HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: douglash@meaddata.com (Douglas Holzworth)
Subject: Re: Lucky player tricks
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 19:46:15 GMT
Distribution: rec

If you can't be "good," it still works if you can be lucky.

I had a relatively low-level mage, out for an adventure with some compratiots.
Sure, they were "unwashed fighter types," but one needed fodder in dangerous
situations (or so my mage told himself).  This PC NEVER engaged in combat
or physical exertion, as a point of pride.

In the dungeon, some "things" got the drop on us.  They landed on a ranger
who, earlier in the adventure, had saved my mage's butt when I had done
something stupid (pronounced the name on a plaque at the bottom of a picture
that we knew was magical.  The figure in the painting appeared, set to 
de-mage my character.  The ranger interposed himself).

The closest people took their actions with no effect.  Good rolls, but not
high enough to strike for damage.  The thing was beginning
to "absorb" the hapless ranger!  My mage, down to one "Detect" spell, was 
the only one left with an action!  What was I going to do?  Detect the monster?
I could do that without my spell!

He looked at his lone weapon, a dagger, and made up his mind.  In an atypically
non-MU fashion, he charged.  Armed with only a dagger and with POOR fighting
ability.  Not only charged, but dived, dagger-first, at the creature.

Incredibly, I rolled a critical!  More unbeleivable, it was lethal!  The 
thing shuddered and died.

My MU, trying to control the shaking, "No sense wasting a spell on something
that easy."  No one was convinced.

-- Doug the DM
From: mrw@ecl.psu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: How many dice?
Date: 25 Jul 92 13:22:56 EDT
Organization: Engineering Computer Lab, Pennsylvania State University

In article <BruwKG.A4q@apollo.hp.com>, keary@apollo.HP.COM (Matt Keary) writes:
> |> The point is that that when attempting to emulate a die with a
> |> non-power of two number of sides with a coin you will either get, a
> |> slightly non-flat probability distribution, or face the possibility of
> 
> How 'bout this...
> 
> I forget who first started the "all you need is a coin" thread, but it seems
> that you are assuming s/he meant using a standard binary number 
> 
>    000 = 1          (Where 0's are tails and 1's are heads)
>    001 = 2
>    010 = 3 ...
>    111 = 8
> 
> In which case I agree, that if you were looking for d7 or d6 or something,
> then you would not necessarially get it the first time (ie flipping d7 you 
> get :  1... 1... 1!  Arrrrg! I rolled an eight!)  About the same as trying 
> to get 1-7 probability out of a d8.
> 
> BUT....  if you flip as many dice as the number you are trying to get, and
> add all the heads you get : 1...1...1...1...1...0...1...1!  I rolled 7! almost
> max damage!
>    Then as your dXX (whatever you are rolling) gets bigger, you'll have
> to flip a large # of coins, but it will be a _defined_ large number, as 
> opposed to an *arbitrary* one.  :=)
> 
> - Mate

I admit that I am only a weenie engineer, and don't know all that much about
statistics,but it seems to me that your method will not give you a flat
probability distribution. You have a 1/8 chance of rolling an 8 on a d8, but
you have only a (1/2)^8 = 1/256 chance of rolling an 8 in your coin-flipping
scheme. Think of your coins as a set of d2's; then, like the 3-18 bell curve
so familiar to all of us, your results will fall on a Gaussian curve. 

As far as the coin-tossing to represent dice goes, would whoever first
mentioned it let the rest of us know how it works? Or just e-mail me; I'm very
interested. 

Do any of you remember a "What's New?" cartoon when Phil & Dixie were reviewing
the concept of mini-games? Anyway, there was one game they were talking about
called "Coin Toss Dungeon." The panel showed two guys sitting at a table; one
has a coin in his hand, the other has the rules. The speach balloons say:
"Heads! That means we found the treasure!" "Wow! That makes 19,203 successful
games in the last hour!"

     -Mike Williams
     -mrw@ecl.psu.edu
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Castles - Prices
Date: 30 Jul 92 15:48:12 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1992Jul29.200308.4468@wam.umd.edu> walrus@wam.umd.edu (Udo K Schuermann) writes:
>In article <1992Jul29.174718.10034@unixg.ubc.ca> pbreland@unixg.ubc.ca (Paul B Breland) writes:
>>In article <51300004@ax.apc.org> kiko@ax.apc.org writes:
>>>Does anybody know the prices, or where to gather this information, about 
>>>castle constructions??
>
>King Ludwig II.  "Faery Castle" Neuschwanstein in Bavaria was constructed
>about 130 years ago in the style of 12th and 13th century castles.  It then
>cost 6.5 million gold marks to build and was not even finished after the
>king was declared incompetent and disowned (he later died in a lake under
>mysterious circumstances.)  The interior of the castle is lavish to an
>extreme, which significantly contributed to the price of construction, of
>course.
>	If anyone has any sort of historical information as to the buying
>power of a gold mark around 1865, I'd appreciate hearing from you!  Any
>sort of comparison to trade goods would be especially valuable.

	For realistic prices, I know I have a little booklet somewhere
which discussed the building of castles in medieval England, and does
mention prices for some of the materials and such.  This booklet might be
packed away for the summer, but I'll check amongst my books tonight.

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: How many dice?
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 04:06:37 GMT

In article <1992Jul17.201145.23609@midway.uchicago.edu> arxt@quads.uchicago.edu (Aidan Palmer) writes:


	   How many dice do you usually need for a D&D type game? I have
   heard tales of people with hundreds of dice.  I myself usually have 1d4,
   3d6, 1 or 2d8, 1d12 (how often do you really need these, anyway?), and
   a "plus" d20.  I personally find 30-sided, 100-sided, and other fancy
   dice useless.  I also have no need for 10-sided dice, using a "plus"
   d20 instead.
	   Speaking of fancy dice, what do you think of the "specialty"
   dice that The Armory and Flying Buffalo make (alignment dice, corridor
   dice, character class dice, etc)?

	   --The Midwesterner
   -- 


I have a small puch containing:

1D3, 5D4, 8D6, 3D8, 4D10, 2D12, 3D20, 1D30.

What I feel is that what I really need would be more like:

2D4, 10D6, 3D8, 10D10, 1D12, 10D20, 1D30.

That means I have:

useless:  D3, 3D4, D12.
missing: 2D6, 6D10, 7D20.


I like to have ENOUGH dice around, of many different colors ofr D10 and
D20 dices (initiative and to-hit), so that in only one roll I can determine
the hots from a whole bunch of enemies...

Also, players often forget to bring their own dices... a few spares are
always useful...


Patrick "Paradak" Rannou.

--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
\---------------------------/
From: weeks@astroatc.UUCP (Pat Weeks)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Tackling, subduing NPC/PCs
Date: 23 Jul 92 20:47:57 GMT
Reply-To: weeks%astroatc.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu (Patrick Weeks)
Organization: Astronautics Technology Cntr, Madison, WI



More questions about this wrestling thing...

	I am actually very interested in this thread because one of my MANY
PC's has taken the time and money to specialize in wrestling.  They say in
the AD&Dv2 rules for wrestling that one can only get out of a hold by making
a successful attack roll at their opponent and having a gouge, trip, or kick
roll as a result.  What do you people think about this rule?  Do you have any
"home" rules about wrestling?  Are there any better ways out there that you
can suggest to improve upon this particular element of the combat system?

	I also read somewhere that when you try to enter into hand to hand 
combat that the defender, if wielding a weapon has a +4 to hit and max damage
as the "wrestler" comes in.  After that they are stuck to hand to hand
unless you have a small weapon(aka dagger).  Comments on this?  I'm pretty
neutral on the subject and would like to have some more ideas and information
so I can make some standard rulings.  Thanks!!


					Ghostwheel queries???

E-mail to:  weeks%astroatc.uucp@spool.cs.wisc.edu
		or post to the net...
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou)
Subject: Re: Paladin
Organization: University of Central Florida
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:24:27 GMT

fraser@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Fraser Wilson) writes:

>torban@csuvax1.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Torban Bennett) writes:
>>PS: Getting back to an old thread.  How do you pronounce Paladin?
>>      Pal-laddn or Palla-din?

>Palaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadin.

>So there.

Nope. Not there.  
Palllllllllllllllladin.

Now, THERE.

:) :)

Lance


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou)
Subject: Re: New uses of dices...
Organization: University of Central Florida
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 18:26:53 GMT

ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
>The fastest way I have found to do initiative is to do individual initiative
>for the players and group initiative for the monsters, and then just start 
>calling off numbers.  When a character's number is called he raises his hand 
>and his action goes through.  All I have to keep track of is (usually) the 
>one monster initiative roll, although occasionally I'll let the monsters do 
>individual initiative as well.  This has (to date) been a pretty fast and 
>workable system.

I agree.  This seems to be the exact system my friend and I worked out
(along with other minor details, like half-moves, spell casting, and innate
abilities, etc.).  I like it a lot and I don't think I will change! ;>

Lance R. Marrou

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: gordon@meaddata.com (Gordon Edwards)
Subject: Re: CHARACTERS WANTED
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 15:20:26 GMT
Distribution: na

In article <1992Jul23.203723.26558@meaddata.com>, joeg@meaddata.com (Joe Gayda) writes:
|> |> send often.  It would be nice to have a larger pool of NPC's to choose
|> |> from.
|> 
|> I have a C progam that generates AD&D II characters.  I'm afraid if I
|> post the program I may break some TSR copyright.  I would love to
|> distribute it because I've spent 40 or 50 hours writing the program.
|> Can I post this program?  Anyone from TSR have anything to say?
|> 

Well, I can't speak for TSR, but I would like a copy.

Thanks.

--
Gordon Edwards            The weather is here,              gordon@meaddata.com
Mead Data Central         I wish you were beautiful.
P.O. Box 933                         -J. Buffet           Phone: (513) 865-7724
Dayton, OH 45401, USA                                       FAX: (513) 865-1655
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Missile weapons 4 Krynn knights?
Date: 30 Jul 92 15:57:34 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <15830mINN3p2@agate.berkeley.edu> cgeorges@cory.Berkeley.EDU (christoph georges) writes:
>I am playing a Knight of Solamnia in a krynn campaign, and my DM has
>ruled that knights cannot use missile weapons such as a bow because they
>are "dishonorable."  Does anyone know if this is an official rule?  In
>any case, it seems unreasonable to me because it would render knights useless
>and unable to attack in many situations--consider a flying dragon against
>a group of knights for instance.  Any comments?

	Well, I don't know what the official honor code of the Solamnic
Knights is, but for a historical angle: medieval knights often looked down
upon ranged weapons (except for hunting) as ignoble and "for peasants".
The Church attempted to ban the crossbow, as being too dangerous and
fearful a weapon.
	There were exceptions of course - Richard III of England was a
great proponent of crossbows (and ironically was killed by one).  The
French did not even like the idea of their peasants using bows (to
dangerous to the knights, you know), though the English eventually required
their peasants to learn bow use (though the nobles did not take to it so
much).
	It's not unreasonable for the Solamnic knights not to use bows.  It
was regarded as more honorable to fight face to face with your foe - not
skulk about and shoot him from far away.  If they were going to use ranged
weapons, you might consider giving them javelins (short range) or crossbows
(somehow more upper class than short or longbows).

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: douglash@meaddata.com (Douglas Holzworth)
Subject: Re: Best possible AC
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 17:02:42 GMT
Distribution: na

In article <1992Jul28.203439.10294@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu>, dcarroll@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Dana Carroll) writes:
|> Here's a little puzzle to enrich your day:
|> 
|> What is the best possible AC for the four basic character classes (Fighter,
|> MU, Thief, Cleric) in the two editions of AD&D?
|> 
|> The answers should use only natural dexterity (for any race), armor allowed
|> for that class, spells that specifically apply to AC (i.e., no wish spells),
|> items usable by that class that specifically apply to AC (again, no rings
|> of wishes).  Basically, no "trick" answers.
|> 
|> Then again, maybe trick answers should be allowed in a separate category.
|> 
|> Also, what is the maximum AC you have personally seen in a real gaming session?
|> I personally have run across an AC of -22, but that wasn't in a player 
|> character.  (It was a Thri-kreen with some specialized items.)
|> 
|> --Darrend the Saint, Town-Saver, Bringer of Justice

The best AC attained in my campaign was -10, that by a fighter whose level was
in the upper-teens or lower-twenties.  The player had built this character
up over about five years or so of regular play.  Don't remember what constit-
uted this, though.  Hey John!  You out there?  Do you remember how Daron got
the AC he had?

PS: Daron's nickname from his comrades was "Sherman."  As in "tank."

-- Doug the DM

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou)
Subject: Lucky player tricks
Organization: University of Central Florida
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 18:59:06 GMT

Here's a new thread....

To start it off: my friend and I were gaming once with another friend as the
DM.  My character was a 3rd level hlafling thief, and his was a 3rd/3rd 
level dwarven cleric/assassin.  We didn't have much magic, +1 weapons...
maybe a potion.  We were travelling through some hills on our way to the
Hillfoot (shire) my home, and we were accosted by a large group of gnolls,
about twenty total.  We saw them over the hill, but being the brave, hearty
(and stupid, careless ;) adventurers we were we charged them.

(note: realize that all our dice rolls are out in the open when in combat,
and when we roll a natural 20 to-hit it is double damage, giving you a
second roll to-hit and if it also a natural 20, then it is a crucial hit
and your opponent is dead)

Well, we were summarily engaged in heavy combat and we fully expected to
die quickly.  However, that was not to be.  Through unbelievably lucky
rolls (many 20s and a couple crucial hits) we killed 10+ gnolls before the
others got the hint and fleed.  We chased them a little bit, but soon
came to our senses and looted the dead and wounded gnolls.  Phew!  That
was fun!

Lance R. Marrou

P.S.  btw, my character, Fizler "The Fizz" Featherfoot, and my friend's,
Fylet Mignon (that's Fie-lett Mig-non to you bub :) are still alive, but
we haven't played them in 3 years, because the DM moved to Japan.  *sigh*
However, they reached 4th level and were still as carefree, reaching
positions of power in government.
From: StarWatcher@uiuc.edu (StarWatcher)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Paladin
Keywords: significant words from a document used as an index to content
Date: 24 Jul 92 19:38:39 GMT
Reply-To: StarWatcher@uiuc.edu
Organization: UIUC Actuarial Science Program
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou) writes:
: fraser@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Fraser Wilson) writes:
: 
: >torban@csuvax1.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Torban Bennett) writes:
: >>PS: Getting back to an old thread.  How do you pronounce Paladin?
: >>      Pal-laddn or Palla-din?
: >Palaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadin.
: Palllllllllllllllladin.

*sigh*

PAL-uh-duhn

So sprach Webster!

:)

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Michael Adams (aka StarWatcher) 	   |    "To spend too much time in    |
|UIUC Actuarial Science Program 	   |     studies is sloth."	      |
|+1 (217) 344-0709, +1 (217) 344-4857	   |	  	-- Sir Francis Bacon  |
|StarWatcher@uiuc.edu (NeXT mail accepted) |				      |
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|          The standard disclaimer is here...it's just invisible....          |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: alongley@cape.UWaterloo.ca (Allan Longley)
Subject: Re: Questions about liches and undead
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 16:22:20 GMT

>In article <1683112A32.MWORKMAN@vm.cc.purdue.edu>, MWORKMAN@vm.cc.purdue.edu writes:
>  That's about the gist of it, according to the AD&D 2nd edition
>Monstrous Compendium.  If you manage to kill a lich, but don't know
>where its phylactery is, you're in trouble.  It basically retreats
>to the thing and regathers its strength.  I don't remember if they
>lose a level when this happens, by 2nd edition rules.
>  In one module I have been working on, there is a lich in the
>arch-villain role.  His phylactery is hidden in a sealed (caved-
>in on purpose) dungeon chamber about 500 miles away from his current
>base of operations; in the same chamber are a monstrous blob of gray
>ooze and a banshee.  Chests there also contain several spellbooks,
>magic items, etc. in case the lich is killed and needs to get back
>to snuff.

But!!  When a liche retreats to its phylactery it leaves its material body
behind!  It therefore must have another body to possess close to its
phylactery (I think its 25-50 feet).  I don't think the 2nd Ed Compendium
goes into this (possession and stuff -- you know the story).  I think this
is from the original article in Dragon on liches ecology and creation.
Liches don't often do this -- creatures get attached to the body they've been
in for the last 400 years :-)  So, having the phylactery in a chamber with
ooze is a good idea, except you couldn't keep a spare body around (without
special magical considerations that is).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Longley, University of Waterloo, Department of Chemical Engineering
e-mail: alongley@cape.uwaterloo.ca
voice: (519) 885-1211 x3816		Blue Print for a Liche
home: (519) 746-5747
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: a_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Missile weapons 4 Krynn knights?
Date: 31 Jul 92 08:49:44 CST
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

In article <1992Jul30.155734.19818@burrhus.harvard.edu>, canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson) writes:
> In article <15830mINN3p2@agate.berkeley.edu> cgeorges@cory.Berkeley.EDU (christoph georges) writes:
>>I am playing a Knight of Solamnia in a krynn campaign, and my DM has
>>ruled that knights cannot use missile weapons such as a bow because they
>>are "dishonorable."  Does anyone know if this is an official rule?  In
>>any case, it seems unreasonable to me because it would render knights useless
>>and unable to attack in many situations--consider a flying dragon against
>>a group of knights for instance.  Any comments?
> 	It's not unreasonable for the Solamnic knights not to use bows.  It
> was regarded as more honorable to fight face to face with your foe - not
> skulk about and shoot him from far away.  If they were going to use ranged
> weapons, you might consider giving them javelins (short range) or crossbows
> (somehow more upper class than short or longbows).

	One thing to consider is that a code of honor does not neccessarily
apply to a dishonorable foe (which could, for example, include evil dragons).
If an order restricted the use of certain weapons, but the order needed to use
such weapons to defeat a (relatively) common foe, the order would be faced with
adapting or dying. Flying dragons would be such a case. 
	Also, in the analogy of crossbows in the middle ages, remember that
they were *not* outlawed in use against non-Christians. Using the crossbow-ban
supports the exception, not the rule.


Brandon Cope
From: kiko@ax.apc.org
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: ax Procomm Plus
Date: 27 Jul 92 20:08:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:ax:51300001:000:3
Nf-From: ax.UUCP!kiko    Jul 27 13:08:00 1992


q
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: CHARACTERS WANTED
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 02:44:38 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.203723.26558@meaddata.com> joeg@meaddata.com (Joe Gayda) writes:


   I have a C progam that generates AD&D II characters.  I'm afraid if I
   post the program I may break some TSR copyright.  I would love to
   distribute it because I've spent 40 or 50 hours writing the program.
   Can I post this program?  Anyone from TSR have anything to say?

   Well the program does the following:

     - Rolls abilities, best 3d6 of 4d6.
     - Prioritizes abilities based on class.  (Fighters are strong...)
     - Rolls HP
     - Determines AC, THAC0
     - Determines secondary abilities
     - Determines Gold and equipment
     - Has magic armor, shields, potions and a few common magic items
       built in.
     - Lists all class and racial statistics
     - Checks all race and class requirements are met.



[example deleted...]

What you should do:

Take the players handbook and the DMG, check all the trademarks and
copyrights
(usually at the start or end of the books).

As far as I know, TSR don't own words like "AC" or "armor class", etc...

This means that as long as you don't specificially copy something in the
book, you should be OK.

In case of any doubt, you could still send a letter to TSR, but they
will then tell you that SSI (or some other computer games company)
has the rights to all DND software, and give you that cpy address so you
can sedn THEM a letter.

Myself, I wouldn't care at all and post the program right away.
SO WHAT *if* its illegal? I'm sure many of you out there have photocopied
pages of books, and THAT is far more illegal than ywhat you do (if what you
do is illegal at all). I'm sure the moment you post it, 300 policemen will
barge in at your site and arrest you... ;-) sure....


--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
\---------------------------/