HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: urban@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Art Urban (PROFS))
Subject: Re: GURPS character questions
Organization: Atmospheric Technology Division/NCAR Boulder, CO
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 15:27:56 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.161230.58558@cc.usu.edu> sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:
%First, in your campaign, how many points and how much starting money 
%do your players get to build characters? How many characters do the
%players have? Please mention the type of campaign/setting when you 
%answer.

Setting: Fantasy with normal magica levels.

Characters are built on 125 points, however, I enforce that characters are
firt made with 100 points, *then* spend the extra 25. In other words, If you
still want to raise an attribute, it costs double. This gives us a consistent
starting point for *all* characters, knowing they were all built on a 100 point
base.

Each character gets 1000 silver.

Each player runs 1 character.

%Second, how much experience do you award? Do you award individual 
%experience to players/characters who play well or do something out-
%standing? What do you award experience for? What things do you look 
%for when deciding how much experience you will give?

I award 1/2 point per hour of game play. Each character gets the same points
as long as they contribute to the game. I personally have a problem with
judging other people's role-playing values; *it's not a contest*!

%Finally, when do you give experience? Let's say you begin a sceanrio --
%the players leave on a trip, go into a battle or embark to solve some
%problem. You get half way through the event and the game ends for the
%evening. Do you award experience? Must the characters seek training to
%use their experience points? If you do award experience ``mid-adventure,''
%do you put limits on how the characters can use their points? Limits
%such as they are only able to improve skills they have used during that
%session/game? 

I award session character points at the end of each session (i.e., not the
end of the game/campaign). Players put tick marks next to skills they used
during play, and can spend points on them at the end of the session.

If the character begins to use a skill on defaults during game play, I will
allow the player to spend character points on it after a month of use.

--
Art Urban 					       urban@stout.atd.ucar.edu
===============================================================================
 "What's Next? Chasing bunnies on a motorbike until their hearts explode? -Crow
===============================================================================
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
Subject: Re: SRUN: A few observations
Organization: (DESY, Hamburg, Germany)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 15:51:32 GMT

In article <LEE.92Aug28143125@coredump.npac.syr.edu>, lee@coredump.npac.syr.edu (Lee C Brink) writes:
> every side had an equal chance or coming up.  How do you get the 50% better
> chance of getting a 5 over a 6?  Of course, if it's a biased die....

You're trying to roll greater than or equal to the target number; thus
P(5|6)=1/3; P(6)=1/6 = P(5|6)/2. QED. However, in SR you get to re-roll if
you get a 6, so getting exactly 6 is impossible! Thus:

      Target      Probability
        1              5/6        (1 always fails)
        2              5/6
        3              2/3
        4              1/2
        5              1/3
        6              1/6
        7              1/6
        8              5/36
        9              1/9
       10              1/12
       11              1/18
       12              1/36
       13              1/36

and so forth. This is a little weird, and I'm not sure that FASA really knew
what they were doing when they invented it, but in practice it seems to work
pretty well, and if you start trying to change it you're likely to unbalance
things.

e----><----p | Stephen Burke           | Internet: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
 H   H   1   | Gruppe FH1T (Liverpool) | DECnet:   vxdesy::burke (13313::burke)
 H   H  11   | DESY, Notkestrasse 85   | BITNET:   BURKE@DESYVAX or SB2@UKACRL
 HHHHH   1   | 2000 Hamburg 52         | JANET:    sb2@uk.ac.rl.ib
 H   H   1   | Germany                 | Phone:    + 49 40 8998 2282
 H   H 11111 | HERA, the world's largest electron microscope!
From: phi@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Steven Mancini)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Punk Rocketeer's .sig
Date: 27 Aug 92 23:54:01 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Punk Rocketeer)'s .sig reads:
>Patrick S. Clark | When the world's in trouble I am not slow.
>Email is life!   | So it's hip-hip-hip and away I go!
>Usual Disclaimer | (You should know this one.)

'In the secret compartment of my ring I fill
 With an Underdog Super Energy Pill!'

'There's No need to FEAR!  UNDERDOG Is HERE!'



Aeleck, ancient underdog fanatic.......
                       /                  /  
                      /                  /        
     __      __      /   __      __     /         
    /  \    /  \    /   /  \    /  \   / \        "If you're not having
   /   /   /\__/   /   /\__/   /      /\_/         fun, you're doing some-
   \__/\__/\___/__/\__/\___/__/\___/ /   \__/      thing wrong." -Patrick
From: at731@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Troy L. Nothnagel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: HELP: painting figurines
Date: 4 Sep 1992 14:42:58 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: at731@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Troy L. Nothnagel)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou) says:

>I need help painting a few figurines of mine.  I read about a technique
>called "washin" to help you shade a figurine.  You are supposed to wash
>the figurine in a blackish (or at least a dark) mixture and then paint
>on the prominent features of the figurine in a light color.  This wash is made
>from the watered-down dark paint.  
>
>For some reason, though I can't seem to get this to work right.  If I don't
>make the paint thick enough it goes all over the place.  If I make it thick
>enough then it sticks everywhere.  *sigh*  I guess making it "just right"
>is the problem but I can't get to that point.
>
>What I do instead is paint (thick paint) the figurine in particular color,
>then lighten up THAT color a little for the highlights.  This works pretty
>good but it doesn't really match the other techniques I have seen.

	About the only time I can get washing to work is when I've got a
large portion with a LOT of texture to it.  (A 'brick' type base, for
example.)  Usually I'll just drybrush with a darker color and drybrush
with the color I want.  Sometimes I'll even drybrush several times with
different colors each time rubbing the brush a little dryer each time so
that I get less and less paint for each coat.  For example, when doing
smoke I'll paint it all black and then drybrush with dark grey and then
a lighter grey, etc. until I get up to white.  Sometimes I'll even put a
layer or two of red or orange, maybe even green or blue depending on
what the source of the fire is.

-- 
Troy L. Nothnagel                                                      
at731@cleveland.Freenet.Edu                                            
"And for a gorilla, his English wasn't half bad." - Den of Earth
"No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time-a!" - Guard, MP&tHG
From: pfritsch@skid.ps.uci.edu (Paul Fritschle)
Subject: Re: CoC Campaigns (Was: Re: Call of Cthulhu Archives?)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: Campus Crusade for Cthulhu
Distribution: usa
Date: 29 Aug 92 01:51:29 GMT

As other posters have commented, mortality can be a major problem with
an ongoing campaign. However, this can be mitigated by careful GM-ing.
My group has gone on 3 adventures, all from the Chaosium books. (I
was starting with those since neither my players nor I had ever played
before.) First adventure *could* have killed them off, but that would
have been pointless. It taught them that, while guns are useless
probably against Great Cthulhu, they can be effective against body
parts. 8-) Two of them did go temporarily insane, however. Second
scenario was more risky, both in terms of sanity and life, but they
breezed through it w/out a scratch. Third scenario lost one character.
Wood axes wielded by madmen can be pretty nasty.. and of course when a
giant tree stomps you into the ground, well... 8-)
Anyhow.. I have hopes of making this an ongoing campaign. I am in the
process of writing my own scenarios. I'm going mostly for minor
skrimish-type things... ghouls in the graveyard, etc.. oh yeah, and a
gangland hit to which they are the only witnesses.
Good luck!

--

Paul Fritschle                                         pfritsch@skid.PS.UCI.EDU
                             Cthulhu '92
                        'The Stars are Right!'
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:4414 rec.games.frp:24909 rec.games.frp.advocacy:1939
From: lnorton@acsu.buffalo.edu (Bluerazor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp,rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Battlelords of the 23rd Century
Keywords: GenCon
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:10:58 GMT
Organization: UB
Originator: lnorton@hydrogen.chem.buffalo.edu


	First, apologies if this is a dual posting as my other post seems to
have died... If it shows up again ignore it...

	Battlelord of the 23rd Century was a smash hit at GenCon and will
soon be available at stores across the US and in Europe. Hundreds and hundreds
of copies of the new basic rules book and the largest science fiction
equipment manual ever compiled, Lock N Load, were sold at the convention and
soon these books, along with a module, will be available in stores.
	Battlelords of the 23rd Century is a science fiction role-playing 
game featuring a quick, deadly, and accurate combat system, lots of original
background material, and a skil-point based character generation system
which allows you to choose from 13 races and tailor your character to your 
desires. It is from Optimus Design Systems, and before the end of the year,
another book and module will be released. 

Bluerazor
aka 'The Mutzachan of Death'

PS Despite this post, Larry will probably kill my character by the end of the
year.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: sboiarsk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Sean L Boiarski)
Subject: Re: I used 100% ( RE: Improvisation )
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 07:10:20 GMT

In article <batemanc.715012482@p4.cs.man.ac.uk> writes:

>Oh, I thought I'd also mention that one mechanism I've used for
>generating scenarios was the imp-prep method. It works like this:
>
>1. Get two groups of players - preferably who don't know each other.
>2. Improvise a scenario with the first group, generating maps etc.
>    as you go ( yes, this is possible ).
>3. Having finished the improvised version, produce neat versions
>    of the props you jury-rigged before.
>4. Run the scenario with the second group.
>
>I've only done this twice, but both times both games were extremely
>good fun. In the imp game the players essentially wrote a scenario
>for me ( of course, they didn't know this! ) and then I used their
>material on a second group, after a little polish.
>
>This isn't, naturally, the road to FRP Nirvana, but it's fun to do
>once in a while, if you can. Anyone else done this?

