HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters)
Subject: Thread Change (was cursed items) - super items
Summary: 42
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 13:57:40 GMT

On a different bent, here's something a DM I know (with prompting by me B^)
sprung on a player in his game.  A brief background:

This player's character was a practical joker.  He explained to the party about
an invisible insect who's bite was fatal.  To defend against it, he had a magic
item consisting of a rod with a flap of stiffened leather at the other end, of
the finest quality components, made by local craftsmen, then had a mage cast
_Magic Mouth_ on the item with a ridiculous condition.  It would detect magic,
but any further examination (i.e. identify) would show it to be false.

His "joke" was that he'd hold the item, which would allow him to "see" the 
invisible insects, then he'd hit one of the characters with it, and tell
them they should be thankful that he got the insect killed before it had
a chance to bite.

When it was having the spell cast upon it, one of the more capricious powers
bestowed other powers on the item, rendering it a minor artifact, the Magic
Flyswatter.

I won't detail all the powers herein, but it included the ability to see
invisible flying insects, cure deafness, water breathing and other, chaotic
benefits, mostly of a minor or useless nature.  The drawbacks were that the 
character had to be holding the item in his hand for any of the powers to 
work, and all others instantly coveted the item, and would beg,borrow,steal,
maim,kill,etc to try to acquire it.  One of the powers was that the character
could turn into an insect, but the flyswatter would not change with the rest of
the character's possessions.

The PC was not made aware of the nature of the item, and was amazed at the
number of NPCs and PCs (I got to sit in on a game or two B^) who were 
willing to part with everything they owned to get his magic flyswatter.

-Coyt

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: malamb@eos.ncsu.edu (MARCUS ALAN LAMB)
Subject: Re: Healing
Originator: malamb@c00013-118dan.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: malamb@eos.ncsu.edu (MARCUS ALAN LAMB)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 15:59:10 GMT


>If you look at the PHBs explanation of why a sword blow that kills a low
>level character just annoys a high level (8 hitpoints off of 6 is damn
>annoying, 8 from 100 is just mildly annoying). The explanation being that a
>higher level character doesn't get run through like a low level, they step
>aside at the last minute and it nicks them.
>
>Wouldn't it make sense that a high level character would heal his nicked ribs
>faster than a low level would heal his sucking chest wound?

Hit points are not a measure of how a tough a character is.  They are a
measure of the character's ability to keep from being damaged.  Imagine
two fighters: one with 10 hp and one with 100 hp.  A 10 point damage
sword attack would kill the low-level fighter but not the high-level
fighter.  The low-level fighter did not have the battle experience to
escape the blow unharmed, but the high-level fighter did and could do so
9 more times before dying.  This is the difference between the defensive
fighting skills of the two characters.  If you let the high-level
fighter heal faster than the low-level fighter, then you give him more
skill than he deserves.  Imagine the fighter enters battle and escapes 3
death blows for 30 points of damage.  That night he heals up.  The next
day his skill is back to maximum and he can escape 99 hp worth of
damage.  This makes him too powerful.  What if he only healed up 3
points of damage?  The next day he could only escape from 72 points
before getting the death blow.  This increases an over-worked or
battle-starved fighter's chances of dying.  An experienced fighter who
averages one battle per month would have more healing time (game terms)
and would be less likely to get killed in battle (real terms).
From: justinf@cco.caltech.edu (Justin Fang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: RPGs & Suicide (was Re: D&D and Christianity)
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.dnd
Date: 10 Jan 1993 00:21:33 GMT
Organization: none whatsoever
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: macintosh19.cco.caltech.edu

In article <1993Jan9.163816.27727@cs.cornell.edu>, wgarrett@cs.cornell.edu
(William F. Garrett) wrote:
> 
> [Really ought to check my sources first, but here it goes]
> 
> Putting religious issues aside, lots of people (eg, BADD) are suspicious
> of RPGs because they think the games cause players to commit suicide.
> Y'all probably know as well as I do that this is bull, but these people
> point to all sorts of Case Studies showing suicides which were apparently
> caused by gaming.

Another fallacy in the D&D = suicide argument. (The following are just
ballpark figures since I don't have exact figures.) Say there are 2 million
D&D players (Since something like 1 million copies have been sold, this
seems reasonable, and is probably low. Also, I'm ignoring other RPG's.) Say
that in one year, 100 of them commit suicide. (I seem to remember BADD, et
al claiming numbers in this range.) Whether or not they commited suicide
because of D&D, these figures give us a suicide rate of 5 per 100,000 per
year. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the
national suicide rate was 12.2 per 100,000 in 1989.

The conclusion is obvious! D&D prevents suicide! Everyone should play D&D!
:)

Just goes to show what you can do with statistics...
 
> So there you have it.  The myth about games causing people to commit
> suicide is just that -- a myth.
> 
> 					- The Wizard
> -- 
> *-----------------------------------------------------------------------*
> | Bill Garrett                                       Cornell University |
> | wgarrett@cs.cornell.edu                Department of Computer Science |
> *-----------------------------------------------------------------------*

Justin Fang (justinf@cco.caltech.edu)

                               This space intentionally left blank.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: mark@pokey.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning)
Subject: Re: Gary Gygax
Organization: NASA
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 17:20:06 GMT

Well, what I had heard was that the people who were working at T$R
became a little disgruntled with Gary, sought help, and found a lady
who happened to have a lot of money and nothing to do with it.  She
purchased a majority of the stock of T$R and forced Gary out.  Much
to the rejoicing of the other people who were working at T$R at the
time.

This is hear-say also, but mainly from what I recollect from previous
discussions on this subject.

:)
From: pkralik@ecst.csuchico.edu (Wintermute)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Walking Bandages
Summary: Avoiding this common cleric player's pitfall
Date: 5 Jan 93 04:43:23 GMT
Organization: California State University, Chico
NNTP-Posting-Host: grotus.ecst.csuchico.edu

Greetings!

	I am in the process of creating a campaign, and as I was thinking of
what I did and didn't like about AD&D, I reached this dilemma...

I often play Clerics, and it seems that every time I do, I wind up in the 
position of being viewed as the party's walking first aid kit.  I find that
I am unable to be very creative with my PC's spell selection.  Anytime I take
a non-healing spell, i.e. one i would like to experiment with, and we come 
across a combat situation, I feel a little guilty about not having that extra
CLW for the front line fighters, etc.  I was wondering how, as a dm, I could
help to prevent this from happening to PC Clerics.  I really hate to limit
the combat encounters because of a lack of clerics, but if I don't, and there 
aren't enough clerics, the players get upset about having to trek back and 
forth to find a church, healer, etc.  I really enjoy playing clerics, but I 
just feel that it would be more enjoyable if there were more, i dunno, maybe
freedom in the spells I could take.  There has to be more to being a cleric
than cleansing wounds and curing diseases.  I have been toying with the idea
of using a system whereby the Cleric would get "faith points" for various 
activities of a "true clerical" nature.  I think that this might help to 
emphasize the other aspects of being a cleric. 

Sooooo...I was hoping that someone might have suggestions as to how this could
be avoided.  Any input would be greatly appreciated.  
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: tovey@mullauna.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Gadget)
Subject: Re: Healing
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 05:38:27 GMT

Clayten_Hamacher@mindlink.bc.ca (Clayten Hamacher) writes:

>P.S. Maybe damage should only be part of what a character suffers. How about

I was, at one point, considering doing away with hit points and inventing
a system where you lost thaco when you were hit. The details were workable
and would make for a system where, as you were staggering around bleeding,
you would have less chance of fighting succesfully. I quickly gave away
the idea - this didn't allow for the heroics that DND is famous for - your
fighters are *supposed* to rally at the last and save the world...
Matt Tovey 	       |  Commpower Engineering	|	
                       |  Melbourne,		| tovey@mullauna.cs.mu.OZ.AU
Voice: 61-3-419-4716   |  Australia.		| "Tomorrow's ideas on
Fax:   61-3-419-4716   |			|       yesterday's technology"
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: l2wang@mobius04.math.uwaterloo.ca (  Lei Wang  )
Subject: Re: Cursed Items - Why?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 05:27:23 GMT

In article <1ijq1iINNkni@mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE>, lum@cs.tu-berlin.de (Lutz Hofmann) writes:
> ross@lclark.edu (Anthony Ross) writes:
> > 	OK, given the amount of time, effort, money, etc... needed
> > to contruct a magical item, why would a mage be making a cursed one?
> 
> For use in traps. These items are not cursed but have detrimental
> effects on the user. Take potion of delusion: is it a potion with
> dispel magic on? Rope of entanglement: For a fast way to catch some
> (lethally) wanted fugitive. Mirror of Opposition: a trap. Girdle of
> fem/masc: A Mage was frustrated with her gender. 
                                       ^^^
                              This cracks me up.

  Anyways.


  o  It's not likely that a failed magic item will become a cursed magic item,
       for the same reason that a mistyped computer program will give purposedly
       misleading results.  It's more likely that some intelligence was
       involved to curse it.  i.e.  Some fun-loving god nearby.  I mean, what's
       the chance that a cursed sword will always return to your hand, and that
       it will fool you also, when it's simply designed to cut and swing better?

-- 
l2wang@napier.UWaterloo.ca
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ME:  Univ. of Waterloo  YOU:  Huh?   o=> ME:  in Canada,  YOU:  Huh?
ME:  in Ontario,        YOU:  Huh?  /o/  ME:  up north!   YOU:  Aaaaaahhh...
ME:  near Toronto,      YOU:  Huh? ==o                                    Huh??
From: loren@wmkt.wharton.upenn.edu (Loren Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Rolemaster
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:33:10 GMT
Organization: Wharton Marketing

In article <1993Jan6.203019.17156@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> ewalents@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Erich Walentschak) writes:
>I was just wondering how many out there have gotten hooked on Rolemaster as 
>opposed to D&D.  Also, is this where Im allowed to even ask this question or 
>should I be elsewhere?

You're allowed to ask here, but you'll probably get a better response in 
rec.games.frp.misc since mostly the people who are here want to talk about 
D&D and AD&D only.

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller              LOREN@wmkt.wharton.upenn.edu
Time am I, wreaker of the world's destruction, matured, grimly
resolved here to swallow up the worlds.             -- Krishna
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Morpheus Nosferatu)
Subject: yet another way of healing
Organization: Netherworld Dreamscape
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 19:07:50 GMT

Here is yet another way for characters to naturally regain hit points.

A character will gain 1 hit point per level of experience for each day of
rest.  However, if a character is knocked to negative hit points (and not
brought to zero or more hit points by magical healing), the character must
rest of one week to regain one hit point.  Once HP is zero, the character
will regain the normal rate of 1hp/level/day of rest.

This helps to simulate that most hit points are lost in the form of nicks,
scratches, and bruises, and it is only that last wound which actually does
a significant amount of damage.  After all, in reality, if someone were
stabbed with a dagger, it would take more than a few days for the wound to
heal (believe me, I know).

Thus a character who is at positive hit points (even 1 out of 75), would
still be in good shape, just bruised and battered rather bad.  If the
character is knocked to zero hit points, he is stunned or knocked out,
and is incapable of doing more that very slow movement, say 1", since the
character would have to crawl or drag himself along, and would also not
be able to cast spells or fight, though be might be allowed to quaff a
potion of healing mumble things in a low voice.

If the character is at negative hit points, he is totally incapacitated by
his wounds, either unconscious in a coma or vaguely conscious but in a
dazed state.

Healing magic could be worked into this by saying cure light wounds and
healing potions restore 1/4 of maximum HP, cure serious 1/2, cure critical or
extra-healing potion 3/4, and heal spell for restore all of maximum hit
points.  This is basically the same as a number of other people have
suggested.

But to integrate magical healing into the above scheme for natural healing,
if the character is a negative hit points, each 1/4 of maximum hit points
restored by magic could instead be used to restore one negative hit point.
So if a heal spell is cast on someone at -2 HP, 2/4 of the healing would
go to raise HP to zero, and the remaining 2/4 would raise the character to
50% of his maximum HP.

So even magical healing has little affect on someone who is at negative
hit points.

This is just an idea that came to me, but it looks like a useful one to
me, especially since a character will function at essentially peak
performance whether he has lost 1 HP or 100, just so long as he has at
least one HP left.

BTW- This would also not allow characters at negative HP to be bound to
zero as i done in a number off campaigns I've seen.


/----------------------------------------+------------------------------\
| Jeff Standish, Dreamwalker, and        |  morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu  |
| Morpheus Nosaferatu, The Dream Vampyre | standish@mentor.cc.purdue.edu |
| Too many minds trapped in one body.    |     Reality is for those      |
| And it would be a human one, at that.  |   who can't handle fantasy.   |
\----------------------------------------+-------------------------------/
From: mittman1@athena.mit.edu (Christopher T Chiu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Spelljammer's in, Greyhawk's out! (Was Re: T$R dropping Spelljammer?)
Date: 10 Jan 93 19:36:15 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Phil Dutre writes:
>Last week I heard a rumour that T$R intends to drop the Spelljammer range
>of products. Does anyone know more about this?

While Spelljammer is one of the most unpopular game settings
for AD&D, T$R is still going to support it--they're going to
release at least half a dozen new products for SJ.  Greyhawk,
on the other hand, is only getting 4 new products this year,
and the entire line up even with the new products will 
be very small.  It seems faith in Greyhawk is disappearing
up in Lake Geneva.

Can anybody come up with some explanations?

From a curious adventurer,
Genghis
mittman1@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: mehawk@agora.rain.com (Michael Sandy)
Subject: Re: Walking Bandages
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 06:59:07 GMT

Earlier I proposed that the cleric have variety in their healing spells.

Standard Cure, instantly heals wound.
Loan of Strength, temporarily adds x2 Standard as _temporary_ healing,
cannot excede maximum hit points.
Life loan, temporarily adds x3 or x4 Standard, doubles, (or other penalty)
damage previously taken when duration ends.
Safe Healing, x5 or more Standard Healing, character will heal that
many hit points in one weeks rest.  No other magical healing possible,
can keep characters alive when their loan is up, if you don't mind
sleeping for a week.

Alternately, all healing also requires significant rest or 
significantly reduced effects.  For example, using CLW without the
subject resting for an hour would only heal1 hit point.

The power that turns the Cleric into a walking band aid factory
may be the instant effect part.  If you make the _instant_ heal
more expensive, in time or spell power.  If you choose the "loan
of strength option", I reccommend having the duration be "thematically
appropriate" rather than a fixed duration, with a maximum duration
associated with complete rest or inaction by the subject of
the spell.

Hope these ideas help...


-- 
Michael Sandy
mehawk@agora.rain.com
michaels@m2xenix.psg.com
"The above does not reflect the views of any organization."
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: was28667@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (palamino)
Subject: net book of traps?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:30:19 GMT


I've been working on a competition-like module for a couple of groups here
and I'm running out of time to prepare it.  I seem to remember someone in
this group mentioning a netbook of traps - did I dream that or is it real?

If someone could mail it to me or tell me where to find it, I'd be most
appreciative...

thanks,
palamino

-- 

					 my .sig is in the shop for repairs.
From: pmenard@cse.unl.edu (Patrick Menard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: The Complete Book of Elves
Date: 12 Jan 1993 03:03:12 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cse.unl.edu

Well, I think the madness is starting to slow down a bit.  I just got the
Elves book, and after 127.4 straight hours of reading it, I'm almost happy.
It seems that those wonderful people at TSR peaked when making the Bard book
By comparision to all other books in the line, the Bard book was leagues ahead
of the Dwarves book and Thieves book.(the others really aren't worth mentioning)
When I heard of the Elves book coming out, I feared I'd have to throw away my
new Half-Elf Bard in favor of the new master race, Elves.

Well, I was so damn happy I was wrong I couldn't believe it.  The Elves book
has many nifty things and only one major screw-up.  It doesn't throw off the
balance of power much at all, with the exception that there needs to be a
Complete Book of Humans, the forgotten race.

The only problem I had was with the Bladesinger and the Bladesong style.
First of all it says there are 2 kinds of people who learn the bladesong
technique, Bladesingers and everyone else.  For everyone else, you spend a
slot on the weapon for proficiency and then 2 or 3 slots on Bladesong
Fighting style.  This gives a +1 to AC or +1 to hit or a free parry.(only 1
of the three in any given round) or +2 to AC or +2 to hit or a free parry
when 3 slots are spent.(the free parry mentioned is in addition to all other
attacks)

Ok, so the Bladesong is covered, fine.  Then you page back to kits and find
the Bladesinger and find he(she) only gets a +1 to hit and +1 to damage.
It doesn't state whether or not this is from the bladesong, but it does state
that the +1 to hit and +1 damage are the maximum and furthur training will
not increase this.  Well, if a War Wizard can learn the style and get a +2,
why would one become a Bladesinger?  Thus I quickly made a clarification
stating the +1's that the Bladesinger are not from the Bladesong style and
that they could take the Bladesong Style and get full benefits.  I also made
it clear that the Bladesong style could not be combined with other weapon 
styles.(two-handed,two-weapon, weapon & shield, and especially single-weapon)
other than this I find the work satisfactory and well worth getting.
the new rules for bows are VERY nice and Archers can shoot a volley of arrows
each round.(up to 5) of course, encumbrance for arrows carried becomes VERY
important as they will be used up quite quickly.

As I said, a good book overall.

Shadow

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: lowell@locus.com (Lowell Morrison)
Subject: Re: Cursed Items - Why?
Keywords: magic items, cursed items, wizards
Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Los Angeles, California
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 17:58:24 GMT

In article <79588@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:
>In article <79522@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:
>
>>Isn't there a chance that making a weapon fails.  If it does, does it have
>>to end up as a non-magical weapon?  Why not a cursed on instead? :-)
>
>When creating a magic item, there's a chance that it won't work.  The process
>is corrupted (at least, I seem to remember this), and something goes wrong.
>I'd always assumed that this is how most cursed items come about.  They're
>accidents, not something that the mage was trying to make.
>
>This, of course, begs the question:  Why wouldn't the mage just destroy
>it?  Two reasons I can think of:
>
>First, an evil mage might give it to a low-level party just for kicks.
>
>Second, the mage himself might not even realize that his spells failed.  He
>gives the item to whomever it was created for, under the false impression
>that it is a help to said person.  This person, of course, won't realize it
>until it's too late....
>
And in addition since the fighter asked for a particular combination
of powers (and paid through the nose for it), and the magic user knows
well and good that the spells didn't fail, it may still be considered
cursed anyway.  I had a character request a set of powers, and when she 
got the sword was as pleased as punch, that is until she felt coompeled
to attack a balrog single handed.  She died of course, and the next owner
did the same thing.  The particular powers she requested insured that the
owner would fearlessly attack any deamon.  It wasn't cursed, really....
<chortle>....


Uncle Wolf

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd