HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Appleseed for GURPS...
Date: 20 Aug 92 01:35:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: splinter.RATINOX.92Aug19213527
	<1992Aug19.233057.10006@cs.uow.edu.au>
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: u9035281@cs.uow.edu.au's message of 19 Aug 92 23:30:57 GMT
X-Get-A-Clue: Have two, they're small.
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>>>>> "PJD" == Paul John Davis <u9035281@cs.uow.edu.au> writes:

>I'd go for an Appleseed worldbook for GURPS.

>I have one or two friends who would, too.

PJD> GURPS????????????

Once GURPS Vehicles is released, GURPS Mecha will follow quickly, after the
revised GURPS Autoduel.

PJD> just get RoadStriker II for CP2020 and have a ball.

You haven't used Roadstriker II, have you? :-). RS2 is *almost* as bad as
the original, but it's still woefully lacking as a power-armor supplement
for Mekton.

I haven't used it yet, myself, but the Heavy Metal book for Phoenix Command
looks like a much better book.

--Rat

||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
                                                   __        ___ 
Richard Pieri, Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat/   | /| / /   | The Worlds
Internet: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu   /__  |/ |/ / /| | Welfare Works
    UUCP: ...!northeastern.edu!meceng!ratinox  /   | /| / / / | | Association:
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Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: wilder@mik.uky.edu (jeff wilder)
Subject: Re: RPG's for disabled kids
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:39:06 GMT

I think it's a great idea.  Unfortunately, my admiration for your efforts
doesn't allow me any practical advice.  But I *still* think it's a great
idea, and I wish you all the luck in the world.

--
================================================================================
| Jeff W   uk06666@ukpr.uky.edu | Meddle not in the affairs of cats, for they  |
| Wilder   & wilder@mik.uky.edu | are subtle, and will piss on your cyberdeck. |
================================================================================
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:3924 rec.games.frp.advocacy:1772
From: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
Subject: SR II
Organization: (DESY, Hamburg, Germany)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 13:04:35 GMT

Has anyone got Shadowrun II yet? What's it like? Any major revisions?

e----><----p | Stephen Burke           | Internet: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
 H   H   1   | Gruppe FH1T (Liverpool) | DECnet:   vxdesy::burke (13313::burke)
 H   H  11   | DESY, Notkestrasse 85   | BITNET:   BURKE@DESYVAX or SB2@UKACRL
 HHHHH   1   | 2000 Hamburg 52         | JANET:    sb2@uk.ac.rl.ib
 H   H   1   | Germany                 | Phone:    + 49 40 8998 2282
 H   H 11111 | HERA, the world's largest electron microscope!
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Usuage of Faerie
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 19:01:37 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <92224.064253IO11085@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> IO11085@MAINE.MAINE.EDU writes:
>I'm curious how other GMs handle the Faerie in their campaigns (also known
>as the Sidhe, Tuatha de Danaan, Vanir, Daoine Sidhe, Fay and countless
>Other names). How do you handle characterizations, describing
>their realms and homes so they are unique. The special qualities of
>the places they dwell, such as time differentials and the sense
>that everything is alive. And just about anything else.
>I'm interested in anything from personal accounts to stories to
>game mechanics (no matter the system, I'm pretty flexible) to general
>guidelines. So lets fire up those syntaxes, the Sidhe have the potential
>of being one of the most interesting types of beings in Fantasy
>and I'm feeling often under or badly used.

	Well just to be picky ;) while the Vanir are associated with the
elves/alfar, they are not quite the same thing.  It's a bit of a different
situation than with the gods/Tuatha crossover in Irish lore.
	But anyway -
	In my RM campaign I have based my campaign partially on
historically held beliefs regarding elves (sidhe etc.) in medieval Europe
and partially on a Tolkien-esque Elf system.  I have ruled that there *are*
land spirits and such like critters that belong properly within the realm
of faery and that Elves (the Tolkien-esque ones) are often confused with
these things by common folk.  This is similar to the situation you find in
LOTR where the common perception of Lothlorien is rather different from the
reality.  There is far more in heavan or earth than Horatio is dreaming
about, at least in my campaign world, and Elves and Dwarves and suchlike
fall into this category.  In some places people of more familiar with ELves
and can distinguish between them and other land spirits, but few humans
really understand what is going on with Elves.
	Thus, the ruler of one land is Half-Elven and is regarded sort of
as Cuchulainn might have been regarded - a bit on the Otherworldly side
because of his "faery" ancestry.
	I'll be the first to admit that this structure hardly takes
advantage of the full possibilities of faery.  I've always been intrigued
by Elizabeth H. Boyer's treatment of elves and the Otherworld in her books,
and would love to run a campaign based around that sometime.

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 08:27:48 EDT
From: Steven A. Schrader <SXS@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for shadowrunners


Hello all,

I am in the midst of a Shadowrun game, and two-three of players will not be
playing anymore. Therefore, I am looking for people to play. We have a mage
a doctor, and perhaps a Phys. Ad. What I'll need is a street samurai or two.

Any other characterizations welcome, however.

If you are interested please feel free to contact me via E-Mail
(SXS@apix.psu.edu) preferably or by phone 237-2912.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Steven A.  Schrader (SXS@apix.psu.edu)
    Training Coordinator
    Documentation, Training, and Publications
    The Center for Academic Computing
    The Pennsylvania State University
From: swann@acsu.buffalo.edu (Stephen Swann)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Characters ( GMs: historical politics )
Keywords: improvisation
Date: 22 Aug 92 17:10:37 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <1992Aug21.221602.3476@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> dunning@chainsaw.ecn.purdue.edu (GALACTIC COMMANDER) writes:
>
>Actually I keep a card catalog of various people from innkeepers to 
>Royal Scouts and from beggars to lords.  Everyone deserves their place
>in my collection.  Race, sex, creed, religon, sexual orientation I
>don't care  :)

Whew!  I'm impressed, I don't have that kind of patience.  :-)

At the opposite end of the scale is me, who made up 30 "applicants"
for the position of henchmen to one of my fighter characters.  He
spend the whole playing session interviewing them (i.e. determining
their ability, nature, and fitness for the jobs he had in mind).  He
endeed up hiring a dozen of them, and they're a pretty strange bunch.
:-)

-- 
Steve Swann                 |    Speak to me in many voices; make
swann@acsu.buffalo.edu      |      them all sound like one...  -BOC
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen)
Subject: Re: SHADOWRUN: Blinded by the light
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 12:58:28 GMT

dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
: bkdavis@eos.ncsu.edu (B K DAVIS) writes:
: 
: 
: >No not really in melee you are not always going to be facing one direction, 
: >You may be circling your oppenet etc...
: 
: So take velcro, put it on the back of your flashpak and stick it on
: your chest or helmet, which would have corresponding velcro patches.
: *Smile* Now, if you are meleeing someone, they have to look at the
: flashpak if they are watching you.
: 
: >>	2)Does it affect magicians' spellcasting? If they can't see, how
: >>can they cast?
: >The mage is not aiming at you, he just needs to see you.
: 
: How well can you see something that is right beside a strobe lamp?
: I know I can't look right into an ultrabright light for long, and with
: the flashpak, you may be blinded by a flash just as you try to cast.
: I think this is one of those "Someone who has GEnie access ask 
: the designers" questions: Do visual modifiers affect spellcasting
: target numbers?
: 
: Axly

Just an interjection.
Nightime does not affect sight on the astral, and if you are casting
a spell you have to have taken at least a half step onto the astral
to manipulate the energies needed. Therefore a flasher will not affect
spellcasting.

-Veltyen
From: aragorn@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Strider)
Subject: Re: For those NOT going to GenCon...
Organization: The Banzai Institute
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 13:37:32 GMT

dleland@dante.nmsu.edu (LELAND) writes:
[text deleted]
: the unveiling of the 4th Ed Champions rules with Rob Bell and co. Otherwise it 
: was kind of a letdown; lots of so-so tournaments and a free gaming room full of
: people who all seemed to be playing "attitude man" characters who hated 
: everything and killed everything in sight. I hope the standard at GenCon is
: better. Is it? Who can tell me?

A lot of the games that are run at GenCon seem to be like this.  I think
this is because the time is limited for so many of the games slotted into
very specific time slots.  The GM's only have so much time to run the
adventures so the playing can be a bit limited.  The best games I've played
in at GenCon have been those run on a pick-up basis on a floor, in the
cafeteria, in a hallway, etc.  The con has gotten very big.


Steve J. White
aragorn@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
skeptic@large@9600bps
From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 18 Aug 92 00:57:32 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <batemanc.714064444@p4.cs.man.ac.uk>, 
 batemanc@p4.cs.man.ac.uk ([the one & only] Mad Chris) writes:
> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:

> Whilst I agree that there's a lot to be said for a good argument, a large
> number of net arguments aren't arguments at all - nor are they the polite
> utopia in your example above ( thank Arioch! ). Let's face it: too many 
> threads proceed like this:
> 
> Post 1: I think this.
> Post 2: You think WHAT! [Long string of flames]
> Post 3: Oh yeah? Well... [Long string of counter-flames ]
>  etc.

Yer right, no doubt about that, but I think I would prefer the flames and 
counter-flames rather than try to stomach some form of ``agreeing to 
disagree'' on the net (like my example). What I really find irritating 
are threads that try to be the end-all ``nuff-said'' of the thread. You've 
seen plenty, someone posts this know-it-all post and tells everyone to 
``drop it.'' And, as everyone knows, this never works. Just look at the 
``Put Up or Shut Up'' thread. It was meant to squelch the ``Diceless or..'' 
thread, but it looks like it will end up being longer and more insipid 
than the first.

I think you can keep a discussion lively while remaining relatively 
flame-free, and that is the way I like it. Flames are bound to errupt, 
but they're part of life, I think. If that sounds defeatist, well sorry.
Why don't you flame me? Heh heh.

> Treasure the threads that read like a magazine article: there aren't 
> enough of them.

Tell me about it.   

Okay,
+  Chadd  L.  VanZanten   SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU  +
+  ``You know,  I thought this was a good   +
+  idea but this is one weird mama-jama.''  +
+                    -- TV's Frank, MST3K   +
From: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Speaking of ambushes (where we?)...
Date: 19 Aug 92 19:06:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Aug19.190601.6884
Reply-To: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Organization: Columbia University

sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>Lately,I have been 
>marking areas on my GM's map where there will be ambushes, but the party 
>never goes into my kill zones. Now, I don't want to kill the PCs off, but 
>I would like to see them have to react and defend more, rather than being 
>always on the offense. 
>
>So, I have been toying with the idea of setting up ``unavoidable'' 
>ambushes, where I as GM say, ``where ever the party goes, there will be 
>an ambush.'' Is that fair to the players? Like I said before, I don't 
>want to kill the players, I just want them to be on the receiving end a 
>little more often.
>
> Thoughts?

	Instead of having an 'unavoidable' situation, just make the 
opposition reactive rather than passive. Instead of marking areas on the map 
where there are ambushes, sum up the NPC's resources and troops, and decide 
intelligently what they should do. If the NPC's are trying to find and attack 
the PC's - then they should probably send out scouting parties to try to find 
them rather than sitting around in defensible ambush positions. If the NPC's 
are trying to prevent the PC's from reaching a particular goal - like stopping 
them from going to a particular locale - then they should set up hidden 
defensive positions around that locale. 

	This way, the PC's have to outmaneuver an active enemy instead of 
just choosing the safest path. If you are worried about being unable to 
challenge the PC's tactically, give the NPC's better information sources - 
i.e. they know the lay of the land, and they can estimate well the PC's 
capabilities, etc. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kim                    | "Remember: a running man may slit a thousand 
jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | throats in a single night."
Columbia University         |                           - Klingon proverb
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cpbeaure@napier.uwaterloo.ca (Chris Beauregard)
Subject: Re: BTECH Novels
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 19:22:51 GMT

In article <BtAJ6E.F8A@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
>chem7l@jane.uh.edu writes:
>>novels, and where to get them, please mail me.
>Decision at Thunder Rift
>Mercenary's Star
>The Price of Glory (or something like that)
>Wolves on the Border
>The Heir of the dragon (or somethign like that)

The Sword and the Dagger (not really worth buying, btw) (not that I'd
count on finding it, either.  Seems to be a pretty rare one...)

>Those are the one I remember.
>Axly

Chris Beauregard                                cpbeaure@napier.uwaterloo.ca
Warning:  These premises protected by reality.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: PCHEM14@Zeus.unomaha.edu (FALL88)
Subject: Re: Modeling a GURPS power
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 21:19:25 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.11

In <1992Aug17.095739.70@gems.vcu.edu> porterg@gems.vcu.edu writes:

> Re: Mindswitch
> 
> I can think of a couple ways to model this in Hero System, depending on
> exactly how it works:
> 
> Transformation:  The target and caster are transformed into each other
> (more or less).  This stays put until the reversing condition is met.

Pretty good, although it makes it a contest of instant change and not of
the mind.  Depends on how you want it.  However, the biggest problem is
that the high cost of transformation will preclude an instant transfer, 
rather make it "I'm getting closer, closer..."  Although an acceptable
mechanic, special effect may preclude it's use.

> Summoning: Summon an exact duplicate of the character, while simulatneously
> dumping the original in another dimension.

Too many loose ends, like the fact that the original is still out there.
 
> Mind control: Lots of dice.

My fave, I'll get back to this one.

> Multiform: You add a copy of them while they get a copy of you.

Multiforms are created ahead of time, you have no way to build the 'correct'
multiform.

> Your big problem I suspect is how to model the reverse of the mental control.
> This can be handled by the limitation "Caster is affected in same way as 
> target", which is a pretty good limitation if the power has negative effects.
> Obviously, it wouldn't be a limitation for a power which helped the caster.

This is the key.  It's a limitation alright: side effect.  

> I guess you also have to define exactly what gets transferred.  If all mental
> traits get moved, then "spells" would be too, but not body-dependent
> "powers".  For instance, if you keep Energy Man's plasma blast, what about
> the skill levels he had with it?  Or do you just say the personality (and
> psych lims) go, but skills don't transfer because you are unfamiliar with
> the new body?

This is also of importance.  I'm almost willing to slip the details that
do not effect play balance.  For example, if we were to write:

18d6 mind control, telepathic, side effect: 18d6 mind control, only up
to level target is effected.

Should skills be 'transferred' or stay with the bodies they started in.
How about psych lims?  I would let them transferr with the 'mind' if it
was not of critical game balance import.  I could see the mind switcher
player trying to create a lot of things that will switch with him if he
is a rules rapist, but we know what to do about that.  If he does, make
him buy his skills 'usable against others, ranged' and fix the point
crock.

-james
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
From: mikew@mdcbbs.com (Mike 'the Bard' Whitaker)
Date: 20 Aug 92 06:31:59 PDT
Organization: Shape Data - a division of EDS Ltd

In article <1992Aug19.234210.58279@cc.usu.edu> 
sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>But the main plot points are already mapped out. For example, if the
>players are trying to solve a murder and this merchant is a suspect,
>there is a difference between these two situations:
>
>``Shouldn't there be some petty cash in this desk?''
>-- And --
>``We think the merchant may have hired a hit man to kill the Duke, 
>shouldn't we be able to find a record of that in this desk?''
>
>In the improv game, the players may convince the GM that the desk
>would contain that record (or some other discriminating piece of 
>evidence). In the prep game, the clues are already determined, and
>finding them is part of the players' task. In the prep game, the
>players cannot solve the mystery (be successful) simply by convincing
>the GM that ``x'' is likely to be true. 

I dunno about Steve, but my response to the players starting to look for
a record of the hit contract would be:
	"You don't find anything?"
	[thinks] "Is there one? Yeah, guess so. So, if it ain't in the desk, 
	where is it? There... OK - lets see if they look there then..."
-- 
Mike Whitaker +44-223 | mikew@mdcbbs.com, bard@spuddy.uucp | Me: Bards just
Shape Data/EDS 316673 | -or- mwhitaker@cix.compulink.co.uk | KNOW things...
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 06:40:13 GMT

In article <ts!n#3g.harp@netcom.com> harp@netcom.com (Gregory O. Harp) writes:
|Says you.  Let him run his world the way he likes, ok?  I don't always

	I have yet to advocate kicking in anyone's door and imprisoning them
for improvised GM'ing.  This does not mean I have to LIKE it.

|plan a game down the tiniest details.  In fact, I almost never do.  If 
|you want to spend the time do it, do it.  I don't.  You may find that
|players tend to move past your details so quickly that you wish you
|hadn't spent the time.  

	Generally I find that I've prepared stuff that never gets used.  No
bother.  I'd rather have more than I needed than not enough.

|
|Besides, sometimes the ideas one gets on the fly are much better than
|the ones that were planned ahead.  Perhaps the players hit upon
|something that changes the whole previously planned outcome.  Perhaps
|simply being "there" gives you an idea you would never have had whilst
|designing the world.

	This is one of those bits of self-indulgence that people perperate upon
themselves in an effort to belive that they don't really have to think about
what they're doing.

|I mean, how can you _absolutely_ determine that the facts you give
|your party can point to one and only one solution?  No one is
|infallable.

	Because when I write a mystery, I use a flowchart to keep track of all
the clues.  When I'm done, the facts will be such that only _one_ character
had means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime.  All other possible
suspects _WILL_ be excluded.  This is far from difficult to accomplish.

	(This is not to say that I don't plan false endings -- frameups, if you
will.  I do, from time to time.  But it does mean that inherent in the
scenario are the clues that will reveal the frame.  If the PC's buy the
frame, the alleged perp will almost certainly beat the rap when other
investigators discover what the PC's overlooked.)

|Look, man, it's a *game*!

	Right, and in order for it to be entertaining it has to involve winning
and losing.  You can't have meaningful levels of either victory or defeat if
the world is made of Silly Putty.


dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com    Dennis Francis Heffernan	GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Look...I sympathize with your problem, but all things considered, I'd rather 
talk about me."  --Murphy Brown
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura Mollett)
Subject: Re: Diceless or Senseless?
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- (606) 253-1481 
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 16:12:56 GMT

In article <Bszpwu.513@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
[Interesting things deleted]
>
>You can create any character you want in GURPS or HERO, and powers
>are only limited by your imagination there. If a GM is creative enough,
>you could do AMBER with either system.  
>
>Just a thought.
>
>Axly
	I'm GMing an Amber game in Hero.  Seems to work pretty well.  We've
only had a few problems duplicating things.  The characters have regeneration
but it seemed a little fast to regenerate a hand just by gaining back the
hit points in a certain time period.  We were having trouble deciding exactly
how long it should take.  But mostly they seem pretty Amberish.  It's hardly
an original idea tho...I got a whole bunch of stuff from Red October on
"Waylords" which seem to be a combination of Amber and some of Zelazny's 
other books.

Later,
Laura Mollett
From: dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 06:00:30 GMT

In article <4781@balrog.ctron.com> smith@ctron.com writes:
|I grant you this is a Schroedinger's Cat universe we're running here.  If you
|don't look there's nothing there.  If you do there is, or you know there's
|nothing.  In either case, the end result is the same _as_far_as_the_players_
|know_or_care.  

	Not so.  I've been in games where the GM was making it up as he went
along, and in only one case was I unable to tell.  That one case was a BBS
game, so I didn't have access to the usual subtext of conversation.  In that
case, I just thought it was an exceptionally bad scenario....


dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com   ...uunet!tronsbox!dfrancis     GEnie: D.HEFFERNAN1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't understand why you make such a big deal out of everything...haven't
you learned; if it's not happenning to me it's not important?" -Murphy Brown