HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mjung@math.TU-Berlin.DE (Michael Jung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: PCs from differing cultures
Date: 27 Jan 93 17:45:09
Organization: FB3, TU-Berlin, Germany.
NNTP-Posting-Host: laplace.math.tu-berlin.de
In-reply-to: leifmk@Lise.Unit.NO's message of Wed, 27 Jan 93 13:57:27 GMT


How do you handle PCs having their roots in different cultures? Since culture
influences, if not determines the point of view of people, things are viewed
very different. On the other hand, all players are in the same room, whenever I
describe a situation. As an example, the player characters enter a town. To some I would
want to say: "You have entered a town with narrow streets, appearing to close
in on you. The people are seemingly under a spell of restlessness." and the others
I would like to hear: "Fancy artwork decorates the many alleys of this town.
While you stroll around leisurely, the citizens are doing their work." Another example
may be on the plains: "You feel the wind play with you hair, as you breath in
the cool air. Your sight is hindered neither by tree nor bush, only grass
grows here." in contrast to "This dull plain is flat."
To me this problem seems unsolvable, unless I restrain myself to communicating
only in writing with my players. Any ideas?

	Michael


















































   Right.  Here we are, then.

   The scenario included concerns the hunt for a vanished WWII German submarine
   (still on the bottom of the sea off Norway after 150 years or so) which was
   carrying an ancient Christian relic.  Namely, the spear with which a certain
   Roman legionnaire pierced you-know-who's flesh while you-know-who was hanging
   you-know-where.  This is not a problem in and of itself; I can easily imagine
   that several groups and individuals of the suitable religious bent would want
   to acquire such a relic, whether it was a "real" relic or just a convincing 
   fake - as long as the people who want it think it is "real", it doesn't really
   matter if it is, now does it?

   The problem is that, in this scenario, the spear IS real; it DOES have miraculous
   healing powers, and the legionnaire in question, who according to legend was
   cursed by you-know-who to "remain a soldier until I return" (or words to that
   effect) is STILL around, after more than 2000 years.  AND he turns up in the 
   scenario, with the most abnormal combat stats I've ever seen in any game
   (with the possible exception of some AD&D deities, and of course a number of
   CoC, uh, things) - two millennia of experience and practice, you know. . . .

   I really don't think this suits a supposedly hard-CP campaign very well.  The
   scenario can probably be modified so as not to include this guy (hmm. . . . what
   about a mental patient who THINKS he's a 2000-year-old Roman legionnaire?),
   but I still don't like it very much.

   The sourcebook itself, though, does seem to be quite good.

   -Leif Kj|nn|y
From: mrogers@MtHolyoke.edu (Mary Rogers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Call of Cthulhu Mailing List?
Date: 27 Jan 1993 07:15:16 -0500
Organization: Mount Holyoke College
NNTP-Posting-Host: slab.mtholyoke.edu
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Shannon D. Appel (appel@soda.Berkeley.EDU) wrote:
> Can anyone tell me if the Call of Cthulhu mailing list still exists?
> I was looking into it yesterday, as per the FAQs, and the entire
> machine seems to be gone...
> 
> Shannon

Im curious as well regarding the mailing list for Call of Cthulhu.
Any news would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Sean Rogers

E-mail:mrogers@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: River of Cradles (Possible Spoilers)
Date: 25 Jan 1993 13:55:33 -0500
Organization: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
NNTP-Posting-Host: beethoven.cs.unc.edu

In article <1993Jan25.092857.1@wharton.upenn.edu> millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
>I'm also surprised that the Arroyan healer in the book would have a
>quarterstaff attack at all. I thought they were prevented by geasa from
>using weapons to attack anything.

Nope. They are merely prevented from training in combat skills other than
dodge.  My Chalana Arroy ran around for years with a blunt shortsword, and
once hit a gorp with a torch.

Andrew Bell
bell@cs.unc.edu
From: CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CX6L000)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Burn, GURPS, BURN!
Date: 22 Jan 93 21:15:11 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <1jpit3INNeo4@titan.ucs.umass.edu> dunkelza@titan.ucs.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC) writes:
>In article <C19q8p.299@rice.edu> adam@owlnet.rice.edu (Adam Justin Thornton) writes:
>>You can't create Arnie with 100 points.  Neither can you create Conan.  What's
>>your point?  The man is _clearly_ not a 100-point character; however, you could
>>probably create a pretty decent Schwarzenegger on, say 250 points.  Is there
>>a problem?
>   Yeah, but what point value does modern earth tend to have?  Does everyone
>on modern earth have 250 points to play with?  RIGHT.......

No -- and the previous poster didn't say they did. Arnie is 250
points. QEII, with all her Wealth, Status and such, probably is
as well. Average cop is about 100, average Green Beret about 300.
I'm, maybe 50, tops. My martial-artist friends are more like 75.
So: where's the point? You have a major misconception here: GURPS
does not say that *every* character in a campaign world has an
equal number of points: it just says that every starting PC in
the campaign begins at an equal number of points.
     This is to balance PC against PC, so no one feels hard done
by or ripped-off. If the major villains are all worth 3 times as
much, while the "hired help" NPCS are all 5 point dolts, that's
just the reality that's being portrayed. "Balance" always means
"balance between characters". If you included all the NPCS, then
you'd have a rather boring game on your hands!
-Kromm

_______________________________________________________________________
|    "It's true! When you load    |   This reality has experienced    |
|     WordPerfect into memory     |          . . . failure.           |
|     backwards, you see a GIF    |      Please try again later.      |
|      of the face of Satan!"     |___________________________________|
|               -=-               |Dr Manfred Kromm can be reached at:|
|     -Secrets of the Masons-     |-----> CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA <-----|
|               -=-               |McGill University, Montreal, Canada|
|_________________________________|___________________________________|
From: mchoo@trident.usacs.rutgers.edu (Myong Choo)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: GM's observations
Date: 28 Jan 93 20:17:30 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Hi all!  I thought that I would share something I noticed about
my PCs.

They always act differently, depending on whether they make or
failed (atleast when they think they failed) to make a roll.

Like when someone does a Perception roll (I'm playing
Fantasy Hero btw), depending on if makes or not they other
players does something different.

Take this case as an example.  One of the players tried to
follow some tracks.  So he rolled for his tracking and failed.
Well, I decided to let him follow the right trail anyway.  It
lead to a large river.  Well, the player knowing that he didn't
make his roll, quickly turned around and went back to the
original site.  Where he tried again.  He failed again.  So I
lead him to a different place this time.  Again, he just turned
around.

Now going to the river was the right right thing to do (they
people he was tracking had a boat there and sailed down the
river), but since he failed his roll, be assumed it was the
wrong place.

I know that if he had made his roll and ended up at the river,
he would have tried looking around more and such.

That seems to be the problem, separating the mechanics of the
game from how the players decided to do things.

One solution would be for me to make those rolls and just 
give out the results, but that a lot more book keeping for
me.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

-Myong


-- 
Myong Choo                          | snail mail:
email: mchoo@gum.rutgers.edu        | BPO 20382  PO BOX 1119
 or ar328@cleveland.freenet.edu     | Piscataway, NJ 08855-1119
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:11419 rec.games.frp.advocacy:3774
From: dunkelza@titan.ucs.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Random Rolls
Date: 22 Jan 1993 18:08:18 -0500
Organization: The Church of Role-Playing
NNTP-Posting-Host: titan.ucs.umass.edu

In article <C1A0us.BFo@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) writes:

>YES!  O, thou sinner!  Thou hast profaned the TEMPLE OF THE ONE TRUE GAMING
>WAY.  Thou hast durst to admit that thou playest the GAMES OF ROLE-PLAYING for
>mere hedonism, that thou durst have FUN in the presence of the HOLY GAMES!

>But worse than this, o vile fecal-spawn, thou has stated that thy only purpose
>in playing the GAME OF ROLE-PLAYING is to pollute them with thy monstrous,
>perverse, hedonism.

>Aye, and knowest thou not the ONE TRUE GAMING WAY is to perform naught but
>that holiest of holys !!!!!!!!!!!!ROLE PLAYING!!!!!!!!!!  Aye, it is only
>!!!!!!!!!!ROLE PLAYING!!!!!!!!!! for which these holy GAMES are worthy.

>Thou coprapedum!  Thou filium canis!  Thou shalt be cast into the FIERY PIT
>for eternity for thy unforgivable sin!

>Tell him the HOLY TRUTH about !!!!!!!!!!ROLE PLAYING!!!!!!!!!!, o Brother,
>AMEN!  AMEN!  AMEN!

>Oh, thou preachest so TRUE, o Brother!  Tell him the SINS of his EVIL
>HEDONISM!!!!  Teach him of the TRUTH of !!!!!!!!!!ROLE PLAYING!!!!!!!!!! 

   Who art thou who spreadest nonsense as if it were from mine mouth?
Thou must surely do penance for profaning my holy name.



Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: an3949@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Fairie references...
Organization: Anonymous contact service
X-Anonymously-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 00:06:24 GMT


[ I'm using anon b/c I'm having trouble posting on this lousy
machine... ]

I can't find the post of the person who asked for Fairie references.
Anyway, another book to consider would be:-

An encyclopedia of fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and other
nature creatures, by Katherine Mary Briggs.

GR549.B74, ISBN 0-394-40918-3.

The 1st American Ed was by Pantheon Books c.176. Original title was
A Dictionary of Fairies.

It is a pretty good collection, and worth checking out.

Chua
+==+

Email: chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.
Due to the double-blind system, any replies to this message will be anonymized,
and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: osterbar@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Andrew Robert Osterburg)
Subject: Re: Killing attacks as pseudo-NND's
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 15:45:06 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.095019.267@gems.vcu.edu> porterg@gems.vcu.edu writes:
>Actually, A killing attack that does no BODY makes a cheap "NND", provided the
>"defense" is "resistant defense".  After all, you do STUN that is only stopped
>by resistant defense, *not* the inherent PD or ED of the target.  In a number
>of campaigns, this could be a useful attack, provided you can come up with
>some rationalization for its existence.
>
>2d6RKA - 30 points
>Does no BODY (at least a +1/2 limitation)
>total cost = 20 points, average STUN done per hit = 17.5
>
>2d6EB = 10 points
>NND (+1 advantage)
>total cost = 20 points, average STUN done per hit = 7
>
>Think about it.
>
>Greg Porter
>BTRC
>

	Yea, but resistant defenses are pretty common.  If the character
has any then the 2d6RKA no body is virtually useless.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jszeder@napier.uwaterloo.ca (John Szeder)
Subject: GURPS: Advice needed for sci-fi campaign
Keywords: supplements
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 18:46:52 GMT

Yea yea.. I noticed all you yak-shavers posting your cutesy *I hate GURPS* crap
but, I am willing to give it a shot: I want to play a sci-fi campaign with 
a bunch of alien races (I already have GURPS BASIC and GURPS UPLIFT) and I 
would like to know what supplements will enhance my campaign.. GURPS SPACE is
a definite from what I've heard, but are there any other supplements worth
mentioning? 

Responses by e-mail would be preferred.

On the side: Anyone ever put any time into MegaTraveller?? Isn't this just the
most non-intuitive system ever built?

-- 
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|A little man with a big eraser,  |Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh          |
|John Szeder                      |wagn'nagl fhtagn                           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|Amiga enthusiast, Role-Player, Metal Head, Beer Drinker, Cartoon Freak       |
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From: appel@soda.Berkeley.EDU (Shannon D. Appel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Call of Cthulhu Mailing List?
Date: 26 Jan 93 13:49:33
Organization: csua
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

Can anyone tell me if the Call of Cthulhu mailing list still exists?
I was looking into it yesterday, as per the FAQs, and the entire
machine seems to be gone...

Shannon
From: pmenard@cse.unl.edu (Patrick Menard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII: Cyberware Optional Rules
Date: 22 Jan 1993 03:18:59 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cse.unl.edu
Keywords: cyberware

tmont@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Todd Montgomery) writes:

>To all you SRII people out there,

>A little while ago I posted some rules about Cyberware Brand Names for
>SRII. Due to the great response I am  pleased to announce  that I have
>just posted an updated  version which  also  has some great  cyberware
>packages, some rules for warranties and  cyberware insurance, and some
>new  kinds of  cyberware.   I posted this   littel 807  line  jewel to
>rec.games.frp.archives.   If anyone would  like to  take  a look at it
>feel free. ANY comments are appreciated.

>-- Quiktek
>tmont@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu

ok, I've a few questions(suggestions)....

Each brand has a Maintainance section with the cost and # of months between
payments? or is that the # of months between check-ups?

Does the Sam still have to pay monthly if the maintainance is 2 or 3.(bi-
monthly and quarterly)?
 
Can the Sam use electronics skill and maintain himself.(say, divide normal
maintainance cost by # of successes against a target number of 6 - essence)

If a Sam can maintain himself, maybe different brands are easier/harder to
maintain.

Shadow
From: dunkelza@titan.ucs.umass.edu (KEITH C MCCORMIC)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Burn, GURPS, BURN!
Date: 22 Jan 1993 17:56:18 -0500
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
NNTP-Posting-Host: titan.ucs.umass.edu

In article <C19yv4.I0D@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga) writes:

>The point here is that not all people are created equal. GURPS (HERO also)
>never made that claim. They don't try to make *all* people equal, they 
>try to make all the people in your group equal. If you can't play without
>some random roll making you tougher, stronger, and better looking than 
>the other people in your group without their getting some compensation in
>terms of skills/contacts/MartianBlenders/etc., well....

  Actually, it's quite alot of fun when the other PCs are more powerful,
stronger, etc. than my character.  

Dunkelzahn
From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Help with finding a game system
Date: 21 Jan 1993 23:43:03 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com

In article <C12o4A.9pA@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga) writes:
>terrence@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Terrence M O'Brien) writes:
>
>
>>	I'm interested in finding a game system in which a can base a campaign
>>off of the JADEMAN comic series. JADEMAN are martial arts comics in which the
>>characters have super abilities ( styles include the ability to throw punches 
>>at distance, have poisonous attacks, heal others with chi). The only idea I
>>have so far is one of the point based supers systems Champions or GURPS Supers
>>but neither really have the fullness to the combat system for running a Martial
>>Arts campaign (to my mind). If any one has any ideas on how to run such a camp-
>>aign I'd much appreciate it.

Those are the two systems I would suggest.  With Champions, you would rally
want Ninja Hero, and with GURPS Supers you would want Martial Arts.  Those
suppliments add a nice richness to combat.

I've been playing a GURPS martial artist (in a fantasy campaign) and it
really is nice to be able to use all sorts of maneuvers and combinations,
in addition to the usual skill rolls.  I now use those maneuvers and
combinations in my fantasy campaign, even for non-martial artists, since I
think that they make combat more interesting, though I reserve the really
"cinematic" stuff to martial artists.  Combinations are amazingly
effective...


-- 
- Laird Popkin, Thinking Machines

Connection Machine: Massively parallel supercomputer.  Also a cool black
cube with more blinking lights than you can shake a stick at.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: samik@maths.tcd.ie (Samik Sen)
Subject: rolemaster
Summary: RM,some thoughts
Keywords: RM
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 08:37:14 GMT

 Reading the discussion on power points for rolemaster i thought i'd go off in
a tangent.Combat!
 
 Rules modifications i am currently play testing:

1.If a player gets an E crit he gets to attack again,up to a maximum of his
 + in combat/level attacks around.e.g.A fighter could get 3 attacks like this.
 The first attack extra attack for a fighter would be at -30,the next at -70.
 For +2's -50 for there second attack.This gives fighters a major advantage.

2.For every 3 above 150 you add 1 to your crit role.i.e.Get 210 and you get
 a +20E.

 These were inspired by the movies etc where the hero wades through the bad guys.Seen princess bride,the spaniard gets the three guards in a few seconds.Conan
the barbarian,slashes thru people.In general they are not applicable.The actual
numbers are not that important..i.e.If you think the first etc. attack at -30 is
too good try -50 or whatever.If you think every 3 above is too good try 4,above
5 is neglible in all situations not including black reavers.

 Finally help on system required.You have characters in jail,the players want to
bend the bars.How do you handle this.Can a hobbit with a strength of 22 roll
three open enders and break them...do you just decide no you can't try or what.
I can't help feel that the shadow run system would handle this with ease.say
difuculty of 5,4 successes required or something.

Samik.


P.S.A new one which i haven't tried yet...ob multipliers.imagine excalibur(sword
 of kings)in RM is +50 holy but say it was X1.5 then arthur who should have say
 +140 would have a +210OB.
P.P.S.Magic is my main element in RM it was just after suggestions about help
 for non-magic users that these were brought about.
From: lward@husc11.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII: questions (yet again)
Date: 25 Jan 93 19:52:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc.lward.727991547

gray@visix.com (Gray Jones) writes:
>If a mage has an elemental sustaining a spell, what happens if
>he/she astrally projects?  I assume the elemental continues to 
>sustain the spell, but are the effects stuck with the character's
>body or do they accompany him on the astral plane (particularly 
>increase reflexes and combat sense spells)?

The spell stays in effect.  However, since astral reaction is not normal
reaction, such a spell does not help.  There is no way to boost astral
reaction with spells are reaction enhancing cyberware.  As for sense
spells, normal senses are meaningless on the astral, so it wouldn't
make much difference.

>Do cyber-mages get cyberware benefits on the astral plane?
>I am inclined to say yes.  

No.  Cyberware almost never effects anything.  The only cyber I can think
of is cerebral boosting.  Assume it doesn't work unless specifically stated.

>The description for encephalon in Shadow Tech says that it helps
>magic.  How?  Can the task pool dice be added to the sorcery skill?
>Does the intelligence bonus carry on to the astral plane?

The latter, not the former.  This is another peice of cyber that helps astrally.

Wordman
From: jeff@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Jeff Freymueller)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: River of Cradles (Possible Spoilers)
Date: 25 Jan 93 21:28:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: morrow.1k1m17INN6ib
Organization: Stanford Univ. Earth Sciences
NNTP-Posting-Host: pangea.stanford.edu

In article <cluther.727985424@morticia> cluther@morticia.cnns.unt.edu (Clay Luther) writes:
>millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
>
>>It's true. The RQ3 rules for generating new characters are seriously
>>bogus. They underpower the characters in a big way for the adventures
>>that are usually available. If you use the RQ4 playtest rules it isn't
>>quite so bad, or you can say the characters have 10-15 years of RQ3
>>experience but are still age 21 (it's a fudge, but it works).
>
>Well, I don't think he was complaining about his character's power level, 
>or the RQ3 method of generating characters.
>
>He was complaining that the author of the characters in the book had a 
>seriously bogus idea of the skills and resources available to a 21 year old
>*beginning* character.  I don't think a beginning character should have 6
>gifts from previous resurrections in addition to 8 points divine magic *and*
>a POW of 16, not to mention various bound spirits and magic items.
>
Agreed up to here.

>In other words, the author of the pre-generated characters showed a definite
>lack of regard for "game realism" and a tendancy towards Monty Haulism that
>could just put one of the game. ;)
>
>Beginning characters should look like beginning characters, not experienced
>40 year olds.

I looked at the characters last night, and only the Chalana Arroy character
struck me as being overly experienced. The others looked fine, although I
didn't study them in detail. After playtesting, they may have decided they
needed to "beef up" the Chalana Arroy healer, but they should have also
increased her age.

Jeff
From: sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Stelter)
Subject: Re: Star Wars RPG: multiple strength rolls on multiple attacks?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:30:17 GMT
Keywords: Star Wars RPG 2nd edition

achernar@aix00.csd.unsw.OZ.AU (Brono Gatea) writes:

>Well, for Christmas, my gaming group got together to bye the Star Wars RPG,
>2nd edition (we had never played Star Wars before, not even 1st ed.) and I
>have been put in charge of GMing the first games...
>There is however a point which is not made clear in the rules: when a PC
>receives damage from several attacks in one round, does he roll ONE strength
>roll to resist the sum of the damage of the multiple attacks, or does he
>roll one strength roll per attack?

One strength roll per attack.


                            --Steve Stelter
                              sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc