HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine)
Subject: Re: sci-fi game
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 17:29:54 GMT
Keywords: sci-fi game

In article <1992Dec17.153413.11350@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser") writes:
>samik@maths.tcd.ie (Samik Sen) writes:
>>Could someone please tell me what megatravellers ship to ship combat is like?
[answer: it is based on High Guard, which is based on sailing ships]
>
>Myself, I use a full three-D "dogfight" system.  When it comes up, which ain't
>often.  See, when PCs get in starship battles with their dinky Free Traders,
>they *die.* In droves.

I like the 2300AD system, it *is* 2D [but how can you play 3-D on a tabletop?]
but it is a lot like submarine warfare - you have an idea where your opponent
is located, the whole purpose is to jocky around to get a sensor lock on
the enemy and keep it long enough to let off a few salvos.  It is fairly 
simple, quick, and exciting (And i usually HATE wargames of any kind).

Each ship has a signature that is based on shape, size and materials of
the hull, and you have active and passive sensors [active have longer range
than passive, but you give yourself away with their use.  Passive sensors
are EXTREMELY expensive also]

I hope GDW doesn't throw away the system wholesale, but keeps at least the
concepts [the constant need to jocky for that sensor lock, and SIMPLICITY -
no one will play it if it is like Advanced Squad Leader {only a few
masichists actually *enjoy* that game}]
-- 
+-------------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------+
| Brent L. Irvine         | For a mere $50 these personal  | I will be gone: |
| irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu | opinions can also be yours!    | 20 Dec - 4 Jan  |
+-------------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------+
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: t92etr@tdb.uu.se (Erik Trulsson)
Subject: Re: RoleMaster Companion VI - Where is it?
Organization: Dept. of Scientific Computing, Uppsala Univ.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 14:55:42 GMT

William A. Humphrey (wah2@po.CWRU.Edu) wrote:
: 
: Greetings and solicitaions (sic)!
: 
:    To anyone and everyone who has RMC-VI:  Where did you get it?!
: 
:    I have been to two of the best gaming shops in the PA-OH-WV tri-state
: area, and neither of them even knows it's been published yet!!!
: 
:    Please e-mail or post where you live and where you got RMC-VI and
: WHEN you got it.
: 
:    Thanx
: -- 
: 					Bill
: 50 Years Ago Today (or thereabouts):			     7 December 1942
: * The U.S. commemerates the first anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
: * * * * December 7, 1992 * * * Fifty-first anniversary of Pearl Harbor * * * *

I bought it a couple of MONTHS ago ,so yes! it has been published.
Where I got it ? Well I bought it from my local game-store (in Uppsala,Sweden).
From: CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CX6L)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Running (was Re: GURPS 1/8 and 1/4 Points, & high defa
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:53:36 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <G.DALE-141292114600@17.9.6.23> G.DALE@applelink.apple.com (Geoff Dale) writes:
><Snip't>
>using the measly acrobatic dodge skill. I've always been disappointed
>by the lack of dodge training in GURPS. (I've also been dissapointed
>I used to have a rule that running didn't affect dodge, but acrobatics
>did (using the same 1/8 rule) but it got to be too much book-keeping,
>and I was trying to reduce the number of house-rules I was using.
>Does _Martial_Arts_ have a rule? I'll have to look tonight.

Well, you have a few options:

1) There is an Enhanced Dodge "cinematic maneuver" in Martial-Arts.
   It costs 15 points, and adds +1 to Dodge. Only one level can
   ever be learned, but it seems to apply to all Dodges against
   all attacks, and has no encumbrance requirement (like Karate
   does).
2) There is the Acrobatics Dodge, requiring an Acrobatics roll.
   On a critical success, you Dodge automatically, on a success
   you get +2 Dodge (yes, the Basic Set says +1, but that was
   replaced by +2 ages ago, in some Roleplayer errata), on a
   failure, -1 and on a critical failure, -2 (I think). It gives
   no help vs. missiles.
3) The Boxing skill allows a +1 Dodge per full 8 skill levels,
   versus thrusting and unarmed attacks only. Unlike the Boxing
   Parry, this Dodge bonus adds to defenses vs. kicks and sword-
   thrusts, too.  It does not help vs. missiles.
4) Increased Speed is available at 25 points / +1, and has no
   upper limit on it, although a GM who assigns stat limits will
   also want to assign a SPD limit. It adds to Basic Speed, and
   increases Move, Dodge, and reaction time (SPD).

...in theory, all of the above can be picked up during play, and
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Dave Sherohman)
Subject: Re: clo=DECKER FROM HELL
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:04:42 GMT

In article <Af_z6KS00WA1E2TyBq@andrew.cmu.edu> Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>In article <1992Dec13.190150.18622@news2.cis.umn.edu>
>esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Da
>ve Sherohman) writes:
>
>Well you can make yourself a RAM disk and store your program, but you
>still have to boot it up to run it don't you?  On most computers today,
>which I think most of the Matrix stuff is based on, you can set up a RAM
>disk and store the data, but you then have to boot the program wait for
>it to start up, and then have it take up additional space as well.  Why
>you're using you're Active memory to store things I don't know.  It's
>pretty inefficient.  Any program that is running in any way in active
>memory, even if suspended temporarily, still maintains its contact with
>the rest of the system.  You can turn a program off and still have it
>running.  You'd have to 'Quit' the program to have it stop entirely. 

Who said anything about RAMdisks?  (Actually, I consider them just another
form of Reserve Memory, in SR terms, not Active, for precisely the reasons
you mentioned.)  I'm talking about putting a program in memory, ready to go
(or perhaps already started executing), just not getting any attention from
the processor.  Whether a suspended program maintains contact depends on how
it was suspended.  Yes, it will if it's in a background window (actually still
running normally, you just can't see it).  But it won't if you tell the OS
to give it 0% of the processor time - and as soon as you bring it back up
above 0%, the program will instantly (well, within a millisecond) pick back up
from where it left off; that's the sort of thing I was talking about.

>Personally, I like to have my programs running when I need them...

Personally, I don't like eating processor time with unnecessary tasks.  If I'm
not trying to kill IC, I'll have my Attack program loaded but dormant.  That
way, it's not eating processor time, but if I need it, it's right there, ready
to go, _now_.

esper@ima.umn.edu
From: gobeski8618@iscsvax.uni.edu (Steve 'Gobes' Gobeski)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: FantasyHero and CyberHero
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:18:51 -0600
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Dec10.090051.10116@netcom.com>, akuma@netcom.com (Steven E Barnes) writes:
> In article <BTRiVB1w165w@runic.via.mind.org>, thantos@runic.via.mind.org (Paul Williams [SysOp]) writes:
> The games should mesh nicely, if that's your bag.  Everything in CH is
> done by the book.  It is an interesting exercise to see how they build
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^        
   *NOT*

> all the equipment using the rules, although it kind of bugs me.  For
> example, the DNI (Direct Neural Interface) of a cyberdeck is constructed
  .
  .
  .
> Personally, I would have just defined the equipment in terms of what
> it actually does, and assigned an arbitrary monitary cost to it.
> 
> -steve

CH is okay for ideas for a cyber campaign, but it badly needs proofreading for
both typos and system mechanics.  Ex:  Armor bought visible, when Armor is by
default invisible.  This is done with the subdermal armor, ie. Armor w/o a
focus.  Lots of dumb stuff like that in there.

The equipment section is good, but could easily be about 1/2 the size: a lot of
overlap in the equipment.  Ex. glasses and cyberoptics, earclips and cyberears. 
These last two you'd expect, but there's quite a few very similar ways to get
Eidetic memory:  two types of camera glasses, digital camera, holocamera,
photographic eye, video eye, seems like there was a helmet, too.  Life support
is almost as bad.

The pricing system is pretty bad, and not even internally consistent, the
system given on p. 103 (and I think elsewhere) isn't used with all equipment,
some of the prices come from out of nowhere.  Also, setting prices for the hero 
rulebook weapons would have been nice. 

The damage system is far too inflated for my taste.  I was running a cyber game
over the summer using plain 'ol Uzi's and those are by far deadly enough.  I
have a hard time seeing a pistol doing 3d6K, which is bad enough, let alone
3d6K AutoFire 10 rounds with +1 Stun mult. (WhirlWind, which only costs $2800).
Of course, I also have a hard time seeing clothing give 9 rPD (PolyWeave).  I
guess the setup would work for anyone who sees their cyberworlds filled with
hulking, massively-armored death machines, I personally see lightly armored,
highly mobile characters dodging and diving for cover not some guy walking down
the middle of the street soaking up all the damage unscathed.

I won't even comment on the Matrix system.  Maybe I'm even moreso trapped in
20th century technology, but I don't even see that as being possible, let alone
plausible.  I'd have to say the system given in CH is as good as any, but it
isn't very original, as far as that goes.

-- Steve 'Gobes' Gobeski // GOBESKI8618@iscsvax.uni.edu


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Thanatos)
Subject: Re: T$R and Science Fiction RPGs
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:17:49 GMT

In article <BzBCLB.5xy@news.cso.uiuc.edu> irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:
>Oh, I wonder how T$R will attempt to go into cyberpunk. 
>*shudder*
Well, drow can replace lost limbs with elaborate mechanical devices...

And T$R is attempting yet another foray into the world of metascience fiction,
with a game they call the Amazing Engine, which allows cross-genre roleplaying.
I'd type in the description, but it makes my ears bleed reading it.  Basically,
you create an "archetype [not their word, but I'll use it], a being consisting
solely of stats.  We'll give him a highPsyche, Willpower, Charm, and reflexes,
and low Intuition, Learning, Fitness, and Position.  In one genre, he'd be 
James Bond.  In another, he'd be a cunning thief.  In a third, he'd be a 
rockerboy.  You get the point.
-- 
I don't mind being the smartest	    / Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Unknown
man in the world...I just wish it   \ Time and Space tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu 
wasn't this one...	       	    / It's a Zen thing... 
	-Ozymandias 		    \	 you wouldn't understand...  
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: y91moe@tdb.uu.se (Mattias Oestklint)
Subject: Werewolf-the Apocalypse
Organization: Dept. of Scientific Computing, Uppsala Univ.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 09:56:23 GMT


Gimme some input on this one, please! (Werewolf)

Mattias
From: sprague.wbst311@xerox.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: FantasyHero and CyberHero
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:46:09 GMT
Followup-To: FantasyHero and CyberHero
Organization: Xerox
Originator: msprague@superior

I am not sure what this all has to do specifically with the Subject
line "Fantasy Hero and Cyber Hero", but ....    :-)

> I really really really like the HERO system but one area
> I find it breaks down for me is in creating equipment.  I find
> it is just too cumbersom using the powers and that you don't get
> enough variety

Can you be more specific as to your problems?  Are you making
equipment at a GM or as a player?  I usually have no trouble when
it comes to making equipment using the Hero Rules framework.  Most
things are pretty easy to describe, though strange things do come
up now and then.  When they do, we usually wing it, making it "close"
to existing Powers, Advantages, and Limitations.

> Therefore I just convert stuff from other systems to HERO

And there is nothing wrong with that.  We took a lot of ShadowRun
equipment, and using the descriptions and tables, modified it to
the Hero System.  While this effort is not done yet, I kind of perfer
a lot of the ShadowRun equipment over the stuff in Cyber Hero.  On the
other hand, Cyber Hero lists _more_ equipment than any other Hero
rules supplements.

> does anyone ... a good monetary system?

That's a tough one.  I use Professional Skill Levels in my Justice
Inc. Campaign.  That is, your base income is your points in applicable
Professional Skill Levels  * X amount of money.  Then based on the
characters life style, dice are rolled for expenses, and what is left
is what the character can spend.  I also allow wealth as a Perk for
those who don't want to bother.

It's a little on the complicated side though, and I don't have all
the bugs out of it yet.  In future games I might run, I am not sure
I will follow up on this.

			~ Mike  (sprague.wbst311@xerox.com)
From: gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: First Aid
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 15 Dec 1992 00:41:46 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.36.75

In article <1992Dec13.210512.1@wharton.upenn.edu>,
millerl@wharton.upenn.edu wrote:
> 
> Between RQ2 and RQ3 characters became capable of healing damage with
> First Aid skill rolls, and I for one think that alters campaign feel in
> undesirable ways. As the RQ4 rules propose to essentially double
> characters' hit points I think that the First Aid rules could be cleaned
> up a little, restoring the feel of the original rules, that damage is
> permanent unless healed by magic, including divine means, or rest.
> 
> First Aid: The rough and ready art, often practiced by soldiers, of field
>      medicine. This allows one to stop a wound from bleeding, to splint a
>      broken limb, or to fashion a rough sling. A successful roll will stop a
>      wound from bleeding in one round, and splint a broken limb or fashion a
>      sling within five minutes. A failed roll will require four rounds to
> Comments?

 This seems fine, I have always thought RQIII First Aid a bit strange. The
only problem is that it emphasises heal spells even more. The way that 
wounds in RQ can be quickly and easily repaired by magic, while poison
and disease can't be, and must be treated by relatively rare skills, has 
always seemed strange to me. If RQIV is doubling hitpoints, do you think
that a reduction in the effectiveness of spirit magic Heal spells
might be in order, ie making them increase the rate of healing (like
Treat Wounds, the RQIII sorcery spell)? One could introduce a proper
Treat Wounds skill, that takes 10 minutes to an hour to perform, and
make spirit magic into a "HealSharp" spell, that increases the chance
of success and effectiveness of the skill. 

 The current RQIII treatment of wounds is supposed to be the way wounds
are like in Glorantha (I think Greg Stafford said this in the Genertela
pack), so that physical damage is much less worring than disease or 
poison, but I wonder if this was part of his conception of Glorantha
or was a result of the way healing was treated in RQ.

 What's your reaction to this? Angel choirs singing "Hallelujah!" or
projectile vomiting?

 Obviously you've seen the RQIV "beta". So far I've only seen second
or third hand descriptions, all through Usenet. Would you be able
to post a detailed (or even a potted) description of the changes? If
you already have, and it hasn't percolated through to Oz yet, my 
apologies.


> 
> -- 
> whoah,
> +++++++++++++++++++++++23
> Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
> Mediocrity is a hand rail.                         -- Baron de Montesquieu

Graeme Lindsell a.k.a gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au
Research School of Chemistry,
Australian National University
From: gt0040a@prism.gatech.EDU (Tom Sorensen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: FANTASY HERO: duration for spells
Date: 13 Dec 92 20:52:41 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In <1992Dec13.032152.10325@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> hague@cat27.cs.wisc.edu (Vince Hague) writes:

>     1) duration of up to a day (for low power spells) 

Continuous, uncontrollable, continuous charges.

>     2) duration of up to a couple of hours (med power spells)

Probably the same as above.

>     3) spells cast on others which last for more than one
>	phase; caster pays END when spellis cast (but not
>	huge amounts)
>         * like a magic resistance spell or missle deflection

Usable on others (note- the subject must be willing. Otherwise its usable
against), plus the above, using reduced END or an END battery instead of
charges.

>     4) really LONG duration spells (curses)

Transformation. That's the only way to do it- a normal power with a really
long charge doesn't cut it, but a transformation can.

>  Lastly, can the DELAYED EFFECT advantage be used as follows:
>     An armor spell which will activate when the wizard is attacked...

Not sure... probably a special advantage stating exactly what you want.
Probably worth +1/2, assuming the spell takes effect BEFORE the caster
gets hit. If its after I'd give it to you for +1/4, assuming you live.
      Tom Sorensen

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Sorensen              gt0040a@prism.gatech.edu
"I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system,
and possibly program, of all time." - Bill Gates, November, 1987
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: apace@mta.ca
Subject: Re: T$R and SF (Re: STAR FRONTIERS: does anyone remember it??)
Reply-To: apace@mta.ca
Organization: Mount Allison U, Sackville, N.B. Canada 
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:00:11 GMT

>>> Has T$R ever had a successful Science Fiction game?
>>> 
>>For that matter, has T$R (the game Nazis) ever had any successful product
>>outside of its D&D/AD&D lines?
>
Marvel Superheroes was a commercial success.
Top Secret was a game design success. (IMPO)

Other than that.......



	"Sublett said it was the Devil's work.
	 Rydell said it was a Tokyo franchise operation."
	          _Virtual Light_   -    William Gibson.

	 Tony Pace           -            <apace@mta.ca>
From: G.DALE@applelink.apple.com (Geoff Dale)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Running (was Re: GURPS 1/8 and 1/4 Points, & high defaults)
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:56:02 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.

In article <1992Dec14.134726.6428@oz.plymouth.edu>, sos@oz.plymouth.edu
(Steffan O'Sullivan) wrote:
> 
> dripton@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (David Ripton) writes:
> >
> >Does anybody out there have a solution to the abuse of running skill, 
> >other than banning it or charging an Unusual Background? 
> 
> The official solution, published in old Roleplayers, is that Running
> does not add to Dodge, and only adds to Move when actually Running - in
> other words, when the sprint bonus would apply.
> 

Hmm, interesting...

But this means that the only way you can train up you're dodge is by
using the measly acrobatic dodge skill. I've always been disappointed
by the lack of dodge training in GURPS. (I've also been dissapointed
with the way dodge works the same against a cross-bow bolt as against
a broadsword swing, but that's another story.)

I used to have a rule that running didn't affect dodge, but acrobatics
did (using the same 1/8 rule) but it got to be too much book-keeping,
and I was trying to reduce the number of house-rules I was using.

Does _Martial_Arts_ have a rule? I'll have to look tonight.

Geoff ".sigfreed" Dale
From: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Subject: Re: GURPS Luck
Organization: Generic American College Kids (G.A.C.K.)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 10:02:20 GMT
Reply-To: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Distribution: rec
X-Posted-From: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

cad28526@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Chuck Douglas) writes:
>
>I thought he had made a mistake in these calculations myself because I
>*thought* he was talking about 3 independant trials.  But I hadn't read 
>the paragraph preceeding the table close enough.  If you look, you will
>see that he was talking about 3 rolls where failing 1 of them means failure.
>This is no longer independant and his table (I assume he figured it right)
>becomes correct.

Woops.  David, I am deeply, deeply sorry.  Your tables are indeed correct...I
just thought they had something to do with Luck, which they don't.  I skimmed
your article instead of reading it; I should've read it much more closely
before accusing you of a silly math error.

<munch> Mmmm... <munch munch> mighty fine crow.

Seth L. Blumberg          \ Warning: This posting has been determined to cause
slb22@columbia.edu (play)   \ cancer in laboratory animals.  Please make sure
sethb@ctr.columbia.edu (work) \ that no white mice are allowed to read it.  
    > No one I know shares my opinions, least of all Columbia University. <
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.dnd
From: minnotte@stat.rice.edu (Michael Minnotte)
Subject: Re: Mage Organizations/Cults??
Organization: Dept. of Statistics, Rice University
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 23:03:08 GMT

In article <87ByVB2w165w@eternal.chi.il.us> jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us (Jeff Gostin) writes:
>
>     Hi folks! I'm interested in information about Mage Organizations and
>Mage Cults-- much like the Assembly in Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga, or
>the "Bel-" brothers (belgarad, belzerad, etc) in David Eddings' Belgariad
>Series. More importantly, what I'm looking for is such organizations that
>you use on your world. I'm in the midst of constructing a few, so any
>insights are MUCH appreciated. In fact, if you want to send write-ups of
>them to me, feel free to! :-)

You might want to check out _The_Order_of_Hermes_ for White Wolf's
Ars Magica.  Some of it's pretty AM-specific, but much of it could
be used (maybe with a little tweaking) in almost any fantasy world.
If you want a single huge organization, the whole order would be good;
if you want a number of smaller competing organizations, you could
use some or all of the 13 Houses within the order.

In addition, this has a lot of information on the life of a mage
(ideas for pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeship, young magehood,
achieving archmage status, etc.).  It gets my vote for single best
roleplaying supplement I've ever read (or at least used).  I'm not
certain it's still in print, but the Wargames West catalog I got
yesterday still listed it.

Hope this helps,

Mike Minnotte