HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wright@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Michael G. Wright)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Stoneskin: A new(?) idea
Date: 21 Jul 92 07:34:57 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia

>>>Why not require that the subject of the spell make a system shock check
>>>when the spell is first cast (when his skin is turning into stone), and
>>>then another when the spell is negated (when his skin returns to normal)?
>>>As an example, a mage with a Constitution of 11 (average) has an 80%
>>>chance of surviving a system shock.  That means that he has a 36% chance
>>>of dying if he casts the spell on himself.
>>>Opinions?
>
>>Yes...pretty damn brutal, if you ask me.  I would think that the risk of 
>>casting a protective spell should be *less* than the risk of not casting it. :-)
 [Stuff Deleted]
>
>If you think it's too much, you can just require 1 system shock roll
>(when the spell is first cast).  But I don't see why.  Polymorph requires
>two rolls (once when you change, and once when you change back).  By
>requiring two rolls, this might force the mage to cast the spell on
>other members of the party with higher constitutions (such as dwarves).
>
>Just a thought.
>
 If you're worried about the brutality of the spell, why not make it that the
spell fizzles (the host body could not contain the magic) and the Wiz is
knocked out for a day (Backlash) as well as the recipient (if not the Wiz).

	This stops the party from hanging around for days casting the spell
on everyone because:

	1: The Wizard does not like to be knocked about by other wimps who
	   cannot hack the magic flow.

	2: If you fail too much then you waste a bloody lot of diamond dust!

How about it? Any improvements anyone (who're still reading the thread)?


-- 
Michael Wright            _-_|\     Peg- "Al, can I have a thousand bucks?" 
LaTrobe University,      /     \     Al- "Why sure honey, have you got change
Melbourne, Australia.    \_.-_*/          for a million?"
wright@latcs1.lat.oz.au       v                Married with children. :-)
From: spxpmf@thor.cf.ac.uk (Phillip Fayers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Stupid PC tricks
Date: 30 Jul 92 16:31:00 GMT
Organization: Physics Dept. University of Wales, Cardiff
X-Mailer: Cardiff Computing Maths PP Mail Open News Gateway

OK another stupid PC trick, from playing last night:

Characters: Fighter (5) Thief (6) Magic User (6) Cleric (4) Dwarf (3)

This was the first time our DM used Critical Hits and Fumbles tables, as
posted to the group not long ago..

We are enlisted to help destroy `The Beast' which we chased to the local
Abbey, it climbs the wall and goes in one of the windows.

My character (the Thief, Boffin the Hobbit) follows up the wall while the
rest of the party runs in the front door, up the stairs and bursts into...
the Abbots quarters (can you all guess who the monster is ?) to find the
Abbot in his robes in the middle of the room. The monks arrive and ask
the party to leave, they go upstairs `still looking for the monster'.

A red glow appears in the corner of the room and the Abbot, now alone,
turns towards it. Looking in the window Boffin sees the Abbot begin
to grow in size and get distinctly more hairy.

Anyway after all the others arrive, called by Boffins shouting a nice
fight takes place with everyone hacking at the monster and not doing much
damage. Boffin sneaks in for a backstab and rolls a 20, everyone looks
expectantly at GM - our first ever critical hit. A few dice rolls later
he asks 

	"Is that a magical sword ?"
	"Er.. no", I reply.
	"Well then, you think you've just done one of the best backstabs
	of your entire career only it hasn't really had any effect."

Don't you just hate monsters which can't be damaged by ordinary weapons ?

So not being able to hurt the creature himself Boffin takes out rope and
grappling hook and attempts to snag the creature off balance so the
others can have an easier time of it. He fails miserably at this a few
times so he gives up, leaving the hook and rope on the floor. The Dwarf
flings herself across the room to leap on the monster, misses and ends
up flat on the floor... right next to the grappling hook. The Dwarf
proceeds to hook the monster and...

	"I wrap myself in the rope and RUN OUT THE WINDOW"

Its a good job the monster was VERY heavy and that the grappling hook
held because we were five floors up!

We managed to wipe out the monster and the dwarf fell in a tree
but I think she will remember how many flights of stairs she has climbed
next time.
-- 

Phillip Fayers                      email: fayers@cardiff.ac.uk
Sun admin/support/programming       phone: 0222 874000 x 5282 (UK)
From: keary@apollo.HP.COM (Matt Keary)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: AD&D Mud, suggest & quest
Date: 23 Jul 92 19:27:34 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA

To: jrjacovelli@ualr.edu
Subject: Re: MORE Questioner to DMs and Players

Hi!  I'm trying to catch up on a backlog of messages, so sorry if you are
already up and running... but here's something to consider.

On most MUDs there are various bulletin boards, where messages are posted.
If the GM wanted to increase prep time, but decrease real-time typing, s/he
could put initial room descriptions into files, then _post_ them to the
bboard when characters arrive.  This would also allow characters to reread 
descriptions, rather than asking the GM  "How big is the room again?  What 
corner are those pillars in? etc etc.

Players would have read-only access to the board, and only obvious descriptions
would be posted there (ie size, shape, lighting, major features), the type
of stuff a character could find out by just taking another glance around the 
room.  

How close are you to finishing set-up?  Are you playing 1.0 yet?  I probably 
don't have the time to play constantly in a net campaign, but I would love to
visit a session as a guest NPC for the GM, if possible.  (Do other people
do this sort of thing?  We always have players from other campaigns playing
guest monsters that the DM wants roleplayed to the hilt at no expense to 
playability.)

- Mateo
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: npearl@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Nathan Y Pearlstein)
Subject: PBEM, How to?
Keywords: PBEM ADND2 RAVENLOFT
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 09:26:09 GMT


Does any one have any suggestions or how to info on how to run a PBEM game. I 
have played AD&D since 79' I'm now 20.  I have dm'ed since 81'.
I would really appreciate suggestions.


Yes, I left Monty Haul a long time ago.
-- 
*  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: wright@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Michael G. Wright)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Newbie advice
Date: 21 Jul 92 04:09:43 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia
Originator: wright@latcs2.lat.oz.au

The most important thing to remember when you start playing a Role Playing
Game is what the name implies. Rather than playing a bunch of stats on a 
computer screen, you are playing out the role of a person in another
world.
	Think of yourself more as an actor than a competitor to the DM. 
If you act the way that your character would act, rather that the best way
for a given scenario, then you can really get a lot more fun out of the game.

	E.G. If a character who is supposed to be a Paladin meets up against
a 15 H.D. Creature from the underworld in a dungeon, the logical response 
from the player would be to flee. What would the _Paladin_ do however? Attack
, summon help from his/her deity, negotiate? 

	O.K. so the example isn't a good one. But if you're not going to
act out what the character really would do, then you may as well be still
playing a computer game.

	Any other comments, anyone?
 
-- 
Michael Wright            _-_|\     Peg- "Al, can I have a thousand bucks?" 
LaTrobe University,      /     \     Al- "Why sure honey, have you got change
Melbourne, Australia.    \_.-_*/          for a million?"
wright@latcs1.lat.oz.au       v                Married with children. :-)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: alongley@cape.UWaterloo.ca (Allan Longley)
Subject: Re: The Bastard DM from Hell!
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:56:53 GMT

In article <Bs93pI.4I2@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> l2wang@napier.uwaterloo.ca 
(  Lei Wang  ) writes:
>In article <1992Jul30.130357.1@economics.adelaide.edu.au>, 
ecrjbruce@economics.adelaide.edu.au writes:

>> EXPERIENCE:
>> 
>>Should a mage earn experience for the party if he kills things at range?? 
>>This is a very general case and I would appreciate points of view, my 
>>DM ruling that as a mage I only get exp's if I go into MELEE combat!!!!

I see the reason for the post title now :-)

>  Melee combat is not the sole source of experience.  Experience is learning,
>and there are many ways of learning other than the hack-slash-fireball
>techniques.
>  [...stuff about experience for healing and strategic casting deleted...]

In addition to Lei's follow-up I'd like to add that experience should also
be given for the following:
	- the first exposure to a new spell level (ie., not casting, just
	  seeing or being the victum of :-)  For example, the first time a
	  party sees a fireball, or a mage polymorph, etc.
	- actively participating in crucial decision making which is not
	  necessarily combat orientated, ie., do we go here or there, do 
	  we accept neutrals in the party or not, do we obey the laws of
	  this nation or not, what is the moral code of this party, etc...
	- above average role-playing (if you are in a role-playing game).
	- exposure to usual events or places, ie., the first time the party
	  does plane travel should be worth a fair bit of experience, the
	  first time the party sees the appearance of Talore, etc...
	- good information gathering
Also, I think that the experience should be reduced for the following;
	- monatry treasure (1 gp = 1 xp is ridiculous)
	- magical treasure (some magic items are worth too much experience)
	- outer planar monsters (have you seen the Outer Planes Compendium!)
The DM should take away experience points for;
	- bad role-playing, ie., actions totally out of character (but,
	  you have to be careful here, remember everybody acts
	  out-of-character occassionally, which may or may not be to the
	  demise of that person)
	- actions out of alignment (not border line stuff unless it occurs
	  regularly).  This is a good representation of moral confusion.

In my campaigns, these factors account for 25-50% of the experience points
awarded and the players are generally happry with the setup.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Longley, University of Waterloo, Department of Chemical Engineering
e-mail: alongley@cape.uwaterloo.ca
voice: (519) 885-1211 x3816		Lei plays in one of my games, so
home: (519) 746-5747			this probably was interesting to him
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tpt2@isi.edu (Tom Tignor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: KHOLMYSTARIEL - competitive PBEM game - CLOSED
Date: 26 Jul 92 01:05:06 GMT
Reply-To: tpt2@che.isi.edu (Tom Tignor)


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: tagg@hg.uleth.ca (Nathaniel Tagg)
Subject: More Stupid Player Tricks
Reply-To: tagg@hg.uleth.ca
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 16:12:45 GMT

       When the subject of stupid player tricks comes up, I can't help but
think of a small group of first-time players going through the same list of
mistakes we all did.
       This one particular excursion to a large gnoll layer resulted in the
learning of three cardinal don'ts in our group.

Plans to avoid at all costs:
#3  "Let's send a chicken in first to set off any traps."

#2  "I fall back behind the party and throw darts."  "Ouch!"

And of course, the number one party death reason:

     "Hey, let's split up!"

Can we add to the list of dumb mistakes.  Perhaps we can let further
generations free themselves from this stupidity.

--------- Nat

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Nathaniel Tagg               The U of Hell,  Lethbridge, AB
    "It's just a matter of putting one point seven one five three seven two
and two point two oh four six two eight together."     --The Doctor 
___The opinions expressed by the author of the preceding message are not 
nessesarily representative of the opinions of the author of the
preceding message.____
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ecrjbruce@economics.adelaide.edu.au
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: The Bastard DM from Hell!
Date: 30 Jul 92 03:33:57 GMT
Organization: Economics, University of Adelaide

A couple of points I would like opinions on:

WEB spells.

If this is cast on an area that contains several humanoids, monsters or
whatever do these creatures act as pillars, supports or whatever neccesary to
prevent the webs collapsing on themselves and becoming useless.  I was standing
in a field having just escaped down a river behind a huge pile of reeds.  The
party was generally surrounded and thing looked a bit grim as we needed to
separate our opponents forces - divide and conquer routine.  I therefore cast a
WEB spell over an area containing several human NPC fighters believing thius
would entrap several of them.  However my DM (the Nazi Implementor) decided
that because there were no huge features around the spell collapsed on itself
and would not work.  Why shouldn't it cling to people as well as to rocks etc. 
I agree that if I wanted to KEEP the spell effect in operation I would need to
suspend it from some outcropping feature but if I just want to trap what is
there why do I need to have features to suspend it from.  All I want to do is
basically inconvenience them until we have dealt with another part of the
threat.

EXPERIENCE:

Should a mage earn experience for the party if he kills things at range?? This
is a very general case and I would appreciate points of view, my DM ruling that
as a mage I only get exp's if I go into MELEE combat!!!!

Opinions would be appreciated

regs

Rob
 
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: torban@csuvax1.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Torban Bennett)
Subject: Re: Other uses for dicee
Organization: Murdoch University
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 09:46:42 GMT

educ@unixg.ubc.ca (Vicki Domansky) writes:
>In our games, we often use dice to represent monsters if we are using
>miniatures.  Placing the number upwards that corresponds the monster's
>stats on the dm's notes makes it easier to keep track of who is
>attacking which monster.  And you can use the different types of dice
>to represent different monsters.  If you need more than 20 monsters in
                                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>a battle (heh heh) you can always re-use the numbers as the monsters
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   Using dice as minitures is something I have always done, none of us have
any "real" minitures, all our money goes on buying T$R's many suppliments
(some of which are actually quite good ;-) ).  

   Anyway back to the point, speaking of humongous battles I was playing the 
"Temple of Elemental Evil" a year or so back, and (I can't exactly remember how)
we did something that causes all the remaining monsters from the four elemental
levels, to be dumped (along with the party) on a huge plane.  Needless to
say we didn't quite have enough dice !!!!
  So we cleared off the entire table and got out the complete stores of
Lego (I have quite a collection from my younger days, as well as my sister's)
We had heaps of Lego people (esp that Castles stuff) placed in clumps
all over the table as well as countless other objects.  It was definately the
largest battle I have ever had one of my characters involved in.(at least since
the end of dungeon level 5.  Check this module out for a serious combat fest!!)

Torban.        "One day I'll own every official 2ndAD&D book!"
                                 - just a little dream of mine ;-)

PS: Getting back to an old thread.  How do you pronounce Paladin?
      Pal-laddn or Palla-din?
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: pbreland@unixg.ubc.ca (Paul B Breland)
Subject: Re: CHARACTERS WANTED
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 05:53:22 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.152026.16452@meaddata.com> gordon@meaddata.com (Gordon Edwards) writes:
>In article <1992Jul23.203723.26558@meaddata.com>, joeg@meaddata.com (Joe Gayda) writes:
>|> |> send often.  It would be nice to have a larger pool of NPC's to choose
>|> |> from.
>|> 
>|> I have a C progam that generates AD&D II characters.  I'm afraid if I
>|> post the program I may break some TSR copyright.  I would love to
>|> distribute it because I've spent 40 or 50 hours writing the program.
>|> Can I post this program?  Anyone from TSR have anything to say?
>
>Well, I can't speak for TSR, but I would like a copy.
>
>Thanks.

I, too, would like a copy.  I very much doubt that TSR or SSI would take any
action if you were to post the program, though I can't say for sure.  Since
neither TSR nor SSI have character generator programs on the market (none
that I know of anyway) they don't stand to lose any money anyway.  There
is a character generator built into the SSI D&D games but I don't think
that that should prevent you from distributing your program.  The SSI system
tends to roll a bit on the high side to be useful IMO.

Thank you and good night.

-Paul Breland
pbreland@unixg.ubc.ca

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu (jim vassilakos)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Best version of AD&Dv1 Monster Enc. Prog for IBM-PC via ftp
Date: 25 Jul 92 04:03:20 GMT
Organization: University of California, Riverside


Hi everybody.

For the past week, I've been having a hell of a time posting an
AD&Dv1 monster encounter generation program to rec.games.frp.archives.
Despite the very best efforts of Mitch (the moderator) and myself,
I fear that all we've succeeded in doing was to waste bandwidth. So
for those of you who have tried unsuccessfully to download and unzip
the program files, don't dispair. You should be able to find a
relatively amiable version via anonymous ftp.

     Site: tybalt.caltech.edu
     Directory: pub/adnd/programs/msdos
     Filename: meg.tar

As stated above, the tarfile contains a zipfile which itself contains
an executable/compiled version of the program so that you don't need
any programming languages on your IBM-PC to run it. The program is
executable directly from your MS-DOS prompt.

If you have any trouble with this version, please let me know
immediately, so that I can get around to correcting whatever
problems may exist as soon as possible. I just ftp'ed and
downloaded this version myself, and as far as I can tell, it
works fine, but if you find anything wrong, I really want to
know about it.

Thanx... and good gaming.

           _   /|
           \`o_O'          Jim Vassilakos
             ( )     <---  jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu
              U            ucsd!ucrmath!jimv (uucp)
           Aachk!

P.S. If you want meg.tar uuencoded and emailed to you, just let me
     know. This version runs a little over 130K.

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: spzkny@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (JAMES ZAKANY)
Subject: Re: Number of Dice
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 22 Jul 1992 12:49 EST  

In article <Brsq6K.Cy5@apollo.hp.com>, keary@apollo.HP.COM
 (Matt Keary) writes...

>I've got dice, but I don't go looking for them, they find me!
>I go to gaming sessions and return with twice as many dice as I went with!

	NOW I know what happens to all my dice!!!

	You thieving li'l bugger...

 ps. ;-)                                           James S. Zakany
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou)
Subject: Re: Number of Dice
Organization: University of Central Florida
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 20:44:47 GMT

I have a whole bunch (about 10 20-siders, 30-40 6-siders, etc.)
and just about everyone I know has similar amount (though not
as many, since I normally DM).

Another use that no one has mentioned is to use the dice to
indicate which players are currently flying or levitating.  Of
course, you would probably need figures to do this, but...each
6-sider counts as 1" height.  ;>

Lance

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: scavanag@neumann.une.edu.au (Steven Cavanagh)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: My stupid pc trick
Date: 29 Jul 92 01:18:26 GMT

From last night's gaming-

So there we were, flying out of the phase door into the white
Dragon's lair, ready to do battle (after a round of disorientation).
My Wemic(look it up) fighter was armed with an elemental bomb, a
bottle that shatters and releases a fire elemental. He threw it at
the Dragon's mouth, and it missed. I thought "That's okay, it'll
still be able to attack it from the ground". The bottle fell
towards the lair's floor, shattered, and became the fire elemental!

The Dragon reared back in horror, then watched as it disappeared
through the ICE floor in a hiss of steam.

Oh well, we killed it anyway.


_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
                                |
Steven Cavanagh                 |        So many women-
(Cav)                           |
                                |                      -So little charisma.
scavanag@neumann.une.oz.au      |
                                |
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd