HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly)
Subject: Re: SRun (deckers without guns)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:32:01 GMT

goodwin@orionsci.uucp (Ben Goodwin) writes:


>Axly, you are being a little close minded on this issue.
>If I lived in a world where the crime rate was high, where half of
>the people I pass on the street have guns, and society is crumbling,
>you can damn well bet I would go out and buy a .38 or whatever and
>carry it with me.

I never said that I didn't want Deckers to know how to use a gun, rather
that I objected to them having Firearms instead of a Concentration
or Specialization. Yes, a Decker knowing a pistol is great. Knowing
Assault Rifle? *cringe*

>Also, you state you don't want to waste the 4 karma points necessary
>to get a Predator II at skill level 3, and that it won't help you much
>anyway.  Hum, sounds like roll playing to me.  How you can imagine
>people who walk the streets every day, break into multinational
>corporations with their own private armies, and generally piss off
>people as much as Srunners do and say to themselves, "Gee, I don't need
>a gun" is beyond me.

If I learned a pistol as a Decker (I don't tend to play them - they tend
to distract from group unity due to the isolation of the run and the fact
that most of them I have run with tend to rip off the group.), I would
learn Scorpion or Ares Crusader and load it with Explosive Rounds. I
wasn't harping on knowing a gun, just your choice of gun. 

Most of Gibson's console cowboy's know how to use a gun, but aren't
great at it. Dodger uses an SMG. The hero in 2XS (a Detective, not
a Decker, but the same idea) goes on a run using a Remington Roomsweeper
and a Colt Manhunter. The background for SR suggests  Deckers with
some ability with a gun. Combatlord Deckers? Only if they are Samurai 
first, Decker second.

>Can you give me your GM's number.  I'd like to suggest a few scenarios
>to him, ones in which some punk with a 22 corners you and you don't
>have a measly gun and the measly skill to use it. :)

*Grin* Well, playing a .1 Essence Ex-Ranger with Cyberspurs, I'm tempted to
give his number to you...it sounds like fun.

I simply don't like Deckers with Firearms (unconcentrated) higher than 3 as
a starting character. If you have a background that you will roleplay that
says you would know Firearms, then by all means, take Firearms, but have 
a roleplaying reason, not a "I want to be able to use anything I find." 
reason like some people my GM knows. (Cassandra, maybe? NAH!)

I also think taking a gun along on a run makes you a target 'cause low
speed characters can frag you bad. See previous post on why I shoot the
slowpokes first.

Axly


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: juklehto@sara.cc.utu.fi
Subject: What's a curse?
Organization: University of Turku, Finland
Date: 26 Jul 92 20:08:24 EET

     Could someone more enlightened explain what's a curse and
how they differ from ordinary spells? So far seems that they
are harmful, longlasting and hard to get rid of, but so are
some spells too (supposing that curse differs from spell.)

Any ideas appreciated.

Lehtonen JV
juklehto@sara.cc.utu.fi
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen)
Subject: Re: SRUN: Upper limit on armor spells?
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 03:45:28 GMT

rhunt@med.unc.edu (Rick Hunt) writes:
: I have a question to all of you Shadowrun gurus.  I am playing a mage and
: wanted to cast a spell locked armor spell on myself, after watching our
: big troll go down in one shot.  I have the spell at force 5, a magic pool
: at 6 and an elemental at force 4 and used him for 3 dice.  We used a
: target number of 3 and I rolled 14 dice, resulting in 10 successes.  The
: GM was not amused by the prospect of me having 10 points of dermal armor
: permanantly locked on.  He said that there _must_ be some kind of upper
: limit on these things but we couldn't find anything.  Are we missing
: something?
: 
: Rick Hunt "Touch"
: rhunt@med.unc.edu

Don't armor spells just add to body.
In which case, if a Npc shoots you with a smg on burst the extra points
will do virtually nothing.



*****************************************************************************
*Veltyen   ....GM from Hell        *" As a child I always wanted a puppy,   *
*ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au *  then again, we were starving anything *
*ins769v@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au   *  with meat on it would have done."     *
*veltyen@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au	   *      Captain Vimes, City Watch         *
*****************************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim)
Subject: Re: New Name for Flesh Golem wanted!
Organization: Rice University
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 09:00:40 GMT

In article <1992Jul25.043223.546@njitgw.njit.edu> cxc4107@hertz.njit.edu (Christopher Lee Cavender) writes:
>Okay all you creative net-types! I need a new name for Flesh Golems!

Flesh Gordon comes to mind, along with Wang, Dale Ardor, and the whole
happy crew.




-- 
Mike Swaim            | "What izzis wunnderful thing? S' Beautiful
swaim@owlnet.rice.edu | I think I'll put my tongue on it." -Arthur
Rupp doesn't even know who I am,
 much less care what I think
From: warmongr@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Krishgan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: New Matrix Programs-
Keywords: Shadowrun, SR, SRUN, SHADOWRUN
Date: 24 Jul 92 15:35:11 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center


->>[Hey Chris, nice to hear from ya!  Yeah, actually I do have Icons for
  how they run, but they are through my own work.  If you place orders to
  the folks here at Nevermore in LA, I'm sure we can construct something
  to your own Reality Filter's design.

  As for myself....Smokescreen I is a Fireman's Mask
		   Smokescreen II is a Full Mask and Oxygen Gear
		   Smoke Filter is a small bomb/grenade for me.  It
		      goes 'off' in the node.  If the smoke clears,
		      then it works.  If it doesn't, then I go back
		      to the other programs.

  But that is just me, the Fireman Hero in the Matrix...]<<
    -Backdraft (who is having fun planning his vacation)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: euacla@eua.ericsson.se (Claes.Frisk)
Subject: Re: Dangerous Journeys -- Mythus is out
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 07:58:22 GMT

millerl@jeremiah.wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller) writes:

>Mythus is the fantasy rules for the Dangerous Journey's multigenre
>RPG. That's the way the two are related. BTW, I forgot to mention the
>price in the earlier note. It's $26 for the 412 page book.

>I also have a question for anybody who has the book or has played at a
>convention. The difference between full practitioner and partial
>practitioner is emphasized as important in the book, but aside from
>the ability of full practitioners to get a lot more magic power than
>partial practitioners it isn't described at all. What is the
>difference between a full and partial practitioner of magic? If you
>could, give an example of how it would work in play to try for a mage
>character and fail, thus ending up with a partial practitioner. What
>skills would you have? How powerful would the character be? What
>choices as to alternate skill emphasis would the character have?
>Equally important would be a priest character. I find this section of
>the rules extremely confusing, and don't remember being this confused
>about rules since first reading the AD&D 1st Ed DMG.

>-- 
>-- 
>Loren Miller     <MILLERL@scrolls.wharton.upenn.edu>
>All our patients here are suffering from severe over-acting. When
>they're brought in they're all really over the top.

This area will presumably be described in the forthcoming magic-book.
One advantage of being a full practitioner I discovered is that you
can use casting at one DR lower than normal.

One more area that i guess will be fleshed out in the magic-book is
Pacts&Vows. I'm looking forward to that one!

All and all the Mythus rules are kind of hard to use without the
magic and the Aerth-book. It's like trying to play ol' AD&D with just the
DMG. It is also too 'chatty'. Why do they put the prime and the advanced
rules in the same volume? You can't use both.
And for god's sake! Why do they always put a scenario in the rules book?

But, It has some nice touches... I hope the following volumes are what
I hope.

--
Claes Frisk				Email: Claes.Frisk@eua.ericsson.se
Ellemtel telecommunication labs		Voice: +4687274134
17 170 Alvsjo SWEDEN			FAX:   +468727


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dqk412@kepler.unh.edu (David Q Kennard)
Subject: Re: Media in Roleplaying Games
Organization: University of New Hampshire  -  Durham, NH
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 15:53:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.051857.25425@mks.com> rod@mks.com (Rod Currie) writes:
>	I am just curious about how other GMs treat the media in
>their campaigns, especially in Superhero games.   The superhero
>genre is a breeding ground for media interaction, since it deals
>with larger than life characters with a knack for getting involved
>with events that are sure to make the evening news.  Does anyone
>have any media-related tales from their campaigns?  Let's hear
>about them.
>
>Rod Currie

I use the media as a major communication device and plot hook for the
players in my Supers campaign. For example, the basic start to a major
phase of the campaign was to hand the players a sheet covering some of
the news of the day: headlines and teaser paragraphs for a half-dozen
stories. The players then decided what to investigate. A couple of things
were actually related behind the scenes; some where not; a couple were
irrelevant fluff. I try to get these handouts ready fairly often. Another
time, a player was following the status of a disaster by listening to
news updates (another handout). He couldn't actually deal with the problem
(an accidently released Air Elemental causing trouble), but was interested
because he'll be attempting to track down what was going on when it was
released. I also use it as something of a focus on the PCs' style: do
they want publicity or do they want to avoid it. The player just mentioned
has gone undercover in the Mafia; he *doesn't* want to be in the middle
of a media circus over some random Superhero nonsense.

Dave K.
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Military Mechs?
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:19:49 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1992Jul30.040248.22607@u.washington.edu> rrn@milton.u.washington.edu (H++ Visser) writes:
>One thing that has always bothered me about BTECH (I mean the problems are 
>legion, but most of the oterhs have already been brought up) is that during
>periods of intense warfare, it makes little sense that technology would go
>down rather than up.
>
>In times of crisis, the willingness of at least one of the combatant's to
>try new and innovative designs goes up, and as a result, so does technology.
>Battletech (and new, "improved" Traveller) would have us believe quite the
>opposite. Just how does an information society lose technical data?
>
>Their `new dark ages' excuse is just as silly,
>unfortunately.

	Well, this I don't know about.  The whole scenario with Star League
was clearly designed by wargamers who knew about the Roman Empire.
	There is no denying that when the Roman Empire went down, tech
levels just plummeted (for better of for worse).  Sure there was less tech
to lose then, but the fact remains that no one built stuff like the Romans
did for hundreds of years.
	Ever read _A_Canticle_For_Leibowitz_?  I had a history professor
who recommend we read this to get a good handle on the Dark Ages.
	The 'new dark ages' idea is not that silly.  'Dark ages' _do_ occur
everyso often in various cultures.  The collapse of BattleTech's Star
League is a classic example of the scenario which produces a 'dark age'.

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cjudd@esk (Craig Thomas Judd)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Military Mechs?
Date: 28 Jul 92 05:18:34 GMT
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston

In article <1992Jul27.204836.8985@uoft02.utoledo.edu>, steiner@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (jason steiner) writes:

>face it, BTECH is pure fantasy. it looks cool, it's fun to play, but

Excuse me? LOOKS cool? Sorry, we must have different design sense...

:-)

Yours stylishly;

-- 
   \/\ "Abide by the contract of blood and inherit me!" Grossporina, SM2 /\/
====\/\"Shit, it's that skinhead again!" Kaneda about Col., AKIRA Book 3/\/====
=====\/\      *** WANT ANY MANGA ARTWORK DONE? Just email me! ***      /\/=====
      \/\   cjudd@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au      a.k.a. Kuroto Shiro   /\/
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ins894r@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Aaron Wigley [Wigs])
Subject: Re: SR: Bone Lacing 
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 00:42:20 GMT

gray@visix.com (Gray Jones) writes:
[ About partial bone lacing ..]
: It's a cool idea, but what about effects?
: 
: What are the benfits to just lacing your head or chest?

Obviously it's cheaper in the short term, and you won't have to worry
about spinal damage. It's easier to rebuild arms/legs than your Brain/CNS.

: Lacing Hands/Arms:  Unarmed Damage Bonus (see bone lacing entry in ShadowTech)

Possibly, possibly not. You could hit harder, with less damage to yourself
when you hit. Something they didn't address in ShadowTech is damage to the 
soft flesh when hitting others - the bone lacing allows you to punch brick
walls if you like, without breaking your hand, but what about ripping your
knuckles open to the bone?

: Lacing Skull:  Armor bonus (0 for plastic, 0/+1 for aluminum, +1/+1 for titanium (or whatever

Probably similar effect to a helmet. (If I GM'd, I don't add helmet armour
bonuses to the rest of body BTW)

: Lacing Pelvis/Spine: ?????

Resisted spinal damage. It'd be a bugger if your character ended up with 
spinal damage. Also, plastic bone lacing could have a legitimate medical use
reinforcing the broken/shattered spine of accident victims.

: Lacing Rib Cage:  Body Bonus??

Resistance against constriction of the chest?
Armour for the torso.

: what about breaking it into fewer parts like torso, head, arms, legs?

Could be done. The split I detailed was a quick one worked out in a few 
minutes. I am no skeleton expert, but I loosely based it on the 
percentage of skin for each part of the body, as used for quick estimates
of percentage of the body burned in first aid injury assesment:

	Head, Chest, Back, arm (whole), thigh, lower leg, abdomen
are all 9% of the total skin area of the body (11 parts), leaving
the genital area as the last 1%.

: Any thoughts??
: 
: --gray

The Wigs of Oz,
Aaron Wigley
From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Genres
Date: 21 Jul 92 15:47:48 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <13611@mindlink.bc.ca>, 
 Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow) writes:
> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
 
>> I am arguing that games which make use of as much realism as possible are
>> superior.
> 
> No, you're stating a personal opinion and claiming that it's a universal 
> truth. You haven't presented any arguments to support that claim.

Oh man, another graduate of 9th grade debate. I think it's understood that
I am not going to convince anyone that ANYTHING I say about gaming is a
is a universal truth. What we're discussing just isn't that important. 
And I'm certain that in the post that you followed up I said (a couple times) 
that this is largely a matter of personal preference, and that I continued
in this little exchange for the sake of discussion. You snipped those parts..

The main supporting argument (made in other posts, to which you selectively
did not reference) I have made is that basing games in reality gives the 
players an anchor. Reality is a reference point to fiction. In other words,
if the players are in a world where nothing is real, there is nothing 
exciting about doing fantastic things. If they are in a world where many 
things or everything works the way it does in real life, doing fantastic
things or seeing fantastic things is more exciting.

As another supporting argument, I said that worlds with no basis in reality
are often rife with gaping holes -- ``Why does this party exist?'' ``Where
does this kingdom get its revenue?'' ``How can artificial gravity work?''
and so on.

Pardon me if I didn't disclaim that my comments were not intended to be
taken as potential ``universal truths.'' As I said, my posts indicated
that personal preference is key, but in general reality is better. 
 
>> So, why not just plant yourself in a real world setting (i.e. T:2000, Recon,
>> GURPS High Tech, Top Secret, etc.)?
> 
> Real world setting?  Top Secret???  If you think that a "James Bond" setting is
> a real world setting, you're sadly deluded.

This too, has already been brought up and put to bed. If you think that I think
that Top Secret is consistant with real life, YOU are sadly deluded. In every 
game there is going to be a measure of unreality, playability sometimes 
depends on it (the guy who mentioned the T:2000 shotgun and I already hashed
this one, I thought). What I am saying is that games like Top Secret are set 
here on terra firma, rather than Greysteel, Treestone or X'Zqqqvk'xZ'k. 

Okay,
--                                            __  __   ______   __  __ 
Chadd  L. VanZanten SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU     +   /\ \/\ \ /\  ___\ /\ \/\ \
``There  is water  at the  bottom of     +   \ \ \_\ \\ \___  \\ \ \_\ \ 
the ocean.''                             +    \ \_____\\/\_____\\ \_____\
    --David Byrne, Once in a Lifetime    +     \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_____/ 

***Now THAT's a universal truth, and I hope no supporting evidence is needed.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cpbeaure@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Chris Beauregard)
Subject: Re: SRUN: New Matrix Programs-
Keywords: Shadowrun, SR, SRUN, SHADOWRUN
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:24:59 GMT

In article <54884@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> warmongr@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Krishgan) writes:
>   Smokescreen I       Sensor Program          MP = <Rating^2> X 2
>   Smokescreen II      Sensor Program         MP = <Rating^2> X 3
>   Smoke Filter I      Utilities Program     MP = <Rating^2> X 4
>   Compressor IV       Utilities Program     MP = <Rating^2> X 5

Keith, don't you have any icons for these things?

I can see the one for Smoke Filter - An industrial strength vacuum
cleaner...


Chris Beauregard                                cpbeaure@cayley.waterloo.edu
Differently Expressed:  The politically correct term for politically
correct people.
From: Elizabeth.Mccoy@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Elizabeth Mccoy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: VOTE FOR ME  ;)
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:47:34 GMT
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service

In article <loydb.07ti@fnordbox.UUCP> loydb@fnordbox.UUCP (Loyd Blankenship) writes:
>
>Fiendish minion? Minion???? Ack. The place would crumble into dust and blow
>away were I to leave. If we were fast enough with the stake, Steve would
>go with it...

Now, now, Loyd, you know that Evil Stevie the Librarian *isn't* undead.
He's undoubtedly taken The Treatment, of course, but I'm quite sure he's
not undead yet.  THE Computer says so.

--Archangel Beth, ArchDean of IOU.
O;>
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: rivers@mdnitemdnite.enet.dec.com (Kim Rivers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Magic in HERO games
Date: 31 Jul 92 18:36:06 GMT
Reply-To: nm%%decwrl::'%s"
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation



The way I do it in my admittedly high powered 'multigenre' campaign is to allow
the mages to buy their powers in a multipower pool, created from the powers in
the HERO book (as opposed to using spells from the FANTASY HERO book).  The
pool has an automatic Gestures and Incantations limitation, as well as an
OAFocus.  That made it relatively cheap for the mages to stack on powers.  We
have one whose more specialized, with a few good spells, and one who's must
broader in scope.
                        

It's a fairly simplistic method, granted, but easy to maintain and with a few
rules to make things 'worth' the limitations.  It's not something I'd use in a
world not created for this particular campaign, unless that world operated
under laws pretty close to this world.  

But you asked.  :)


cheers,

kim

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+  Remember, no matter where you go, I'm not with you.          +
+                                                               +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Genres
Date: 22 Jul 92 17:43:55 GMT
	<1992Jul21.091958.89468@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
	<1992Jul21.191903.25278@burrhus.harvard.edu>
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA


The easiest fix for battletech is to reduce the size of mechs to human
sized.  Then it more battlesuit stuff but given the mobility,
survivability and firepower they make sense to field.  As it stands
Battletech and mechs in general make no sense at all.

nigel

--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: juola@bruno.cs.colorado.edu (Patrick Juola)
Subject: Re: Throw away your greatsword! ( Big vs. Small Weapons )
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 16:01:11 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.151411.10827@rchland.ibm.com> BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com writes:
>I don't think that greatswords need 5-7 feet of clear space around them.
>The only description I have seen of one in use (not in a fantasy book)
>said that it was held in front and moved in a circular pattern.  That
>shouldn't require much more room than any other sword.
>
>In an SCA combat or two I have seen this is also pretty much what was done.
>The old crank-it-back-over-your-head-touching-the-ground-and-cleave-em
>swing is probably pure fiction as it is such a slow blow that a foe could
>walk away by the time it was done.  Of course if the foe was subdued or busy
>fending off someone else and you DID manange to hit...

SCA fighting isn't a good example; they have the infamous 90 degree rule
(no swing can be through more than 90 degrees), exactly to prevent this
sort of blow, since no armor that people would be willing to wear can
stand up to this sort of punishment.  (The same rules applies to pole
arms, btw.)

Most of the time, in a 1 on 1 combat, a greatsword fighter will try to keep
his weapon in front of her (between her and the opponent).  In any sort
of a melee, however, since you can't assume that you're only fighting one
person, you need to keep the entire area around you relatively clear....

	- kitten