From: "James H. Kiley" <jkiley@andy.bgsu.edu>
Subject: Re: GenCon Report (Incredibly long, thousands of spoilers)
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
X-Gatemail-Version: 1.0b
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 13:58:24 GMT



On xxx, 28 Aug 1992, The Grant Man wrote:

> In article <gatemail1.0b2381415218083@morticia> jkiley@andy.bgsu.edu (James H. Kiley) writes:
> 
> >And I went to the seminar.  Now we see if I can decode my notes...
> >[Note please that the below may seem incredibly fragmented as the seminar was
> >mainly Q and A, please forgive any inaccuracies, if I'd thought ahead I
> >would've brought a tape recorder...]
> 
> I was there too, and I have a few things to add.
> 

[I'm just clarifying any points Grant may make here, so forgive massive
snipping of his text]

> The nuclear question [my notes are really lousy, Jim, so maybe you can help
> me on this]:
> Regrding the use of nuclear weapons agains the Nile, Greg muttered something
> about Mobius having weird science devices that defended against them. He also
> pointed out that Mobius disarmed Quadaffi's nuke, so he knows how they work,
> but there is no plan in the Nile to build nukes (as far as we know...). 

This part sounds accurate to me--I have no notes over it, and did it sound
to you like the whole nuclear thang was the two of them sitting up there
hemming and hawing, or was it just me?

> When terrorists were mentioned, he said that most of the fringe groups work
> for Mobius now (huh?).

Major MAJOR cheese here.  Why would a competent GM possibly remove another
source of conflict from his or her campaign if he or she had a choice?  
Really bad call, WEG.

> Against the Cyberpapacy, he said that the New USSR is very worried about
> being conquered, but is also intrigued by the Godnet and didn't want to 
> destroy it (or something like that). The question was also raised that if 
> we had nukes at Tech 23, what could Malraux get at Tech 26?

This is really not IMHO a good defense against it, although if we also take
into account that it's the 'kinder, gentler USSR' I might let it slide.

> While we're on the subject of escalation, there was a spirited discussion
> about Big Guns. Greg said that people complained about them when Space Gods 
> came out; when Tharkold came out, they didn't complain anymore. He said that
> there was a conscious decision to have the weapons advance realistically
> along the tech levels, and that Star Wars had a lot to do with it. Most of
> the following discussion was a lot like the talk on alt.games.torg; just take
> away their usefulness.

Yup.

> There aren't any plans for a TORG boardgame (darn!) because their survey
> said that the 'yeas' were only slightly greater than the 'nays' and most
> of the yeas were of the 'sure, why not, what the hell' variety.

That's right, I couldn't remember why...

> >Details about Malraux's anonymous DD will be in Iverse Update II.
> 
> It's name is Fred! :-)

Hee. I forgot that too. :)

> >The War will go on as long as players continue to enjoy it.
> 
> They said it was originally planned to last 5 years (someone on the Net 
> mentioned this before, and I guess they were right).

I think it's originally mentioned in Iverse #1, or someplace else in the
boxed set.

> >... but don't count on it soon as WEG is apparently putting together a new
> >science-fiction space opera style game.
> 
> He said that Shatterzone (the new game) was a 'grim-n-gritty' SF game, not
> space opera. It sounds neat; I hope they don't screw up ship combat.

Hmm.  Well, I got the 'space opera' impression after reading the handout they
had at the WEG booth.  It rather screamed space opera to me.  But then, when
some game company randomly asked me at the con, 'What do you like to see
in a game?' I replied 'Moral ambiguity', so...

> >Mobius, Malraux, and 3327 have all got their mitts in Yugoslavia, which
> >hasn't fallen apart because they're fighting off three invaders.
> 
> Basically, all the conflicts on Earth were 'put aside' until the Possibility
> wars were over. This means that Desert Storm never happened (I still think
> that's a copout, but it's their prerogative).

I hate to get repetitive but this too is a cheese.

> >Citybooks:
> 
> Has anyone noticed how they've completely ignored St. Louis? It's right on
> the frontlines, and the Gateway arch is *huge*. McDonnell Douglas is also in
> St. Louis, and they have the Phantom Works :->.

They've ignored Detroit, as well.  I think they're trying to do up the Really
Huge cities, rather than the ones that might have nifty features...
Write up an adventure set there, send it in. :)

> And finally, the Index is coming! I think it'll be in Infiniverse, but I'm not
> positive.

It will run across three issues of Iverse.  All hail.

> >Jim Kiley, Astronomer Wannabe
> 
> The Grant Man

JimBo
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg