112424MRM122@psuvm.psu.edu> <MRM122@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>The penalty for doing an All-Out-Attack would have ended at the end of the
>turn.  A new turn is a new turn for everyone.  A character still gets active
>defense even if they did an All-Out-Attack the previous turn.  The only time
>that they don't is the turn that they actually do the All-Out-Attack.  He was
>already penalized for it- he doesn't get penalized twice.
>
>                                                       Marsh

All right.  I think this rule was stated somewhat ambiguously in the Basic Set.
First, I'll quote it:

"However, if you choose this manuever, you may take /no active defenses at all/
until your next turn.  You must depend on your passive defense to protect
you -- which is probably a forlorn hope."  Basic Set p. 105.

I can see how the above interpretation could be read from this statement,
but I think the actual intent is that you have no defenses until you begin
your next action.  There is no one-second barrier which carries all
participants into the next turn at once.  Instead, each player has a one-second
turn which begins with his action and ends immediately before his next action.
As soon as a character begins his all-out attack, he is vulnerable until he
has a chance to regroup (when he takes some other action).

We played the way Marsh describes at first, until we noticed that the player
who goes last could take an all-out attack at no penalty, since he would be
able to defend immediately after his attack, since it was the beginning of a
new turn.

Jeff
--
Jeffrey H. Johnson
jjohnson@ccscola.columbiasc.ncr.com

		"More human than human is our motto."
			-- Dr. Eldon Tyrell
From: jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us (Jeff Gostin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Net.Bardsong.Book, Available via FTP.
Date: 10 Sep 92 04:47:29 GMT
Organization: The little node that could...


     Firstly, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all *223* of you
that asked about the Bard Book. Your support is invaluable, and is
appreciated. Secondly, I'd like to announce that the NBB is available via
FTP from sandman.cco.caltech.edu and greyhawk.stanford.edu-- ASCII only.
Thanks again for your support, and any criticisms are appreciated! :-)

                              Jeff Gostin
                              Official Collector of
                              the Net.Bardsong.Book


...From a tiny little node called Eternal!
--
    /|Email  to:   jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us, offline@infopls.chi.il.us
   / |Smail  to:   Jeff Gostin, 917 High Ridge Pass, Carol Stream IL 60188
   \ |Vmail  to:   708-293-5526
    \|Flames to:   trashcan@eternal.chi.il.us
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen)
Subject: Re: SR: Non-animal totems
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 11:09:50 GMT

John M. Scheibeler (uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu) wrote:
: mxr@neptune.dsc.com (Max "Vicious Audacious Melon" Rible) writes:

: >(I wouldn't permit turning a modern rigged vehicle with lots of fancy
: >high-tech materials into an Ally, but having an antique-style hand-built
: >car has *style*!)  
: 
:    Why not?  I think having your hand-built Eurocar Westwind 2000 (with 
: Turbo option) would be a neat idea.  But why a Rolls-Royce?  The 
: traditional symbol of freedom of the open road, the Pink Cadillac or the
: T-bird, would be even more stylish.

Sorry to interject...
 _American_ symbols of freedom.
In Australia if you want a car with style you get a Commodore HSV.
But thats just my opinion.
Anyway, ever seen a Cadi or T-Bird built by hand?
Get a Ferari, some of those are still handbuilt.

: -------------uplink

On a related <<<munchkin possibly>>> topic what would people think
of a handbuilt computer focus.
<Its not so stupid, it's virtually what is in my course at the moment>
The ultimate in file protection if you have an ally on board 8-)

-Veltyen

*****************************************************************************
*Veltyen   ....GM from Hell        *"I love the smell of Napalm on a Mormon"*
*ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au *"Let me get this right you offered to   *
*ins769v@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au   *   Castrate your Sisters boyfriend?"    *
*veltyen@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au	   * " Nahh her Fiance' " " Whatever "      *
*****************************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc