HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (Veltyen)
Subject: Re: Cyberpunk (was: SR: SRII combat mods)
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 01:17:46 GMT


Hmmmm some stuff on deckers w/guns

quote from Never deal with a dragon

"This is the 2050's anyone with a brain has a gun"

I ran my group through the stuffer shack senario once. Now how
would you like a decker, a rigger, a journalist, a rockerboy
in that senario. Acording to some of you the group should
have no guns and no firearms skill.
They would die.....
(rem this was set coming home from a pub _not_ a run)

On projectile weapons.
Not nessersarily tribals or primatives.
One of my runners uses a folding arm compound bow
reassons?
	relatively high range
	impact armor resistance
	quiet (guns with _real_ good silencers might get close
		to a well tuned bow.)
	High strength (sorry he is a stealth freek PA)
	High concealabilty (compared to guns with similar range)
	Last but not least 
		legal to carry by anyone.
Who needs autofire with a arrow in your neck?
*****************************************************************************
*Veltyen   ....GM from Hell        *" As a child I always wanted a puppy,   *
*ins769v@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au *  then again, we were starving anything *
*ins769v@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au   *  with meat on it would have done."     *
*veltyen@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au	   *      Captain Vimes, City Watch         *
*****************************************************************************
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Rolemaster Character Creation Aid: What would you expect from it?
Date: 31 Jul 92 16:04:41 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1992Jul31.113423.28301@corax.udac.uu.se> aha@meryl.csd.uu.se (Anders Hallberg) writes:
>In article <1992Jul24.015215.18694@pacifier.rain.com> michael@pacifier.rain.com (Michael Smith) writes:
>>>>I have begun the tedious task of writing a character creation aid for
>>>>Rolemaster.
>
>>>	Sir, thou art truly a hero of our times.  May the Gods bless you
>>>and your race to the nth generation.
>
>>  I have written such a program.  It is on version 0.7 (meaning no
>>comments and still a bug or two to find) now and I haven't touched it
>>for a long while since we don't use RM any more.  You might want to
>>have a look at it Michael.
>
>  I should have known better.  I have a load of mail asking for the
>program.  One of the mailers offered to make it available on anonymous
>ftp.  I will rewrite the 'to do' and 'bugs' files in english, polish a
>few things and mail it to him.  I will post a notice in this newsgroup
>and in rec.games.frp.announce .archives when it is done.  I will not
>mail it to anyone else (it is quite large, about 300k of source code +
>the database. Yes, all those tables).
>  Be patient.
>	/Anders Hallberg (aha@meryl.csd.uu.se)

	Finally!  A Rolemaster game-aid on a ftp site!  Tack s} mycket.
	BTW, I didn't realize that Rolemaster sold in Sweden (which judging
by your address is where you are).  Is it actually sold there or did you
pick it up in the US or something?  It isn't translated into Swedish, is
it?  THat would be too cool.  
	I always here about RPGs in the US, what RPG stuff goes on in
Sweden (or elsewhere)?

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: gray@visix.com (Gray Jones)
Subject: Re: Combat Characters? (Was: SR: Melee Weapons)
Keywords: Shadowrun, SRun, SR
Reply-To: gray@visix.com (Gray Jones)
Organization: Visix Software Inc., Reston, VA
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 12:35:11 GMT

In article <BrJn2I.K6w@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
|> Shooting one gun or one class of gun (say SMG or pistol) at 3 is what I was
|> suggesting. What I dislike is something like a decker with Firarms 6. 
|> Firearms 6 means you are very  good with pistols, SMG's, Rifles, Grenade
|> Launchers, and Light Machine Guns. In order to become very good with a 
|> firearm, you have to practice A LOT. A Decker just wouldn't have the
|> time to learn all those guns at that level of skill as he/she spends most
|> of his life logged in. It's like a samurai character starting off with
|> a datajack and Computer 6. Sure, there are some combat deckers, but all
|> in all, the game works better if people don't overlap other people's
|> jobs.  
|> 
|> Axly


First off, I am against character classes.  Forcing a player to have a max of 3 in firearms if they
have computer skill would suck.

