HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann)
Subject: Re: cluelessness in mystery games (prep vs improv)
Organization: Ziebmef home away from home
Date: 4 Sep 92 08:27:15 GMT

markk@sagredo.West.Sun.COM (Mark Kampe) writes:
| Very few GMs are going to allow you to "roll" to solve a mystery.  The
| players have insights and the characters pursue investigations.

 This is my big problem with the typical murder mystery scenario; the
player solves it, not the character (I have similar problems with
things like small unit encounters and most combat scenes). It is hard
to roleplay a character solving a mystery, especially if it is clear
that you must succeed; there is a horrible temptation to not consider
characterization and go for the jugular. Almost any type of puzzle
solving is susceptible to this.

--
	When we get calls from faculty and staff regarding problematic
	software, we always ask if they have a backup.  We got this
	*classic* response today "Well, I thought I had a backup, but
	she refused to type it in again..."	- Lou Anschuetz
cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu	           ...!{utgpu,utzoo,watmath}!utgpu!cks
From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRUN: Shadowrun II Errata
Date: 28 Aug 92 21:49:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.ward1.715038575

GAYNOR@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu (Jim Gaynor) writes:
>Now, all that extra stuff that came out after SRI was first released -
>the collections of questions and such from GEnie, and the text that
>eventually became the Grimoire, that was 200k.  Easy.  But it wasn't
>the "official" errata.

Oops.  Sorry.  You're right.

>One of the big problems of SRI was that, as I understand, it was cut
>up and modified late in the develpment cycle.  Things like the
>Grimoire were to originally be a part of it.  Heck, it was even
>acknowledge by FASA that the SRI archetypes were made using a
>different rules system than the published one - which is why they
>didn't match in several areas.

The archetypes may still be wrong.  For example, the Street Sam has enough
cyberware to put him at -1 essence, but his essence is listed as 0.4 or
something.  I haven't seen the actual release, but this was the case in
a "95% percent done" copy of the book.

><shrug>  I have high hopes for SRII.

I think you are gonna .dig. SRII.

>Now, on the aesthetic side, I certainly hope that Laubenstein and
>Bradstreet did most of the artwork.  Please?

Don't know.  The copy our group got didn't have the artwork, either.  They'd
be fools not to though.  I mean, hell, FASA named a building after him in
Seattle, you'd think they'd call on them instead of the guy who does
crayon-like drawings in the NAN books (the Las Vegas section, especially).

>   Jim Gaynor    | "Man-of-Many-Beeping-Sounds-and-Flashing-Lights" - KAJ

Wordman
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:4823 rec.games.frp.dnd:3407
From: jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us (Jeff Gostin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Net.Bardsong.Book, V2.0
Date: 1 Sep 92 23:18:00 GMT
Organization: The little node that could...


     Hi! Just a quick message to let you all know that V2.0 of the
Net.Bardsong.Book is available. If you are interested in acquiring a copy,
please mail me, and I'll be happy to send you a copy. If I receive more
than 15 requests for it, I will post it to this group.

                                   Jeff Gostin
                                   Official Collector of
                                   The Net.Bardsong.Book

...From a tiny little node called Eternal!
--
    /|Email  to:   jgostin@eternal.chi.il.us, offline@infopls.chi.il.us
   / |Smail  to:   Jeff Gostin, 917 High Ridge Pass, Carol Stream IL 60188
   \ |Vmail  to:   708-293-5526
    \|Flames to:   trashcan@eternal.chi.il.us
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: robert@cs.anu.edu.au (Robert Cohen)
Subject: Re: CoC Campaigns 
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Australian National University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 07:21:25 GMT

sterling@crash.cts.com (Mike Sterling) writes:

>I've found that it is possible to run a CoC campaign, but you need to be 
>judicious about the types of encounters the players go up against.  If they 
>encounter the Great Old Ones EVERY scenario, then they won't survive.  But if
>you build up the campaign slowly, with the PC's encountering mostly cultist and
>the weaker monsters (Deep Ones, etc.) then the survival rate is much greater
>(As an added benefit, when they do encounter that Greater Old One, it's more
>significant and the sense of terror is greater, the PC's have grown attached to their characters.)

>For the most part, if you want to run a campaign of Call, then stay away from
>most of the stuff that Chaosiam publishes, its far too deadly.

A lot of posters have said that chaosium published
scenarios are heavy on the combat. I am a bit surprised, this
contrary to my experience.
I have played the Cthulhu Now campign "At your Door"  and bits
of "Masks of Nyarlathotep" and am currently running a campaign based
on their Dunwich sourcebook "Return to Dunwich"

I found "At your Door" to be very light on combat. In the year we were
playing it at about fortnightly sessions,
we had two proper combats that went to figurines and about 3 physical
confrontations that were handled at a high descriptive level
without using combat rounds.
Masks is a bit heavier on the combat but we generally had a combat
every 3 or 4 sessions.

The Dunwich scenario I can speak rather more informedly on as
I am running it. It is extremely light on combat. I estimate that
the scenario should last 15 or 20 whole evening sessions.
I've added extra material so mine is taking longer.
There is precisely
1 cthulhu entity that the scenario basically 
requires you to come into combat with.
There are 2 other minor entities floating around that you can hassle if
you insist but are not required to. There are two major entities that you
stuffed if you attack. There are a group of  entirely non mythos
NPC's for which there is a reasonable chance will attack you if not handled
carefully. There is one or two "mythos aware" NPC's who you might get into
conflict with but who have no very damaging spells anyway and are too 
disorganised to be a real threat.

My campign is reaching the finishing stages and in short my players 
handled more agressively than was necessary but have had only
3 combats in over 6 months of playing.

Are other chaosium scenarios different or have people had different
experiences with the scenario's Ive mentioned.

Robert

-- 
Robert Cohen		email: robert@cs.anu.edu.au
PhD Student,  Dept of Computer Science
Australian National University
Neuron not responding, still meditating.  - "BrainOS" error message
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: lib1p@jane.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino)
Subject: Covington Cross
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 23:25:00 GMT


Yes, Yes, Yes,......

Bad accents

Unbelievablity

BUT......cute!!!!!!!!!

I and my gaming buddies enjoyed it, but I think we enjoyed
it because we didn't expect it to be "realistic".  The 
trailers we saw gave us the impression that it wasn't meant
to be taken as realistic.

If you take a show, expect it to be realistic and it isn't,
then of course you are going to come away disappointed.

==>Tammy<==

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: burke@vxdesy.desy.de
Subject: net.shadowrun.book
Organization: (DESY, Hamburg, Germany)
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 20:25:14 GMT

I've been trying to ftp the recently-announced net.shadowrun.book. I
can connect to the site, give "anonymous" as the user, my id
(burke@vxdesy.desy.de) as the password as requested, and I just get
"anonymous FTP disallowed". Am I doing something wrong, or have they disabled
anonymous ftp?

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: smith@ctron.com (Larry Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Date: 27 Aug 92 15:25:41 GMT
Reply-To: smith@ctron.com
Organization: Cabletron Systems, Inc.

In article <1992Aug25.221929.1@wharton.upenn.edu>, millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug25.011821.58379@cc.usu.edu>, sl9b4@cc.usu.edu (Deep Six) writes:

[...]

>> 3. Players dislike the feeling that they are bouncing around in a world
>> which is unplanned by the GM -- if the GM doesn't know what is going on,
>> who does?

[...]

>The improv GMs in this thread actually stated that the only work that
>they do for their campaigns is background development, since the only
>development they do consciously is on a macro scale they probably "know
>what is going on" better than most prep GMs, who merely know the hit
>points of the opposition rather than the politics of the three orc
>tribes in an area. They also said that they know the games they play
>well enough that they're not likely to be surprised by PC abilities.
>This doesn't sound to me like they're unprepared, but rather that
>they're so well prepared that they can handle anything the players
>throw at them. That to me is the strength of practicing improv GMing,
>you become ready for anything the players can throw at you, and you can
>handle absolutely anything that happens.

This is a very good point, Loren.  What maps I do have have huge scales -
the main campaign map covers a territory over 10,000 miles wide, nearly 
6,000 high.  It is loaded with notes about the various cultures that can
be found there, but is not meant to be used by the players at all.  They
know, for example, that Calthis is far to the west of Imri, and that an entire
continent lies in between, but more than that they don't have to know.

But the politics and the like _are_ usually prepped - I may not know the
orcs hit points, but I know their tribe, where they are from, why they are
raiding, and so forth.  If my players do something other than attacking them,
I have something to go on. Hit points is usually the last thing I need to
know.

>> 5. Improv GMs are more likely to throw in an insignificant detail on the
>> fly with could come back to haunt them as a logical hole in the game world.

>Again, this is a mistake which anybody can make, not just "improv GMs".
>I've made some mistakes with improvised decisions, and some mistakes
>with pre-planned decisions. The players seem to enjoy both kinds of game
>equally, and I prefer the improvised ones because I can avoid tedious
>preparation, so guess which kind I emphasize?

Besides, those "logical holes" are hooks for further campaign development.

Larry Smith (smith@ctron.com)  No, I don't speak for Cabletron.  Need you ask?
-
How about we all do something reasonable?  I bet that'll confuse 'em!
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri/Stainless Steel Rat)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Amber Questions
Date: 31 Aug 92 15:35:43 GMT
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
In-reply-to: krelos@agora.rain.com's message of 31 Aug 92 05:03:23 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 ]

>>>>> "NF" == Neal Feldman <krelos@agora.rain.com> writes:

NF> I'm just about to start up my Amber game again, and a few questions 
NF> have come up.  

NF> Does anyone have an alternate sorcery system?  Does anyone have
NF> additional levels (such as exalted) for sorcery and the like?

Wing it. No, I'm not kidding; the magic system was a last-minute thing, but
you really don't need it.

NF> How do you run improving characters?  Do you use the rules straight
NF> from the book?

Dunnow, I'm a player :-).

NF> The abilities that are described under each stat:  Do you give each
NF> character all of those abilities, or what?

You mean the special abilities that the elder Amberites possess? Hell! no.
Well, maybe *one* if they're first ranked in their group, maybe. Those are
for really experienced Amberites.

NF> Has anyone posted any Amber adventures to the net?

NF> Are there any mailing lists or the like for Amber?

Yes, check the rgf FAQs.

NF> And finally, does anyone know if there have been any supplements yet
NF> for Amber?

Not yet. Shadow Knight has been delayed.

--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.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd
From: ketil@struts.ii.uib.no (Ketil M. Malde)
Subject: Re: Alignments
Reply-To: ketil@ii.uib.no
Organization: student of computer science at the University of Bergen, Norway
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:05:34


Oh Gods, the Alignment Discussion again!

Oh well, 

It i obvious for the experienced netter/player that ADD alignment
system sucks.  Isn't it?  I mean, just the fact that among us in 
netland, I don't think there are two persons who agrees completely on
how to interpret alignments.  

Ever hear the phrase:  ...a tool, not a straitjacket?   Well,
usually it ends up being the latter, "can I do this when I am lawful?"

Conclusion: Throw it into the swamp!
--
 = Ketil Malde                     In real life:  ketil@ii.uib.no =
 = Nuke the whales!                    Honk if you love unicorns! =
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn)
Subject: Re: Permenant damage in HERO
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1992 18:28:15 GMT

Leland writes:
>No way in the rules to simulate permenantly disfiguring or crippling a 
>character. 

Hmmm, for severing limbs, Diabling wounds would do that.  Scarring as
well from head shots (if you're still alive, that is).  Mind you, this is 
for character who fail the CON roll, but I'd think (if you want the extra
math) that to have the BODY damange in excess of what is needed to cause
a diabling wound (equal to the character's BODY) be either a negative
modifier to the CON roll, or a positive modifier for the Impariment Time
roll.  

Then again, all these effects in the Disabling section are under GM's 
discretion.

-- 
Command, n.:
	Statement presented by a human and accepted by a computer in
such a manner as to make the human feel as if he is in control.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: gdg019@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Ridley McIntyre)
Subject: Re: Improvisation!
Organization: Ironpig Arcadia, Coventry, UK
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 09:29:27 GMT

In article <37242@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) writes:
>>>1. Improv GMs cannot create detailed maps, written portions and physical
>>>props.
>>
>>Can't argue with that.
>
>You can't???  I see.  Using improvisation along with props, maps,
>written-portions takes imagination - the lack of which makes
>using improvisation impossible anyway :-)
>
>This is such a STUPID argument going on here.  One side thinks the
>other is doing 100% improvisation, and the other side thinks the other
>is doing 100% pre-planning.  Neither is right.  Most people are
>doing something in the middle.

Ha! This is what I meant! The man just put my entire post in one paragraph.
Sheesh! And I wnat to be a writer when I grow up! It's reading Tad Williams
books that does it, you know... Never put into into one sentence what you
can waffle on for twenty...


-- 
		 **Ridley McIntyre - Ronin Ironpig**
		     gdg019@cck.coventry.ac.uk
		 -----------------------------------
		  "Like your new haircut." - Bishop
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: gobeski8618@iscsvax.uni.edu (Steve 'Gobes' Gobeski)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Champions: Throwing Things around...
Date: 27 Aug 92 22:40:58 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <meharg.714878707@sfu.ca>, meharg@fraser.sfu.ca (Gersham William Meharg) writes:
> I have just recently purchased Champions and the Hero system rules,
> and after reading the combat section I was wondering a few things about
> combat.
> 
> Bif the superhero (STR 50) picks up a Toyota truck and whacks Grog the
> evil villian with it.  How much damage does this do? Is it just 10d6
> normal damage? I know that the rules say to treat it as an area attack,
> a move through. What if Bif were to throw the car (12"-14") at Grog,
> would this do more damage than the strike above?
> 

Many of the other followups mentioned DEF + BODY.  Evidently this is some
obscure rule that our group has happily thrown out.  Not to mention mucking
about with min. STR & extra velocity (which I suspect gives the same result as
just using STR).

Anyway, I'd say keep it simple:  the car is big, so its an AE attack (DCV 3 to
hit the hex, if you miss, it lands SOMEWHERE...), if you throw it, you get
range out of the deal.  10d6 damage, with obvious sfx (hope you don't end up
under it...)

BTW, move-thru is when you run at (into) somebody, throwing your velocity into
it as well.  Could do it with a car and get AE, I suppose, kinda like running
at somebody holding a wall or other wide attack.
 
Move-by is when you run up alongside somebody and whack them with something as
you run by.  Could probably do it with a car pretty easily.

-- Steve 'Gobes' Gobeski
From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Eklektik Site?
Date: 1 Sep 92 02:40:20 GMT
Organization: Newt World Order

In article <1992Aug31.225939.19254@ncar.ucar.edu>, urban@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Art Urban (PROFS)) writes:
> I recently tried to ftp to the eklektic.cs.pitt.edu site, but continued to
> get unknown host messages. What's the deal with this address?

Read the archive sites posting in .announce for the skinny on eklektik,
including why it isn't working.

-- 
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
The more corrupt the government, the greater the number of laws -- Tacitus
Xref: sparky rec.games.frp.misc:4863 rec.games.frp.advocacy:2008 rec.games.frp.dnd:3427
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Alignments
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:18:35 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@pmax1.cis.pitt.edu

In article <KETIL.92Sep2170534@struts.ii.uib.no> ketil@ii.uib.no writes:
>It i obvious for the experienced netter/player that ADD alignment
>system sucks.  Isn't it? 

	I guess not, since I've been netting and playing probably longer 
than 90% of each respective group, and I use alignments with great joy.

	I view alignments as a general outline of the way a character
views the world and the things that they can be expected to do/permit/
believe. It's not a cast-iron system, since anything that involves
real people (and a good character can have so much put into it that
he/she/it is damn near real) tends to blur at the boundaries, but it
is a very useful tool for me to use. I never use it as a forcing function
since the players should know what their characters would do, and if
I see something developing which shows a definite trend to another
alignment, I just change the character's alignment. If this is bad for
the character (i.e., that Paladin just went NG) c'est la vie -- they
should know better... if the player isn't SURE, of course, they can
always ask, but I usually give a good description of the way Alignment
works in my world to every new player and questions are rare. Usually
if the character does a questionable act, they are allowed to 
justify it if the alignment shift is important...

	BTW, I do agree with a prior poster -- Tammy, if you don't
read r.g.f.dnd then why are you even TALKING about this???????

	Heck, if you'd just SUBSCRIBED to r.g.f.dnd you would have
seen that this discussion was ALREADY going full blast, complete
with Pat Rannou's *480* line posts on the subject [I kid you not!].

                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: keith@world.std.com (Keith B Richmond)
Subject: Game groups in Boston...
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 14:49:31 GMT

Hi,my name is Keith Richmond...I'm currently game-groupless...
I know live in the Boston Area(anywhere near Boston basically is probably 
fine...)and want to join a gaming group. I play(long list o' games)...
TF2V,ADD(1st,2nd,and every world and system),GURPS,Torg,Paranoia,Battletech
Mechwarrior,D+D,and lots lots more.

Keith Richmond

What pink elephants??? I don't see any pink elephants...the purple elephants
scared them all away.

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: npearl@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Nathan Y Pearlstein)
Subject: Exorcist for WHFRP (Where is it?)
Keywords: WFRP WHFRP
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 15:24:21 GMT


I posted this question several months ago but nobody new where to find it.  
There is a refernce to a career in a White Dwarf mag to the exorcist career. 
Does anyone know where it might be?
-- 
*  Nathan Pearlstein   npearl@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu     Astronomy -gasp!  *
*  Sir Nathan Pearlstein     silly@camelot.uk.mil           Undergrad -GASP!! *
* "...We eat ham and jam and spamalot..."  - Knights of The Round Table Choir *
*        Beware lest the Slanneshi hordes pervert the Net    -- let them      *
From: lundgren@vesta.unm.edu (Chad Lundgren)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Wanted: Mood music for a TL 12/13 GURPS Space game
Date: 27 Aug 92 00:41:08 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

I would like recomendations for mood music for this game, a game 
with an Empire that is well-connected by (mostly) reliable
hyperspace and instant FTL radio.  Familes control as much wealth as
they think they can get away with.  A large war has just concluded and
Kivar has been crowned Emperor.  Each person is allowed three clones,
although their are rumors of corruption in the government, who has held
onto high-quality brain-taping tenaciously as a means of holding power.
They've succeded.  For now...  (GM has a new idea, and since his players
are power players, they may have to take a whack at it.)

This is a space opera type game, where you can gain a billion (or trillion
credits in one week and lose it all the next.)  

Or just any music for any kind of space game, as I may be changing campaigns
soon.  And please don't tell me the 2001 theme.  

Email preferred, but I read this group well enough so that I should get a
posting.  

Thanks in advance.
-- 
Chad Lundgren:  lundgren@vesta.unm.edu OR lundgren@UNMB(.BITNET)

I feel this intense pressure to have a quote, but I won't give in to the
quote herds.  I will be quoteless in a quoted land, and be proud of it!