HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kdmiller@athena.mit.edu (Kenneth D Miller)
Subject: Re: Weird Dice?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 20:53:27 GMT

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but WHY do people need d34's d60's and other
weird-sided dice?  I mean, I can't think of a circumstance offhand where the
larger dice would be useful.  Just asking.

NOTE: I *can* see a reason for d3, d5, d7, d9, and maybe d11.  In fact, a game
I was writing could have made use of them.

My favorite solution: 
'print INT(RND*N+1)' in basic
'printf("%d\n",(rand()%N)+1)' in C
or whatever works on your programmable calculator...
--
For a good time, email  | Ken Miller, sole member of Digital Horizons USA,
kdmiller@athena.mit.edu | future perpetrator of random bogosity like KMUS,
  //|       Accept No   | DoomStar, Destructor-X, Dreadnought, Captain K.'s
\X/~|MIGA!  Substitutes | Big Adventure, and The Demo With No Name.
From: gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Newbie System?
Date: 8 Oct 92 18:47:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: jade.1992Oct8.184701.2646
Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA
Originator: gharris@jade.tufts.edu

In article <1992Oct8.201425.11315@waikato.ac.nz> rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>
>Which system would you recommend to someone who had decided they wanted to
>try Role-Playing? The game should be suitable for whole groups of Newbies
>to learn on their own without the guidance of Role-Playing Gurus. What do
>you see as the dominant criteria for a Newbie RPG?
>
>My nomination goes to Star Wars. It uses d6, is simple, has a setting known
>to just about everyone, is easy to have fun with (droids are built in comic
>relief) and has the added advantage that any way-out results the are often 
>in keeping with the heroic setting anyway.

	I would second this nomination.  I've seen complete newbies all set 
and playing Star Wars in 15 minutes.  

>Robert 'Stumpy' Marsh | 95 Fairfield Rd | I can't reply to E-Mail, but 
>rmarsh@waikato.ac.nz  | Hamilton        | don't let that stop you sending.
--
gharris@jade.tufts.edu          "She had ever chance for happiness, ever 
George W. Harris                chance in the world, and stomped ever one 
Dept. of Mathematics            of them chances down in the dirt like a 
Tufts University                bug."   _The Devil's Dream_
From: phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Aeleck)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRUN: a question from the sprawl
Summary: when a skill has a concentration, what happens to it when the base is
 upped?
Keywords: skills SRUN Srun Shadowrun
Date: 14 Oct 92 00:32:54 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: A world of my creation, a world of imagination


Ok, here goes:

Say your character decides to up a particular skill by using the
rules for concentrations and specializations.

For instance:
 Firearms: 5
 -SMG's: 6

Now the character decides that he wants to up his base firearms skill.
What happens to the concentration?  Does it get upped by the same amount?
Does it get lost totally?  Does it get lost, but the uppage of the base skill
costs less?  Just what happens?

If there are rules for this in the books PLEASE, please, PLEASE! tell
me where they are.  

Thank you, Aeleck
                       /                  /  
                      /                  /        
     __      __      /   __      __     /         
    /  \    /  \    /   /  \    /  \   / \        "If you're not having
   /   /   /\__/   /   /\__/   /      /\_/         fun, you're doing some-
   \__/\__/\___/__/\__/\___/__/\___/ /   \__/      thing wrong." -Patrick
From: mbmst12+@pitt.edu (Michael B Mullig)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Rifts
Date: 10 Oct 92 21:04:32 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Subject: Re: Newbie System?
Reply-To: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 17:18:15 GMT

seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
[cc ROLE-playing]
>	This is different than being an actor in a play. The actor is not
>expected to do anything other than take a pre-existing character and
>add a few little quirks of interpretation, while taking that character to
>a predetermined destination. I have fun doing that too, but it's not 
>ROLEPLAYING. If it was, you'd never know how the play was going to turn out
>(which might be fun -- start out in Hamlet with the premade scenario and
>let people ROLEplay the characters. Maybe someone would actually survive...)

	Hmmm. This is all rather interesting. What you are suggesting here 
is precisely what you have been arguing would *not* be fun: role-playing 
pre-made characters. 