Hell, I do this all the time. I run demos at cons-lots at Gencon-for Fifth 
Cycle (tm), and I always use scenarios that are works in progress. I start on a
basic line then let group after group improve and modify. Often times, someone 
will break in with "I figured it all out, this is what's going on!" and the're 
completely wrong, but... the idea they come up with is great. I have four or 
five of these veteran adventures, and the only thing you have to be careful of 
is making them not sound like you've done them all before. Some are so good, 
that I might put them out soon in published form. Never underestimate the 
creative power of the players (something we G.M.'s do all to often).

>Mad Chris.

Border-Line Sane Sean
Sean Boiarski
Shield Games
sboiarsk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
From: burdickd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Dakin Burdick)
Subject: Re: CoC Campaigns (Was: Re: Call of Cthulhu Archives?)
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 17:55:10 GMT

I don't know how some folks can say that CoC does not have a high
character turnover rate.  If you play the modules, as written,
you will die a lot.  If you run away from combat all the time, Cthulu
and his pals will conquer the world.  I guess all this reminds me
of is a campaign I played in where the two bozos we played with "did
not believe in combat."  Now, you would think that this would mean
extensive character development... WRONG!  These guys had no
character!  They ran away from every battle, no matter how small, and
no matter how necessary.  Their idea of fun was running away from
nameless horrors, living small children to be eaten, and screaming
giddily at the top of their lungs.

Ahem.

I seem to have gotten off the point a bit.  I guess what I'm trying
to say is that combat is always deadly, but it is sometimes necessary.
I have yet to meet a cthuloid that relied on his mortal minions.  Once
those minions let it in the door, it ain't going back without a fight.
That's what heroes are for; to fight nameless horrors for humanity and
to give their lives in the struggle if they must.

To those Lovecraft "purists" that say that man does not have a chance
against those that wait at the gate, I'll just point to "The
Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" as my inspiration. Mankind had
a lot better chance in Lovecraft's early Dunsany stage than it did in
"At the Mountains of Madness," and I tend to reward clever and heroic
acts.

Dakin
burdickd@copper.ucs.indiana.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: thornley@nano.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley)
Subject: Re: Humorous bumper sticker...
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 14:00:12 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.083709.10194@odin.diku.dk> klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen) writes:
>BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu (Brian Panulla, MooCow) writes:
>
>>With the actual text alien text from the short story "Call of Cthulhu" in
>>of "In his sunken city of R'ylea (sp) dead Cthulhu lies dreaming" or
>                                       ^^^^
>>whatever (this is from memory) on the back.
>
>That's dread
>        ^
No, the correct text in English is:

   In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

The original, in English letters:

   Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

The phrase "Cthulhu fhtagn" comes up frequently, presumably meaning
"Cthulhu waits".  In a Robert Bloch story set in the future, the cry of
"Cthulhu naflfhtagn" is heard, or "Cthulhu no longer waits".

(The original cry above was allegedly reconstructed from the sounds by
anthropologists in the Arctic and police officers in Louisiana.  What I
want to know is (a) how do you pronounce "mglw'nafh", (b) what the
phoneme "fh" sounds like, and (c) how anybody, given any sounds humans
can make, would agree that this is the proper transcription.)

DHT
From: ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Gary Gygax
Date: 2 Sep 92 09:33:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.170629.3852@desire.wright.edu>, demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
> In article <1992Sep01.043608.1004@generic.uucp>, psavoie@terranet.cts.com (Pierre Savoie) writes:
>> 
>>    It was a classic case of the Peter Pyramid, the principle that, as a group
>> or company gets successful, it adds on a lot of people and infrastructures
>> like an inverse pyramid, each layer larger than the last, until the creative
>> base gets crushed.  A lot of good designers quit TSR as it went corporate. 
>> Not just Gygax but Frank Mentzer, Kim Mohan, Mark Acres, etc.

So he's saying that he QUIT TSR?!? As the old saying goes, "That ain't the
way I heard it"! More like "run out the company on a rail" IMHO.

> 
> 	The lasting memory that I will carry of EGG is him forcing the Dragon
> to print his "official" version of new rules/systems right after an individual
> did a bang-up job of their own in the previous issue.
> 
> 	Almost identical in every case.  Funny, that.

        ^Typical Gygax^
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn)
Subject: Hero: Vitals HitLoc (Was Re: Champions: Mental Questions...)
Summary: What is the Vitals hit location for?
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1992 18:55:45 GMT

Delbert Laird writes:
>As far as I know, the Vitals have been regarded as the genital region

Hmmm, I've always though of it as the "you don't want to be hit there"
region. It could be the genitalia, but I've also ruled it to cover
the throat (fractured larynx, crushed windpipe) the heart, the spine,
the kidneys... anything the paramilitary journals rate as "hot spots"
for targeting. Below the neck, of course.

-- 
Law of Communications:
	The inevitable result of improved and enlarged communications
	between different levels in a hierarchy is a vastly increased
	area of misunderstanding.
From: sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 28 Aug 92 05:23:12 GMT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Aug25.221929.1@wharton.upenn.edu>, 
  millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:

> Anyway, as I have a full time job, a real life, and other interests, I
> don't have 3-6 hours to plan scenarios every week. 

Now, this is probably the third time I have heard this ``I have a life''
thing in response to my estimated prep time. As I said, I can usually
only play often in the summer (when I don't have to use all my free time
to study), so that 3-6 hours is well-spent to me. And doesn't interfere
with my full-time job or my other interests. I didn't mean to make myself 
look like a hopeless wreck who sits in the study drawing maps, I just like 
to put on a good game when the players show up.

So enough with the ``life'' flames.

Okay,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chadd  VanZanten  SL9B4@CC.USU.EDU  +  ``The  hardest part about fishing is 
that all the fish are underwater.'' -- 3m Sportsman Bassmaster how-to video
From: z_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: TML address wanted
Date: 1 Sep 92 13:03:49 CST
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

Does anyone have the new address for the Traveller Mailing List handy? Thanks.

Brandon Cope
From: markk@sagredo.West.Sun.COM (Mark Kampe)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: cluelessness in mystery games (prep vs improv)
Date: 31 Aug 1992 15:11:23 GMT
Organization: SunSoft South
NNTP-Posting-Host: sagredo.west.sun.com

djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) writes:
> In this case, if a character has a high skill in solving/detecting or 
> whatever, then you can secretly slip notes to the player reading "your 
> intuition says that was an important clue".

In such a case, we are no longer talking about a "mystery game".  A mystery
requires creativity, persistance and insight.  If one can just roll to be
"creative, persistant and insightful" we have effectively turned an
intellectual problem into a "hack-n-slash" problem.
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: ShadowTech Errata
Date: 3 Sep 92 17:46:00 GMT
	<1992Sep2.063524.25016@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: ins894r@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au's message of 2 Sep 92 06:35:24 GMT
X-Get-A-Clue: Have two, they're small.
X-Signature-Virus-Protection: Version 1.51
X-Posting-Software: GNUS 3.14.1 [ NNTP-based News Reader for GNU Emacs ]

>>>>> "AW" == Aaron Wigley [Wigs] <ins894r@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au> writes:

AW> I would say that the essence cost for the TacComp is a bit exessive
AW> myself.  (perhaps .3 and .4, not 3 and 4 essence).

MacGyver (macgyver@turtle.cis.ohio-state.edu) wrote:
: no, the essence are very correct. TacComp is a VERY POWERFUL item.

AW> Hence it's low availablility, and huge cost. 

AW> As a piece of cyberware, it would rate amongst the Encephalon, and 
AW> the like. All it is a computer, and a lot of interfacing with the 
AW> person's own sensors, etc.

Now, from what I've heard about these things, TacComps are hooked into just
about every nerve in the brain (reflexes, senses, you name it), much like a
Vehicle Control Rig, only more so. Damn straight it costs a lot of Essence.

--Rat

||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
                                                   __        ___ 
Richard Pieri, Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat/   | /| / /   | The Worlds
Internet: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu   /__  |/ |/ / /| | Welfare Works
    UUCP: ...!northeastern.edu!meceng!ratinox  /   | /| / / / | | Association:
  BITNET: UA_RLP@NUHUB{.BITNET}               /__  |/ |/ / /  | | I will solve
  USNail: 14 Westdale RD  Holbrook, MA 02343 /   | /| / / /___| | any problem
 ICBMnet: 42 deg 1 min N, 71 deg 0 min W    /    |/ |/ /_//_____| for you.
From: jerry@teetot.acusd.edu (Jerry Stratton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRUN: NAGEE FTP sites
Date: 3 Sep 92 03:50:30 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: usd

Well, I think this post is going to make it out.

The usdcsv.acusd.edu and beelzebub.acusd.edu ftp sites do not accept
anonymous ftp any longer. The new site (and I do hope it stays there...)
is teetot.acusd.edu; all the role-playing stuff is in /pub/Beelzebub.


Jerry Stratton
-- 
jerry@teetot.acusd.edu            Compuserve: 76506,636
                                  GEnii: J.STRATTON6
From: klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Humorous bumper sticker...
Date: 1 Sep 92 08:37:09 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu (Brian Panulla, MooCow) writes:

>With the actual text alien text from the short story "Call of Cthulhu" in
>of "In his sunken city of R'ylea (sp) dead Cthulhu lies dreaming" or
                                       ^^^^
>whatever (this is from memory) on the back.

That's dread
        ^
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc