HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp_)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Arcanum <----- What ever happened to it?
Date: 22 Jan 93 16:41:18 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd3.cis.pitt.edu

In article <1jp68uINNn4t@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> camelsho@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (   James A Seymour) writes:
>Plain and simple:  Whate ever happened to Arcanum from 
>Bard Games?

	Ahh, The Arcanum. Probably my favorite supplementary system of
all time.

	Bard Games was bought out recently by Wizards of the Coast. Since
The Arcanum is very popular here, and my (*FALLING APART! FALLING APART!*)
copy is the only one in the area, I've been constantly reminding Mavra
about trying to reissue it.

	PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! "Captain, this copy canna stand it
much longer!"

	(Unfortunately, with Palladium being twits and suing WotC, they
will have less money to invest, thus less likelihood of being able
to reprint it.)


				Sea Wasp

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Dave Sherohman)
Subject: Re: SRII:  Melee combat
Keywords: PSRII, SR2, Melee
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 04:17:28 GMT

In article <2172@blue.cis.pitt.edu> amigaman+@pitt.edu (Russell A Howard) writes:
>  That's why it says
>in SR2 that the highest damage level is Deadly, and this is ok because of net
>successes.  Only, a while back, my group and I discovered that melee combat is
>not net successes in SR2 and this can screw things up...

Solution:  Eliminate the maximum damage level of Deadly, with each extra level
adding one more box than the one before (ie damage level E (or D+1) = 15 boxes,
F = 21, G = 28, etc).  Reasons to do this:

1) Fix Mr. Howard's melee combat problem
2) Certain items in ShadowTech allow an undamaged character to take a deadly
	wound and stay standing.  I don't care how pumped up you are, a hard
	enough hit (say, with a 12-round burst from a Vigilant cannon) _will_
	take you out in one shot
3) Taking a Deadly doesn't kill you until you take additional boxes equal to
	your body.  Again, even if you're an undamaged body 11 troll, if you
	take a hard enough hit (something doing wound level F, to be exact),
	you're dead right now without having to be hit again or wait 2 hours
	to bleed to death.

Now to just get names for these extra damage levels...  Extreme, Fatal, Gory,
Hideous...

esper@ima.umn.edu
From: dripton@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (David Ripton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Ethical Dilemna (GURPS Fantasy - LONG)
Date: 25 Jan 93 06:50:00 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA


1. There was an a pagan (read: bad) ritual going on, and the GM kind of 
   made a remark about these particular pagans going out and killing 
   children after they were done. Not a totally unprovoked, senseless
   assault.

2. The Jesuit went WAY out of his way to stop the slaughter. Of course
   he should be immune to any punishment.

3. The Aralaise fencer was too busy working on his accent to stop the 
   madness. He should be killed so that a nice al-Wazifi mage who's
   never even MET a kobold can take his place. 

4. The Templar should be promoted by his order for chivalrous behavior
   above the call of duty. 

5. The Jesuit conspiracy should be sicced [sic?] on all the participants.
   Ditto the Great Evil Cult that the pagan berserk Satanists were all
   working for.

                                An innocent, neutral observer
From: futrena@wkuvx1.bitnet
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Paranoia (Not bloody likely)
Date: 25 Jan 93 13:59:04 CST
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

In article <1993Jan25.011419.9411@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>, corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley ) writes:
> In article <loydb.0any@fnordbox.UUCP> loydb@fnordbox.UUCP (Loyd Blankenship) writes:
>>dripton@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (David Ripton) writes:
>>>
>>> Actually, I kind of like the idea of GURPS Paranoia...
>>
>>Me too, but they wouldn't sell. :-)
>>
> 
> 1st Edition Paranoia was perfect.  2nd Edition Paranoia was also perfect,
> much more so than 1st Edition Paranoia.
> 
> GURPS is not perfect.  GURPS is a complicated, point-filled, Communist
> mishmash of many different not-fun rules.

I guess beauty, or perfection in this case, is in the eye of the
beholder.  (And I don't mean that nasty creature from D & D).  GURPS
is not perfect; that's why there are new editions and Errata.  I
daresay that Paranoia isn't perfect either.  However, I have never
played Paranoia, so I will abstain from any judgement.
 
> Paranoia is perfect.  Paranoia is simple, has only a few attributes and
> a few skills, and has many rules that are simple, safe, fun, and
> enjoyable.

I wouldn't know about 'safe' with a name like Paranoia.  But hey... Some
people like simple and safe, and some people (like me) like dangerous
and not-so-simple.  You play your game, and I will play GURPS.

> Thank you for your cooperation.  Have a nice day.
> 

You are quite welcome, and have a nice day. 

 {sig deleted}

Your fiend in gaming,

Whoops.  Did I say fiend?  Heh heh, I meant friend.
--
+=========================================================================+
|Nathan Futrell        | Crow:  Hey Joel, I think we've seen this before. |
|futrena@WKUVX1.BITNET | Joel:  I don't think so...                       |
|Western Kentucky U.   | Tom Servo:  Ever have deja vu?                   |
|Bowling Green, KY USA | All in Unison:  Uh what uh...?                   |
|                      |   From the MST 3K viewing of the movie "Ro-man"  |
+=========================================================================+
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: What Fantasy RPG to buy?
Originator: jmkaraka@c00008-118dan.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 23:36:06 GMT


|>In article <1993Jan27.070344.26277@lth.se> d90ba@efd.lth.se (Bjoern Andersson) writes:
|>>The following games have been on our mind, but we know too little about 
|>them:>* AMBER
|>>* Mythos (Gygax New)
|>>* GURPS (with some modules)
|>

AMBER: unless you are EXTREMELY experience, and LOVE making up the
       fly, avoid this game.  Otherwise, it's not bad.  You just need
       a flexible (and fast thinking!) GM.

Mythos: I have not heard one good thing about this one.  I paged 
        through it and saw more charts than you can shake a stick
        at.  Not a good sign.

GURPS: (Manfully holding up his opinions as flame-bait)  IMO this is
       one the of best RPG's around.  It can be expanded easily if you
       decide to try other genre's.  The rules are flexible and well
       designed.  You can play a fantasy genre with just the basic
       rules, though (as you intimated) getting some supplements/modules
       is a good idea.  One problem with GURPS is that many of the
       players tend to be very experienced and prefer to make their
       own modules and adventures.  So if you like a large base of
       pre-made modules to choose from, you may not like GURPS.  However,
       if you are good at translating modules between systems (it is
       very easy to translate systems/modules to GURPS, Except for the
       magic systems) you can simply buy whatever modules strike your
       fancy to translate.

	-john-
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: 003695s@axe.acadiau.ca (STEPHANE ANDRE SAVOIE)
Subject: Re: SR: Character sheets
Organization: Acadia University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:43:35 GMT

In article <C19CK6.82H@cen.ex.ac.uk> ma90gjp@cen.ex.ac.uk writes:
>From: ma90gjp@cen.ex.ac.uk
>Subject: SR: Character sheets
>Date: 22 Jan 93 13:38:29 GMT

>Can somebody e-mail to let me know where the postscript srun char sheets are.
>I accidently got rid of all my info on it and so need the address to sort it 
>out.

>Thanks in advance,

 Actually, I found them at some archive, but wasn't able to get them out of 
post-script form.  Anyone?

 ---Kid Anarky
 .sid deleted for security reasons--
From: mjg@world.std.com (Mitchell J Gross)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: RPG sites?
Date: 26 Jan 93 21:15:27 GMT
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA

Could someone post a list of ftp-sites that have role-playing game sections?

Thanks!!


-- 

                           >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                           >            Remember...       <
                           >                              <
From: paul@sco.COM (Paul Jackson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Small company advertising/smart moves?
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:13:37 GMT
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.

In article <C12Ixz.BGB@plato.ds.boeing.com> mavra@harvey (Peter Adkison) writes:
>KEITH C MCCORMIC (dunkelza@titan.ucs.umass.edu) wrote:
>:     Yes and no.  You said a color cover is important.  It is not.  A GOOD
>: cover is.  I have seen numerous products which sell well that have b&w or
>: two-color covers.  The trick is aesthetics.  If you have a full color
>: picture that looks like a five-year's art project on your cover, you bet that
>: it will receive less favorable results that a black and white cover that
>: is appealing and interesting to look at.
>
>Hmmm, yeah, okay, well, maybe.  I mean, a good b&w cover is probably
>better than a lousy color cover. Well, ummm, ah, maybe.
>
>Play it safe, go full color & hiqh quality.  Why take chances?

What you want to do here depends upon the image that you're trying to
portray. If you're selling your product as a mainstream, quality product
(eg, Talislantia products) then you NEED a high quality, colour cover. If
you're selling it as a very cheap product or as a bizarre fun thing then you
can get away with a black and white cover. For example, I dare say that
a colour cover for Macho Women With Guns would have been a complete waste of
money, nobody is buying MWWG for its production qualities and nobody is
going to think of it as a mainstream roleplaying game (NOT a flame, btw, I
think that this is a hilarious game and rule book).
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Random Rolls
Date: 25 Jan 93 23:22:36 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu

In article <1993Jan25.171317.8199@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:
>In article <2393@blue.cis.pitt.edu> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>	Example: character has disad, crippled. I was told flat out that
>>even if my character were to encounter and somehow do a great service for
>>some godlike being who could cure the paralysis complete with the muscle
>>and instinctive skill to use the body, I'd then be in point debt for a LONG

>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? I could think of a dozen ways it could be done very, very
easily. All depends on circumstances. The classic one in stories would
be 

	*pop*
	ssssssSSSSSSWWWWOOOSH! "AHH! Thank you! Released at last, after
ten thousand years! My thanks to you, traveller! For releasing me, I
will grant you anything within my power!"

	And so on. If you're a godlike being caught with his pants 
down, you may just need SOME distraction for those who are bothering
you to save your butt... and your butt will be toast if you don't
get it. So if mr. Cripple happens to have the ability to give you
the distraction, he can do a helluva service in a few seconds.


				Sea Wasp
From: pmenard@cse.unl.edu (Patrick Menard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRII magic
Date: 22 Jan 1993 03:23:20 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cse.unl.edu
Summary: SRII magic prices
Keywords: srii magic

Has anyone else noticed that the prices for things are missing in the Grimoire 
II?  They put this nice new Fetish Focus in there and didn't have a price for
it.  They also left out the prices for radicals, orichalchum, etc... all the
stuff you need for Enchanting

Is this a major FASA screw-up, or am I missing something?

Oh, could some kind soul post the prices from the old Grimoire for Radicals,
Orichalchum, etc...  I sold mine at a used bookstore to finance the Grimoire
II. :)

Shadow
From: claudius@zeus.calpoly.edu (King_Claudius (Chris Knight))
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Room for a New OOP RPG?
Date: 28 Jan 93 19:32:47 GMT
Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

urban@yoda.fsl.noaa.gov (Art Urban) says:
>There seems to be a new din of displeasure with GURPS going around again,
>so I thought I would drop this idea on everybody, as a new productive line
>of thinking. When you get fed up with one game system, you either start
>playing a new one, or you roll-your-own. Well, this idea is not probably
>new, and many folks will probably point out how their pet system already
>does this (although I doubt it was intentional), but I've never seen
>anybody go in this direction before. So without too much more babble, here
>it is:

Interesting post and points...I had actually began to work on a RPG system that
used some of the ideas you mentioned, as well as having some basic tenets like
"all divisions round down" and having the dicerolling mechanics the same for
all rolls.  I think my biggest fault was the dicerolling was doubly-open-ended
[if you rolled a 1, you roll another die and subtract it, if you roll a 6 you
roll another die and add it...etc.] and skill tests and the like were based on
the total rolled.  When you're rolling 4 dice [plus any followups] and trying
to add it all together, it gets rather messy...even for someone fairly
efficient at addition.

All this talk makes me want to dig out the old rules.

I was thinkin' the best thing would be if this game actually was release the
rules on cardstock with each set of rules/subrules on seperate sheets so you
could "build your own" rulebook and use that...I wonder if it'd be worthwhile
to ask for rec.games.frp.development?
-- 
---King Claudius---                                   claudius@zeus.calpoly.edu
From: hyatt@owlnet.rice.edu (David Waterman Hyatt)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII Insect Spirits *possible spoiler*
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:24:45 GMT
Organization: Rice University

In article <1993Jan26.223639.19303@dvorak.amd.com> markl@dvorak.amd.com (Mark Luedtke) writes:
>>
>>Correct. Insect Spirits, like the insects they represent, are hive
>>creatures. As such, they are lacking in the mental attributes.
>
>I don't really buy your rationalization for mental attributes.  If a force
>4 female wasp spirit has Will (4) in astral space, where it is still a hive
>creature, why does it loose that willpower while manifest?  The only
>reason I can think of is to make them easy for mages to kill, and I hate
>that reason.

Hive Workers and Soldiers do not have mental attributes equal to their
force in Astral Space.  Their Willpowers are pathetically low in both
planes.

Dave (hyatt@owlnet.rice.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy
From: phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie)
Subject: Re: Random Rolls
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Organization: Digital Transmission Systems, Duluth, GA.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 19:22:41 GMT

In article <C1HGoF.ow@news2.cis.umn.edu> thornley@myria.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley) writes:
>In article <1993Jan25.171130.8107@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:
>>They get 6M zorkmids for this adventure, but only a few character points???!!!
>>
>Sure.  Money exists in abundance, although not usually quite where I want it.
>Character improvement is difficult.

Then the definitions of Rich/Poor are changed.  Valid, but not the 'stock'
GURPS definitions.  Money becomes less relevant in your world.  This is ok,
but not necessarily true in other campaigns.

>To give a real life example, it is possible (if extremely unlikely) that the
>Publisher's Central Bureau sweepstakes will suddenly raise my wealth level
>in the near future (I said extremely unlikely, and I mean it).  This would
>happen rather suddenly, with minimal effort on my part.  Assume, for now,
>that this represents the rough equivalent of ten character points increase.
>(I don't remember how much levels of wealth cost in GURPS.)
>
>Now, ten experience points is roughly equal to a year of training and study,
>so are you saying that winning a silly sweepstakes is roughly equivalent
>to studying for a year?  That, if I were to go on an adventure worth ten
>million dollars, that I should suddenly be able to speak Japanese, no
>matter how long (three hours) I spent in Japan on this adventure?

[ I will not address the effectiveness of comparing 'real life' with a
game system, even one as realistic as GURPS ]

Now consider the difference in real life vs gaming.  In real life, you have
a considerable number of obligations that this money will be drained into
(mortgage, car payment, taxes), and the money is parcelled out over 20(?)
years.  IN gaming, you get the $$ in toto, with the ability to dodge at
least some of the taxes, and what maintenance costs you have are trivial
in comparison.

What I am saying is that if $6M is a lot of money, then it should be difficult
to get, or keep, for a Poor player.

>That aside, I treat wealth levels purchased with character points as fairly
>reliable sources of money, and money that characters make on adventures as
>thoroughly losable.  However, I see no reason why I can't give characters
>money, knighthoods, reputations, enemies, friends, and contacts without
>having to express it in character points.  I do require character points
>for actual character improvement (gaining abilities, losing disabilities,
>etc.)

Exactly your perogative.


-- 
Pete Hardie:  phardie@nastar  (voice) (404) 497-0101
Digital Transmission Systems, Inc., Duluth GA
Member, DTS Dart Team           |  cat * | egrep -v "signature virus|infection" 
Position:  Goalie               |
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Rolemaster: Teleport spell
From: atischer@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (August Tischer)
Date: 28 Jan 93 17:05:40 EST

I have two characters in my campaign who have the closed essence list
LOFTY BRIDGE.  The spell description is as follows:

	10-Teleport I (F)  D:-  R:10 miles/level
		As Long Door, except movement rang is 10 miles/level.
		This is very risky.  The following chances for failing
		exist:  Never seen place (only described)=50%; Been briefly
		(1 hr)=25%; Studied (24 hr)=10%; Studied carefully (1 week)
		=1%; Lived in (1 yr)=0.1%.  In case of failure: first determine
		direction of error (randomly), then determine amount of error
		(make an open-ended roll for # of feet).

Did ICE intend for a spell user who sucessfully casts the spell but fails the
"chance to get there" roll to get where they are going, but be 1-100 (open
ended) feet in a random direction off, or does the caster only move from 1-100
feet in a random direction?  If the former, this is a *REALLY* powerful spell.
I have tried to convice my players of the latter, but thery are reluctant to
give up their power.  I was just wondering how other GM's handle this spell.

It is useless to have the character possibly teleport to a location up to 100
feet in the air because there is a 2nd level land spell (instantaneous) on the
same list.  Having startled militia of the town or city teleported to has
become monotonous, and expected, so the characters just teleport to an area
100 yards out from the town or city.  Taking them into custody and locked up
obviously doesn't work because they can just teleport out.

Any comments?

Thanks,
August

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* August Tischer				"PAD!"			    *
* University of Toledo				-Various Rolemaster players *
* atischer@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu		 simultaneously		    *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Obscure Shadowrun Rules Questions (and my answers)
From: <CSD108@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 10:31:36 EST
Organization: Penn State University

In article <C1JpBv.G2q@news2.cis.umn.edu>, esper@cs35b.cs.umn.edu (Dave
Sherohman) says:
>>
>>"Once a magician reaches a certain level of initiation, he automatically
>gains
>>new abilities. Physical adepts, for example, gain access to additional phys-
>>ical adept abilities (see Additional Powers, p. 34) simply upon achieving
>>initiation."
>
>"...simply upon achieving initiation.  Because each grade of initiation beyond
>Grade 0 adds another point to the adept's Magic Attribute Rating..."  Rather
>weak, I'll admit, thanks to the period before the "Because", but I think the
>placement of the PA powers in a seperate chapter from all of the abilities
>gained by initiating and (to a much greater extent) the appearance of a
>reference to "the _initiate_ physical adept" (emphasis mine, of course)
>appearing in only one of the power descriptions make a stronger case than the
>(mildly) ambiguous passage you cited.  Yes, PA's do "gain access to additional
>physical adept abiliies" when they initiate - enhanced centering plus whatever
>"additional physical adept abilities" they choose to "gain access to" with    r
>thei
>extra magic points.
>
Yes, you can look at it that way. I took the specific page reference ("See
Additional Powers, p.34") to mean ALL of the new powers. I'm not flaming, just
supplying my interpretation of a typical amibiguous Shadowrun rule. (Not that
there are many of those out there. :)  )

--Presto

_______________________________________________________________________
|  Trouble with Tribbles? Try  |  Internet: CSD108@psuvm.psu.edu      |
|       - N E R P S ! -        |  Bitnet  : CSD108@psuvm              |
|        For Tribbles          |  "668: Neighbor of the Beast"        |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mjg@world.std.com (Mitchell J Gross)
Subject: Ars Magica Character Sheet
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 20:41:35 GMT

I just read through the Ars Magica rules (3rd edition) and was very
impressed! I'm creating a character, but the character sheet in the back
of the book won't photocopy! Is there a character sheet on-line anywhere
that I could grab?

Thanks!
-- 

                           >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>*<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                           >            Remember...       <
                           >                              <
From: dragon@camelot.bradley.edu (Matthew Korth)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS Paranoia
Date: 26 Jan 93 17:33:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: camelot.dragon.728069637
Organization: Bradley University

In <GOLDM.93Jan26110022@sage4a.rpi.edu> goldm@rpi.edu (Mitchell E. Gold) writes:
>There are those of us who have kept the clean feel of Paranoia while adding
>the portability of GURPS by playing Paranoia as an extremely warped
>version of Spawn of Fashan.
>Would I kid you?

Actually, I've been toying with the possibility of designing a version of
Paranoia for the Hero system... the great part about it is that all you'd
have to do is buy the proper Disadvantages for the base and the AI's in it
(like 4 or 5 levels of Unluck for Alpha Complex), and perhaps define some
new skills.
--
****** Matt Korth ************************** dragon@camelot.bradley.edu ******
			ENERGIZER BUNNY ARRESTED!
		     Police charge him with battery.