	I, too, think it could be quite fun and interesting to be handed 
the character of Hamlet and to role-play what *I* think he would do based 
on *my* interpretation of his personality. Even with scripted lines, I think 
actors often bring alot more to a character from themselves than what is 
written down. In the same way, a player brings alot of personality to a 
set of attributes and background that is a pre-made character. 

	One particularly enlightening experience has been role-playing in 
a series of tournaments year to year run by the same GM's. The scenarios 
always use the same set of characters, but it is always interesting watching 
what different people do with the same character. 

>
>	The essential point in all of them, though, is that the character
>was mine from the beginning. No matter how it was created, its creation
>is part of me. I WANT to play it. On the other hand, a premade character
>that gets handed to me just may not be what I'm in the mood for. 

	Clearly role-playing pre-made characters is a matter of opinion. 
Some people may not like it. However, this does not mean that other 
people cannot enjoy it, or that it is any less a ROLE-playing experience. 

	For several games I have run, I have designed pre-made characters 
with specific players in mind, and people have often liked it more than 
designing their own characters. It lets them get started quickly, and they 
are often intrigued by characters they would not have thought of - rather 
like being intrigued by an unexpected series of rolls. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kim                    | "Remember, a running man may slit a thousand
jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | throats in a single night."
Columbia University         |                    - Klingon proverb
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.arts.books
From: dzik@access.digex.com (Joseph Dzikiewicz)
Subject: Re: more about Sherlock Holmes
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 15:34:59 GMT

In article <6354@npri6.npri.com> murphy@npri6.npri.com (David P. Murphy) writes:
>
>
>>>Holmes was addicted to cocaine....
>>> 
>>>cm182s182@pdrome.UUCP (Clayton Miner)
>
>depends who you read.
>

I read Doyle.

>
>oh, for the sake of knowledge.  (1)  he was _not_ addicted if you restrict
>your intact to the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
>he used cocaine on one occasion because he was bored, but there is no mention
>of any "addictive" behavior and the drug is never mentioned again.  

Depends on your definition of addiction.  Cocaine was certainly 
mentioned in more than one of the stories.  The original mention was in
the novel "The Sign of the Four," which was, I believe, the second appearance
of Holmes in print.  It was mentioned at least once in a later story (from
after the Moriarty tale) in which Watson mentions that he has broken
Holmes from his addiction (my word, not Doyle's), but still dreads 
periods of inactivity in which Holmes might slip back into old habits.

It may be mentioned other places, but those are the ones that spring to 
mind.

(BTW, we have just had much of this conversation in "alt.fan.holmes." 
In it, I quoted the passage summarized above.)


>by the way, modern mystery fans will probably cringe when reading the original
>SH stories.  after years of clever detectives such as Nero Wolfe, Sherlock
>comes off as an amazingly lucky guesser who took blind stabs in the dark
>from patheticly simple clues.
>

Again, this has been dealt with in alt.fan.holmes.



Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu (Mary K. Kuhner)
Subject: Re: Newbies?  How about SRun Newbies?
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 01:16:43 GMT

I would say, not a decker or rigger (why force them into learning the
rather confusing Matrix or Vehicle rules on top of everything else), and
not a magician.  Physical Adepts are about as straightforward as
Samurai, though.  If the player is not into combat, a people/information
oriented character like a Detective or Fixer could be a good choice, as
long as the campaign provides opportunities for them to shine.

Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@genetics.washington.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mark@roger.JSC.NASA.GOV (Mark Manning/Metrica)
Subject: Re: Where is 'Net.Book.Riddles (2/7)' ????
Reply-To: mark@cheers.jsc.nasa.gov
Organization: Simulacron I
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 21:02:51 GMT

Thanks to everyone who responded.  I have reposted Net.Book.Riddles #2
and one of the managers for rec.games.frp.archives has graciously
decided to post to rec.games.frp.archives for me as well.  Hopefully
now everyone will be able to get all of it instead of just a piece
meal version of it.  :)  Thanks again!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are sorry for the inconvience, but our logo has been taken out to the
cleaners and can not be used at present.  We regret this inconvience as
we know how much you don't care if you ever see our logo again, but we
miss it and are tending to it carefully.  After all, if you are willing
to read this much junk, you must notice our logo.  :)
mark@cheers.jsc.nasa.gov.vog.asan.csj.sreehc@kram
(e-mail address by reflect-o-matic)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (SilverFang Ahroun)
Subject: Re: Newbie System?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 19:01:15 GMT

tomscud@ruf.rice.edu (Thomas Reid Scudder) writes:

>Yeah, that second one is an especially big problem, at least in the edition
>of Stormbringer I have (a fairly old one, they may have changed the character
>creation rules).  The only thing which can compete with a Melnibonean (sp?)
>Warrior/Noble/Sorceror is another Melnibonean (sp? again)
>Warrior/Noble/Sorceror.  If I were to run a Stormbringer campaign, I'd probably
>require that the players come from a fairly limited set of nationalities, to
>keep them from getting the extremely good and extremely bad ones...
>(note to those who like to scream about game balance not being important:
>It may not be the be-all and end-all of gaming, but there are certain points
>where game balance is SO far out of whack that its a problem:  those cases
>where one player is so much more powerful than the others that anything which
>challenges him would nuke the rest of the party.  This is quite possible given
>Stormbringer's system for starting characters.)

*grin* He's right here. A Melnibonean or Pan Tangian is so much more powerful
than anyother character that it's the most obvious sign of a munchkin in 
Stormbringers. "I swear, I rolled 01-02. Really. " "Bob, you've had four
Melniboneans so far this year...."

On a serious side, I've found letting people read through the nations
and pick one (with the GM's permission of course) to be more viable than
the die roll. If the whole group comes from the same place, it's easier
to have a reason for their sticking together.

Axly

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: wilder@mik.uky.edu (jeff wilder)
Subject: Re: SRUN: a question from the sprawl
Keywords: skills SRUN Srun Shadowrun
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
X-Path: wilder
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 02:52:17 GMT

In <Bw35Iu.EEH@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Aeleck) writes:

|>Say your character decides to up a particular skill by using the
|>rules for concentrations and specializations.

|>For instance:
|> Firearms: 5
|> -SMG's: 6

|>Now the character decides that he wants to up his base firearms skill.
|>What happens to the concentration?  Does it get upped by the same amount?
|>Does it get lost totally?  Does it get lost, but the uppage of the base skill
|>costs less?  Just what happens?

|>If there are rules for this in the books PLEASE, please, PLEASE! tell
|>me where they are.  

SRII, page 190, second column, last paragraph*.

"Once the character has begun the game, improvements in general skills,
Concentrations, and Specializations all happen separately.  Increasing a
general skill does not automatically change the Concentration, and so on."

It goes on with very clear examples.

*I just wanted to comment that although I had to track this rule through
 three cross-references, the cross-references *were* there, and the index
 served as a starting point.  SRII is *much* better organized than SRI.

[seven line .sig deleted]

ObBitch&Moan:  How many of us were informed that a four line .sig was
	considered the max in terms of netiquette?  Honestly, I'm just
	curious.  I find longer .sigs extremely annoying, but it's not
	real difficult to ignore.  (In fact, the more obnoxious .sig      
	posters hold a very special place in my killfile.)

--
==============================================================================
| Jeff W  uk06666@ukpr.uky.edu | Meddle not in the affairs of cats, for they |
| Wilder  & wilder@mik.uky.edu | are subtle, and will piss on your cyberdeck.|
==============================================================================
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: betel@camelot.bradley.edu (Robert Crawford)
Subject: Re: AD&D to GURPS monster conversion
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 12 Oct 92 02:19:26 GMT

mj173798@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Michael Emil Johnson) writes:
>	After playing AD&D for so many years, I've been spoiled by an almost
>limitless supply of monsters to throw at players.  Now that I GM mostly GURPS
>campaigns I've been working on a way to convert AD&D monsters to GURPS monsters
>through some consolidated system, and make some use of those dusty books. Any
>good ideas or systems out there ??

	Well, I'd save the monsters for special purposes, but if
you're playing a campaign with lots fo critters, then here's how I'd
do it:

	Convert the concept, and don't worry about the stats. If a
creature is supposed to be tough, give it lots of HP, a decent combat
skill, and maybe (if called for) some special abilities.
	Legends about creatures work well -- especially if your
players have read all about the AD&D creatures.

--
Tired plumbing wakes me in the morning,
Shower runs hot, runs cold playing with me,
Well, I'm up for the down side, life's a bitch and all that stuff.
	- "Rocks on the Road", Jethro Tull

Robert Crawford 			betel@camelot.bradley.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: Werewolf & Hunters Hunted?
Originator: jmkaraka@c00078-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 20:10:33 GMT


|>>	Ix-nay bub!  Hunters Hunted (locally known as the Munchkin
|>>Handbook II) has stuff to let 'normal' humans have a fighting chance
|>>against the supernatural.  Giving a Garou this stuff is like the old
|>>AD&D mega-classes that kept popping up (Paladin/Magic-User/Cleric/
|>>Assassin/Plumber/Archer-Rangers!).  
|>
|>How so?  I bought the Hunters Hunted, and was thoroughly impressed by 
|>the product.  Are you implying that humans should not be allowed to 
|>fight back?  I do not understand what the big hangup is.  Even with
|>the bennies the Hunters Hunted provides, the average hunter is still 
|>fighting an uphill battle. 
|>
	Am I disagreeing?  It's made for normals (as I said).  The
problems come when supernatural entities decide they want to use the
stuff in there.

|>>                                     Besides, all storyteller game
|>>systems are intended to simulate a slice of the horror genre.  I've
|>>never seen a werewolf whip out a cross and hold off a pack of vampires.
|>>
|>"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are _dreamt_ of 
|>in your philosophy."  You make the common error of assuming that True 
|>Faith only works for Christians.  As the Hunters Hunted points out, faith
|>in any religion of a sufficient intensity is grounds for TF.
|>This can be the worship of Gaia.  Uncommon, but not impossible. 
|>
	I was using a cross as an EXAMPLE.  But my point still stands.  
Lupines/Werewolves/The Garou/those fleabitten/etc. should not have access
to those special abilities reserved for 'normals'. 

	-john 'It's a solid silver hand grenade.  Here, catch!' karakash-
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: c188-cr@po.berkeley.edu (Chua Hak Lien)
Subject: Re: Post-Apocolyptic GURPS
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 23:04:45 GMT

In article <70732@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt7803b@prism.gatech.EDU (Sub Zero) writes:
>I'm contemplating setting up a post-apocolyptic GURPS campaign. Anybody got
>and PA rules? If so, please mail them to me if possible. If there are any
>official supplements on this, please let me know...
>
>-- 
>A bird in hand is easily crushed lifeless.

Some post-holoucast rules for GURPS appeared in the magazine _Vortext_ 
#1. Check the FAQ for the address.

Chua
+==+
Common sense is not so common.
			- Voltaire
From: s903609@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (ACE)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun Questions
Date: 10 Oct 92 06:44:35 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre
NNTP-Posting-Host: minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au

Greetings,
	  Psionics is a BAD thing. Remmber that and you will go far. Another
point is that psionics is usually seperated from the other forms of using
supernatural forces is by draining the wielder of these psychic forces. Think
about this for a moment, and then take a look at ANY SRII spell description,
specifically the spell DRAIN CODE. I know SR1/2 say this magic comes from the
astral plain, not from inside oneself. But I also remeber them saying something
about how LUDICROUS it is to believe that somebody can power a fireball using
only there internal chemical reactions inside their own body. Or at least words
to that effect. In response to psionics in SRII, I would say DON'T BOTHER ! It
really has already anyway. Mages/Shamans do not need to wave their hand and
shout mystical mumbo-jumbo, but they do have to pay for their spell casting
through loss of their own strength. For SRII, you might want to consider having
a class which is a more TRADITIONAL hand waving, eldritch wielder of the
mystic forces, more along the lines of a traditional fantasy mage, or even
cleric.

			       ACE
                   s903609@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au
	        " How deep is the ocean ? " - Eric
" No Silicon Heaven ? But where would all the calculators go ? " - Kryten
      " Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast." - Hero Rimmer
Engineering : The art of using something without actually understanding it.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: CHILL: Using Other Creatures with Vampires
Originator: jmkaraka@c00040-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Keywords: Chill, vampires, scenario design
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 21:11:39 GMT


|>I am currently in the process of starting a Chill campaign where the main 
|>thrust will be thwarting and/or hunting down vampires (give your players 
|>what they want, right?).  I've got to keep them on their toes, too, though.  
|>How would you integrate other creatures of the unknown into such an 
|>adventure?  I'll even listen to the obvious ones, eg. Onaqui, Bat Lord, 
|>Werewolf.
|>
|>Also, what are some of the more atmospheric places to set such adventures?  
|>Obviously Transylvania comes to mind, as does New Orleans, but what other 
|>places lend a little mystique of their own to the vampire legend, and how 
|>can this be exploited?
|>
|>Thanks in advance.
|>
	In modern vampire hunting, the hunters depend a lot on their technology.
Put them somewhere inaccessable (a plane wreck works wonderfully!), make them
work hard just to survive, THEN throw a vampire at them.  Make them FEAR the
dark...

	A windy, barren tundra, out in the middle of nowhere.  Snowy,
mountainous areas.  A primal forest.  All of these will work.

	-john 'heh, heh, heh' karakash-
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows)
Subject: Re: Robotech/Rifts Mecha Strength Question
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: Tue, 13 Oct 92 05:26:29 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.202153.59520@cc.usu.edu> sl7sg@cc.usu.edu writes:
>In article <1b02paINN12g@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, aj834@cleveland.Freenet.E
u (Scott A. Maehner) writes:
>> 
>> In a previous article, kinnema@wkuvx1.bitnet (Mark Kinney, Attorney at
Chaos) says:
>> 
>>>Do any rules exist in the Palladium system for strength conversions
>>>(or just strength attributes) for mecha and powered armor like in
>>>Robotech and Rifts?  Several players in my group have wondered about 
>>>this, and before I make up something I'd like to see any existing 
>>>rules (or some ideas anyone out there may be using).
>> 
>> *begins flipping thru Robotech: Sentinels*
>> 
>> *begins flipping thru Rifts*
>> 
>> I don't expect this to help much, but supposedly on p. 57 Sentinels:
>> 
>> "The Cyclone (powered armor) also has a physical strength equal to P.S
 40
>> (+25 S.D.C. damage bonus)"
>> 
>> and lower still on the page:
>> 
>> "P.S. of the VR-038-LT  (light female powered armor) is equal to P.S. 
0"
>> 
>> That might give you something to start with.
>> 
>> 
>
>	A group I was in tryed this, with Shadowfighters (?, I can't remember
>if that is right...?).  Anyhow, the shadowfighers, converted directly we
e
>underpowerful for the high octane stuff in Rifts.  If I were you, I woul
 fudge
>some of the stuff, so it is closer to par with some of the Frag in Rifts
 one
>item I would modify is the cloaking device on the shadowfighters, so tha
 they
>can hide from any power souce finder, not just protoculture...
>
>	Daemonically:
>			Shade Pendragon


All the Rifts mecha (or most of them) have strength ratings.  Most of 
the Robotech robots do not.  However, there is one part in Lancer's 
Rockers where it mentioned that a strength of 150 (combined) would 
be needed to open a certain door, and that it would take several Cyclones
but only one larger mecha like an Alpha.  Also, noting that the Glitter
Boy from Rifts is only as strong as the Cyclone (which is approximately
half its size), I would say that Robotech mecha would be lots stronger
than any Rifts equivalent.

---Chris Meadows
From: brl@kopasker.is (Bjorgvin Runar Leifsson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Purpose of the 'frp' groups
Date: 9 Oct 92 20:55:43 GMT
Organization: Primary School of Kopasker, Iceland

Hi, fantasy role players!
My question is perhaps not for this group, but...
Is any of the frp groups specially designed for frp games on computers?
If so, which one is it?
(I'm talking about games like AD&D series, M&M series and so on).

Thanks in advance,

Bjorgvin R. Leifsson
brl@kopasker.is