If you assume that the average skill level is 3, on average a character should have 6, 7, 8, 10, or 13
skills (depending on Skills priority).  What if you changed the skill system so that the priorities were:

0	42
1	49
2	56
3	70
4	91

and then skills cost:

level	skill "points"
1	1
2	3
3	7
4	13
5	21
6	31

you know, the same way karma awards for increasing skill works?

This way, it's easy to get passable competence in some skill, but mastering it is
really tough.

I haven't tried playing this yet though.

--gray
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: thantos@wyvern.via.mind.org (Lord*Thantos Wyvern)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Dark Conspiracy
Date: 24 Jul 92 23:28:33 GMT
Organization: The Wyvern's Nest / Lawrenceville, GA

Joe_Neldrett@lppl.mi.org (Joe Neldrett) writes:

> Is Dark Races vol I a relatively new suppliment? I've only got the
> rulebook, DarkTek Sourcebook, a minimodule, and the suppliment for
> converting to a D20 based task system rather than D10. There were a few
> modules I thought of buying but haven't got around to it (and spending
> money on just about anything it tuff when I have to pay for my own school
> tuition) But this Dark Races suppliment sounds quite interesting. My
> girlfriend also bought me a few novels that were based on Dark Conspiracy
> that one day I will get around to reading. I just don't have the time to
> fully flesh out a good campaign. What kind of information does the Dark
> Races contain? Anything else good on the horizon for DkCon? Sorry about all
> the questions. I'm just in a babbling mood!

  No prob with all  the qwirys...   You'll have  to excuse  my spelling, 
  I've been reading Riddley Walker and its thrown me *all* outta whack.

  The Dark Races book,  I b'lieve,  came out  before the  die-conversion 
  book, 'cause I haven't seen it 'round here, but then I haven't checked 
  *all* the stores herebouts either.

  I've  got  the  first  DkCon  novel,  and  I  can't  find   any  more.  
  Infuriating.

  Dark  Races  has  a  *lot*  of  rather nasty  creatures (like  most of 
  DkCon's) that dropping on your players might be  fun.  You  could come 
  up with  at least  several months  of *good*  scenarios with  the Dark 
  Races vol I without investing a whole lot of time.

  If there's anything else you need, hollar.


---
thantos@wyvern.via.mind.org (Lord*Thantos Wyvern)
The Wyvern's Nest
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: joshua salter <jsalter@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: HERO vs. GURPS
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:32:22 GMT


	I have purchased HERO, and found my old copy of GURPS to compare them.
I was unable to come to a conclusion. My findings:

	HERO's Merits			|	GURPS Merits
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   well-defined Characteristics +1	|   simplistic Attributes -1
   Good combat rules	+1		|   Good combat rules	+1
   un-scaled attribute costs	0	|   scaled attribute costs	+1
   reasonably cost-effecient	0	|   supplements needed -1
   not many supplements -1		|   lotsa cool supplements out +1

	I'm using both to see which game works better in action, (long campa-
igns). Suggestions on what supplements to buy? (For each.)

								-jsalter

			"What do we do?"
			"We die."	- The Last Starfighter

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: cstudly@athena.mit.edu (Todd Sterling Anderson)
Subject: Re: Point or Random Systems, What about both?
Keywords: 
	I have used both ways in AD&D1 and 2 and found that i vastly prefer
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 21:39:34 GMT

point allocation because it encourages role playing  more.  In addition, it
allows players to be on a more even keel.  If a player for some
unearthly reason wants to play a paladin, all they have to do is allocate
the proper points.  In addition, % strengths for fighters are costly because
they cost a point /slot or 2 points to go from 18/ 95 to 18/00. (If you're
pushing the very limits to human strength, chances are you aren't going
to find the time to read war and peace.)  Additional points can go for 
additional nonweapon proficiencies or weapon proficiencies and even
psionic wild talents.  I am very happy with this system to date.  

todd anderson
From: jacobus@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Kirsten C. Jacobus)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Best Super system
Date: 23 Jul 92 02:51:47 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

In article <14ksupINNiub@early-bird.think.com> laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) writes:
>As I've said before, the fix is simple -- make them cheaper if that's what
>you want in your campaign.  You're complaining about the value of a number,
>not the way the system works.



Let me put it this way:  If so many numbers are wrong that I spend my time
changing nearly all of them, why should I bother to buy the "official" 
system and not write my own?

In other words, my point is not that the "basic system" of GURPS Supers
is worthless.  However, it takes too much fixing to bother using as a
basis in the first place.  I might as well write my own as spend the same
amount of time re-writing what I don't like.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: goodwin@orionsci.uucp (Ben Goodwin)
Subject: Amber (Campaign Beginnings)
Organization: Orion Scientific, Inc.
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 13:34:06 GMT

Could some of the Amber players e-mail me a minor scenario or two.
I'm going to start Amber with a group of 6 people.  I've come up
with a small scenario for a few of the people.  But I want to split
them up and have them doing different things concurrently.

Scenario 1: Some new beasts are invading Arden.  They're easily
handled by Arden's warders, but King Random sees it as a chance for
some of the next generation princes and princesses to get some experience
and prove themselves.  Their mission is to find out who/what is sending
these beasts and to end the threat.  

I need another minor adventure to complement this one.  I don't want to
start the players with "The End Of Amber" scenarios right away.   :)

Also, this may have been asked before, but how have you managed to bring
these groups together?  It seems that the Second generation Amberites
tend to protect their children by not letting anyone know that the
kid exists.  I'm trying to bring these people together into two groups.
But right now I can't think of a believable way to do it.

Thanks!
-- 

-Ben
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: darknite@camelot.bradley.edu (John S. Novak III)
Subject: Re: Genres
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 21 Jul 92 05:22:42 GMT

Nick Janow writes:

>> Um, hard science fiction means, as far as I can tell, based on actual
>> science. Ie- no faster than light, nothing that is based on uninvented
>> science.

>Hmmm, I thought it meant consistent science that doesn't contradict existing
>scientific knowledge.  I feel it should also include the
>social/political/economic effects of science and technology (ie.  "Powercells"
>for "blaster pistols" could also be used in many other types of equipment).

To paraphrase the rec.arts.sf.written FAQ, hard SF is what I mean
when I point at when I say, 'hard SF.'

Hard vs soft is a continuum with the ultimate hard SF being that
NO physical laws are violated, while ultimate soft SF has an
anything goes, including magic, philosophy.

The break point on the continuum between hard and soft is
different for each person.  Trying to actually nail it down for
everyone is futile.  How hot is hot?  How slow is slow?

--
"Anyone here ever had to have had gone though a toothache?
 <raised hands>...  Good"
          -Dr. William Hammond to Class, 09-16-91
John S. Novak, III		darknite@camelot.bradley.edu
From: clements@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun: News
Date: 29 Jul 92 09:48:39 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <ward1.712375882@husc8>, ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward) writes:
> Our campaign is big on News Intelligencers, and I thought I post one here.
> We generally make a new one every week, so if it sounds like there is interest
> then I'll post more.
> 

\Much appreciated posting, Wordman.

If mroe people submitted News items like this we could get a regular SR news
sheet going to act as background colout to all our SR campaigns.

Something for the SR mailinglist perhaps???


================================================================================
Dave Clements, Oxford University Astrophysics Department
================================================================================
clements @ uk.ac.ox.vax			|  Umberto Eco is the *real* Comte de
dlc      @ uk.ac.ox.astro		|           Saint Germain...
================================================================================
From: dfn@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David Nalle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: VOTE FOR ME  ;)
Date: 27 Jul 1992 21:06:27 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

Actually, Peter, we're interested in adding a few possible categories.  The
one you suggest might be a bit much, but if anyone has suggestions of aspects
of gaming or gaming trends that ought to be recognized I'd gladly hear the 
suggestions.

We've been toying with a category for 'Best Online Game', but we can't figure 
out how to define or limit it.

Dave
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: braca2@cspyr1.cs.adfa.oz.au (BRAY CHRISTOPHER)
Subject: Re: Best Player Lines
Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 23:16:28 GMT


 I was keeping CoC just the other night and the players had captured an innocent
 NPC (they didnt realise this, but he had some useful information about a 
 haunted house) The dialogue of the interrogation went as follows:

 PC: " What can you tell us about the house?"
 NPC: "Nothing, I'll not tell a living soul about it."
 PC : "But we are from the house, we want to know how much you know!"
    Why he did this, I wont know.

 NPC: "Then you will know the dispicable horror, and filthy practises that 
     have occured there. How can you dare stand before me after living in that
     vile hole of terror and depravity, that place with a history of death
     and evil?"
     something along those lines.

 PC: "Well, its home."

	Talk about ruining the atmosphere :)


                              -=[   hook   ]=-
-----------------------------                  ----------------------------
 braca2@cspyr1.cs.adfa.oz.au          |    "If you've got it shake it" - hook
       ========			      |    "My heart beats just like yours, 
      /        \                      |    When I dream, my mind soars,  
      |        |                      |    but no fantasy will pay my bills
      \        /                      |    Another dream unfulfilled"
       ---  ---                       |                - Living Color
	 / /                          | "Right now there are hundreds of
	 | |                          | sceptics falling of the edge of the 
	 \ \   /|                     | Earth"  Clem Turner (LEUT, RAN)
	  \ --/ |                     |
	   \---/                      |
copy this sig and help `Just Say No' to Big Brother monitoring public bandwidth
      NSA KEYWORDS:  AVIARY, OCELOT, KIT GREEN, JOHN ALEXANDER, ED DAMES
From: apearlma@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Andrew Pearlman)
Subject: Re: SR: Deckers and Guns
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 17:27:33 GMT

In article <BrrBCz.9FD@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
>	The end result is that most combats are lasting ONE turn
>	to resolve. I am getting this sort of "We are wickedly
>	out of control 'cause no one can stand up to this sort
>	of firepower" feeling. Has anyone else had this problem?

>	the first turn is halfway over. The opposing samurai
>	has usually been nuked by a Manabolt with all the dice
>	in the magic pool in it. (Does anyone else think that
>	the pools are massively in favor of mages? Samurai have
>	no pool where they can dig up an extra six dice to 
>	shoot with, why do mages have them?) 

Samurai have target#s of 2 for most actions.  Against a good corp, the mage
is going to have target# of at least 4, maybe 5, possibly 6.  Fighting a 6
means the mage using 12 dice is going to get 2 successes.  Rolling 6 dice to
resist, the sam is going to get 1 success.  Sam takes a light wound, the mage
then takes some drain probably.

Corps should have tactics.  If a corp sam engages the party, he should have
magical backup.  A good corp sam is worth just as much as a good wage mage.
Engage the party with say 10 standard corp and 1 second later, hit them from
behind with a corp strike team.  With everyone having smartgun links, this
is more than possible.  Have the corp mage figure out who are the opposing
mages, and target your heavy firepower on them for the first couple of seconds.

Probably you end up with the following results:
Lose about 5-6 corp guards vs 2 dead mages.  Still have an entire corp strike
team and 4 corp guards vs a badly hurt runner team.

Andy Pearlman
From: hummell+@pitt.edu (Andrew G Hummell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Genres
Date: 24 Jul 92 13:39:51 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <1992Jul23.212026.21107@Princeton.EDU> woodhams@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Michael Woodhams) writes:
>of the future. You can suspend your disbelief all you like (in this
>case, by the neck until dead) but there's no way giant huminoid robots
>will ever be a better military buy than something like a tank.
This is just *your opinion*, not a fact.  It can never be proven to be
a fact (to us anyway, we'll be dust by the time it can be proven one way or
another).

Tanks are already pretty much obsolete now.  The average infantry soldier can
carry a tank killing rocket.  An A10 Warthog can chew up tanks like bubblegum,
with proper air support.  Tanks are only effective against troop transports,
buildings, and other tanks.

Giant humanoid robots (if such beasts *could* be built -- I beleive that is
*very* unlikely) would have advantages such as terrain (a walking robot can
move across terrain that is impassable for tanks), more armor, more firepower,
more manuverability, more versatility (a giant humanoid robot could be used
to pick heavy things up and move them, i.e. construction work).

Tanks, on the other hand, have a speed advantage (unless the technology was
*really* good), and would be smaller targets.

If you can't bring yourself to beleive that giant robots are a *possibility*,
how can you play *any* science fiction game?  FTL travel is no more unlikely
that giant robots.  Sentient robots/androids/computers are no more unlikely than
giant robots.  The same goes for any other type of fantasy as well.

If giant-robot-type genres are not to your taste, don't play those type of
games.

Andy
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  "I'm not insane...just a reasonable facsimile."  | Hummell@unix.cis.pitt.edu
  "Character is what you are in the dark."         | Andy Hummell ...that's me 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: educ@unixg.ubc.ca (Vicki Domansky)
Subject: Re: Lionheart (and High Colonies)
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 20:43:50 GMT

In article <15611@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> ez007612@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Tim Prestero) writes:
>In article <1992Jul26.062534.27506@tamsun.tamu.edu> jrp3935@tamsun.tamu.edu (Jonny Ray Purvis) writes:
>>This game was once advertised as an upcoming project of Columbia Games, the
>>people who make Harn products.  Did it ever come out?  If so, could someone
>>please give a review of it.  
>
>Well, it's less of a game than it is a campaign sourcebook. It's called
>_Lionheart_, and its been out for at least 6 months (that's how long I've
>had it). I was quite impressed with the quality.

Lionheart has been out for _at least_ 2 years, probably longer.  I
remember when Ed (the author, Ed King, friend and GM of our Harn games
for several years) was proudly showing off his book several years ago.
I'm embarassed to say that I never actually got around to taking a good
look at it so I can't provide any comments, but I recall that the
map(s) were very good.

As Columbia Games is notoriously unreliable when it comes to shipping
stock, I'm not surprised that many people haven't seen it.
-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Vicki Domansky <Morgaine>                               educ@unixg.ubc.ca
Education Computing Services                       v_domansky@mtsg.ubc.ca
U of B.C. Vancouver Canada                        usereduc@ubcmtsg.bitnet
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: rhunt@med.unc.edu (Rick Hunt)
Subject: SRUN: Upper limit on armor spells?
Originator: rhunt@icard
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 01:01:59 GMT

I have a question to all of you Shadowrun gurus.  I am playing a mage and
wanted to cast a spell locked armor spell on myself, after watching our
big troll go down in one shot.  I have the spell at force 5, a magic pool
at 6 and an elemental at force 4 and used him for 3 dice.  We used a
target number of 3 and I rolled 14 dice, resulting in 10 successes.  The
GM was not amused by the prospect of me having 10 points of dermal armor
permanantly locked on.  He said that there _must_ be some kind of upper
limit on these things but we couldn't find anything.  Are we missing
something?

Rick Hunt "Touch"
rhunt@med.unc.edu

Organization: Junior, Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
From: carl@gergo.tamu.edu (Carl D. Perkins)
Subject: Re: New Name for Flesh Golem wanted!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Geochemical and Environmental Research Group - TAMU
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 06:59:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.203214.1668@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>, ericg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (E. Chris Garrison) writes...
>In article <1992Jul28.185143.23188@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> cassidy@cps.msu.edu.cps.msu.edu (John J Cassidy) writes:
>>
>>	The 19th century creation that I think you are refering to is
>>"Gollum" by Tolkien.  However, I beleive that there is a legendary
>>creature called a "golem" in Eastern European legends.  The name is used
>>for a creature that is created my a magician as a mindless servant.
>>
>>As always: I could be wrong.
> 
>Hate to say it, but you are.
> 
>The "19th century creation" is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.  Her
>Frankenstein was an artificial human somehow brought to life from
>dead body parts sewn together and imbued with chemicals and so
>on.  

Which is, of course, not true. Dr. Frankenstein what the name of the
creator. The creature was refered to as "the monster" or "the
creature" (or Frankenstein's monster).

--- Carl

> 
>Eric
>-- 
>>------
>>E. Chris Garrison			      Computing Services Support Center
>>ericg@ucs.indiana.edu			      Indiana University
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc