HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Disads in Play (was Re: Random Rolls)
Date: 26 Jan 93 21:52:09 GMT
Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA

In article <26JAN93.15760464.0088@VM1.MCGILL.CA> CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CX6L) writes:
>In article <1993Jan26.171711.16347@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:
>>In article <2507@blue.cis.pitt.edu> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>>In article <1993Jan25.171317.8199@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:
>
>>>>How long (and how much effort) would it take a cripple to perform a great
>>>>service for a godlike being?  Sounds to me like a long and difficult task,
>>>>that would earn (amazingly enough) enough points to cover the healing.
>
>Why couldn't the healing just happen, and the GM raise the value of
>the character as the disad is removed? *Shrug*. If, through good role-
>play, a PC earns something, then the PC deserves it. Bonus character
>points are *one* reward for good play. Generous material handouts are
>another . . the alleviation of a disad, or aquisition of an advantage,
>are both similarly valid. Nowhere in GURPS does it say that a GM cannot
>do this, or that the only reward for good roleplaying should be bonus
>character points.

	Good point here.  No problem.

>Why a godlike power? Any half-competant Healing mage with Restoration/
>Instant Restoration/Regeneration/Instant Regeneration and either a
>circle of good friends or a decent Powerstone, could heal the cripple
>magically in a very short time. There would be a nominal $$$ cost, if
>the healing were purchased. If a *player* (not GM) has the character
>healed just like that, *then* I could see the merits of charging for
>the removal of the disad. 

	Here, you lose me.  If: the character has sufficient funds, and the
healing is available, then why should the character getting healed take any
more time and effort than it would take to limp down to the College of
Chirurgery and plunking down your hard-earned semolyans?

Between adventures, when his pals were all
>off studying sorcery and racking up bucks and job skill points at
>jobs, the cripple was cruising the land at a mile per day looking
>for healers, gathering funds to pay healers, negotiating prices with
>healers, and lying in a bed being healed. Some of his character points
>were spent on doing this, instead. Exactly as many as the disad costs,
>in fact!

	This type of rationalization reminds me of the attempts of AD&D players
to justify their game's idiotic method of hit points and AC.  If the campaign
is set in or near a reasonable sized city, this just doesn't work.  

>|               -=-               |Dr Manfred Kromm can be reached at:|
>|     -Secrets of the Masons-     |-----> CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA <-----|
--
gharris@jade.tufts.edu          
George W. Harris              	"He'd kill us if he had the chance."  
Dept. of Mathematics            
Tufts University              			The Conversation
From: 9217088@ul.ie
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: TO O.R.A.C.
Date: 22 Jan 93 15:34:31 GMT
Organization: University of Limerick, Ireland


   Pete I would like my orks back soon.

    ^ ^ 
   Coyote
     V  The .sig hunter
    \_/
From: cluther@morticia.cnns.unt.edu (Clay Luther)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: River of Cradles (Possible Spoilers)
Date: 25 Jan 93 18:10:24 GMT
Organization: University of North Texas

millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:

>It's true. The RQ3 rules for generating new characters are seriously
>bogus. They underpower the characters in a big way for the adventures
>that are usually available. If you use the RQ4 playtest rules it isn't
>quite so bad, or you can say the characters have 10-15 years of RQ3
>experience but are still age 21 (it's a fudge, but it works).

Well, I don't think he was complaining about his character's power level, 
or the RQ3 method of generating characters.

He was complaining that the author of the characters in the book had a 
seriously bogus idea of the skills and resources available to a 21 year old
*beginning* character.  I don't think a beginning character should have 6
gifts from previous resurrections in addition to 8 points divine magic *and*
a POW of 16, not to mention various bound spirits and magic items.

In other words, the author of the pre-generated characters showed a definite
lack of regard for "game realism" and a tendancy towards Monty Haulism that
could just put one of the game. ;)

Beginning characters should look like beginning characters, not experienced
40 year olds.
>I'm also surprised that the Arroyan healer in the book would have a
>quarterstaff attack at all. I thought they were prevented by geasa from
>using weapons to attack anything.

>-- 
>whoah,
>+++++++++++++++++++++++23
>Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
>Mediocrity is a hand rail.                         -- Baron de Montesquieu
-- 
Clay Luther
cluther@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Dave Sherohman)
Subject: Re: SRII Physical Adepts
Keywords: physical adept stealth
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 04:46:34 GMT

In article <1jndo2INNie0@gap.caltech.edu> damiens@cco.caltech.edu (Damien Sullivan) writes:
>My GM started our party off with very powerful characters for the game
>he wanted to run, so our PA was able to get a stealth skill of 16. (He
>concentrated almost all of his skills in stealth and firearms.)  One
>time we had to get past this magical barrier.  The decker and my character
>walked right through, but the drow mage had to open it for herself and
>the para-shifter phoenix.  Before she did, however, the PA got a very high
>success and sleazed past the barrier!!

I'm sorry, I just couldn't leave this ridiculousity untouched...  That strikes
me at about the same level as "before the techie could wire up the explosives
and blow the vault door, 'the PA got a very high success and sleazed past the
barrier!!'"  Convincing a wall that you aren't there doesn't work very well...

esper@ima.umn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRII Physical Adepts. No More! Please!
From: tmont@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Todd Montgomery)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 16:19:23 GMT
Organization: Concurrent Engineering Research Center
Keywords: Physical Adepts


OK.

Andre the CyberTroll(tm) vs. Harlequin (SRI Module) 

	DEAD Andre

Andre the CyberGanger(tm) vs. Decker Archetype

	DEAD Decker

Andre the CyberTrog(tm) vs. Combat Mage Archetype

	I'd lay money on the Mage personally.
	Except when Andre got close.
	"Me kill little man!"

Andre the CyberTrog(tm) vs. Western Dragon

	DEAD, Scorched, Andre

Andre the CyberTrog(tm) vs. Vampiric Comabt Mage from Total Eclipse

	DEAD, No Essence, Andre

Andre the CyberGanger(tm) vs. Other Gangers

	LOTS of DEAD Gangers

Andre the CyberTrog(tm) vs. Eclipse from Total Eclipse
	
	DEAD Andre, Severly hurt Eclipse

Andre the CyberGanger(tm) vs. Restaurant Maitre' De

	"I sit were I want!" 
	"YES Sure!"

Andre the CyberTroll(tm) vs. Fuchi Security

 	Security Guard 1: "Dang but that is one BIG troll."
	Security Guard 2: BANG, BANG, "STOP!"
	Security Guard 1: "Hand me my Panther Cannon, son."

Andre the CyberTrog(tm) vs. Physical Adept

	NO COMMENT!

Andre vs. the 9 billion normal people

	DEAD People

Physical Adept vs. Everyone

	Lots of blood guts and gore being spread around by nasty 
	baddies.
	Physical Adept: "I may be brave, but I ain't
		stupid. I think I'll just stay out of it."

Note: No Offense Andre'
Comedy is the sole use for this posting.

-- Quiktek
tmont@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga)
Subject: Re: SRII: Physical Adepts
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 18:25:49 GMT

wilder@nx02.mik.uky.edu (jeff wilder) writes:

>In <uplink.728005115@cwis> uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu (uplink 2099) writes:

>Axly, I think you were too hasty in awarding the "MotM" award to that 9d6
>initiative guy...


Well, maybe we should make it just a plain "Munchkin Medal". Of course,
he gets one with "Loaded D6 Clusters" for awards above and beyond
the call of common sense.

Axly
From: gorilla@cats.ucsc.edu (Christopher John Arnold)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Language of Britain.
Date: 24 Jan 1993 22:48:28 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


Not being a linguitics maor by any means I'm not the greatest of
authorities on the face of the earth, but being both a medievel-
ophile and a Welshman, I have studied this a bit.

Celtic languages are divided into two groups:
Brythonic: from which Welsh, Cornish and Breton are derived,
and Goidelic: from which Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, and Manx are derived.


Neither of these groups share any of the necessary similarities with
English to make it a member of that same language group.

Old English was brought to Britain by the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons
in the 5th-6th Century. It is a germanic language. Old English
bears many of the same grammatical, syntactical, and vocabulary
features of Danish, or German. 

Middle English was what happened when The Normans came to Britain in
1066. The Normans for one thing were Vikings that had settled in Northern
France and had assimilated the culture to some degree. The Vikings
were Northern Germanic language speakers, and French is a romance
language. No Celtic in there, save for the most remote of traces
of Gaulish for example. 

Middle English was then the Franco-Germanic blend that formed as a result.
Modern English is merely the evolution of Middle English. 

Check with a Linguistics professor.

-Chris

Chris Arnold gorilla@cats.ucsc.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mjg@world.std.com (Mitchell J Gross)
Subject: Re: Shadowrun 3 in discussion!
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:48:53 GMT

"You eeeediot!
 Stupid fool!
 You bloated sack of protoplasm!!!!!!!"
                  --- Ren Hoek

:)
-- 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<^>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>  Remember...                 <|>       mitchell j. gross     <
>                              <|>            a.k.a.           <
From: adam@endor.uucp (Adam Shostack)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SR: Characters
Date: 21 Jan 93 22:07:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: das.1993Jan21.220758.5095
Organization: Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Organization: Aiken Computation Lab, Harvard University
Keywords: 

In article <1993Jan19.150623.2733@uumeme.chi.il.us> drac@uumeme.chi.il.us (Bruce Maynard) writes:
>In article <1993Jan18.040927.20730@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> veltyen@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Richard Kershaw) writes:

>>one shock combat junkies as characters.
>>Now 2050 is not that far into the future, so I thought to myself why not
>>have the players create characters of themselves. Not as their
>>equivalents in 2050, but actually themselves.

>You know, I've often thought about doing something similar... sometime soon, I
>plan to have my players "walk out the door after a gaming session...
>and suddeenly realize that the skyline is totally different; they
>turn around and... there's a wall where they had just left a house."

>They'll find that each of 'em has stats assigned and each seems to
>have a credstick instead of a wallet/purse/whatever... 

Why should they have credsticks?  Let them hope no one closed out
their Amex accounts after they disapeared...  :) :)

Adam
Adam Shostack 				       adam@das.harvard.edu

"If we had a budget big enough for drugs and sexual favors, we sure
wouldn't waste them on members of Congress..."   -John Perry Barlow
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga)
Subject: Re: SRII PhysAds
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:01:30 GMT
Keywords: Physical Adept Abilities

uplink@cwis.unomaha.edu (uplink 2099) writes:


>are all TROLLS.  I'm wielding a Combat Axe.  Dicoted, of course.
>>all I care.  You'll never beat a maxed out sam with a dikoted weapon
>I'm using a Ranger-X compound bow with dicoted arrows, doing 12M

Just curious, but just how does everyone justify having Dikote on
everything? Especially if you are playing sewer-dwelling scum..er,   
shadowrunners that is.  Dikote isn't easy to lay your hands on,
and it's expensive. Heck, we here at Ares can barely afford to
Dikote our heavy security armor and helmets, and we're a huge
multinational that guns down shadowrunners like they were
paper targets. (*waves* Hi Redwing!) For a bunch of shadowrunners
to have that much Dikote, they'd have to be working for a corp.

Axly


********************************************************************************
*  Axly             *  "... and grenades are also useful for digging foxholes, *
*  Red Sword Targa  *   removing unwanted shrubbery, unclogging drains..."     *
*                   *      -Axly's Book of Explosives for Pyromaniacs          *
********************************************************************************


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: man@magwien.gv.at (Andreas Manessinger)
Subject: Re: RM, Shadow World
Organization: Gemeinde Wien, MD-ADV/Md Ref. EPS
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 19:56:06 GMT

>>>>> On 21 Jan 1993 23:16:42 -0700, cook@shaman.nexagen.com said:
 cook> NNTP-Posting-Host: shaman.nexagen.com

 cook> Hi. Just thought I'd let you know that I'm now on the net. If you want to ask any questions or make any comments, I'd love to hear from you here or at:

Hi. I'm glad to see someone from inside ICE on the net. I currently
plan a campaign in `Shadow World' for mid-summer and am very eager to
know what SW modules are planned next. I just bought `Eidolon' and
it's one of the best FRP sourcebooks I've ever seen. Great really. But
back to my question. I want to use as much of the books as possible
and let the players as much freedom as possible. I mean freedom to
decide where to go and what to do. Therefore I need an area of
`Kulthea' that has many "known places". Currently I think `Norek' in
`Jaiman' would be a nice place to start, although there's not much
background about the town itself in the book, so I'm afraid I'll have
to invest a lot of work beforehand. `Sel-Kai' would be much better as
a homeplace for my players but there's little known about it's
environment as is about `Emer' in general. Some upcoming books about
`Emer' could change the situation.

I think `Shadow World' is a great series and it's already playable as
a world itself, but what I'd really appreciate would be more
information about the geographical and political situation in `Emer'
and `Jaiman'.  I suppose `Raakhan' is a land as big as for instance
France, and think of the many things you'd have to mention to
characterize France and it's history. A line of sourcebooks about the
major states on the two continents (of course others could follow :-)
would be a big help.

I think, the decision to concentrate on Rolemaster and to drop Fantasy
Hero in SW was good. It make the books much more readable and maybe FH
gamers didn't accept it anyway.


--
    /\            | eMail: man@magwien.gv.at (Andreas Manessinger)
   /  \ndreas     | pMail: Alserstra"se. 20/6; A-1090 Wien; Austria
  /\/\ \          | Work : Gemeinde Wien MD-ADV/Ma; Ref. EPS
 / /  \anessinger | Phone: +43 222 4039584/13, FAX: 4039584/18, Home: 9350434
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Spacemaster (was Re: Rolemaster)
Date: 26 Jan 93 17:08:26 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu

>cook@shaman.nexagen.com writes:
>> If there are any other product suggestions that anyone has, I'd lke to hear 
>> about them--dealing with Rolemaster or any other ICE product line. What
>> do you want to see in the future, what have/haven't you liked that we have
>> put out so far, etc.

	Okay, here goes.

	Overall: Rolemaster is a pretty good system. I'd use it a lot more
if I didn't have so much of my world constructed around other, incompatible,
systems.

	Good Things: I use the RM advancement chart almost exclusively now.
The advancement of characters in other XP based systems (notably D&D)
was so ludicrous that to see a simple system like RM's was very refreshing.
	   Skill Listings: Even if you don't play RM, it provides more neato-
wow-skill descriptions and so on...
	   Monsters and Treasures: I love 'em. RoleMaster's C&T compendia
have such great assortments of items and original creatures.
	   Odds and ends: things like the special abilities charts (Background
options -- though I'd like a MUCH longer listing of really interesting
stuff, rather than mostly +x to Z bonus -- and none of the ones from the
first rules, where you got a nice advantage and immediately got a nasty
disadvantage; if people are going to spend their picks on these, I want
them to get something really nice).

	Problems:

	The first and really MAJOR gripe I had with the SpaceMaster series
was the psionics rules. I had expected something new and interesting, on
a level with the spell rules.
	I did NOT expect ICE to just take the spell rules and slap the
kludged-up word "psion" wherever "spell" showed up (and you didn't even
GET all of those right; on one of the lists in the books I have, it
says "number of spell lists...").
	This was severely disappointing; I'd hoped to have a new and 
useful psionics system to compare with the others out there, not a
rather lazy trick of search-and-replace.

	With all the new skills and so on out there, you've expanded the 
number of things people can learn to do... but there isn't an official 
expansion of skill points. 
	Originally, with the fairly diverse number of skills, the points
people got worked okay. However, it is now to the point that you have 
so many skills that it nearly rivals Real Life -- but the skill points 
don't permit people to learn a number of skills at the level of a 
talented person in real life.

	More as I think of them.


					Sea Wasp
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga)
Subject: Re: SR: General Stuff
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:05:45 GMT

veltyen@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Richard Kershaw) writes:

>(4) The whole "toe to toe" "I can beat you" thing.

>Silly children, Shadowrunners are _NOT_ mercs. Think of them as
>freelance spys and mischeif makers, not cannonballs. A spy will
>revert to violence on two conditions, 1. he will win, 2. he has no
>other choice. Your Runners have a much higher survival chance if they
>think like that as well.

Darn straight. The biggest advantage that going first gives Samurai
(Or really powerful PA's) is getting behind something (or someone)
solid when the lead is flying.

Axly

********************************************************************************
*          Axly                  *   BLAM. BLAM.                               *
*      Red Sword Targa           *   "Stop."                                   *
*    "Sword's Path: Glory"       *   BLAM. BLAM.                               *
*                                *   "Police."                                 *
*                                *       -Officer Axly                         *
********************************************************************************

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga)
Subject: Re: SRII Combat System: Bugs
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:52:45 GMT

flindholm@mta.ca writes:

>  I think Flashpaks opereate for about 10 minutes before conking out the
>batteries are rechagable. 

I think they'd last a bit longer than that. They use a strobe light on
survival vests for people that work on carrier flight decks and the
battery is supposed to last for quite some time, at least 1/2 hour.

> Flash grenades only flash the one round but their
>effects last beyond it. 
> Since grenades go off at the end of the turn,

Just curious, but I hear lots of people mention this "grenades go off at
the end of the turn" thing. Is this a rule actually in the book, or 
is a house one? If it is, it seems kind of silly to set grenades for
anything *but* contact when you have people who can run 25 meters, fire
two bursts of SMG fire, and still have to time to throw a grendage back
at you. I have always assumed you could set grenades to go off on
contact, especially for grenade launchers.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: JLOCK00@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (Joseph L. Lockett)
Subject: Re: Celts
Organization: Rice University  
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 08:10:16 GMT

In article <1jmvjrINNeei@titan.ucs.umass.edu>
dunkelza@titan.ucs.umass.edu (KEITH C 'DunkelKopf' MCCORMIC) purports:
>  Your * comment actually strengthens the argument for the "Germanic" tribes
>if not being Celts, being influenced by them.  My point though all this
>is actually that English is a Celtic tongue and not a Germanic one.  Yes, I
>know that people will try to flame me for this, but when you look at the
>history of England, the only people to have held it for any length of
>time, and the only people who were rpesent throughout english history were
>the celtic tribes.  The Angles and Saxons only controlled britain for a
>few hundred years before the French/Norse/Germanic/Celtic Normans invaded
>and took over in 1066.  Yet through all this, the descendants of the Celtic
>tribes, still speaking their native tongues, lived in England, Scotland,
>Wales, and Ireland.  Something I feel definitely needs some research put
>into it.
 
Good God, the Celto-Fascist Conspiracy continues!  English a Celtic language?
Where the heck do you get this concept, DunkelKopf?  Is it as well documented
as your other claims?  (i.e., "I saw it somewhere, but I can't find the
reference and I'm too lazy to look it up"?).  Yes, I will freely admit that
groups with Celtic roots and languages still exist in the British Isles and
surrounds.  But have you ever studied Old English, or German for that matter?
Perhaps this is just an attempt to lay claim to your pseudonym as a Celtic
product....
 
People can be numerous without being dominant, and are more than likely to
soak up the language of the rich and powerful ('slumming' being a fairly
recent sociological development, I think, at least linguistically (-:).
It's the old saw about names of meat on the hoof, as 'twere, being in
Saxon-derived names, and the meat on the table being in French-derived
terms.  Go read your Chaucer, study some German, and quit trying to turn
the whole world into a bunch of kissing Cymric cousins.  You sound like
one of the UFO nuts from sci.space.
 
-- Joseph L. Lockett
   Hamman Hall Manager
   Rice University, Houston, TX
 
Rice doesn't speak for me, nor I for Rice.  At least not in NetNews....
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jacobus@symphony.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Subject: Re: RQ: Post-Troubled Waters (River of Cradles *SPOILERS*)
Organization: Purdue University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 23:53:27 GMT

In article <cluther.728173555@morticia> cluther@morticia.cnns.unt.edu (Clay Luther) writes:
>
>opressed is never very kind.  So, in the interest of discussion, as the fame of
>these new River Voices grows and the word of their deeds reaches the ears of
>someone like, say, the honorable Sor-Eel, how would the Lunar reaction play
>out?



Given what I know about Lunar psychology (not lots, but a bit), I'd say that
they would either try to buy those heroes, kill those heroes, or buy and THEN
kill those heroes.


It all depends upon how competent and/or paranoid the nearest Lunar with real
authority is.  A competent leader would try to get the new heroes on the
side of the Lunar Empire by hook or by crook.  A paranoid one would simply
try to kill them.  An incompetent one might try to do both.  Is the honorable
Sor-Eel competent enough to go after talent?

Of course, if a competent leader is rebuffed solidly enough, the conclusion
might be reached that such a threat should not be allowed to exist.