HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kieran@cmatter.physics.indiana.edu (kieran)
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 21:26:11 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.210051.15521@Csli.Stanford.EDU> kyle@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Kyle Wohlmut) writes:
>In article <4738@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>	I've often seen the Orff piece "Carmina Burana" mentioned. I've 
>>sometimes seen people claim that it was the actual music used in the
>>_Conan_ movies.
>>
>>	Well, I just picked it up (tough to pass up a $5 CD) and while parts
>>of it are really good (I don't regret the purchase), I hear virtually NO
>>SIMILARITY to Conan. In fact, the movie it most reminds me of is Young
>>Sherlock Holmes -- the Rami-Tep ritual song.
>
>Uh, sorry, but listen again... the opening piece of Carmina, 'Fortuna
>Imperatrix Mundi,' was actually -used in- Conan, I think it was the
>Halle Orchestra recording.  Since I don't own the Conan soundrack, I
>guess it may not be on the Conan album-- perhaps they couldn't get the
>rights to it (tho I don't think it's copywrited... funny...).  Anyway
>that piece was definitely in the film.

    The words in Orff's Carmina Burana are based on medieval songs.  I've
seen a recording of Carmina Burana done in this medieval style, that is,
*not* the music and orchestration of Karl Orff.  Perhaps the original 
poster purchased such a recording rather than the Orff version?

                             Kieran Mullen

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: swann@acsu.buffalo.edu (Stephen Swann)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 15 Aug 92 22:35:49 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <3095@isgtec.isgtec.com> robert@isgtec.com (Robert Osborne) writes:
>Where do you guys get your % of improv?

I have prepared a handful of maps, documents, and NPC's in ~12 years
of GMing.  That, to me, means that I improvise about 99%

>I like to have more than basic ideas before GMing.  My players
>are sticklers for realism and detail 

Mine, too.  Although I'd say I'm more of a stickler than them.

>(What colour is the bed?

GM: "Royal Purple.  Chandros has a secondary skill in weaving, right?"
p1: "Yeah."
GM: "Well, this shade of Royal Purple is really difficult to concoct.
It needs the juice of a berry that can only be grown in the Ciarne
district up north.  Now, since your kingdom has been almost-at-war
with the Northron empire for almost 20 years, and so none of this
stuff has been made here for that long."
p1: "So, is this bedding new?"
GM: "Very new."
p2: "So, what are you saying?  This guy is doing smuggling?"
GM: "I never said that."
p1: "Well, guys, how do we find out?"
 etc.

>Does that coat of arms match anything we've seen before?)

GM: "Nothing you recall, but then you guys aren't experts."
p1: "Well, if we took a drawing of it to the Registry, could they
track it down for us?"
p2: "You guys lost your contact at the Registry - remember?  Liandar
got killed by that assassin you guys crossed."
p1: "Shit, I forgot.  Well, can we bribe some new guy?"
GM: "Maybe if Jonndar tries.  He wasn't in the party when you guys
got permanently banned from the Capitol building."
p2: "Well, in the meanwhile, does -anything- about it look familiar?"
GM: <rolls to see if anyone would pick up this clue> "Well, the
Callide family has a white Unicorn, that looks a bit like the one
in the upper left corner of this one."
p3: "Callide?  Isn't that the Duke of Westboro?  But that's on the
other side of the kingdom!"
GM: "Uh huh."
 etc.

>and on the fly improve just doesn't cut it.

Oh, sure it does.  :-)

-- 
Steve Swann                 |    Speak to me in many voices; make
swann@acsu.buffalo.edu      |      them all sound like one...  -BOC
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
	<geXgPly00awLM21FJx@andrew.cmu.edu> <1992Aug17.150812.58213@cc.usu.edu>
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 11:10:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.150812.58213@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
Path: poly-vlsi!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!caen!hellgate.utah.edu!cc.usu.edu!sl9b4
   From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
   Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
   Date: 17 Aug 92 15:08:11 MDT
   References: <1992Aug13.144431.58137@cc.usu.edu> <Bsy6nB.1LK@acsu.buffalo.edu>  <geXgPly00awLM21FJx@andrew.cmu.edu>
   Organization: Utah State University
   Lines: 88

   In article <geXgPly00awLM21FJx@andrew.cmu.edu>, 
    wt0b+@andrew.cmu.edu (William Henry Timmins) writes:

   >>If they do find something, it's not a reward, it's just some thing you 
   >>thought into existance seconds (or even minutes before). See the 
   >>difference?
   > 
   > No. What does it matter when you thought it up?

   It matters, because if you are making it up while the players are 
   sitting there, they are having an effect on the game. They might find
   the gem just because they searched, not because it was there. A clever,
   flattering player, or a player who knows the GM really well, can use his
   influence to ``run'' the game.

It's the old "If a treee fall in a forest with nobody there to hear it,
does it make a sound?" thing again. If you prepare, then the answer is yes.
If you improvise, then your falling tree don't make a sound and the asnwer
is no.


...


   > Props can be made on the fly, or can be made
   > after things come up (ie- scroll they find is shown to them the next
   > session)                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     ^^^^^^^

   That's preparing, isn't it? I guess you're not intelligent or talented
   enough yet. Keep trying. 

Uhu, that's an unwanted flame.  I consider myself a maniac at preparation.
Less than 10% of everything I write in a given module gets used. But
sometimes I put an item and write, say "This item will be useful for X
purpose in another module", without deciding the actual content of the
scroll! IF I later decide that the "foll0owing module" involves undeads,
then the scroll will contain magics against undeads, etc... That's not
improvisation, it's time-stacked preparation.

Pat.
--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
\---------------------------/
From: space@ncc1701.stgt.sub.org (Lars Soltau)
Subject: Re: FRP goals versus GMing
	<1992Aug7.184024.1@wharton.upenn.edu> <713483944@tyranno.cs.duke.edu>
	<1992Aug10.234726.1@wharton.upenn.edu>
Organization: United Federation of Planets
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 12:24:28 GMT

>>>>> On 11 Aug 92 04:47:26 GMT, millerl@wharton.upenn.edu said:

> My goals in FRPing are, in order of descending importance...

> 1. have fun with friends
> 2. liminal experience, a meaningful, real trip to another world that is
>    not random, mean or petty.
> 3. to roleplay a character, or explore a character, almost acting
> 4. power trip stuff, like random violence, etc.
> 5. thinking *weird* thoughts, just getting way out there, inventive

> When I'm playing it's pretty easy to pursue these goals, but when I'm
> GMing it isn't.
[...]
> I look at the two lists, notice how few of my FRP-related goals I get
> out of GMing and wonder how to improve things.

That's why I have more fun playing than GMing.  We have one fixed group of
players, three of which also GM, each one his own campaign. We take turns
GMing, for two reasons: 1. It takes *huge* amounts of time to prepare a
session, at least for me, not being to good at improvising. 2. We all like
playing more than GMing. So we give our best when it's our turn to GM, knowing
that next time we get to play again.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy GMing *at all*, but I vastly prefer
gaming. Something that would make GMing much more enjoyable would be Lt.
Commander Data as Co-GM, handling all the rules and reality checks, taking
care of all the boring details like weather, food, etc., freeing the GM for
the really creative stuff. Sigh, not in my lifetime...
-- 
Lars Soltau	bang: <insert ridiculously long path>	    BIX: -- no bucks --
		smart: space@ncc1701.stgt.sub.org

     Germany, Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where dreams come true: Heaven is 911!
From: batemanc@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Mad Chris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Diceless or Senseless?
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:42:00 GMT

mosson@reseau.Berkeley.EDU (Groupe ELEVES) panics:

[My stuff about lucky breaks deleted!]

>  What? hey, everybody around, don't believe this. AMBER is FULL of
>lucky breaks (and
>unluck breaks too). Ever considered what the STUFF was for? Lucky Breaks...

Sorry, I perhaps should have been more specific on my original post here.
When I talk about Lucky breaks, I really mean Luck-of-the-die breaks - 
the kind of thing neither GM or player can predict.

I acknowledge that Amber does include the capacity for lucky breaks of a
kind, but I doubt that as many people will have anecdotes about diceless
lucky breaks because it loses it's charm if a human decided it was going to 
happen.

"I jumped into the sea, knowing that I couldn't swim, to avoid the blast
 and lived because of two consecutive criticals"

is more of an anecdote than

"I jumped into the sea, knowing that I couldn't swim, but lived because
 the GM chose to let me live."

The point is, in the above precis'd example, the character learnt to swim
the hard way, in the latter, the players life was saved because the GM
decided that was appropriate. There's nothing wrong with that - if the 
GM in the diced system wanted the player saved, there's no reason they
shouldn't do so, but as an anecdote, it lacks punch.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Mad Chris.
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Music & Roleplaying
Date: 12 Aug 92 18:07:56 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@pmax1.cis.pitt.edu


	We use music quite a bit in our groups. Some is just for background
noise, sort of for ambiance, but some of it actually has something to do with
what's going on (or sometimes it COMES to be associated with what's going on).

	In fantasy games we've used a lot of different kinds of music,
ranging from Holst's _The Planets [Jupiter]_ to the _Cosmos_ Soundtrack
(Vangelis, _Heaven and Hell_ and _Albedo .39_) and some other soundtracks.
The _Conan_ soundtrack came to be associated with one particular character
of mine because it always seemed to be hitting the most dramatic parts
of the music whenever she entered battle... We've also used some rock
and pop tracks.

	Space games have good music from various shows (Trek, Star Wars,
Galactica) and lots of classical composers.

	Holst's _The Planets [Mars] is the very best straight out
metal-to-metal combat music -- especially suitable for OGRE-type 
conflicts.

	We've also had games that derived from some particular piece
of music. One game derived almost entirely from Queensryche's song
"Eyes of a Stranger" [Operation:MINDCRIME]; another which was using
a number of elements from the anime series _Saint Seiya_ had a lot
of the original soundtrack/background music associated with it. I
have a game pending which is based entirely on the Genesis song
"Home By the Sea".


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly)
Subject: Re: SRun: Firearms range (was Mag 3 Cyber Eyes in Combat
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:11:35 GMT

jwtlai@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Jim W Lai) writes:

>Seeing the target is one thing.  Being able to hit it is another.  Movement
>should, IMO, have more severe modifiers for medium and long range.  One is
>simply not going to be able to snipe at a target a kilometer away while
>walking merely by having cybereyes with vision mag 3 and smartgun link.

Well, the basic idea here is that what SR calls EXTREME range isn't.
Extreme range in SR for an assault rifle is 250 meters. Yeah, right.
Modern day soldiers qualify on a course that starts at 200 meters and
goes all the way out to 500 meters. That's with iron sights, folks.

Shooting position does affect the accuracy of the shot..but the difference
isn't that large. At 200 meters, the average rifleman scores headhits fairly
often (Bulls on an A target.) from the offhand position.  Yes, enemy movement
would throw this off by a large margin, but the rules necessary to take into
effect every little factor slow combat down to a snail's pace. People
who have played Pheonix Command or Dragonstar Rising will attest to this.

Axly
********************************************************************************
*   Axly      *  "Is Axly tough? Yes. Talented? Yes. Brave? Oh, certainly.     *
* Red Sword   *   He is also erratic, irresponsible, accident-prone, and a     *
*   Targa     *   constant threat to public safety. The trick is to keep him   *
*             *   pointed in the right direction. "                            *
*             *         -Niki                                                  *
********************************************************************************

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: singley@helix.nih.gov (Erick D. Singley)
Subject: Re: Vampire
Organization: National Institutes of Health
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 18:05:13 GMT

Followup-To: 
Distribution: usa
Organization: (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD)
Keywords: 

As a roll playing game, well thought out.  Rule seem not to have too many holes
(Any holes there may be I don't remember as we've patched them with house rules
and I can't distunguish right now)  I'm kinda repulsed by the idea, if only
from prejudice about the myth in general.  
  In the back of my mind there's 'it sounds like vampires are going to emerge
to the role playing society in real life and this is just good Public realtions'

But then again, if God hadn't wanted me to be paranoid, I wouldn't have been 
given a good imagination...

As soon as I get back over to a friends house, I'll be able to post on the 
right board about the Vampire LARP on Halloween in PA.

The 'new' rulebooks about Mummy/Werewolf/farie/etc may get excessivly out of
hand $ wise (like trying to buy all the AD&D suppliment books before the
come out with a new ed. ;) )

Several pre-gen senearios are available, though since this is just 'real life
'cept you are a vampire and trying to not let other know'  ANY aspect of
life can be role-played out-  Jobs, Family relations, Vampire-group intregue,
mini-quests to find something, advancement towards the Vampire Heaven (can't
remeber name), and so on.

Power mongers can be chilled by the fact that (as long as you aren't Caine) 
there is always someone who might notice a rising punk and want to put
you in your place (bruja); magic lovers will get along with the game system
as a tremere.  As a matter of fact, the is plenty of advancement- and limitations (yeah TRY to find someone who will teach you lvl 6 domination with knowing
you REAL well...) opportunities.  The sucess/botch system seems to be much
like the Shadowrun system.. others will have to point out the diff..

It works...

Erick

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dicksion@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Matthew W. Dicksion)
Subject: Re: HERO's cheesy $ flow cost...
Organization: University of Hawaii
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 20:23:59 GMT

In article <Bt90sn.Krw@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> joshua salter <jsalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> writes:
>	Why does HERO allow someone to be fabulously wealthy for 20 cp, yet
>make an AK-47 cost 5 points as a power? If you were fabulously wealthy, you cou
>could just buy an AK-47, hell, buy ten. I think that the cp for being rich are
>incongrous with the aforemntioned AK-47 price. Or vice versa. Can someone put
>forth a clear answer on which price to use and how to adapt the other one?

  Aha, another person who mistakes Champions for Hero.  Your fabulously
wealthy Champs character is, in fact, able to purchase (with $) as many
AK47s as she wants.  However, if she wants to *use* an AK47 in combat all
the time, she'll have to pay cps for it.  This is because your standard
comic-book hero doesn't use mass-produced communist automatic weaponry,
and doesn't collect VIPER agent weapons for later use.  I mean, why doesn't
Iron Man just buy himself a private army instead of using that expensive
suit?  Because it isn't SuperHeroic (tm).  In heroic-level games, since $
actually matters, characters don't have to pay cp for their weapons.

>	HERO is riddled with problems, but is the best I have seen so far...

  Hero doesn't have that many problems.  Not nearly as many as xxxxxxx.
And it certainly is the best on the market.  IMNSHO.

>								-jsalter

--Matt Dicksion, the frothing Shirow otaku  8P~
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: betel@camelot.bradley.edu (Robert Crawford)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 20 Aug 92 03:52:34 GMT

sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
>Well that's just the way it works out. Think about a murder. Only one 
>party could be responsible. While the characters are working out the 
>details of the case, just because they find someone else who has motive 
>and no alibi, that can't change the solution to the murder. Example --
>the GM says, ``You're wrong, the Duke's uncle did it.'' Then the players
>say, ``But the butler had motive, he has no alibi and he had access to
>the Duke's chambers, he must have done it.'' So the GM is supposed to 
>say, ``Hmm. You're right. Okay, the butler did it.''

	Actually, here's where things could get interesting. Realize
that the PC have blamed someone who is innocent. If you're playing a
system with alignment, this could get stick. And another group of
people (NPCs) might not come to the same conclusion -- a jury might
acquit the butler, in a modern setting.

	This puts the PCs in a bad spot -- and there is a murderer
running loose who might want to off the PCs before they realize he did
it!

--
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
 and other science facts  (la, la, la)
 Just repeat to yourself it's just a show
 I should really just relax, for
 Mystery Science Theater 3000"
Robert Crawford				betel@camelot.bradley.edu
From: hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Rewrite
Date: 13 Aug 92 19:49:46 GMT
Organization: Boeing Computer Services, Seattle


 >         One thing I would like to see is a 'fast-resolution' combat for
 > high-defense-roll characters that merges with the normal system. Currently,
 > the only suggestion that GURPS makes is to resolve hitting as a quick
 > contest between attack skill and defense roll - which pretty much makes
 > defenses obselete, and all-out attacks the 'in' choice.

My understanding was that the contest of skills was meant to shorten combat
by making it more lethal. It wasn't meant to speed up the combat resolution
process. You still end up making the same number of rolls.

 >         I do. It is a major headache for balancing and preventing abuse,
 > as well as *alot* of choices due to the number of skills. I am personally
 > in favor of generalized skill aptitudes to handle 'new skill bases' because
 > they complicate things very little and are easy to balance - but I've
 > already ranted about those enough.

If you don't want the added complication, you can just use the base attribute
and ignore the secondary attribute. As it stands right now, some skills get
benefits from secondary attributes (music, language, etc.) while others do
not. By clearly assigning each skill to a primary and secondary attribute, it
makes the system cleaner and, IMHO, more elegant.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'new skill bases', but there is a rule in the
fantasy folk supplement that allows a race to receive a bonus in a set of
skills as an advantage. I think this rule could be generalized into a 'talent'
advantage. (Ex: a character could have a 'green thumb' advantage that gives
a bonus to all science skills having to do with plants.)

 >         There should be consistent determinations of what levels in skills
 > are 'good', 'expert', and 'world-class'. Unfortunately, since mental skills
 > have radically different costs than physical skills at higher levels,
 > 'world-class' physical skills are very different from 'world-class' mental
 > skills.
 >         The rules should be clear that although a 20 physical skill is
 > incredible, perhaps one-of-a-kind, a 20 mental skill is not nearly so
 > impressive.

I think humans are pretty puny physically, so it's not surprising that we
have to work so hard to become skilled at physical tasks.

I'm not sure what constitutes an expert. However, I would think that a
graduate degree, or the equivalent, should probably be the standard. If the
CP cost required to achieve an 18 in the required skills can be satisfied
by the equivalent of such a degree, then the points are probably about right.
Has anybody worked out the CP cost needed to achieve a PhD? (Including study
and class time.)

-- 
 Bob Hall, Systems Analyst | "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
 Boeing Computer Services  | Then give up. No use being a damn fool about it."
From: jacobus@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Improvisation, do I do it?, do I not?
Date: 20 Aug 92 02:44:09 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center



Note that I am not asking whether or not I should improvise, I ask whether
or not I actually DO improvise.  According to one viewpoint, I improvise
100%, because I never pre-write plots or intended plots.  According to
another viewpoint, I improvise 0%, because I spend lots of time making my
settings as complete as I can beforehand.  Allow me to explain what works for
me:



I pre-plan backgrounds.  I settle areas.  I design inhabitants and their
actions.  The PCs then interact with my designs as they will.  My world
then responds to them, the PCs respond to the response, the world responds
to the PC's counter-response, et cetera.  I do not pre-write plotlines, nor
do I have predetermined directions I want my players to take.  Instead, I
try to make my world as detailed as I can--so much so that the players will
nearly always have something to run into whatever they do.

My players tend to make things very easy for me as well.  Their characters
are rather three-dimensional, for the most part, and thus have motivations
and goals.  This works in two directions:  First, their are the "ordinary"
adversities they encounter on the way to their goals.  Second, there are
those forces which actively seek to thwart their goals.  There is also a
good-sized "shit happens" factor in my world, wherein I decide that it is 
time for the big, bad world to intrude uninvited into the PC's lives.

This makes my world an ongoing dynamic, temporally seamless (or as seamless
as is possible).  I would have to say that my world does not have discrete
"adventures", but the whole thing is one enormous serial story.  In fact,
one player even commented upon that fact last time we played.  He said that
the whole world felt "real"--he explained that he meant that the world 
didn't have the jarring episodic feel that other worlds he had played in
possessed--worlds run on a more plot-driven or "adventure" model.

Anyway, I'm not saying that my way is better, just that my players and I
seem to like it.

But, on the subject at hand--improvisation.  I would have to say that I
do improvise, 100%, and I NEVER improvise, not at all.  What I mean is that
I put a good deal of work into my settings and backgrounds, but I let
the plot go where it will. 



"Gee, does that mean that you're being dominated by your players?"

Well, I'll tell you, Sphincter Boy, it doesn't feel that way.

Actually it feels like my world is a partnership, wherein questions of 
dominance and control simply don't enter--at least not on the player-player
level.  There are struggles for power, but they restrict themselves to the
world, not to the players and me.

Anyway, I must go--I've got a gel that needs to be disconnected and stained.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc