HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun query
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 02:20:26 GMT

In article <lward.720990569@husc8> lward@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward) writes:
>acgetche@taco.engr.ucdavis.edu (Adam) writes:
>>	My ruling was that the mages did not have use of their Magic Pool.
>>They were consequently toasted.  The reason I bring this up is there seems
>>to be some sort of idea floating around, maybe from the stories, that
>>Magic defense [Pool] is inherent and autonomic, thus automatically triggered.
>>Can anyone elaborate/prove/disprove my ruling?
>
>I disagree with your ruling, but I can .prove. neither it nor my disagree-
>ment.  In fact, the rules seem to support your case and not mine.  The
>"idea that pools float around" seems based on the fact that spell defence
>does not require an action, it just happens when you are attacked magically
>(assuming you had dice left/allocated).  Based on this, I'd say that your
>ruling was incorrect.
>
>BUT, when you are attacked in melee combat, or shot, it does not require
>an action to use your combat pool to dodge, either AND the surprise rules,
>I believe, state that when surprised, you don't get combat pool dice.  This
>would, by inference, say that your ruling was correct.
>
>I dunno, I guess I disagree with your ruling because it leaves a bad taste
>in my mouth.  Spell defence is useless enough in SRII anyway, it might
>as well be automatic.  Or maybe a half strength or something.


The rules are very specific: you allocate dice for spell defense at no action
cost ON YOUR ACTION.  The pools refresh and are reallocated on your next
action.  You may choose when and if you wish to use dice allocated to spell
defense for that purpose when hostile magic is cast upon you/your teammates.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brett Cashman (The Jester)			    	rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu

"There's a place I like to hide,
 A doorway that I run through in the night."		- Geoff Tate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ctatro@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Christopher D Tatro)
Subject: play-by-mail revisited
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 17:22:51 GMT

     Hiya!
     A few days back I posted an article asking for help getting a play by mail
campaign going.
     I'm afraid I wasn't specific enough.  I'm talking about good old US Postal
Service here, not email.  Thanks to all who sent such suggestions, but my 
friend back east has no access to the system.
     So, any plain-old-standard-surface mail suggestions for PBM?
                    kristoff
From: s903040@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Christopher Francis Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Magic Systems
Date: 11 Nov 1992 04:34:44 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre
NNTP-Posting-Host: minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au

How about the Spell Description Language, archived on greyhawk.stanford.edu
somewhere in the D_D directory (I think)?

It's sorta like a magical programming language - cool stuff.


-- 
ThunderKat (a.k.a. Chris Anderson)    s903040@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au

"Sam pressed the button. A few lights flashed on the CPU. And another human
life ended. Somehow, it's always sad, no matter what."
From: tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Vampire: Combat.. HELP!!
Date: 10 Nov 92 21:55:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: charnel.1dpb5bINNr9p
Organization: California State University, Chico
NNTP-Posting-Host: guzzler.ecst.csuchico.edu

Rob Kamm writes:
>Does anyone else use a "Theme Song" in their campaigns?  You know
>something to listen to as the players get set up and read introductory
>information.  

Hmm, an 'alternative' group by the name of "In The Nursery" has a
few new albums out.  _Duality_ and _Sene_ are good choices for a
somber and modern/gothic mood.

-- 
May the Fleas of a Thousand Camels infest one of your Erogenous Zones.
From: wilder@nx04.mik.uky.edu (jeff wilder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Carrying weapons around (was Re: META: Swords, etc)
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:03:19 GMT
    <9349@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> <40833@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> 
    <1992Nov13.105216.12144@waikato.ac.nz>
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
X-Path: nx04.mik.uky.edu!wilder

Not to cast myself as Net cop, or anything, but please take this shit
to rec.nutcase.guns, okay?

Reading this NRA zombie crap makes me ill.

--
==============================================================================
| 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.|
==============================================================================
From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS: Armor (Basic vs. Advanced)
Date: 6 Nov 92 16:24:14 GMT
Organization: Newt World Order

This issue again? Gawds, methinks this is another one for the FAQ. 

Plate may have been heavy if you tried to carry it in your arms, but
when you put it on the weight was evenly distributed and not really that
bad. As a point of comparison, outward bound routinely gives out 70
pound backpacks on its wilderness trips, even for 105 pound women, and
they have to climb rocky hillsides and rappel down precipices. If normal
folks can do that, then a trained knight should be able to run fast
enough with that weight to keep up with an unarmored fool, at least for
a short distance (20 meters or so). As for people falling from horses
and not moving, did you think that perhaps the fallen knight was stunned
or injured by the fall? Quite a few people have been killed by falling
from horses, and plate doesn't protect you against your own body mass
slamming into the ground. And in agincourt the french knights were
charging over their own infantry through a very muddy field trying to
get at the english who were on a hill showering them with arrows. Many
horses were slain and fell, breaking their rider's legs and otherwise
injuring them.

Tournament armor is a different thing entirely. Tournament armor was
designed to be absolutely safe, so the jousting knights would never be
killed by a lance head inadvertently piercing their shield and
breastplate or glancing up and driving through the face or neck.
Tournament armor was to armor used in war as a welding mask is to a pair
of ray-bans. No one would use a welding mask to cut the glare on the ski
slope, just as nobody would have worn tournament armor to war. Jousting
lances were also designed to break on a solid hit (it made scoring
easy). Do you think that proves that they didn't know how to make a
solid lance back then?

-- 
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
Mediocrity is a hand rail.                         -- Baron de Montesquieu
From: th71020@cs.tut.fi (Huttula Tomi)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun book.
Date: 12 Nov 92 16:33:12
Organization: Tampere Univ. of Technology, Finland.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.tut.fi
In-reply-to: dunkelza@titan.ucc.umass.edu's message of Mon, 9 Nov 1992 17:01:26 GMT

In article <BxGKMF.5BA@nic.umass.edu> dunkelza@titan.ucc.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC) writes:

   In article <BxC0Ku.Gyz@nic.umass.edu> dunkelza@titan.ucc.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC) writes:
>   >       I can't get on to usdcsv.acusd.edu to get the Net.shadowrun.book.
>   >Does any other site have it?  I would like to get it.  
>   >
>   >Dunkelzahn
>   >

>      Thanks to everyone who responded.  Teetot.acusd.edu....

>   Dunkelzahn

Haven't been reading this newsgroup lately. So, could somebody tell me
what is this Net.shadowrun.book and where to get it from ?




Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: stxtnt@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov (Nigel Tzeng)
Subject: ZONE III LARP...pre-reg time...and a question for Cyberpunk genre GMs
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 01:10:56 GMT


ZONE III pre-reg is going to open up at Evecon if I am not totally
mistaken.  The ZONE is a Live Action Game set in the Cyberpunk genre.
We generally have 250 players and 8 GMs and the game lasts all of
CastleCon.  The players play your typical cyber punk personas from
gang members to corporate heads (regional only...sorry no CEOs).  This
year the setting is in the Rio InterCorporate Zone.  Please pre-reg as
we do not expect any of the 250 slots to be available at the door.

That out of the way I have a quick question for gamers and GMs in the
cyberpunk genre.  The ZONE has been a very successful live action game
for the past several years and has accumulated a fair store of plot
lines and background information.  We also have a ton of player
generated plots and personas which make a real handy GM tool for
fleshing out major (or minor) corporations.  What we haven't done is
take all this info and put it some sort of useful format.

Would people be interested in a compilation of the Zone I & II
background info?  More importantly would anyone pay for all this info
as it would take a fair amount of time to put together, printup,  etc?

I've been toying with the idea of compiling all the info (as well as
writing that article for SIL) for either another group of GMs to rerun
ZONE I (far away from the east coast...hmmm...or fly us out to run
another ZONE) or for those gamers who have played the ZONE and are
running variants of our corporations at home but I haven't really got
the time unless a lot of people really want it done (in which case I'd
make the time...).

Nigel Tzeng
Zone GM - The Net

PS Anyone have any good PD network simulations for the Mac?  We're toying
with writing one for Zone III in hypercard but hypercard is so sloooow.
Even on my Quadra...
--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: imeslsl@Msu.oscs.montana.edu (LEPRICAN~~~)
Subject: Re: Nyarlathotep's little habits.....
Reply-To: imeslsl@Msu.oscs.montana.edu (LEPRICAN~~~)
Organization: Montana State University
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 21:39:50 GMT

How about:

It rains upward...

All of the light switches in town turn lights on when they say off and
vice versa...

A fountain flows backward...

A prominent town statue changes positions one night...

This is too much fun, I won't go on.
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:8344 rec.games.frp.advocacy:3206
From: robert@isgtec.com (Robert Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Adventurers? (was Re: Carrying weapons..(was Re: META: Swords..))
Date: 13 Nov 92 22:42:29 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Deep Six (sl9b4@cc.usu.edu) wrote:
: This is a good point. I think this has bothered me since the first game I
: ever played. Where the hell did this concept of adventurers come from? It
: certainly has no basis in history

Certainly not from people like Burton, Polo, Lewis, Clark...

: -- any half-intelligent knight, soldier, 
: mercenary, what have you, would much rather sit in a castle with his feet 
: up in front of a fire than strap on all that cursed armor and take a chance
: at having one or more of his appendages avulsed from the rest of him.

Now there's an opportunity for some exciting roleplaying ...

: And
: the adventurer has very little basis in literature. There are literary 
: examples of ``parties'' who go out into the big wide world and have 
: ``adventures,'' but only in RPGs is the idea of adventuring parties 
: institutionalized. 

Jason and the Argonauts?  The Three Musketeers?

I guess Fafrd and the Grey Mouser,  practically anything by Moorcock,
etc. don't meet your 'literary' criteria.

: The answer to the question ``How did the concept of institutionalized 
: adventuring come to be?'' is (of course) to make RPGs ``funner'' for
: players. Instead of concerning yourself with the messy details of how
: the PCs happen to end up together, you just hang up a sign that says,
: ``ADVENTURERS WANTED.'' : No fuss no muss. It's just like women PCs in 
: medieval settings or magic shops (``Hi, do you havea wand of fireballs?'' 
: ``Yes -- aisle 5 in the pyrotechnics department''). They're all things
: that probably wouldn't exist if the RPG world was real, but you stick
: them in to make things ``funner'' or easier for players to play in.

How PC's come together are lengthy adventures in themselves.   They
are fun once in a while.  I certainly would be bored stiff if I had
to 'meet' the party de jour and 'introduce' ourselves for an hour
at the beginning of EVERY play session.

Rob.
--
Robert A. Osborne   ...!uunet.ca!isgtec!robert or robert@isgtec.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: thornley@micro.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley)
Subject: Champions (was Re: List of Superohero RPGs)
Keywords: Marvel,Champ
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 18:08:21 GMT

In article <BxGFLL.2K1@ansoft.com> louis@ansoft.com writes:
>
>On the champians game:
>Also I am part of the Champians mailing list and have down-loaded 
>alot of champian characters from the net, and all of them seem to 
>be based on 100 to 750 points.  I am currently trying to start a
>campaign of Bounty Hunters/Mercenaries in a world of minor super heroes.
>I started by saying the base should be 75, not superheroic - just heroic.  
>But all the NPC I see posted on the net are capable of destroying the 
>whole team (45d6...ARG!).
>
>Is anyone running a heroic campaign with base 75?  Any tips?  Would 
>you like to corrospond?
>
Sure.  Lots of people do that, they just don't call it Champions.
Currently, there is no specific game out (like Champions, Fantasy Hero,
Western Hero, Ninja Hero, or Cyber Hero) covering the sort of campaign
you describe, but you should be able to use the existing rules effectively.

You will need to use NPCs of a considerably lower level, of course, since
most superhero gaming uses 100+ point characters.  Of course, 45d6 is
quite enough to leave our best brick soundly unconscious while he bleeds
to death.

Aside from a dearth of support material, what sort of problems are you
having, and what sort of tips do you need?

>Or am I just running an old set of the rules and should I buy the
>newest set?
>
You've got the newest set.

DHT


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: durrant@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (unknown)
Subject: GURPS Vampire?????????
Keywords: NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Organization: Purdue University
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:04:24 GMT

	GURPS VAMPIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  White Wolf--how could you
do such a horrible thing!!!!!!!!  The Storyteller system is by nature a system
without an emphasis on mechanics--a godsend to players like me who enjoy the
ROLE playing much more than the ROLL playing.  GURPS Vampire is a mutation of al (sorry about that) the Storyteller system stands for.  Vampire for rollazoids--say it ani


	GURPS Vampire?????????????????????????  White Wolf--how could you do 
such a horrible thing??????????  The Storyteller system is by nature a system
without an emphasis on mechanics and dice rolling--a godsend to players like
me who enjoy the ROLE playing much more than the ROLL playing.  Vampire for
rollazoids--say it aint so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GURPS Vampire is a mutation of all
the Storyteller system stands for.

Christine
             If you haven't played Vampire the Masquerade, all you've
             been doing is rolling the dice.
                      --Me
	*************************************************************
	** GURPS VAMPIRE MUST DIE DIE DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  **
     	*************************************************************
From: bell@beethoven.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: PBEM
Date: 13 Nov 92 18:41:07 GMT
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In article <1992Nov12.181606.26873@u.washington.edu> mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner) writes:
>Wigs' advice on PBEM is good.  I have a few more ideas to add:

As do I.

>PBEM works well with diceless systems, and I'd recommend de-emphasizing
>mechanics as much as possible.

I'd recommend hiding mechanics completely.  I'd give people a vague idea
of the general tone of the world, so they have a sense of the balances of
power, and textual descriptions of their characters' abilities and
some history.  Since PBEMs have such a tendency to die out, you should
start play as soon as possible rather than getting bogged down in
character creation.  Hiding the rules also tends to discourage the
"roll"-players, who I believe will be among the types most likely to
drop out and thus disrupt the game.

Personally, I like the idea of not knowing who the other players in the
game are other than as their characters.  This would require some
software work, however, as the way the game would have to work is that the
players send e-mail to the GM who then distributes it appropriately if
at all, and strips out identifying info from the messages.  A truly
enterprising GM could disguise things enough that you wouldn't necessarily
know other PCs from NPCs.  However, you lose some ability to make
electronic friends that way, which is a large part of the fun.

   -Andrew Bell
bell@cs.unc.edu
From: BEA104@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: NAGEE1, 2 and 3 Spells
Date: 10 Nov 92 18:24:20 GMT
Organization: Penn State University


    This is a request on my part to get your persmission on a couple of things.
The biggie is that I need your permission to include your spells in my SRII
extended spell list.  As I only have a few spells to my list now, I would
appreciate any of you who submitted spells to the Neo-Anarchists Guide to
Everything Else to give me permission to re-post them.  I can't unless you do.
Send me E-Mail at BEA104@psuvm.psu.edu.  Thanks very much.

                                   Brian(Slash)
From: keith@world.std.com (Keith B Richmond)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Battlords 23C PBEM
Date: 11 Nov 92 17:48:10 GMT
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA

Greetings...Like I'm interested in running a PBEM for the
game Battelords of the 23rd century...or at least a pretty
close representation(not exactly the same setting,but pretty
damn close to...change in slight events and all that)...
Before I decide to do this however I'd like to see if people
would be interested in playing one...have to be able to
be able to email at least 1 if not twice a week and all that

Keith...

Ooh...I can't put that .sig here!!! What if some little kid 
saw it???

Everything I say,do,or even think has been stolen from someone
else so if you want to flame anyone flame someone else!!!  
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dzik@access.digex.com (Joseph Dzikiewicz)
Subject: Re: Middle Earth Role playing?
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 17:39:32 GMT

In article <1992Nov6.105535.8836@csusac.csus.edu> emamid@athena.ecs.csus.edu (David Emami) writes:
>
>It does mar the experience a bit, but only for those of us who are die-hard
>Tolkein fans. Most of my players are only vaguely familiar with LOTR, and
>they have a good time, so I'm able to forget about the Prof rolling in his
>grave sometimes. Also, remember that at the time that LOTR occurs, magic has
>been on the wane for a while. If the camaign is set in the mid-Third Age
>time frame (about 1400 years earlier), magic would be a bit more common.
>
This is supported by the fact that magic, including combat magic, seems
much more common in the Silmarilion then in the LOTR.  (Luthien disabled
Sauron with a sleep spell.)



Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: davest@cis.umassd.edu (Dave N. St. Pierre)
Subject: Amber,...Non-readers of books
Summary: Players that haven't read the Amber books by Zelazny.
Keywords: Amber
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 04:13:16 GMT

Hey all,
     I know I'm rather late in posting this but I just subscribed.
In 1 of the Amber games I am involved in now,...1/2 the players
hadn't read the book an were Amberite children that had been left
in shadow. (I am playing a Herald-Mage from Mercedes Lackies'
Valdemar series) The players that had never read the books were
brought to Amber by an unknown Amberite (cloaked him/herself in
shadows, no pun intended). The players that had read the books
had the task then of teaching the rest of us about Amber as the 
"1 true city that all other places are only a shadow of" and also
teaching us how to Shadow walk etc. I think this senario worked
very well. (Maybe because of the players involved.) As we learned
of Amber and its various quirks (family affairs etc.) we all passed
around copies of the books and read them in turn.
     Because of this set up, a lot of us came up with interesting
ideas with shadow and shadows. Our GM also has come up with his own
modified version of the player stats & how they are used. If you would
like to hear more about them, then just ask.

Dave St. (local gay Amberite)
(davest@cis.umassd.edu)
From: klein@frith.egr.msu.edu (Jeffrey Klein)
Subject: Re: APPLESEED
Organization: Michigan State University College of Stunt Piloting
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:47:40 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.120951.5111@zia.aoc.nrao.edu> jogle@zia.aoc.nrao.edu (Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim)) writes:
>In article <mumble> aodn307@bongo.cc.utexas.edu (Joshua Henry Geurink) writes:
>
>[anti-Palladium stuff deleted]
>
>>I can see APPLESEED using R.Talsorian's rules(AFTER REVAMPING THOSE RIDICULOUS
>>ENCUMBERANCE RULES!!!  A character with a high REF stat can layer armor
>>until nothing short of a tank gun will bruise him...), MAAAAAYBE Shadowrun
>>after some rule-revamping, but not Palladium.  Please, Lord, not Palladium...
>
>Of those three, Cyberpunk would be the best bet, though it would need
>some other work besides encumbrance rules (which I never had any
>problem with, but I never had to deal with much in the way of layered
>armor.)  For example, Briarios cannot be treated as a heavily cybered
>individual since his cyber rating would make him into a psychopathic
>maniac (that'd Deunan's job 8-).  You'd have to come up with some
>rules concerning AI robots....

Well, just -ignore- the cyberpsychosis rules - after all, they were 
only invented for game balance, and it obviously doesn't appear in 
Appleseed.

It'll prolly be a lot easier to write up Appleseed rules once the
English version of the technical book comes out - anyone heard
about it lately?


-- 
Jeff Klein             | "Happily, Ral doffs his outer clothing for a
Browsing Boy of the LNH|  refreshing dip in one of the dangerous 
klein@frith.egr.msu.edu|  chemical vats." - Ty Templeton
From: markl@dvorak.amd.com (Mark Luedtke)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Backstab in Shadowrun?
Date: 14 Nov 92 00:11:00 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas

In article <1992Nov12.153227.10302@kth.se> petrus@stacken.kth.se (Lars Petrus) writes:
>
>   We can not find a good way to deal with backstab situations in the
>SR2 book. This may very well be due to incompetence on our part, but
>here is the question anyway.
>
>   I'm thinking of situations like when a character sneaks up to somebody
>without being noticed, and cuts his throat with a knife. I want him *dead*,
>not subject to a wimpy knife attack with the strength (STR)L.

I think he pretty much is dead since the attacker can use all his combat pool
on the the attack and the defender gets none since he was surprised, and he's
either prone (target 2) or at least not actively defending (target 3, but
this is my own rule).  Even with target 4, he's a hurting pup.
-- 

Mark Luedtke    markl@dvorak.amd.com

This was typed by an infinite number of monkeys.