HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wildcard@nevada.edu ( WildCard !!)
Subject: Re: SR : Geeking Spirits
Organization: Shadowland BBS, SpirtBusting Division
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 03:36:39 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 ..

They're only hard to kill if you use the rules.... :)

>[wonderfully interesting story of disrupting a spirit with a minigun deleted]

Lovely idea, but the GM wasn't familiar (magic pun) with the rules of shooting
spirits. I can't quote them to you because I don't have the book with me but...

When you shoot at a spirit you use your Willpower, *not* your gunnery or your
firearms. Chances are the character's willpower is about 4. Not enough to
hit anything with a +14 recoil penalty (ie the afforementioned minigun).
If you could *hit* it, I'd be impressed. Right now I'm still more impressed
with the spirit.

>    Need I say shoot first shoot fast shoot staight and the day is yours..

Go ahead and shoot first and fast. The problem is keepin' your hand straight
as you try to stay clam enough to look down the scope of your gun and shoot
at something that just deep-fried the samurai that tried to dice it. Most
people can't do it. Almost no one can do it with a minigun.

>     ~~  What about the Mage ? Cant cast a spell with a bullet in her.
>         Safety through faster firepower; that's what I say.

True enough, but what mage would be seen out in the open? I way mirrors or
tinted windows are a mage's best friend. :)

                                - WildCard !!


+ "Touch my deck and I ventilate your thorax..."                              +
|				- WildCard !!                                 |
|				  [ "Plex Personalities" Shadowland BBS ]     |
+ wildcard@redrock.nevada.edu                                                 +
From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Inter-Party Conflicts
Date: 17 Apr 92 20:08:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: uwm.1992Apr17.200834.20198
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Just to interject an idea/comment...

	Our party isn't perfect--We're all CN/CE/CG folks, all in a
high-level campaign that has been going on for the past year in real
time.  We each have the power to kill one of the others without
problems.

	And that's where the trouble begins.  Things happen, and
characters and players have fights.  Fights over the things to do,
etc.  Nobody WANTS a leader, because nobody wants to take one person's
ideas over anyone elses, nobody trusts anyone else's judgements.

	Our DM has a solution.  We can kill ANY other character we
want.  But if we're going to do it, keep it in character--you're not
going to do it in front of the others, or they'll kick your $%! all
over the place.  So do it secretly.  Go off, have something happen,
and come back.  But in REAL LIFE, DO IT WITH NOTES.  If there's
someone you want dead in the party, assasinate.  Do it secretly, and
do it with notes.  Don't giggle when you kill the person, don't rub it
in.  Don't give any clue that you did it.  Just kill the person.

	And it works.  I've never had to use the rule, but others
have.  Atil, an 18th-level fighter, got together with his assasin
friend.  They talked the cleric in our group into checking out a
prisoner I had locked up in my tower, and they went with him to make
sure.  They killed the cleric, freed and killed the prisoner, and made
it look like the prisoner killed him.  I used a few of my custom
divination spells and found out what happened, but never told...  It's
not that I didn't want the guy dead, it's just that I wasn't going to
stoop to it.

	So it works.  To this day, the cleric doesn't know how he
died...  To him, it looked like the prisoner they had just let out of
the cage knocked him unconscious and then he was killed...  (they
freed the prisoner first, and walked her by the cleric while Vagen
(the asassin) knocked him out with his own mace...  Poor guy didn't
have a chance.

	;)
Greg
-- 
"Walking in London, and you are watching me walk,      gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
 Talking Italian, and you are watching me talk,            Gregory R Block
 Singing in Sydney, and you are sitting right there,
 Feeling you with me, everywhere, everywhere."  -Concrete Blonde
From: mscs057@vax1.mankato.msus.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: <None>
Date: 9 Apr 92 15:15:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: vax1.1992Apr9.091551.1689
Organization: Mankato State University

I have found another set of ability scores for kobolds. It is as follows:

Str: 3-15       -1 (4d4)
Int: 2-16
Wis: 2-16
Dex: 6-18       +1
Con: 3-17
Cha: 2-16

Height: 30+2d8
Weight: 60+2d12

But if you like your stats keep them by all means.

Steve -- Thorin the Dwarven Cleric
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: ktko@athena.mit.edu (Kwanghyon T Ko)
Subject: SRUN Second Edition
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 00:59:23 GMT

I'm posting this for a friend.  It was lost in transit and only made it
to rec.games.cyber.  Send all flames to eabaltz@athena.mit.edu. :-)


From eabaltz@athena.mit.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tom Dowd was at ICON XI last weekend and he gave a sneak preview of the Second
Edition Shadowrun rules.  The rulebook will be out at Gen-Con this summer.  
It clarifies a lot of the rules inconsistencies.

Fire Combat: There are some pretty major changes here.  All staging numbers are
now 2.  Most power levels have been changed to reflect this, even weapons that
originally had a 2 staging.  As examples, Dowd mentioned the heavy pistol at
9M and the rocket launcher at 16D.  Armor values have not been changed, but 
armor no longer counts as auto-sucesses.  Armor subtracts from the power level
of the attack.  Thus, a guy with full heavy that gets hit with an AVM still has
to resist 8D.  No more of this surviving anti-tank missiles stuff.  However, an
optional rule is included to allow for a less deadly campaign.  Armor values
can be doubled to increase survivability.  Dodge and defense pools are gone.  
They are replaced by the combat pool, which is Will+Int+Qu/2.  This refreshes
will other pools and can be applied to any combat test, attack or defense.  
Thus, snipers dumping everything into their firearms roll can do some major
toasting.  Initiative is also different.  Characters get one action for every 
10, or fraction thereof.  Thus, a 21 is three actions.  There is, however, no 
maximum on actions.  As a final point, grenades will in fact hurt in 2E.  :)

Magic: Target # to resist is now the force of the spell, not sorcery skill like
it says in the Grimoire.  Drain target # is half the force.  I dont know 
whether this applies to overcasting your magic attribute.  Many spells are 
getting major revisions.  Combat sense sucesses now add to the combat pool, not
reaction.  Heal/treat L/M/S/D is now one spell.  Its drain is the wound level
of the target. Target # is still 10-essence.  The spell heals a number of boxes
equal to the number of sucesses.  Increase reaction is split into two spells,
increase reaction/reflexes, which add to reaction and initiative dice 
respectively.  Spell locks can now be turned on and off.

Decking and Rigging stay pretty much the same.  The autofire rules from RBB 
will remain, as will the virtual realities decking rules.

There will be supplement updates in the book, so the sourcebooks will be 
compatible with second edition rules.  The only one being rewritten in the 
Grimoire, which will be out at around christmas. 



Ted Baltz                                    "Pigs make lousy ninjas"-
eabaltz@athena.mit.edu                       Hamton
------------------------------------------------------------------------

K. Thomas Ko
Dept. of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From: slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Unterhund)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Stupid PC Tricks
Date: 6 Apr 92 11:58:46 MDT
Organization: United Order of Non-joiners

     Time to add to the thread.  I was GMing a Champions game, and I
had lured the PC's to a container ship off the California coast.  They
beat the villains and sent the agents running.  Then they found only
one container in the hold, a very heavy reinforced one with one end
hinged at the top, open.  Inside they saw a wooden box, which they
suspected held an atomic bomb.  Three of the four decided to go inside.

     KLANG!  The door swung down and locked itself.  The box opens,
revealing a TV/VCR combo, which begins playing a message detailing why
the person who set this all up wants to kill one of the PC's.  At
about the same time, the PC outside the box hears the sound of metal
tearing as one of the escaped villains opens up a hole in the side of
the ship.

     Classic deathtrap.  The lock was the vulnerable point.  Any one
of the three PC's inside the box could have opened it, through
blasting or picking the lock.  Unfortunately, the PC on the outside
had no such skills or powers.

     Through GM fiat, they managed to force the lock.  I wasn't REALLY
out to kill them, after all.  Next time I do something like that
they'll be sure to leave at least TWO people outside, though.
-- 
Patrick S. Clark            | "Sometimes a nice, simple bit of assault
Internet:  slb3y@cc.usu.edu | works as well as wizardry." - Runcible,
Bitnet:    slb3y@usu        | in "Hershey's Kisses" by Ron Goulart 
Disclaimer:  Universities should encourage independent thought.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: cjudd@esk (Craig Thomas Judd)
Subject: Re: miniatures for Palladium games?
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 10:15:16 GMT

In article <!d5t7j#@rpi.edu>, weidns@vccnorthe.its.rpi.edu (Steven Henry Weidner) writes:
>
>Okay, I know that Dark Horse used to do minis for TMNT... even have most
>of them.  However, after seeing some of the more interesting "killer
>death robots" that Alternative Armies is doing, I have to wonder if Palladium
>is working to get any miniatures contracts, especially considering how neat
>some of _their_ robots are... any rumors?
>
>"BIG" Steve Weidner
>weidns@rpi.edu

Well, in the Robotech RPG by Palladium, it says that Dark Horse (I think) makes
Robotech miniatures. You could possibly adapt these to whatever "killer robots"
you had in mind, unless they're totally something ELSE. That's all I have to
offer - no rumours or anything.

Yours factually;

-- 
   \/\  "Men, we're going to the Olympics."  The Colonel, Akira (movie)  /\/
====\/\       "You REFUSE to drink my wine...?"  Kahm, Outlanders       /\/====
=====\/\      *** WANT ANY MANGA ARTWORK DONE? Just email me! ***      /\/=====
      \/\   cjudd@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au    a.k.a. Kuro to Shiroi   /\/
From: clark@orion.csee.usf.EDU (Matthew Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Sex and RPG's - Why Oh Why ?
Date: 15 Apr 92 19:12:05 GMT
Reply-To: clark@orion.csee.usf.EDU (Matthew Clark)
Organization: Univ of South Florida, College of Engineering

In article <911087e.141@ace.acadiau.ca>, 911087e@ace.acadiau.ca (John
Enzinas) writes:
|> In article <9694.29E7650C@ofa123.fidonet.org>
Kay.Shapero@f524.n102.z1.fidonet.org (Kay Shapero) writes:
|> 
|> >On <Apr 10 06:03>, Lost Boy wrote to All:
|> 
|> > LB>    A year ago I ran a GURPS group that included two female
players.
|> > LB>INterestingly enough, they not only played on a regular basis
but 
|> > LB>they gave
|> > LB>me some rather original ideas for my own charicters.
|> > LB>    From my experience, female players run two kinds of
charicters:
|> > LB>charicters that don't develop because the players don't take the
|> > LB>time to
|> > LB>develop them, and charicters that border on psychotic: one
player 
|> > LB>always played
|> > LB>a nymphomaniac and the other came up with the most unusual of 
|> 
|> >FYI - you ran a game including two female players.  This is not
nearly
|> >a large enough sample to generalize to the entire sex, merely says
that
|> >you had two players, one of whom didn't bother to develop her
characters,
|> >and another who ran psychoes.  There really ARE other
possibilities... 

	Having had only two females in our group, I am limited in experience
although I am actively trying to bring others in.  (Rather, new
people...
the old saying "familiarity breeds contempt" holds true)

	But the two had strikingly different characters, constantly.

	One invariably played "cork on the wave" a character that just bobbed
along with whoever doing whatever.  She never did anything in the sense
of "initiaitve."

	The other, played beautifully, as only an stage performer could.  She
had a wide range of characters with a wide range of concepts.  But they
were all generally strong willed indiviudals and, consequence be damned,
did whatever they felt was necessary.  She would play male characters
while the other would not.

	(how do I know?  Well, the one time she did play a "male" character was
during a Camelot campaign.  I, a PC too, was anything but a night of the
Round Table, a dabbler in the arts and a thief to boot.  So, naturally,
I managed to
have "him" fall victim to a rather nasty sleep spell.  I, still thinking
him to be a male, proceeded to rob the bugger down to his skivvies, when
what should confront my eyes but a set of (y'know) staring at me on
"his" chest.  It's a darn good thing I am a "gentle-robber" or I would
left her butt-naked tied to a tree.)

Oh well...

 ________  ______   _   _   
|_   _|  \/  |   \ | | |_|   EEEEEEEE XX   XX PPPPPPP   OOOOOOO
  | | |      |  \ \| |  _    EE        XX XX  PP    PP OO     OO
  |_| |_|\/|_|_| \___| |_|   EEEEE      XXX   PPPPPPP  OO     OO
clark@galadriel.csee.usf.edu EE        XX XX  PP       OO     OO
clark@jupiter.csee.usf.edu   EEEEEEEE XX   XX PP        OOOOOOO
From: George.Harris@bbs.oit.unc.edu (George Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Need Doctor Who Games
Date: 8 Apr 92 20:51:47 GMT
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service


	Am I the only one who thought this person was looking for an M.D. that
plays games?  

	Depress Clutch, Shift Gears...

--
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like
prunes than rhubarb does."		-Groucho Marx

George.Harris@bbs.oit.unc.edu	or, preferably	gharris@jade.tufts.edu
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: kinnema@wkuvx1.bitnet (Mark Kinney, Attorney at Chaos)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Stupid PC tricks too...
Date: 9 Apr 92 11:28:56 CDT
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

Ok, Marvel Super Heroes: The Guardsmen are in a danger room session with some
new guys. They make the mistake of letting Cable program the threat. They're
facing Juggernaut.

Ok, one guy (Whitehawk) blasted the street around Juggernaut with plasma bolts,
causing J to fall into the subway tunnels and such below.

Whitehawk: I laugh out loud at him.

GM (me): Ok, you're there laughing, when suddenly you hear the sound of
concrete cracking below and a steel-reinforced concrete support flies out of
the darkness below. [astoundingly rolls a yellow result: bullseye]. You're hit
in the face.

Whitehawk never laughed at another opponent.
-- 
Mark Kinney [KINNEMA@WKUVX1.(BITNET)(WKU.EDU)] | Don't just eat a hamburger,
PhoneNet: (502)745-4246	  (Bowling Green, KY)  | eat the HELL out of it!
This has been a test. If this had been an actual emergency, you'd be dead.
Quote of the Week: "Quaker-pop Rice Sparkies and Quaker-pop Wheat Sparkies,
	those delicious, nutritious breakfast cereals shot from guns!"
				-- Negativland, "Guns"
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: MHART00@ricevm1.rice.edu (mason hart)
Subject: Re: Swashbucklers vs. Knights in Armour
Organization: Rice University, Houston, TX
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 03:35:56 GMT

I am not a fencer (more lack of opportunity than lack of inclination),
so my perspective is that of a simple role-player.  I've taken to
applying weapon speeds and individual initiatives in my games, and a
good rapier will beat a two-handed sword every time.  A fencer is a
dancer, relying on speed, agility, and skill to evade his opponent's
weapon, where his opponent depends on armor.  In my experience, neither
the swashbuckler nor the armored knight will come out ahead when skill
is equal.  An expert fencer will make a pincushion of a fledgling
knight, and a veteran ironclad mercenary will carve the swashbuckler
wannabe into dogmeat.

-- the redoubtable Silverwolf
-- aka mason

"If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong."
From: rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Sex and RPG's - Why Oh Why ?
Date: 6 Apr 92 20:55:45 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Apr6.010751@kazoo.ssd.loral.com>, brunner@kazoo.ssd.loral.com (Brian Brunner) writes:
> Our RPGs continue much of what we have always liked,
> and they contain little (relatively, mind you) of what the
> girls liked. So on that note alone it is little suprise to me
> that more guys than gals get into RPGs. 

In my experience (which is admittedly limited, but then that's what this
thread is about, right?), female role-players - so far all of them with
female characters, are more bloodthirsty and itchy for combat than the
guys.

Perhaps it's because they have to go further to escape their personal
realities. Or perhaps it's just that the few women I have played with (no
smart remarks please) tended to be of the munchkin ilk, and not just in
roleplaying.

Come to that, last time we played, it was cyberpunk... guess what guys,
they do tend to think with their soft and squishy parts (according to that
session) just like us :)

-- 
Robert 'Stumpy' Marsh | Brought to you from the bottom of the world
rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz  | both topographically and socio-politically.
+64 7 855 4406        | Whatever happened to Godzone?
    SnailMail: 95 Fairfield Rd, Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
From: opermwb@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: AD&D magic items
Date: 9 Apr 92 00:05:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr9.000538.19168
Reply-To: opermwb@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
Organization: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Hi everyone, this is my second and last request for magic item ideas.
What I will do is compile them into a volume and sell at cost at Gen Con.  
This requires that I get some more items sent to me!

please send to either this acount or brehobmw@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
Thank you very much!

Mark Brehob

just say no to .sigs!
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
From: mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning)
Subject: Even more riddles (and answers)
Organization: Simulacron I
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:40:26 GMT

I've decided to put the answers in at the bottom so everyone
will be able to find them more easily.

1. They are many and one,
   They wave and they drum,
   Used to cover a stare,
   They go with you everywhere.

2. Stomp, stomp,
   Chomp, chomp,
   Romp, romp.
   Standing still,
   all in gear.

3. Sweet tooth,
   Ah shoot,
   All gone,
   We all long,
   For another piece of it.

4. It comes in on little cat's feet,
   Is neither sour, nor sweet.
   Hovers in the air,
   And then is not there.

5. A laugh,
   A cry,
   A moan,
   A sigh.

6. What is it you have to answer?
   But to answer you have to ask?
   And to ask you have to speak?
   And to speak you have to know,
   The answer.



=========================================================================
Don't look below here until after you have tried to answer the above.







1. Hands/Fingers
2. Horses
3. Candy
4. Fog
5. Emotions
6. A riddle
From: boelter3945@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: Hovering on Deaths door (or how to stay out of hell)
Date: 8 Apr 92 13:52:39 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <13784@star.cs.vu.nl>, richard@cs.vu.nl (Richard Berwald) writes:
> [ System of using LifePoints instead of Deaths Door rule ]
> 
> Is there anybody out there who has used such a system? If so, what are you
> experiences with it?
> Any remarks are welcome.
> Richard.

   Well, sorry to say that I don't use such a system.  I my self to use the
Death's Door rule, though modified slightly.  As you said, remarks are welcome,
so I thought I would comment.

   What I use is this.  Any attack that brings the character to 0 Hp is still
conscious, but weak and unable to do any strenuous actions or cast spells. 
They still can function to do stuff like:  Drink a potion, Fire a Wand, etc..

   If the character is hit and knocked from -1 to -10 Hp (inclusive), then they
are unconscious and dying.  They will lose 1 Hp per round until they reach -11,
at which point they die.  Note that this Hp loss occurs at their initiative
(straight d10 roll, no modifiers for bleeding to death..)

   Bandaging (action, one round) stops this loss where it is, but it can only
be restored to a positive level by:  Magic spells/items of healing, or the
non-weapon Proficiency of First Aid/Healing.

   Btw, this 'limit' of -10 is modified downwards for Con bonuses and modified
upwards for Con penalties.

   Comments on this method I use are certainly welcome as well.  Thanks.

                                        John "Nightwind" Boelter

--
*******************************************************************************
* John Boelter        a.k.a. Nightwind            boelter3945@iscsvax.uni.edu *
* Organizational Manager and contact person for everything and then some.     *
*******************************************************************************
* I don't know, I don't care, I don't want * They're fleeing the wrong way!!  *
* to know, and I don't want to care.       *        -confused adventurer-     *
*        -Martian Manhunter-               ************************************
*        -Justice League International-    * Why is the DM smiling like that? *
*******************************************************************************
From: luther@uop.uop.edu (Pat Luther)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: Re: The Undead and level loss
Date: 16 Apr 92 01:46:35 GMT
Organization: University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA [138.9.200.1]

MHART00@ricevm1.rice.edu (mason hart) writes:
>                                                         Rather
> than ignore the more powerful undead completely, I've been toying
> with the following options, and would be interested in your opinions.
> 
> 1)  Characters recover lost levels at the rate of one per week, unless
>       they are reduced to less than zero.
> 2)  Characters may save against Death Magic to avoid level loss.
> 3)  The Priest spell Restoration is level four or five, rather than
>       level seven.

I personally like #3., I suggest level 5.  Seven does seem awfully high
for this spell.... (No, Kwei-Cee, that doesn't mean I'm gonna change it
myself!)  

The way I  use this is: wait til they're all fairly high level (9-12) before
hitting them with any level-draining undead.....
Another option is to always have NPC within stumbling distance (a few days, 
whatever the time limit is to cast the spell), who needs someone to go on
a short quest for him/her....what a coincidence you came along, it must
be an omen from the gods... :-) I got two people questing right now for
precisely that reason.  Hi Craig! (Sir Tuck Gladhill, famed Brewer of Marisanti)


					??pat

-- 
Pat Luther:Lex's Evil Twin
luther@uop.edu <-- ascii mail only
picard!pat@uop.edu <-- NeXTmail OK.
"I never met a man I didn't like."
		-- Dr. H. Lecter