From: lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura Mollett)
Subject: new rec.games.frp.* groups
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- (606) 253-1481 
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:18:50 GMT


Well what happened to the discussion of rec.games.frp.campaigns?  Is it all
taking place in news.groups now?  What about rec.games.frp.cyber-or-whatever?
Did it die?  I hope so, but if not, I'd like to stick my two cents in here
for a minute or two.

I noticed running through news.groups looking for the rec.games.frp.campaigns
discussion a flame fest going on there over the renaming of a group called
rec.music.synth.  A piece of the flame fest touched on discussion of subject
lines in RFD and CFV's and it occurred to me that in this group, people who
routinely put something like "cyberpunk" or "shadowrun" in killfiles (not being
interested in those systems) could easily miss a RFD or CFV's on a new rec.
games.frp.* group - if it was labeled like this "RFD - rec.games.frp.cyberpunk".
I've seen the discussion (tho unofficial) labeled in this way, and it seems to
me that whoever (if anyone does) eventually runs a vote on this subject would
need to be careful to make sure everyone interested had an opportunity to 
see the CFV and RFD.  Just a comment in advance to hopefully avoid a problem.

Further, I would like to say that I am opposed to ANY further splitting of
rec.games.frp at this time.  That includes both the campaigns group and the
cyber.dark future.whatever group.

While the .misc/.dnd split made sense and has enormously lowered traffic for
those who only read one or the other of these groups, in my opinion, it has
also seriously limited discussions and the seeds of discussions in these
groups.  I've seen several things posted in dnd which I do not think were
totally dndwhatever specific or that could have turned into less specific
discussions if the whole group was together (as it had been previously).  I am
not suggesting a return to rec.games.frp and the "dnd is a good system" "is not"
"is too" arguments, but I do believe that any further splitting of the group
will only aggrevate the problem and not to any real useful benefit.

Does anyone else see what seems to me like a true separation between the dnd
group and the misc group?  I mean that discussions in one or the other seem to
go on totally independantly with very little cross-posting and thus very
little dissemination of ideas to the frp group in general, or am I just making
up something that is there only in my own head?  How many people read both
groups?  It seemed to me like the long discussion in dnd of nasty monsters
(liches and the like) could easily have been an interesting non-genre specific
discussion of how to challenge more advanced (higher points/higher levels
whatever) PC's in any game.  I use liches in my Fantasy Hero campaign...seems
like they'll eventually show up in vampires etc.  I sometimes use dragons as
well.  Yet since the people who propagated the discussion play dnd (or at
least seems to me like this is how it was placed) then the comments never
made it to .misc and so never moved from the dnd/adnd genre.  I'm concerned
that I will lose the opportunity for even more interesting discussions along
similar lines if the group splits even further...especially to something like
rec.games.frp.dark_futures.

I have additionally noticed that occasionally the seed of a discussion is
cross-posted to two or three of the frp groups and then the discussion goes
on in separate directions simultaneously in the different groups and I wonder
if everyone is getting the benefit of the entire discussion.  This seems to
be of real concern in something like the creation of a new group (campaigns)
which went on (I think) to some degree here (.misc) in .advocacy and in
news.groups all at the same time.  Is everyone who is interested aware that the
discussion is going on in all 3 groups?  Only one or two were cross-posted
to my knowledge.  Do most people note the cross-posts?  (I don't always...mea
culpa :).

Well, this may be a strawman type of thing, as I am not absolutely sure the
problem exists...may be in my head.  However, I am opposed to the creation of
both these groups for this reason.  Just my opinion.
			Laura Mollett
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc