HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: fierkelab@bchm.biochem.duke.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Will pay $$ for fantasy art
Date: 14 Dec 92 23:04:34 GMT
Organization: Biochemistry

In article <11399@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> mav@cs.uq.oz.au (Simon Dennis) writes:
>
>
>		Looking for Original Fantasy Art
>
>Lore is a computer aided fantasy roleplaying system which we intend to
>distribute as shareware starting February next year. <


>
>
>--
>Simon Dennis                  Address: Department of Computer Science
>Email: mav@cs.uq.oz.au                 University of Queensland
>                                       QLD 4072
>                                       Australia
>

Just out of curiosity, what computer system(s) will this be available for?

Please say Mac!  Please say Mac!  Please say Mac!  (cause it sounds like it
could be neat!)

Eric Roush			Deck us all with Boston Charlie
fierkelab@			Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo!
bchm.biochem.duke.edu	Nora's freezin' on the Trolley,
				Swaller Dollar Cauliflower Alla-ga-Roo!

				Walt Kelley
From: kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bryan Kennedy Reed)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII questionsclo
Date: 14 Dec 92 16:45:01 CST
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <RATINOX.92Dec14120145@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu>, ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri) writes:
>>>>>> On Mon, 14 Dec 1992 11:16:10 GMT, jpmunday@bmdhh336.bnr.ca
>>>>>> (Jonathan Munday) said:
> 
> Jonathan>   A quick couple of questions,
> 
> Jonathan> 	a) Is the choke on a shotgun set once when the gun is
> Jonathan> made or is it variable? (And if it is variable, how long
> Jonathan> does it take to change it ?)
> 
> A shotgun choke is an add-on to the muzzle. A shotgun doesn't *need* a
> choke, and without one you get the normal scatter pattern. The choke
> works much like the focus of a camera: you turn it and it "chokes" the
> effective muzzle diameter. This takes but a moment (simple action) to
> adjust. The result is that by reducing the muzzle diameter you reduce
> the spread area and do more damage.
>

Now if you have a Smartlink, you can have you choke modified for
Cybernetic adjustment.  That makes it a free action.  Shotguns are
great for taking down large groups of people.  Not that lethal (you
have to hit them a few times.)

Most chokes in the 1990's are of the screw in variety, which take a
minute to change, but if they can build a choke that can be changed
cyberneticaly, I don't see  too much problem with having a "dial a
choke" on you shotgun.  Changing it would be akin to changing the rate
of fire.
 
> Jonathan> 	b) In a couple of the novels there are instances of
> Jonathan> people using ritual magic to LOCATE a person through an
> Jonathan> object containing a peice of their DNA, but I can't find any
> Jonathan> rules for this in the game (there are only rules for sending
> Jonathan> a spell at a remote target). Am I just looking at the wrong
> Jonathan> page or are there rules for this?
> 
> It's a ritual combined with Astral Travel. The DNA creates an Astral
> link to the person, and this link is followed. Not easy, but not all
> that difficulty, either.
>
Well, if you have the spell "Locate Person" you don't need astral
travel.  Since you have the DNA link, you just need to cast the spell
and it will find the person (if sucesfull.)  Just make sure that you
have lots of protection while you cast, both astral and physical.
You're pretty much a sitting duck while using ritual sorcery.
 
-- 
		
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Invincibility depends on one's self;	   kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
  The enemy's vulnerability on him.	    bkreed@oread.cc.ukans.edu
 		  --Sun Tzu 		      Bryan Kennedy Reed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Subject: Re: sci-fi game
Keywords: sci-fi game
Organization: Generic American College Kids (G.A.C.K.)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 02:48:56 GMT
Reply-To: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
X-Posted-From: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:
>slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser") (that's me) writes:
>>
>>Myself, I use a full three-D "dogfight" system.
>
>I like the 2300AD system, it *is* 2D [but how can you play 3-D on a tabletop?]

It's real simple.  You use tokens with numbers on them, hijacked from your
least favorite wargame or made by hand, to indicate "altitude" above or below
the plane of the table.

>but it is a lot like submarine warfare - you have an idea where your opponent
>is located, the whole purpose is to jocky around to get a sensor lock on
>the enemy and keep it long enough to let off a few salvos.  It is fairly 
>simple, quick, and exciting (And i usually HATE wargames of any kind).

Simple? Quick? Exciting? Are you *sure* we're talking about the same game
here?

I bought that pig-dog of a system and tried to run a quick battle.  It took me
half an hour to figure out how to set up, and during the first three hours of
play, neither I nor my opponent managed to disable a single ship.  At that
point, we gave up.

Seth L. Blumberg          \ Warning: This posting has been determined to cause
slb22@columbia.edu (play)   \ cancer in laboratory animals.  Please make sure
sethb@ctr.columbia.edu (work) \ that no white mice are allowed to read it.  
    > No one I know shares my opinions, least of all Columbia University. <
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: pfloyd@titan.ucc.umass.edu (BlackWing Restorations, Ltd.)
Subject: Re: STAR FRONTIERS:does anyone remember it??
Keywords: STAR FRONTIERS
Organization: Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 20:20:32 GMT



Personally, I've played Star Frontiers maybe a dozen times since its
release... 

I can honestly say that I like the system, even though it has a few
faults... 


the last time I played it was about a year or so ago, and it was a
very good campaign idea, using the PCs as a group of trouble
consultants (Dirty Pair fans). The skill system and character
generation was halfway decent, using a combo of the old game and Zeb's
Guide... I had also (even though I was a PC) created some new
'slugthrowers' for the game, using current arms and updating them
quite a bit...


pf


-------------===========**********===========-------------
	       BlackWing Restorations, Ltd.
            Investigations, Personal Security
               and Restorations a specialty

     Can be reached via the following Internet address:
		pfloyd@titan.ucc.umass.edu

No case to easy, no fee too large, no ammunition expenditure
too gratuitous. no body count too high... call now for an
inexpensive consultation.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: RQ - Combat System Modification
Keywords: RQ Rules Changes
Organization: Purdue University
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 02:02:54 GMT

In article <BzDEIq.LLq.1@cs.cmu.edu> hcs+@cs.cmu.edu (Henry C Schmitt) writes:
>In article <BzBzn0.1nF@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) writes:
>>My only requests for any RQ combat system modifications:
>>Go for "realism" over "balance".  (Note that I put quotes around each.)
>>
>	I'll raise my voice here for just the opposite, balance is FAR
>more important than realism.  This doesn't mean that we should avoid
>realism altogether.  Here's an example.
>
>	Now I admit that realism adds to the fun, UP TO A POINT.  I
>agree that the RQ rules are more realistic than D&D which is why I
>like it better.  But first look at the amount of realism added (in the
>original posting, very little) vs. the work needed to be done
>(constantly refiguring when you can attack, modifying your attack and
>parry abilities several times per round).  I would have to say that
>the realism gained isn't worth the extra paperwork.
>



Uh, you COMPLETELY missed my point.





I called for realism over BALANCE not "realism" over simplicity.




Do you understand what I mean?  I mean that, if a given possible combat
rule/system could be written to favor a realistic outcome (virtually anyone
can learn to use a sword) vs. a "balanced" outcome (those who are good
at magic are forbidden from learning to use swords), then go for the "realistic
outcome. 

Admittedly, anyone can come up with a good bullshit "explanation" as to why
those good at magic are "incapable" of using swords--the example I used
was just an EXAMPLE, not the crux of my argument.  The main point is that
rules can be inserted in order to enforce some sort of "power balance" or
they can be used to more strongly reflect a certain metaphor.  I prefer the
latter by a landslide.


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: ath@LNS62.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Aron Helser)
Subject: Re: clo=DECKER FROM HELL
Nntp-Posting-User: ath2@cornell.edu
Reply-To: ATH@cesr10.tn.cornell.edu
Organization: Wilson Lab, Cornell U., Ithaca, NY, 14853
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:37:31 GMT


In article <1992Dec13.222200.21062@colorado.edu>, juola@bruno.cs.colorado.edu (Patrick Juola) writes:
>In article <1992Dec13.190150.18622@news2.cis.umn.edu> esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Dave Sherohman) writes:
>>>Actually all programs in your active memory are considered to be
>>>running.  Think of storage as a harddrive, and active memory as RAM. 
>>>Again those programs are then linked to the MPCP so that they can
>>>interact with the system.
>>
>>Bzzt... Thanks for playing!  I can put programs in RAM without running them.
Exactly! 
[Stuff deleted]
>
>After all, there's probably lots of programs running around in the system.
>It would really suck to unsuspend the Attack program and have it target the
>check-printing program while the Black Ice is sucking your brain out your
>ears.
>	- kitten
I think all of you are forgetting (putting reality aside for a moment) that in
SRII you must make an exectution test for a program in each node before you can
use it.  Even if Attack is in your active memory, when you walk up to that new
node, you must make a roll (system operation, I think) to see if you can run
the program in this new node.  If it doesn't run, you are screwed.  But, 
therefore, the program is _not_ running along with the MPCP frame/construct
thingy.  
     Of course, this is according to the official rules, which I think need
major re-working.  We have already thrown out this execution test in our group,
explanations to follow.  
Aron 		ath@cesr10.tn.cornell.edu

	"There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave
	in a vacuum."  -- Arthur C. Clarke
From: adair@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jonathan Edward Adair)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Paranoia Schtick
Date: 14 Dec 1992 20:19:31 GMT
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu

In article <1992Dec8.232231.23591@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley ) writes:
>
>3. Screw 'em.  The "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues" (a great
>module by the way), had an idea that is so cool I've used it in
>almost all of my games in one way or another.  Deliver your
>briefing message with a styrofoam cup jammed in your mouth.
>Now they have NO clue what to do.  Have two extraordinarily high-
>
>4. Smile.  Make sure they are ALL smiling.  Always.
>

I think it's in Acute Paranoia, but I've had success with this
idea:  Make the players do some live-action stuff.  Acute Paranoia
tells you to make the players do some calesthenitcs like jumping jacks,
etc.  If they're sluggish about it, or refuse, give them a wakey-wakey
pill (nearly random effect, of course).  

I have the players wear these cheap name badges with their clone's
name, colored in with their security clearance (and outlined in
yellow for registered mutants).  It sure adds to the game to
see players physically avoid the registered mutant(s) of the party.


--
Jonathan E. Adair  -  Programmer at Large                          /\
adair@gnu.ai.mit.edu             <-  Best choice                  /<>\
adair@eggo.csee.usf.edu          <-  Almost as good              /    \
adair@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu       <-  Works for now              /______\
adair@psycho.fidonet.org         <-  Read yearly             The Illuminati
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mason
Subject: Re: Shadowrun Question -- Auras and Spells
Organization: Rice University  
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 04:44:19 GMT

In article <Bz9vAE.I8I@rice.edu>
hyatt@owlnet.rice.edu (David Waterman Hyatt) writes:
 
>In article <1992Dec14.213349.1@vxdesy.desy.de> burke@vxdesy.desy.de writes:
>>> Now suppose that we accept the following explanation.  All things
>>> have auras, maybe limited ones that are hard to cast through.  Then
>>> how do you decide what constitutes a complete object?  Do auras
>>> mingle, i.e. items on a person's body are all intermingled with
>>> that person's aura, and thus don't need to roll when resistance tests
>>> are called for, say from a Power Ball?
>>
>>I think this depends on the spell caster - s/he can choose to individually
>>target items (if s/he can see them) or not.
>
>I disagree.  This implies that a mage can selectively target people
>as well, and we know that he or she cannot.
 
No.  This does not imply that people or objects can be excluded from
the spell's area of effect, only that the spell can be *centered* on
a particular subset of the target -- the wheel of a car, for example.
Options for selective targeting are really only relevant to combat
spells *without* area-effects.
 
Also, an object like a light bulb is a more distinct object than, say,
a person's head.  The first can be argued to have an independant aura,
but the second?
 
-- mason
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: durrell@pinball.arcade.uiowa.edu (Bryant Durrell)
Subject: Re: Anyone seen/played DarkUrthe Legends?
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 01:43:13 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa

In article <1992Dec11.223630.10094@rchland.ibm.com> BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com writes:
>This reminds me of a Pet Peeve of mine.  Why does everyone feel they just
>HAVE to come up with a half-baked new game system to go with their neat
>world idea?  There are a lot of good game systems out there adaptable to
>just about any world (perhaps with some customization).

Licensing fees?

-- 
Bryant Durrell					   durrell@chop.isca.uiowa.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 I feed on the flesh of the living, and I vote.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: vbaker@hamp.hampshire.edu
Subject: Re: Swashbuckling
Organization: Hampshire College
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 01:41:03 GMT

In article <Bz66nz.GA7@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:
> 
> Does anyone know of RPG games set in the 1492-1715 era?
 
Yay!  Time for a plug:

Mine is!

(Unfortunately, that probably won't help you for a year or two.  It's in
alpha playtesting now, and going well, but is a long way from done.)

If you're interested, feel free to email me at vbaker@hamp.hampshire.edu.
I probably won't be able to get back to you until the fist week in January
(consumermas break and all), but I'll be glad to swap ideas or whatever.

In any case, I'll keep you posted.

> I am starting to adapt Ars Magica to that era, but want to first see how
> others are doing it...
                                                                  
That could be cool.  As far as I know, your only options are Lace and Steel,
which is supposed to be magnificent but is difficult to come by (I haven't
ever seen it, m'self) and (shudder) GURPS Scarlet Pimpernel or Rolemaster
Swords and Swashbuklers (or some such nonsense).  

Mine is working titled Ballads, probable actual titled Madrigals, and is 
set in a loose analog to just-post-Elizibethan London.  (Ellen Kushner's
_Swordspoint_ was the book that finally gave me the push I needed; I
recommend it unreservedly.)  The story I'm using just now to playtest 
managed somehow to set itself later than that -- probably because of the
art history class I've just finished covering the period of the French
Revolution.  The big point of the game will be the _feel_ of the period,
based on but not restricted to specific historical accuracies; ideally,
it'll include a chapter discussing the historical timeline and the pros
and cons of various points along it, with a lot of freedom to 'import'
ideas you like from earlier or later in history.  (Want Neoclassicism to
have predated the French Revolution by two generations?  Sure.  Here's
what effect that might have had ...)

Anyway, sorry to toot my own horn, but there it is.

> Thanks in advance,

No problem.  

> brent
> 
> -- 
> +-------------------------+-----------------+---------------------------------+
> | Brent L. Irvine         | NE PER INGENIUM | The above personal opinions     |
> | irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu | MEUM SED DEI    | can be yours too for only $50!  |
> +-------------------------+-----------------+---------------------------------+

Vincent
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: thornley@milli.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley)
Subject: Re: Gurps
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 20:00:20 GMT

In article <Bz9y0p.KwG@nic.umass.edu> dunkelza@titan.ucc.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC) writes:
>
>   I figure, with all the GURPS articles that show up here, that a newsgroup:
>Rec.games.rpg.GURPS should be added.  This would cut down on traffic on Rec.
>games.frp.misc, and give GURPS players a place to discuss rules and stuff with
>other people who enjoy it, rather than them having to put up with all sorts of
>anti-GURPS comments and stuff.
>
Actually, the strongly GURPS traffic of late seems to be related to the GURPS
rules.  Would a group r.g.f.rules be satisfactory to you?  I will warn you
that this split was decided against before the big split, since Loren did
not see much support for it.

DHT


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: seurer@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Bill Seurer)
Subject: Re: Anyone seen/played DarkUrthe Legends?
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 22:36:30 GMT
Reply-To: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

In article <1992Dec11.142304.28191@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>, jjohnson@ccscola.Columbia.NCR.COM (Jeffrey H. Johnson) writes:
|> 
|> The strong point of this system is the world.  There is a good bit of
|> background on all the cultures of DarkUrthe.  The continent is small enough
|> to be dropped as-is into whatever game-world you use currently, or to
|> use as a small separate plane.  I suspect many of the sales of this book will
|> be to people who use their favorite rules with this background.  I myself
|> will fall into this category.

This reminds me of a Pet Peeve of mine.  Why does everyone feel they just
HAVE to come up with a half-baked new game system to go with their neat
world idea?  There are a lot of good game systems out there adaptable to
just about any world (perhaps with some customization).

I have playtested several RPGs at conventions that (thankfully) never saw 
the light of day.  Inevitably the "designers" told me that no game quite
fit their view of their world.  Indeed, most of them had quite interesting
worlds and garbage games.  From what I saw, GURPS, Hero, or even Ars Magica
would have made fine rule systems for them with suitable racial rules and
variant magic systems to match the world.

Oh well...
-- 

- Bill Seurer     Language and Compiler Development      IBM Rochester, MN
  Internet: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com    America On-Line: BillSeurer@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 21:29:42 -0500 
From: Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: clo=DECKER FROM HELL

In article <1992Dec13.190150.18622@news2.cis.umn.edu>
esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Da
ve Sherohman) writes:
>(I wrote):
>>Actually all programs in your active memory are considered to be
>>running.  Think of storage as a harddrive, and active memory as RAM. 
>>Again those programs are then linked to the MPCP so that they can
>>interact with the system.
>
>Bzzt... Thanks for playing!  I can put programs in RAM without running them.
>I'm sure you can too.  Perhaps by loading the program without executing it,
>perhaps by using a task-swiching system, perhaps by starting execution then
>putting the program on hold, perhaps by... you get the idea.  And besides, if
>your Attack program doesn't have any IC to whomp on, why waste the processor
>time having it do nothing?  Just suspend it, don't boot it out of memory...

Well you can make yourself a RAM disk and store your program, but you
still have to boot it up to run it don't you?  On most computers today,
which I think most of the Matrix stuff is based on, you can set up a RAM
disk and store the data, but you then have to boot the program wait for
it to start up, and then have it take up additional space as well.  Why
you're using you're Active memory to store things I don't know.  It's
pretty inefficient.  Any program that is running in any way in active
memory, even if suspended temporarily, still maintains its contact with
the rest of the system.  You can turn a program off and still have it
running.  You'd have to 'Quit' the program to have it stop entirely. 
Personally, I like to have my programs running when I need them...

Rob Brunskill
BTW, is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of the Matrix ideas are
based on the Machintosh OS?
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:10182 rec.games.frp.marketplace:1009 rec.collecting:9641 misc.writing:3957 rec.arts.sf.written:16485
From: camelsho@sportster.ksu.ksu.edu (   James A Seymour)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.marketplace,rec.collecting,misc.writing,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: WANTED: SciFi/SciFantasy
Date: 21 Dec 1992 00:59:56 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sportster.ksu.ksu.edu

Quoted material is from an earlier post of mine.

>I have two requests:
>
>I've been looking for a copy of National Lampoon's "
>"BORED OF THE RINGS" for quite some time now.  
>If you have a copy or know of a copy, please email me.
>This would include any copies that might be in your
>local used book store.  

I've got a copy located, so at this point, I would
only be interested if the book is in good, excellant, 
or mint condition.

>Second, I'm looking for books by CC McCapp (I hope I 
>spelled that right...my book is at home), the author
>of "WORLD(s) OF THE WALL"  I'm interested in anything
>this author might have written.  I've got two copies
>of the WALL book, but have never seen any other works
>by this author.  
>
>If you even know of any works, please email me.  If you
>happen to have some of this author's works and dont want
>them, please contact me as well.
>
That should have been C.C. MacAPP.  WORLDS OF THE WALL 
apparently appeared in "Fantastic" in a different form.
(copywrite 1964)  The first Avon printing was in Oct '69.

I have been contemplating basing a FRP game world on the
book, so I am especially wanting to know if there was
more written about the World of the Wall.

once more, thanks for any help,
james seymour/camel/camelsho@matt.ksu.ksu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc