HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: braca2@cspyr1.cs.adfa.oz.au (BRAY CHRISTOPHER)
Subject: Re: CoC Campaigns (Was: Re: Call of Cthulhu Archives?)
Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 11:55:50 GMT

The problem, as I perceive it is that too many people believe that a campaign
is centered around characters.  Try using this, center a campaign around
an item, or a society.  Some characters will live longer than others, and
possibly tell them of the horrors related to this thing.

Our group did this once, with the item being a diary.  As another group
found the diary they ended up adding to it.  I ran this with the idea of
introducing players to the genre.  They ended up being very good, with 
many players being very dead.

Dont limit yourself with your campaigns.  I will diverge here and talk about
Twilight 2000, and what we did with this.  We found that everyone's character
had ended pretty good, and nobody wanted them to die.  It was getting 
unrealistic that an entire party would survive every mission.  What was
eventually done is that the original party became the core of an elite 
group.  On any mission only two of the really good guys were taken, and 
the rest of the number ( about 4-5) were from newer characters.  This enabled
the GM to have sufficient carnage, and the players to keep the experts for 
a while longer.  

Not that the GM played any favourites.  If a tough guy ( as they got called)
died then he died, he would then take the next most experienced from the 
group as his own.

Try it, you may like it.  Just suggestins.



                              -=[   hook   ]=-
-----------------------------                  ----------------------------
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       ========			      |    "My heart beats just like yours, 
      /        \                      |    When I dream, my mind soars,  
      |        |                      |    but no fantasy will pay my bills
      \        /                      |    Another dream unfulfilled"
       ---  ---                       |                - Living Color
	 / /                          | "Right now there are hundreds of
	 | |                          | sceptics falling of the edge of the 
	 \ \   /|                     | Earth"  Clem Turner (LEUT, RAN)
	  \ --/ |                     |
	   \---/                      |
copy this sig and help `Just Say No' to Big Brother monitoring public bandwidth
      NSA KEYWORDS:  AVIARY, OCELOT, KIT GREEN, JOHN ALEXANDER, ED DAMES


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin)
Subject: Re: GMs: historical politics
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
X-Feet: bare
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 03:28:39 GMT

millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
> lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) writes:
>>>how DO you plan and carry off a political style campaign?
>> 
>> I don't.  I don't like them :-)
>> Despite enjoying `GRASS', I don't like back-biting campaigns at all.
>
> I guess we define "political rpg" differently. I define it as a campaign
> with shifting loyalties and a highly active bunch of NPCs, and Lee seems
> to define it by interplayer rivalry. I don't think interplayer rivalry
> is very interesting in the settings I've run, though I reserve judgement
> on Amber, and don't think of it as part and parcel of political play.

It depends on the GM and players, of course.  A game of the kind you (Loren)
describe can be fine if it doesn't turn into one of the type I (Lee) mentioned.


> I'm looking more for advice on how to detail factions of NPCs, to
> describe NPC personality and loyalty and to keep track of all that stuff
> without going crazy pawing through notes or forgetting key information
> in the middle of a session.

I can't help very much here, as I tend not to have large herds of particularly
active NPCs (or People, as I call them).
Variously coloured index cards can help a lot.  So can crib sheets with  lists
of information likely to be pertinent in a session.  Which is about as much
preparation as I generally do, unless it's trying to get pictures together.
If you have a computer near you when you game - which can be a good thing and
a bad thing, I expect - you could use a simple text retrieval system perhaps,
or HyperCard or grep or whatever, anything with keyword searches.

> Of course there is always the possibility that you were referring jokingly
> to the current backbiting political campaign season in my
> country, rather than to RPG campaigns involving politics.

Which country?  No, not deliberately :-)

Lee

-- 
Liam Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad, Toronto, 416 239-4801; the barefoot programmer
  lq-text (Unix text retrieval package) mailing list: lq-text-request@sq.com
  latest released version: 1.10; ftp: ftp.cs.toronto.edu in directory: pub
  If Adultery is for Adults, is Juvenal for Juveniles?
From: wall@star.enet.dec.com (David F. Wall)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Amber question
Date: 21 Aug 92 17:56:02 GMT
Reply-To: wall@star.enet.dec.com (David F. Wall)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <92234.081600HZS@psuvm.psu.edu>, HZS@psuvm.psu.edu (Therion) writes:
>
>I was talking to a friend last night who plays a lot of Amber, and she made
>reference to something that went way over my head. I'm almost ashamed to admit
>it in front of such an august audience, but I haven't yet read the new series
>and it's been nearly a dozen years since I read the old ones. Can anyone tell
>be who or what "loachren" (lokrin? lochrin? loachryn? lochrin?) referrs to?

Could she be speaking of The Logrus, the parallel (?) corrollary (?)
opposite pole (?) equivalent (?) of the Pattern of Amber to be found in the
Courts of Chaos.  I'm not really sure how to describe how they relate, because
Zelazny uses different words to describe their use.

This gets mentioned a lot more in the books about Merle Corey, because Merlin
was raised in the COurts of Chaos, and he manipulates the Pattern and the
Logrus with equal facility.
--
David F. Wall (Digital Equipment Corp., Nashua, NH)
 
UUCP		...!decwrl!star.enet!wall
Internet	wall@star.enet.dec.com	
	- or -	wall%star.enet@decwrl.dec.com
---
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dmgirard@nyx.cs.du.edu (David Girardot)
Subject: SRUN: Autofire Rules SUmmary?
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 14:26:18 GMT



Could someone please post a summary of the "new" autofire rules?  Right
now I am in need of a description of how "burst mode" and reactive
triggers work; and which types of weapons are capable of which types of
autofire.
 
(I have no access to the _Rigger's Black Book_ and really don't feel like
paying fifteen smackers just for a half-page of rules...) :)

--David

--
                    dmgirard@nyx.cs.du.edu
                 Girardot@Vax.Dickinson.Edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows)
Subject: Re: Btech muse
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 17:23:36 GMT


BattleTech Muse is currently integrating the mechs into the system;
it should be up tomorrow.  For those who missed the address the first
time around, it is

129.72.2.135 3026

The first four numbers are the address of the host; the last number
(separated by a space from the first group) is the address.  It is
vital to include this address when telnetting to the site; otherwise
you will connect with the main computer at the site instead of the MUSE.

For more information, I strongly urge you to read the FAQ list on    
rec.games.mud or rec.games.mud.announce.  That'll tell you everything
you need to know.

Thanks, and I'll see you on the MUSE!

---Chris Meadows
   Pvt. Griffin, Kurita
From: v076jy2p@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Cosmo Of The Cosmos)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SR: CAW Co. Fall Catolog
Date: 26 Aug 92 00:30:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41




> Insta-barrier
>  Weight: 1
>  Cost: 100
> 
> So your setting up an ambush, but the only thing to hide behind are some
> empty wooden crates.  What do you do?  Use insta-barrier!  It may look
> like a normal fire extinguisher, but in reality it contains a special
> chemical that hardens in 10 seconds.  Voila! that crate now has a half 
> inch layer of hardend plastic on it.  Use it to keep doors closed!
> Put it of the walls of your home to protect against those suprize attacks.
> And if one layer isn't enough, use another container!.
> One container contains enough for 10 square meters.  The whole container
> must be used.

oops, Forgot to put that it increases the barrier rating by two per layer.

Also, sorry for all the spelling errors but I copied the stuff from my
notes just today and since I had 4 different people who said that they
wanted a copy of The CAW Co. Catolog, just today.  I figured I'd better dump
it onto the net, pronto.

Oh, by the way.  CAW Co. is stationed in Kent, Tacoma.  Just ask around,
everybody knows where my HQ is, ever since I revitalized the local economy.
And tell me what you buy, so I can write down how much my charater makes.


					-Widget
From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun: Matrix Generator Stack
Date: 24 Aug 92 02:30:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.ward1.714623417

GAYNOR@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu (Jim Gaynor) writes:
>Something to note - what Lester posted was a self-extracting binary
>that had been Binhexed -and- uuencoded.  To make use of it, you will
>need a program that can de-binhex (DeHQX, StuffIt Lite, Compact Pro,
>Binhex 4.0) and a program that can uudecode (UUtool 2.3.2 from
><sumex-aim.stanford.ed> in info-mac/util is reccommended).

Sorry, should have mentioned that.  BTW, most UNIX machines have a
'uudecode' command which will decode the saved post with mainframe power.
You can also get a UINX program called mcvert that will unbinhex stuff
(which allows makes the file smaller and therefore faster to download
if your modem software can handle binary transfers.)  It is also available
from sumex (then put it into you bin directory).

>Kudos to Lester on another Good Thing for Shadowrun.

Thanks, man.

>   Jim Gaynor    | "Man-of-Many-Beeping-Sounds-and-Flashing-Lights" - KAJ

Wordman
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: sterling@crash.cts.com (Mike Sterling)
Subject: Re: CoC Campaigns 
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:00:00 GMT

It sounds to me that you have modified the scenarios.  I've run Masks of Nyarl.
and it was my experience that many of the encounters involve some form of combat(at the very least mystical based.)  In fact, of the 8 characters who started Masks, not one was left after Cairo.

I've also run a few of the scenarios which did not result in total party wipeout, but they did involve combat.  In Dark Carnival, the PC's had to beat a hasty
retreat, and had to fight their way out of the Carnival.

The group I was running at the time liked to avoid combat whenever possible, butmany in may of the Chaosiam scenarios, there no option but to fight.  You gather the information, go to where the horror is and hopefully a few make it back.  On the whole, I prefer writting my own scenarios, and leaveing non-combat solutions to the problems.


Mike Sterling

Vote Cthulhu in '92
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: davis@cwis.unomaha.edu (James J Davis)
Subject: Re: Hero: Vitals HitLoc (Was Re: Champions: Mental Questions...)
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 18:31:34 GMT

The vitals hit location, as I see it and as confirmed by friends and the
armor pieces available in Fantasy Hero, includes everything under the
ribcage going down to the genetails.  The terms 'eveceration' or
'disembowelment' come to mind on vitals shots, which is why it's so
nasty.

-james
From: rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert Everett Brunskill)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: Shadowrun I Errata again ple
Date: 30 Aug 92 17:17:42 GMT
Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

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Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 12:20:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: oldham_r@cs.uwa.oz.au
Subject: Re: SRUN: Shadowrun I Errata again please
ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward) writes:
>oldham_r@cs.uwa.oz.au (rob oldham) writes:

>>After having read the SRII errata, I'd love to get my hands on the
>>SRI errata stuff. I had no idea it existed.... could somebody 
>>post it up or e-mail it to me ? Either the 2pg or the full 200k, 
>>as talked about in the SRII thread, will do wonderful.

>Last time I looked, it was available by anonymous ftp at
>ftp.white.toronto.edu
>        /pub/frp/shadowrun/collated-shadowrun-errata

I still don't quite know what I'm doing in here.
Could you send me a copy of that errata once you get it, Rob?

Rob Brunskill Aka "The <still perplexed> Phantom"
"What's that watermellon doing there?" Q New Jersey
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: oroboros@acca.nmsu.edu (The Wyrm Ouroboros)
Subject: Re: SRUN: A few observations
Organization: The Clearing House, Ltd.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 09:33:28 GMT

Jim W "GrimJim" Lai writes:
>I'm trying to find plots (sigh, still working on finishing one) that lets the
>PCs get a hint at what's going on where things are much bigger than them, and
>they are not part of the big picture, unless they make themselves part of it.
>The world is impersonal in cyberpunk.  Getting personal can be bad for biz.

If you can get your hands on the book of short stories that FASA put out,
'Into the Shadows', it shows several runs that are all tied together with
the 'bigger picture'.  It should help.

Ouroboros
The Wyrm of the .Net
From: adam@endor.uucp (Adam Shostack)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: ShadowTech Errata
Date: 3 Sep 92 19:46:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: das.1992Sep3.194629.9045
Organization: Aiken Computation Lab, Harvard University

In article <1992Sep3.050139.19473@cis.ohio-state.edu> macgyver@turtle.cis.ohio-state.edu (MacGyver) writes:
>In article <1992Sep2.063524.25016@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> ins894r@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Aaron Wigley [Wigs]) writes:
>>As a piece of cyberware, it would rate amongst the Encephalon, and 
>>the like. All it is a computer, and a lot of interfacing with the 
>>person's own sensors, etc.

>I could come up with a good science explantion on why TacComputer cost
>more in terms of essence. But the bottom line is, the reason behind such
>high cost is for game balance. If the essence cost for TacComputer isn't
>set at such level, you can combine lots of other cyberwares along with
>TacComputer, which would destroy the game balance.

"All" A c-squared deck is is a computer, but a decent one takes up an
awful lot of essense.  A Tac computer is a lot of hardware, a lot of
connections, and as such, its tough for someone with one of these
things to function with that much metal and crystal where their
nuerons used to be.  Thats why you can't add a lot more cyberware to
anyone with a TacComp installed.

Adam



Adam Shostack 					adam@das.harvard.edu

What a terrible thing to have lost one's .sig.  Or not to have a .sig
at all.  How true that is.
From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Champions: MindControl and Intelligence
Date: 3 Sep 92 15:43:49 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

Well thanx for all the help on my last question.  I do not apreciate
people telling me to read the book, however without page numbers!
OBVIOUSLY I am attempting to read the book, but it takes time to 
completely comprehend the meaning and your different points of view really
help.  I do have an additional question but first I want to give my
rationale behind the mind control question...
	I really think you should be able to tell people to go to sleep
even if they arent.  It might be more difficult than a normal, you could 
even tell a person to die.  I don't believe it is necessarily a true death
but I think you should be able to do it in context of what hypnotists have
been able to do.  I have seen people who have been told by hypnotists to
sleep and they fall over whammo and they are asleep.  I suppose for
death you could just tell them to feign death, but I heard it explained
that they don't actually die, but much like a sleep they are out of it.
I dont see anything wrong with this tactic since it seems to me that the 
use of a power in this sort of fashion not only is rather creative but
not truly murderous like so many heroes seem to want to have.
How would you buy a sleep spell otherwise in a fantasy-hero setting?  If
not in a super hero setting (which is what I use.)
	I also want to ask a question.  What are ways of enhancing your 
perception but not your intelligence?  And vice versa.  The reason I ask
is that I hve known many a genius that was not very perceptive, and some 
of the most perceptive people I know have been really lacking in gray matter!
A good case would be the absent-minded professor.  One who although brilliant
in many cases will be completely naive and bumbling when it comes to others.
I don't believe if I want a character with cat like reflexes that they
necessarily be a genius but just really sharp.  Yet if I say that intelligence
is just that then I cannot buy any intelligence base skills that don't fit
cus instantly they become the world authority on the subject I buy knowlege in.
Get it???  I know that Champions does not consider intelligence the same
as brain power yet it seems to me that if I want  a genius I have to have
a guy who is never surprised, and always the first to discover something amiss.

					I have read the book on this,
						it just seems to me they dont
							use it consistently and
								give it double
									meaning

Thanks,				
	wReam...

P.S.  Surprised to notice all the forklifts around town.  You just never 
notice these things until you are really looking for them!
From: bryan@uhura1.uucp (Bryan Curnutt)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: orch players
Date: 3 Sep 92 20:37:53 GMT
Reply-To: bryan%uhura1@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Stoner Associates, Inc./DREM Incorporated, Houston Texas

seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>	What people here post as munchkin characters... god, I have to laugh.
>If it can't obliterate an entire continent to begin with, you can't really call
>it POWERFUL, can you?

Munchkinism isn't a power level, it's an attitude.
-- 
Any opinions above are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of SAI.
Bryan Curnutt
bryan%uhura1@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 11:55:15 -0400 
From: Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Btech muse

In article <28AUG199218564105@jane.uh.edu> lib1p@jane.uh.edu (Tammy Stark
Blandino) writes:
>Could someone give some completely detailed info on this?
>
>Walter and I are interested.
>
>Tammy
>

The answers that have been given are great but, HOW DO YOU GET ON IT?  I
have a mac with Microphone 1.6, Mac IP and I'm linked to the net through
my printer port and andrew.cmu.edu.  I've been trying to use MacIP and
all I get is "login:".  My e-mail if rb6t.  Respond, please respond.

Rob Brunskill Aka "The <perplexed> Phantom"
"Help Me!"  A very doomed person in just about any movie.
From: good@turing (Joe Good)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Champions: Throwing Things around...
Summary: still just 10d6
Keywords: Champions
Date: 27 Aug 92 05:23:48 GMT
Organization: Math Department, UC Davis

In article <meharg.714878707@sfu.ca> meharg@fraser.sfu.ca (Gersham William Meharg) writes:
>
>Bif the superhero (STR 50) picks up a Toyota truck and whacks Grog the
>evil villian with it.  How much damage does this do? Is it just 10d6
>normal damage? I know that the rules say to treat it as an area attack,
>a move through. What if Bif were to throw the car (12"-14") at Grog,
>would this do more damage than the strike above?
	In the first case, when Bif strikes the villain with the truck,
he can do a maximum of his strength in dice, or the body of the truck
in dice, whichever is lower.  (If the force of the blow is enough to
disintegrate (sp?) the truck, using more force won't do any more damage,
and would in fact lessen the damage done, but that's too complicated to
deal with, so just do the total BOD and DEF of the truck in dice).
Since
Bif is using a truck that covers, say, 3 hexes (a full-size pickup), 
I would give him a 3-hex line area effect, with the disadvantage that
he is destroying someone's property.
	In other words, he'll do 10d6, unless it's a really puny wimpy
truck.
	As for throwing it, some may say that gravity will add to the
force of the blow, but remember that he has to throw the truck up 
against gravity in the first place.  IN other words, gravity gives
no additional damage, and once again he does either 10d6 or the
BOD plus DEF of the truck in dice, whichever is lower.  I would
once again give him the 3-hex area effect for the truck, and he'll
need it, as the penalties for throwing such an object are immense.
(My brick, STR 100 in a 14-die game (yes, I'm an admitted power gamer),
tends to throw small ships or buildings, as otherwise he can't hit
anything.)

	Hopefully, this will help you out.  THe biggest pain in any
situation is deciding the total BOD and DEF of the object in question.
Everything else kind of works itself out.  Toodles!


===============================================================================
Joe "BD" Good, President, BRS movie reviews; and generally nice guy
... "We owe it to the brain of our species to stand here and die!" ...
... "OH, little grasshopper; Zen is the art of saying little and meaning all"..
===============================================================================