HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: a_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: What price a soul?
Date: 14 Aug 92 14:47:53 CST
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

In article <Bsz8Jv.E46@math.uwaterloo.ca>, jglarson@watmsg.uwaterloo.ca (Johan Larson) writes:
> I'm designing a Gurps character who has the interesting feature
> of having traded his soul to the Devil 
> for some specific advantages.  As part his part of the bargain, 
> the character has to kill one person every week, or he will lose the
> abilities and suffer other grievous consequences.
> 
> I'm trying to fit this into Gurps by having a disadvantage
> Demonic Agreement added to the game.  My problem is cost.
> I'm not sure how much this disadvantage should be worth;
> none of the disadvantages in the Basic set seem comparable.
> 

	Well, the disadvantage Extremely Hazardous Duty (-20) is included in
a few sourcebooks (Special Ops is one). My personal recommendation is that the
Demonic Agreement be twice the cost of the advantages gained -- demons (or the
Devil) will not make an agreement that doesn't benefit them in the end more
than it benefits the other person. If he has to kill someone every week, the
advantages better be pretty good -- unless the character *likes* to kill
people! For the agreement listed above, I would say -20 points.

Brandon Cope
From: gdg019@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Ridley McIntyre)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Date: 13 Aug 92 10:19:40 GMT
Distribution: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: Ironpig Arcadia, Coventry, UK

In <1992Aug11.084152.1755@cs.kuleuven.ac.be> philipd@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Philip Dutre) writes:
>
>Has anyone tried to use music and/or sounds during a roleplaying session?
>Did it enhance the atmosphere of the game, or was it just annoying when the GM
>was busy trying to locate the correct sound on a tape?

I once ran a Horror game at my brither's house (which had a big mahogany
table and a red light bulb in one of the sockets) that gained a lot of
flavour from the music I was playing in the other room. It was a continuous
loop of the Alien soundtrack and the original Phantasm soundtrack. There's
one bit on the Phantasm soundtrack that's a sample from the film, where the
Tall Man just says "Boy..." and there's this gross screaming and the slamming
of a door... Scared the shit out of me, too, and I knew it was coming.


-- 
		 **Ridley McIntyre - Ronin Ironpig**
		     gdg019@cck.coventry.ac.uk
		 -----------------------------------
             "Oh man, this is too real." - The Hard Way
Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Thursday, 13 Aug 1992 19:20:21 EDT
From: <IO11085@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Usuage of Faerie
 <1992Aug12.105807.11421@cs.ruu.nl>

Hmm everyones telling me to go get White Wolfs Faerie supplement on Faerie
Good thing I've been playing the game for 3 years and have that supplement.
So lets move beyond it.
Treena
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: The Benedictine Problem
Date: 15 Aug 92 15:49:28 GMT
	<1992Aug13.230519.9941@midway.uchicago.edu>
	<BszHuy.Eyx@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <mxr.713827334@neptune>
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: mxr@neptune.dsc.com's message of 14 Aug 92 21:22:14 GMT
X-Get-A-Clue: Have two, they're small.
X-Signature-Virus-Protection: Version 1.51
X-Posting-Software: GNUS 3.14.1 [ NNTP-based News Reader for GNU Emacs ]

>>>>> "MR" == Max "Thunder Snooze" Rible <mxr@neptune.dsc.com> writes:

MR> that Benedict is always calm, cool, and collected?  His character
MR> seemed quite consistent in the books.)

Benedict has embraced the ideals of the Japanese Samurai. This normally
means he tries to be calm, cool, and collected. This also means that he
will become rather enraged when those under his protection are harmed--
honor requires that avenge them properly. The cool part is mentioned in the
game/source book; the vengeance part is my own knowledge of the Samurai.

--Rat

||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
                                                   __        ___ 
Richard Pieri, Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat/   | /| / /   | The Worlds
Internet: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu   /__  |/ |/ / /| | Welfare Works
    UUCP: ...!northeastern.edu!meceng!ratinox  /   | /| / / / | | Association:
  BITNET: UA_RLP@NUHUB{.BITNET}               /__  |/ |/ / /  | | I will solve
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Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 17:20:43 GMT

For Cyberpunk genre games - (mostly just band names, * for especially apropos)
Hawkwind
Joy Division *
The Swans
The Yound Gods (Swans under different name)
Cassandra Complex *
Sigue Sigue Sputnik *
Bauhaus
Love and Rockets
Robyn Hitchcock (mostly for lighter moments)
Universe Zero
Sex Pistols
The Android Sisters
Flock of Seagulls
Ultravox *
Polyrock
David Bowie * (mostly Diamond Dogs, Heros, Low, Lodger, and Scary Monsters)
B-52s
Butthole Surfers
Venus Handcuffs
Velvet Underground
Violent Femmes

just about any other punk or nu-wave or post - punk stuff

Classical - most anything by
Liggeti
Messian 
Diamanda Galas
Honneger
Varese
Reich

-- 
ami silberman - janitor of lunacy
	silber@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: praxis@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Laura L Perkinson)
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Keywords: Roleplaying, music
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 23:58:57 GMT

	Sound effects is tough to do, but mix tapes for games in
general, or specific campaign worlds is a lot of fun.
	A list of stuff for a Shadowrun mix (works for other cyberpunk
games, too, but some tunes are references to magical elements):

	Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N' Roses)
	Assault and Battery (Howard Jones)
	The Dead Heart (Midnight Oil) (perfect NAN theme)
	Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails)
	Somewhere down the crazy River (Robbie Robertson)
	Epic (Faith No More)
	New Jack Hustler (Ice-T)
	Headhunter (Front 242)
	Lawyers Guns & Money (Warren Zevon)
	Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
	Siege at the Castle of Baron Von Frankenstein (Blue Oyster Cult)
	Bloodletting (Concrete Blonde)
	Machine Messiah (Yes)
	Higher Ground (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
	The City Sleeps (MC 900 Foot Jesus)
	When the Bullet Hits the Bone (Golden Earing)
	Hell's Bells (AC/DC)
	Welcome to my Nightmare (Alice Cooper)

	Don't leave it in your car for 2 weeks,
		Nightfall
		"It's been a business doing business with you."
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: rhunt@med.unc.edu (Rick Hunt)
Subject: SRun: Mag 3 Cyber Eyes in Combat
Originator: rhunt@icard
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:33:43 GMT

I was in the middle of GMing a firefight in Shadowrun when one of the 
characters who was running down a dock decided that he was going to 
blast one of the bad guys.  After deciding the range of his submachine 
gun was extreme, he announced that his new mag 3 cyber eyes lowered 
the range to short.  This immediately brought the game to a halt in 
the ensuing arguement.

He thought that they worked like a scope on a gun and reduced the 
range of the shot.  I informed him that that was not my opinion, 
especially while someone was running and shooting a SMG.  He thought 
that the smartgun link would take care of the movement.  After a more 
careful look at the mag 3 eyes later, I noticed that it never said 
anything about making the range shorter for fire combat, but did have 
a short sentence that they "behave like Imaging scopes of the 
appropriate rating."

For .1 essense or less and 11,000 Y, I have no intention of letting 
them reduce the firearm range of every combat to short.  Is this the 
general concensus of the net.srun.gurus?  Help a poor beginning 
Shadowrun GM.

Rick Hunt
rhunt@med.unc.edu

"It's pretty counterintuitive... until you think about it." blurted 
out at a game by someone who had eaten too much sugar.
From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 12:59:42 BST
Distribution: world
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman) writes:
> For Cyberpunk genre games - (mostly just band names, * for especially apropos
[...]
> Ultravox *

Note that the first three Ultravox! albums, "Ultravox!", "Ha! Ha! Ha!" and
"Systems of Romance" are now out on CD.

The first has John Foxx singing "I want to be a machine"; the second has
"Hiroshima mon amour"; and the third has "Dislocation".  All excellent, and
all especially appropriate for a Cyberpunk game.  Personally I much prefer
Foxx-era Ultravox! to the later stuff, although "Vienna" is good.

> Classical - most anything by
> Liggeti

Ligeti.  Gy"orgy Ligeti.  His "Requiem for soprano, mezzosoprano, two mixed
choirs and orchestra" is particularly good.  SF fans will recognize it as the
truly disturbed music used when they find the monolith on the moon in 2001.

For PARANOIA games, I recommend the DEVO E-Z Listening Disc.  Over an hour of
insane easy-listening elevator music versions of DEVO hits.  "Music while you
work leads to a happy citizen.  You are happy listening to music, aren't you
citizen?"

And for that visit to R&D / Technical Services / the nearest Bot plant, play
Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" loudly in the background.


mathew
-- 
"Even the most bizarre of the unions (probably that between a cat's gall
 stone and a single note 'G' from CNN's ident theme) managed to convey a
 sense of rampant impropriety."  -- 'Fortran Five', Simon G. Lawrence Leonard
From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: BTECH Novels
Date: 20 Aug 92 19:14:31 GMT

dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:

>chem7l@jane.uh.edu writes:
>They just republished "Decision at Thunder Rift" btw.

>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)

>Those are the one I remember.

Warrior: Engarde
Warrior: Reposte
Warrior: something-else I don't recal

Blood Legacy (?)
(I dunno, volumes 1-3 of the Blood of Kerensky)

new: Survival of the Fittest

BTW, Axly, your two "(or something like that)"s are both correct

IMO, the "Warrior" trilogy was the best of them all.

Oh!  The Jade Phoenix trilogy/saga
something to do with Falcons
Bloodname
Bloodright (?)

>Axly
From: Edward_Swatschek@mindlink.bc.ca (Edward Swatschek)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: BTECH Novels
Date: 21 Aug 92 00:54:01 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world




> Warrior: Engarde
> Warrior: Reposte                       ->  Riposte
> Warrior: something-else I don't recal  ->  Coup


--

               Edjs                    _
              ------                _ //  CI$  : 76427,662
   Edward_Swatschek@mindlink.bc.ca  \X/   GEnie: E.SWATSCHEK
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS - hand hits
From: alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com (Alan Braggins)
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:42:50 GMT
Organization: Shape Data (Division of EDS), Cambridge UK
In-reply-to: eda310acot@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au's message of Mon, 10 Aug 1992 01:34:07 GMT

>>>>> On Mon, 10 Aug 1992 01:34:07 GMT, eda310acot@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au (Lord Jonso) said:
> In article <1992Aug4.065625.11850@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu>, gil@smtc21.engr.scarolina.edu (Gil Young) writes:

> damage.  Id say that if you were hit in the hand by an arrow, you'd be
> luck to have ANY part of that hand left, after all, not many archers use
> target arrows for killing enenys.  They'd be using broad tipped heads,
> about the size of a golf ball (ok, not the best copmparison, but size
> wise, it's close)...

Depends on armour - against chain mail you use a sharp pointed arrow designed
to split the rings open. Against unarmoured foes you might use a larger head,
but bladed rather than round.

--
Alan Braggins, Shape Data (A Division of EDS Ltd), Cambridge, UK +44-223-316673
   "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
 "My employer does not necessarily share my views - but I'm working on it."
From: paul@sco.COM (Paul Jackson)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:18:22 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.040740.6306@tronsbox.xei.com> dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan) writes:
>|can?  Do you know whether the floorboards are held down by nails or
>|dowels, in case the players want to pry them up and then later return
>|them to their places without anyone being able to tell?
>
>	Nails, unless they were MEANT to be removable for some reason, which
>would be in my notes.

An interesting example of where the GM has probably goofed. For most
Medieval history iron was just too valuable to be wasted on nails for floor
boards. Assuming that your world resembles the traditional dark ages/magic
mish mash, what happens when the conversation goes :

Player : So, are the floors held down with nails or dowels?

DH (non improvising GM) : Nails (my notes don't say dowels because the floor
isn't meant to be removable)

Player : Ah, this merchant has spent an incredible amount of money on this
house. Clearly he must be much richer than he appears.

DH : ??? (I posit that at this time your choices are to alter reality by
making the merchant richer, alter reality by making the floor be held down
by Dowels. or alter reality by having iron be much more common than it should
be (and probably was a second ago)

I'm not trying to pick on Dennis here, I'm just pointing out that no amount
of prep time is going to avoid all mistakes. When players point out a mistake
improvisation is essential.
From: mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (steven mancini)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SHADOWRUN: Blinded by the light
Date: 12 Aug 92 20:39:50 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

In article <BsHF3r.C51@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
>
>>	3)Related to the above - any difference if the mage was astrally
>>perceiving?
>
>Either way on number 2, I'd say that going astral would let you get around
>a flashpak.
>

	Hold on one sec, I'd have to disagree. In the texts, I believe
	it is the SR inital book, it talks about Astral Space. In the
	description it make specific reference light and the astral
	plane. It claims that the only reason that shadows of non-astral
	object exist in the Astral is because of light reflecting off
	of them. So, IMHO, a flash pack *would* affect the mage in
	Astral since it's affects are carried over to the Astral plane
	(interpreted so as above). The flash would be just as intense
	so unless you Mage has Astral Cyberware, (ie flare comp for the
	Astral) he is stuck, no escape via astral.

>Use ultrasounds sights. This toy lets you see everything and shoot
>with no visual modifiers due to lighting. Best trick yet, drop
>smoke on your own position so the magelings can't see you without
>going astral. It's rock and roll time after that. IF they go astral
>to spell you, run up and melee them while they are changing perspectives.

	This, I like. However in the same area where I discovered the
	above Light & Astral mix, it also says a mage *cannot* use
	assensing to target physical beings, more specifically it cannot
	be used Combat Spells.  So yor tactic has an even better effect
	that you imagined eh?

							-Minotaur



+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Steve Mancini (a.k.a. The Minotaur) | mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu   |
|    Grad Student {Dazed & Confused}  | mancini@vm.cc.purdue.edu        |
|    Political Science Department     | phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu		| 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "We are in a Universe with more and more information, and less and    |
|  less meaning." - Jean Beaudrillard					|  
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
From: mosson@reseau.Berkeley.EDU (Groupe ELEVES)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Rolemaster in Europe
Date: 18 Aug 92 08:36:11 GMT
Reply-To: mosson@reseau.Berkeley.EDU (Groupe ELEVES)


  Well, I live in Toulouse, France, and (by sheer luck) I happen to play
RPGs. As
long as fantasy is concerned, AD&D, RQ and Rolemaster are easy to find
(I play both
AD&D and Rolemaster regularly), as well as the french translations of
Stormbringer
and Hawkmoon. Reve de Dragon (Tr: Dragon's Dream) is a French production, very
interesting IMHO, but not translated in english. GURPS is coming fast.
The others
are more confidential, though by no means rare.

  If you'd rather play in more "modern" settings, CoC is the game most french
players have. JB 007 is quite common, due to an excellent translation.
Vampire has
intrigued many people (judging by the number of books seen at the local
store), but
is - I think - still confidential. In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas is a
french-made
game, with an unusual point of view, and a solid sense of humour. Other games,
either french or anglo-american, are less widespread.

  The Cyberpunk genre has the favor of the actual french players. Both
Shadowrun
and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. are easy to find. Cyberpunk gets the largest
audience, but I
prefer SHD for its system (espescially matrix).

  Well, the SF genre is less common. Space Opera and Traveller have
fans, but they
are just that - die-hard unconditionnals. Space Master is confidential,
as is Mega-
-Traveller and 2300 AD. The only serious experience in french-made SF
game, Empire
Galactique (Tr: Galactic Empire), has fallen short of editor support and
died. Sad,
because both supplements (Encyclopedie Galactique vol. 1 and 2) are
superb SF ultra-
futuristic aids. Only if you read french, of course... but if you do,
try to get it.
It's worth its price.

  So much for an overview of french role-playing community. I can add that many
french players read english reasonably well, and so can use english-born
games...
For what I've heard, it's not the same in the US, or is it? :-)

  Hope it helps,
						Redwing.
From: jh@first.gmd.de (Joerg Heuer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Strategic Fantasy Battle Simulator
Keywords: Strategy, Fantasy
Date: 20 Aug 92 09:45:10 GMT

For some reason my initial follow-up didn't show up (or did I,
unintentionally, send a reply mail?). But this way I know, that some people
thought of Dragon Pass just as I do.

hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall) writes:

[...]
>Does anyone know if such an animal is available? What I'd like is a set of
>rules that abstracts the individual battles, but not to the point where you
>lose the flavor of the individual formations. It also has to cover the effects
>of various types of magic, including Wizardry, Religious miracles, and most of
>the typical fantasy beasts.
[...]

In another (younger) posting You wrote of a strategical and a tactical
battlemap etc. You won't find this in Dragon Pass, but my other suggestion
(from the above mentioned follow-up), Yaquinto's Beast Lord, seems to fit
the bill here. You move on with opaque stacks on the strategic map, depicting
the contested valley. When two enemie's stacks meet, they go to a strategic
map, into a corner representing the terrain type the units met in. (I think
they differentiated between five or so terrain types.)

The unit scale ranges from single persons/civilians/valuable objects to small
military units. There aren't so many units for every player (You mentioned
something around 500) but there where around 100 per side, I'd estimate. All
in all a total of 500 to 600 pieces should be reached by this games - as far
as I remember. I could look it up at home, on request.

Is there anybody else owning this game, who played it more than once?

Ciao,
J"org.

--
Joerg Heuer                   | UUCP:     jh@gmdtub.uucp
GMD-FIRST an der TUB          | INTERNET: jh@first.gmd.de
Rudower Chaussee 5, Geb. 13.7 | KOMEX:    heuer@kmx.gmd.dbp.de
D-1199 Berlin Adlershof, FRG  | Tel/Fax:  +49 30 6704 - 5819/5610
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:56:49 GMT

In article <Bt6tur.34D.1@cs.cmu.edu> cscott+@CS.CMU.EDU (Curtis Scott) writes:
>
>[in re whether to prepare or improvise a scenario]

>I'll give an example. In my early days of refereeing (nearly 15 years ago
>now), I was a very preparation-oriented GM. I was cured of this by several
>things, but the most striking was a real miserable experience involving a
>labyrinth. My players were wandering in a classical "dungeon" environment,
>and wandered into a small maze. It took an hour of play time for them to
>find their way through, with me giving them which way they could go, and
>them constantly making wrong turns. It was depressing.

Oh yes, Mazes can be a real drag for a party adventure.  Strangely enough
they always seem to work for small groups (1-2 people)...

I recall a very simple maze I introduced once.  Was supposed to take no
more than 15 minutes to get through.  I forgot about the anal-retention
training that one of my gamers had been given by a particular DM.

The maze consisted of two round rooms, which spun, one of which allowed
entry, the other which faced onto four different routes, three of which
were dead-ends or loops.  Not particularly complex on a map, and the
activation and triggering device was readily found behind a concealed panel.
Not terribly hard, on paper, and the party even had a compass-equivalent
if they'd thought to use it.

They took three hours to get through this.  Three long, tedious, excruciatingly
boring hours.  They were being extra-careful.  It was ghastly.

And the half hour following the escape was some of the best gaming we did
for weeks.  It was completely off the top of my head.  (They went off in
a direction I hadn't mapped out.)

Hutch
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dunning@chainsaw.ecn.purdue.edu (GALACTIC COMMANDER)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 20:51:37 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.164817.58273@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>But in a prepared scenario there is the sense that the characters are
>in an environment that existed before they were there, and that they
>can't change things just by being unhappy about it. In order to be 
>rewarded, they have to do the right things at the right times. 

Yes, if we all be good little mice and follow the GMs clever little
clues then we can find the GEM and win the big nasty module he has
prepared for us.  If we decide not to run the module then we won't
find out about the secret treasue room (prearranged of course) that
we have spin in three circles and pull the nose on the left statue
to find.

Chip

--

-----------------------------\_/-----------------------------
 Elwood H Dunning III         |     I am a pirate, I don't
  GALACTIC COMMANDER          |           DO decency!!
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc