HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: CX6L <CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: Re: GURPS: Combat as a Quick Contest
Organization: McGill University
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 21:17:48 GMT

In article <1992Sep30.195438.18700@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine) writes:
>You just have to be creative about the things that you throw against
>the PCs, as you said. Our best games aren't combat oriented, anyway.
>We had a blast last saturday night and nobody ever drew a weapon.

Yes, I agree. We have gone for whole adventures without violence until
the very final encounter. This is *despite* the fact that my campaign
is Gothic Low Fantasy with a lot of necromancy and other nastiness in
the wings. The moral: if you post only about combat, maybe you're
thinking about it too much!


______________________________________________________________________
|      From the Most Holy Keyboard of:                               |
|      Dr Manfred Kromm, Reverend of the Temple of the Squid God,    |
|      Professor of Quantum Parapsychology.                          |
|____________________________________________________________________|
|           )                               "This won't hurt a bit.  |
|  |========|OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO>------      Afterwards . . . you'll |
|           )                                see things MY way!"     |
|____________________________________________________________________|
From: z_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Star Wars questions
Date: 26 Sep 92 17:06:37 CST
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

> merricb@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (The ELF) writes:
> 
>>One question I have for you (and everyone else here): 
>>	How many skill points do you give out per adventure?
> 
>>In our group, the general award (recently) has been from 20-30 skill points
>>per session (about 6-10 hours). As a result, my character, Eric Rakor, is
>>over 500 pts, with 8D piloting & 7D+1 ss gunnery (Yes, he is a brash pilot).
>>[He has 6 force points]... this is after about 20-25 of these sessions.
> 
>>Is this a lot compared to everyone else? Or does everyone give out more
>>than the 3-10 suggested by WEG?
> 

	I usually give out 6-8 points per session, and I don't think I've ever
given out more than 12 at one time.

Brandon Cope
From: dhenry@plains.NoDak.edu (David Henry)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: WFRP: Castle Drachenfells
Date: 30 Sep 92 18:27:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20831
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network

>|> I dunno, I still think it bears repeating for any newbie WFRPers out there:
>|> 
>|> 	THE DOOMSTONES SUCK RAW WARP PHLEGM! STAY AWAY!
>|> 
>
>I certainly don't agree here. I've mastered all 4 modules and it was one of
>the most entertaining campaigns we ever played. The best of them all
>was Death Rock. What an atmosphere!

I'll agree that Death Rock was the best by far -- indeed, in and of itself,
it's actually completely usable. However, the rest of the Doomstones I found
to be too obviously shaded by their conversion from old, independant AD&D
supplements (found as the Compleat Adventurer).

>
>As for any new adventures, GW doesn't support WFRP anymore. In the Reader's
>survey of WD154 (Oct 92), WFRP is nowhere mentioned. In the index register (WD154)
>of all WD issues 100-153, WFRP isn't mentioned. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th
>edition is renamed Warhammer (no distinction between FB & FRP). So, WFRP is
>dead, and this time it's for sure.

This is interesting news, and I thank you for presenting it.

Hrmmm... another good system, down the tubes.

*Sigh*.

"Oh, Bloodletters are nothing! Wait 'till you meet the Khornish Game Hens!"
	--yet another charming saying from my Warhammer players
-- 
David R. Henry - Rogue Fan Club - CTHULHU in '92! Why vote for LESSER evils?
For Kate is a jealous God, and requires sacrifice./What was your question?--K
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"-P9fOS // Thanks... for the memories.--Rogue
dhenry@plains.nodak.edu * ud137927@ndsuvm1.bitnet * ud137927@vm1.nodak.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: bragg@toffee.cns.udel.edu (Batmite)
Subject: DC Heroes...Batmite
Keywords: Batmite stats...
Organization: The Green Circle Of Vengence
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:03:45 GMT

	I've heard somewhere that there are Batmite stats for DC Heroes.  Does
anyone know where it's located?  I'm not up on Batman stuff in recent years, so
is it in the new Batman source book (if it's even out)?


-- 
Adam Bragg                  |Remeber kids, don't try this at home, this
bragg@freezer.cns.udel.edu  | should only be done by professional
darkwing@ravel.udel.edu     |  idiots!       --Plucky Duck 
                          SPOON!
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim)
Subject: Re: Illumination in RPGs
Keywords: Illuminatti, Masons, Secret Societies
Organization: Rice University
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 19:19:12 GMT

  In our Ars Magica campaign set in Scotland, I have a covenant of lost
Criamon magi who were travelling through a forest in France, and somehow
ended up in Scotland. 
  Two of the other players got it right off, and nobody else had any clue
what they were laughing about.




-- 
Mike Swaim            | Canada will become the next world power
swaim@owlnet.rice.edu | and they will work to ENSLAVE all the nations
Disclamer: I lie      | of your planet. -Ricardo
Cthulhu in '92! The stars are right!
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: WereVamp->Ars?
Originator: jmkaraka@c00070-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 21:42:32 GMT


|>>Bad call on the storyteller's part. If you smart off to an Elder and the
|>>Storyteller wants you to be Dominated, then he dominates you. End of Story.
|>>Letting dice make the storytelling decisions in a case like this is IMHO
|>>something that shouldn't happen in any system, but especially not in
|>>Werewolf or Vampire.

|>  Why? If the character's virtually impossible to dominate, he should be
|>virtually impossible to dominate. Personally, I hate "it advances the story
|>I want to tell" as a game mechanic. If something happens to advance the
|>story, that's well and good. But if you give NPCs breaks that you don't
|>give the players, then you're screwing with them. I seriously doubt that
|>any storytellers are giving PCs breaks on things like this, so why should
|>NPCs?
|>
|>Mike Swaim            | Canada will become the next world power


      I heartily agree.  What use is having a high willpower if it doesn't
work like a high willpower?  Obviously twisting the game rules is a sure way
to turn off your players.  
      A good example is our last Vampire campaign
(Diablerie Mexico, BTW).  After painstaking planning we rushed the boss of the
place and were Devastating him.  To make things 'more interesting' the GM
increased his generation by one (during the combat!) and conveniently let an
attack blow him behind the altar that he was standing to ONE SIDE of.  Needless
to say, he healed up in a split second, came out and killed 2/3 of our party.
The campaign ended that night.

     -john 'Caitiff, Caitiff, Caitiff' karakash-
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine)
Subject: Re: LOOKING FOR DQUEST...
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 05:39:07 GMT

In article <peters.717369833@physics.ubc.ca> peters@physics.ubc.ca (Dan Peters) writes:
>charles.summerhill@grapevine.lrk.ar.us (Charles Summerhill)  writes:
>
>>                                              Specifically I am looking
>>for Arcane Wisdom, old "Dragon" articles pertaining to it, and any
>>modules that someone might have.  Please post back with any information
>>you might have.
>
>I could be wrong here, but I was under the impression that Arcane Wisdom
>never quite made it into existence. (The "almost ready" signal from SPI
>came just before they got swallowed up by T$R.) Does anyone have any more
>information on this?
>

I dont' know if it ever made it out -- I've never been able to find it
-- but most of the contents of Arcane Wisdom can be found in the Third
Edition DQ that was released by TSR a couple years back to preserve
their copyright. Mostly, I hate the third edition -- they did some
horrible things to the non-human experience point systems and totally
excised the colorful Colleges of Black Magic and Greater Summonings,
including the exhaustive and detailed demon descriptions. But I have a
copy that I use to get the news stuff that was added from Arcane
Wisdom -- several new magical colleges and a section on herbalism,
among others things. But my stock rule is "Whenever there is a
discrepancy between Second and Third Edition, Second edition rules."

A subset of what is in th e3rd edition can be found in the TSR module
DQ1, "The Shattered Statue." It's actually quite a good module and
introduces the Colleges of Rune Magics and Shaping Magics.

I have a hunch that TSR diddled with some of the Arcane Wisdom stuff a
bit, so some of the spell descriptions and success chances may not be
what was intended by the original authors.


-- 
scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu -- Stuart M. Castergine
Fiver: "Oh, Hazel, look! The field! It's covered with blood!"
Hazel: "Don't be silly, it's only the light of the sunset." -- Watership Down
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com (TheFoxx "AJ")
Subject: Re: LARP: close combat
Reply-To: foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com
Organization: "Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville AL"
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 18:22:59 GMT

taylorje@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (TAYLOR JASON EDMOND) writes:
|> foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com writes:
|> >I have a question about live-action role-play games in general.  
|> >What methods/mechanics/means-of-resolution have you experienced 
|> >which were good for characters to resolve close combat?  I mean 
|> >extremely close conflict like a fist-fight in a bar or knife 
|> >fight in an alley.  These are situations where acting out normal 
|> >combat even with padded/fake weapons could still cause injury.
|> >
|> >It seems that there are some genres of role-playing where such
|> >conflict would be expected at least infrequently.
|> >
|> >[delete]
|> 
|> 
|> IFGS has actually worked out a close combat system that allows
|> players to really "fight" with padded weapons. [delete]


The IFGS system is good, however, it (and other mock weapon
systems) has a problem with conflict that is closer than typical
hand-to-hand melee.  I would like to deal with situations like
the mobster with a gun in your back, the typical bar-room brawl,
pinning the vampire into his coffin, etc.  Furthermore, I would 
like a free trip to Australia.  Overall, I would like to see a 
system where the characters are free to combat among themselves 
without as much overseeing by GM's or other "staff."
   ] Andrew "AJ" Foxx           
   ] foxx@foxxjac.b17a.ingr.com 
   ] home of the incredible dying mailer
From: mj173798@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Michael Emil Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: GURPS play-by-mail
Date: 5 Oct 92 02:00:46 GMT
Organization: Colorado State U. Engineering College


	I'm attempting to organize play by e-mail GURPS campaign for the first
time. Any info on rules mod's required to make the game playable would be really
helpful.  I particularly need to know how time is managed, and how to run combat.

				thx 
					TH1
From: porterg@gems.vcu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: 3G^3 Questions
Date: 28 Sep 92 10:42:37 -0400
Organization: Medical College of Virginia


Re: The 3G^3 questions:

1) Binary propellant.  One, tradition.  Cartridges have been used for so long
that a weapon without them seems ludicrous.  An example is the fact that a
Model T uses the same engine technology as a Corvette, despite a number of
new and wonderful advances in types of internal combustion engines.  Two, tech
limitations.  Right now, I think we could make this type of weapon, but
I don't know if we could do one that could handle combat conditions.  Three,
legal problems.  If some bozo overloads their weapon and it blows up, the
gun company will have its butt sued off, even if it's the bozo's fault.

2) 10:1 rounds.  I think 5:1 is a practical limit for rounds without sabots.

3) The 4,000m/sec limit is based on air friction.  You end up melting your
projectile if fired in an atmosphere.  In thinner atmospheres this would be
higher, and in vacuum there is no limit.

4) Particle accelerator efficiency.  Because I felt like it, honestly.  They
seem less efficient in all regards, and I wanted to keep it consistent.
Practically, I believe there will be higher losses in charging up a storage
bank that is at the voltages required for a particle beam weapon, than for
an equivalent laser.  I *do not* have enough real-world data to make a
really good estimation, since particle beam weapons are few, far between,
and classified as hell.

5) I think there are 15 pellets in a normal 00 Buck shell, but this varies
with whether it is a 2 3/4" or 3" shell.  They are 8.3mm each, and the energy
is divided by the number of them.

6) Pistols.  I have no idea why.  But, I know that a high quality 9mm pistol
costs the same as a high quality 7.62mm rifle.  You basically pay double if
the weapon is designed to be fired in one hand without penalty.  In a legal
sense, a 12cm barrel weapon would be a pistol anyway, even with a shoulder
stock.  Note that a pistol with a long barrel and detachable shoulder stock
is still a pistol for cost and legality purposes, if you can fire it one-handed
without taking any penalties to hit.

Later,

Greg Porter

P.S. There is a 3G^3 folder in the company support area of America On-Line.
If you have access and want to share anything with the AOL crowd, please do
so.  We shall also be putting variant rules and occasional designs there for
your amusement.

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jmb@oclc.org (James Blight)
Subject: Re: Bushido
Organization: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 20:23:49 GMT

In article <BvKAF8.Iso@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> joshua salter <jsalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> writes:
>
>	Hello, does anyone out there still play Bushido? I recently aquired
>a copy of this out of print game, and I was wondering whether anyone still knows of it's ex
>knows of it's existence.
>	

   Actually, I was wondering the same thing.  I'm working on a Bushido campaign
   for the gaming group I'm in.  It's a complex game, like all FGU games, I've 
   encountered.  ONly for expierienced players and GMs who've read the rules.
   Some folks in my group have declined the chance to play because they felt
   too restricted by the social castes.  Of course, this enforced stratification
   is really what seperates Bushido from other RPGs.

      -Jim
From: mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RFD: GURPS disad limits
Date: 2 Oct 1992 17:32:04 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: all
NNTP-Posting-Host: ichthous

agent86@netcom.com (Michael McBride) writes:
>          Should points gained from Lowering an attribute count toward
>that 40 point "limit"....also is this (in Your experience) a truly good
>disad limit?...would you recommend higher? or lower? and why?

As others have said, attributes of 8 don't count against the
40-point disad limit; attributes of 7 or less do count against
the limit though (eg, ST 7 uses up 20 points of your disad
limit).

The 40-point limit is pretty good, but I like treating it as a
"flexible rule" (ie, more than a "guideline", but not hard and
fast either).  Sometimes even 40 points worth of disads is too
many; a character with eight 5-point disads will often be very
difficult to play, even though it fits the 40-point limit.
Sometimes more than 40 points worth of disads makes sense; for
example, a character with 30 points of Complete Pacifism will
probably have more than 10 points of other "ethics" disads.

As Arne said (Hi, Arne!), even though having a genius with ST 8,
HT 8 doesn't count against the 40-point disad limit, it may not
be a great idea.  But if the character makes sense in the context
of your game/genre, and if you think it will fit in, then go for
it.  The main thing to watch out for is a character that will
spend a lot of time hiding or sitting around while the others are
busy.  Extreme specialists make good NPCs to round out a party,
but they make poor PCs.

Darin.McGrew@Eng.Sun.COM            He is risen!
    Soli Deo Gloria!                              He is risen indeed!

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: pmwg1641@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter M. White)
Subject: Re: A few minor SRII points
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 03:39:45 GMT

markl@dvorak.amd.com (Mark Luedtke) writes:

>....  I'd say raising Body or Will from 5 to 6 outweighs
>raising any skill you can think of the same way.  In SR, raising things that
>are normally used as target numbers should be expensive compared to raising
>things that are normally dice counts.  Attributes tend to be target numbers
>for a lot of things.  Spell resistance comes immediately to mind.  This rule
>must have been adopted to limit magic power, especially against experienced
>characters.

Best to avoid using attributes as target numbers, unless somehow you
do not see it as absurd that experienced runners consider it daring
to create a fresh character with a Bod or Will below 5.

I concur that raising an attribute is typically much more useful than
raising a skill.  Skills are mostly used offensively, while attributes
are mainly defensive.  Runners will kill what their gun is pointed at
nine times out of ten anyway, going from Firearms 6 to 7 isn't going
to change that much.  With the new armor rules, having a high Bod
is *very* important because you expect to spend karma to stay alive
in a firefight; spending multiple karma on rerolls multiplies the
opportunities for that a success.

>I will not allow any racial max stats below a 6 to be bought up at double the
>cost, or else all the metahumans will (cheaply) buy off their weaknesses.
>Maybe triple the cost for weaknesses.

I certainly agree with this.  I would think hard about *strongly* discouraging
metas from buying out of their racial peculiarities.  Face it: although
a Troll character may realize that a higher Willpower would be useful,
she would pride herself on her strength and therefore probably invest
the karma in having an absurd strength over merely impressive mental
attributes.  I see it as staying in character.


--Peter

______________________________________________________________________________
						|
     "Guards!  Let me draw their fire!"		|	p-white@uiuc.edu
		   --Scapegoat,_Marshal Law_	|
______________________________________________________________________________
From: minnotte@stat.rice.edu (Michael Minnotte)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: WereVamp->Ars?
Date: 4 Oct 92 19:30:30 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Statistics, Rice University

In article <LJe5RB1w165w@runic.via.mind.org> thantos@runic.via.mind.org (Paul Williams [SysOp]) writes:
>
>swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim) writes:
>
>> >Granted, the index is horrible, but Vamp II will rectify that...
>>   Look at the table of contents for AM III and say that again with a
>> straight face.
>
>   Aside  from  all  the other very good rebuttal in your message (most of
>        which I agreed  with  in  one  degree  or  another)  I  must  take
>        umberage with this comment.
>
>   I rather  like  the  organization  of  AM  ]I[.  Simple, modular, and a
>        really nice index.  Perhaps its just me...

I've loved the Ars Magica system for several years now, and in many
ways AM III was a great step forward, but the ToC and Index were not 
among them.

Yes, White Wolf included a table of contents and a huge index (after the
index was mentioned by almost everyone on the AM list as a true need),
but the ToC not only included no page numbers, the chapters were listed
in the wrong order!  And, as far as I've heard, the index matches the
order of the ToC, not reality.

Don't get me wrong; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend AM III.  It's a 
great system.  But I understand where Mike's coming from when he holds
it up as an example of why not to count on White Wolf for great
editing in the revision.

Mike Minnotte
From: cg181fab@icogsci1.ucsd.edu (Steerpike)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII -- a suggested Rep tweak
Date: 1 Oct 92 23:29:57 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <edu> ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen) writes:

>Wouldn't it make more sense that the more karma you get the "lower"
>your street rep is. Like if your realy good you want nobody to know you:
>BUT if your starting out nobody knows you anyway:
>Therefore only BAD shadowrunners will have a rep.
>*then how do you get contacted?
>through your fixer of course!

Hmm. Unless the GM of the game in question is _really_ lenient, I
don't see how (s)he could let you get away with this one. Basically
what you are suggesting is that there is only ONE person in the
entire city who knows how awesome your veteran shadowrunner is.
Because if the number in question is > 1, or if you fail to totally
hide your actions from all of your contacts, then word is going to
get out. Similarly, it is inevitable that each megacorp you go on a
'run against is eventually going to figure out who you are. 

And, for another point, who says your Fixer won't sell you out?
Assuming that he doesn't sell your identities to the highest bidder,
what prevents him from cheating you? Because, if he's the only one
who knows how experienced you are, then nobody else is going to pay
you as much per job.

I think FASA has it basically right -- you get a rep, no matter
what. Whether or not you have a high profile is something else. A
case in point is the highly-paid, highly-skilled assassin. "Yeah,
word has it that the rubout was pulled off by Neko. Of course,
nobody knows exactly who Neko is or where he lives...."

steerpike@ucsd.edu
"FASA slang totally sucks" -- Me
From: dhenry@plains.NoDak.edu (David Henry)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Call Of Cthulu V.5 -- Funsy Section Included
Date: 30 Sep 92 03:01:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20808
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network

>No, the great cartoons aren't there either.
>One new thing I enjoy is the expansion for the Dreamlands.  Not only
>do your investigators have to fear lurking horrors, but they also
>fear going to sleep.  (Especially after barely escaping the mad warlock
>who swore revenge...)

Notice for old time CoC fans, like this first editioner...

The Dreamlands section in the 5Ed is actually a three page summary of the
ENTIRE Dreamlands supplement, which used to be published separately. Suffice
to say that they dropped some material in transition.

Still, the 5Ed book is a great buy, because it's the best edited of all the
various Editions, has nice new interior art, has a wonderful section on the
Necronomicon, and has the best new CoC rules change since 2Ed added Healing
(that being, players now roll 1d10 instead of 1d6 for skill increases).
About the only thing that is substandard is the auto chase rules from 4Ed
are missing (and the ones in Dangerous Passages aren't as good), and
including all the spells in one place makes it overtempting for powergamers
to misunderstand what Cthulhu is about and give a bunch of Lesser Grimoire
spells to Investigators.

Plus, Chaosium has said that they're going to rerelease Dreamlands (this
will be Edition 3, for it). Another benefit from the House of Sticky Pods.
-- 
David R. Henry - Rogue Fan Club - CTHULHU in '92! Why vote for LESSER evils?
For Kate is a jealous God, and requires sacrifice./What was your question?--K
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"-P9fOS // Thanks... for the memories.--Rogue
dhenry@plains.nodak.edu * ud137927@ndsuvm1.bitnet * ud137927@vm1.nodak.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc