HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: What is with these Katana's?
Date: 31 Aug 92 16:25:10 GMT
Article-I.D.: burrhus.1992Aug31.162510.26957
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1992Aug29.143939.12397@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> gajensen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes:
>I think it had something to do with how the weapons were made. Historically,
>they were constructed by continually folding the metal back on itself, the
>process had a name but I forget what. Also, these were the only weapons from
>medieval times capable of actually dismembering someone during combat.
>Something to do with the sharpness of the weapon. 
>
>I guess the Japanese have always had it over the West when it comes to quality.
>:-)

	All right.  This is what most of the posts regarding my original
question have been like.  They boil down to katana's were made by vastly
superior swordsmiths and a folding technique.
	Now if I recall correctly the katana's and similar designs had a
soft iron core with a very hard steel case and edge which gave both
flexibility and cutting power.  This seems roughly analogus to the Western
pattern welding.  I'm not sure that forging technique is at issue here.

	Now as far as smiths go, shouldn't the effects of a superior smith
be covered by the weapon of quality rules?  I mean it seems silly to have
rules which say weapons made by brilliant smiths have these certain pluses
and then go create a weapon category which relies on _all_ it's examples to
have been made by superior smiths!
	Now I've seen a lot of "long swords" and a lot of katanas and
discussed them with people who know much more about it than I (thus my
original question :) and boy are there some _shitty_ katanas out there.
There are some _shitty_ "long swords" too.  Or about as many of one as the
other.  (Luckly most of the surviving examples are the better ones).
	A sword, after all, is only as good as the smith who made it, and
it's laughable to think that all katanas are the products of god-like
smiths, any more than to say all "long swords" are made by Weyland!

	I'm not saying there aren't some remarkably cool katanas out there
- I've seen 'em and watched them used in practice cuts (I don't have any
katana technique myself).  But I know that they aren't all masterpieces
either, and it seemed to me that TSR was assuming all katanas were. 
	I suppose that's all right in a "heroic" kind of game but doesn't
seem to work in reality.  I'm not convinced that the perfectly average
katana is any better than the perfectly average any other kind of sword.

	OK, I've found a reference to a article comparing Japanese and
European swords, so I'm going to go check it out and see what it says ...

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 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Role Playing in Middle Earth
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:28:47 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@pmax1.cis.pitt.edu

In article <Btyp5F.9D5@news.cso.uiuc.edu> maxson@cerl.uiuc.edu (K R Maxson) writes:
>Although this doesn't really have anything to do with DND, I must say that
>the ICE products dealing with Middle Earth completely and utterly fail to be
>true to the JRRT's creation.

	You're entitled to that opinion, of course, but mine's diametrically
opposed to yours. 
	
	In my completely arrogant opinion, the RoleMaster Middle-Earth 
materials are magnificent, close and loving adaptations of what Middle-Earth
was, with a great deal of attention paid to getting things as close as
humanly possible to what the books represented, within the format of the
RM game system. 
	You can argue that another system might have done better, but I
doubt it. Any system would have had its flaws, probably large ones, and
overall I think RoleMaster was one of the best choices. The only thing
that is really different is that straight RoleMaster is a higher-magic
system, but one can either tone down the magic or just up the normal
magic rates in Middle-Earth. The flavor can remain.

	Moreover, the sourcebooks are useful even outside of RoleMaster
or MERP -- my AD&D2 Middle-Earth campaign's GM used the RM sourcebooks
extensively.

	The modules are marvelous, too.

                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;
From: JLM@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: They say "Kill Hack Slay Everything in sight!!!"........
Date: 28 Aug 92 10:19:38 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center


In article <l7mpbppn@cck.coventry.ac.uk>, cmh512@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Iain
Morales) says:
>
>   And talking about munchkins... I would like to hear a of a cure for a sorry
>looking party, who consists of two pure but seemingly curable munchkins.. one
>real player and another good player who likes to spend half the session
>arguing
>senselessly  about  minor  calls  and one reforming player, recovering from  a
>serious bout of powergaming which was bordering on the munchkin!
>
>what can I do with this sorry looking bunch???


 If I may be allowed to quote you:

            Kill, Hack and Slay the sorry-looking bunch !!!! :-)

 This is a tough one. I too had a group like this once. Mine included
one guy that kept falling asleep and one who wanted to kill every member
of the party.

 The kill-every-party-member guy did not respond to any kind of peer
presure to change his behavior. So one day I told him that in the next
gaming session, the DM (me) would go after his character with extreme
prejudice and enjoy every second of it. He never showed up again. And
the quality of the game improved.

 The sleeper: I just added more twists in my plots that could only be
solved by his character's special abilities. That increased his level
of interest from non-existent to partial conciousness. He turned out to
be a decent player !!

 The one-who-argues-every-minor-call: There is nothing wrong to listening
to a player's point. Sometimes the player can be correct. I listen to my
players all the time. However, if the guy is going to waste half the time
on useless, little arguments, then that's bad. My response to some one like
this is to listen to him for a few seconds and then cut him short by saying:
"I see what you are driving at, but you see there are certain things which
are going on in the plot, which none of you is aware of at the moment, which
is why things are happening the way they are. And that's all the information
I can give you at this point !"  It always works !!

 One of the munchkinist could not be reformed no matter what I tried;
so in each game session I incorporated a separate but parallel adventure
just for him. He would then leave the rest of the group and go on his own
and have a good time (and get himself into life-threatening messes). But
the player enjoyed it and stoped being a nuissance to the other players
and the DM.

 Don't ever try to change a person's style of playing all at once. It doesn't
work in most cases. Instead, have a bit of everything in your campaigns
to please all tastes and styles of gaming. Slowly, you can then show the
players with styles which are detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the
game, that there are other ways to play which are just "as fun" without
diminishing the fun of the other players.

 And if that doesn't work, kill, hack and slay the bastards !!  At least
*you'll* have a good time !! :-)

-- Jose L. Martinez --
From: af2e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Alex Feely)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Gate to hell.
Date: 27 Aug 92 00:04:09 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Hello,
 Here are a few suggestions for the name of your room:

moriarty
Valhala  (home of the norse gods, were fallen wariors go)
Hades
dominion of death
domain of death
the realm

                                                                        
           Alex Feely
From: ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Paladins
Keywords: significant words from a document used as an index to content
Date: 24 Aug 92 02:26:23 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <1992Aug24.010230.622@ctr.columbia.edu> GreyOwl@uiuc.edu writes:

>I think it would depend on the deity the Paladin serves.  IMO, the paladin
>should emulate hir deity.  A paladin serving a "my way or no way" deity
>should behave in a harsh manner, with a strict code of ethics.  If it
>were a kindler, gentler god(dess), the paladin should behave as you describe.

Yeah, but how many "my way or no way" deities are LG?  As another poster
mentioned, LG usually involoves, amoung other things, mercy.


-- 
Jorge Diaz                       | Sign in a restaurant:
Georgia Institute of Technology  | 
Office of Information Technology |   "We reserve the right to serve refuse to
ccoprdj@prism.gatech.edu         |        anyone."
From: mcleod@spot.Colorado.EDU (Bob Mcleod)
Subject: LOOKING FOR PLAYERS IN BOULDER/LONGMONT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: co
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 04:59:30 GMT

I'm want to start a new DnD-like group in the Boulder Longmont area and
need players.  If you are over 21, have transportation, and are interested
in creative roleplaying (not all hack and slash) under an experienced DM,
e-mail your response or questions to mcleod@kona.colorado.edu.  (Please
don't post responses to the net.)  Long live the brownie bard-knight!
(Chaotic evil wizard warlords need not apply....)

Thanks!
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: v131p9t3@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Ninstar Cybermage - Back Again from the Mists!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: What is with these Katana's?
Date: 31 Aug 92 02:11:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <Bttr14.Fyr@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, rnmg1200@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (A Lady and her Walrus) writes...
>I tend to agree with the poster who said it had to do with the mysticism
>surrounding the katana; there are so many legends that it's almost impossible
>to distinguish truth from fiction.  Someone (sorry, I forget who) emailed me
>mentioning that, during the Russo-Japanese war, the Russian soldiers supposedly
>were told to block swords with their gun barrels.  When they tried it,
>the swords just cut through their rifles.  Neither one of us is willing to
>say whether this is true or not. :)  (Personally, I haven't the foggiest,
>but anybody who's willing to say one way or the other, please, speak up.)

[Sticking Neck Out]

Well, let's put it this way.  I wouldn't expect it to happen alot, but chances
are that it happenned enough for the word to get around and make this into a
rampant rumor.  Chances are the a good number of the katana blades were capable
of cutting through the gun barrels, but even the best one won't do it EVERY
TIME(angles, dynamics, weak or unskilled soldiers, luck).

As a general rule, Katanas would be the equivalent as far as use is concerned
to a bastard sword(when figuring out how much force goes into a blow(it's one
or two hands, and so on).  Rumor has it that the blades were strong enough
and sharp enough to make up for the lack of blade length in this comparison,
and in the hands of a skilled swordsman(and Japanese samurai LIKED skill, it was
a really big thing with them) it might have been worthy of the damage rating.

When I play D&D(not AD&D 8-P) I use the bastard sword stats and call it a 
katana just for simplicity.  Is it correct?  Who really cares?  I'm not 
going to take my katana out of the closet and start killing people just
to find out how much damage it'll do.

James Shank           	#		v131p9t3@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
AKA: Ninstar Cybermage  #	or	shank@acsu.buffalo.edu
###############################################################################
"Ten thousand years old...He could be trouble." -Vampire Hunter D
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"How do you make ammends for a god's sins?"-Forgotten Realms
##############################################################################
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Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
From: marrou@cs.ucf.edu (Lance R. Marrou)
Subject: Re: A word on Mages
Organization: University of Central Florida
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 14:09:37 GMT

seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:

>In article <1992Sep4.162630.1@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au> edb892rsft@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
>	[low level mages are candyass milquetoast girly-men]
>>mage a low levels still tends to be very little. Has any one found ways
>>of getting low level mages to have a greater role in low level
>>adventures?
>	I have just two simple words for you:
>	Spell points. Spell Points.
>	If you like, you can give them bonus spells for their intelligence
>like the clerics get for their wisdom.
>	Or use The Arcanum system, wherein you get 1 spell per level, plus
>two to begin with (I also give them the above bonus spells), but those
>spells are of any level that you can cast.
>	Or give him some cantrips. Tell him to be creative, at least then\
>he has 4 mystic effects he can produce.
>	Personally, though, I still say "Spell Points". It's the only way
>to fly.

Well, when say "greater role" you said it all.  The wimpy first level mage
(though he can probably kick the rest of the party's ass with ONE simple
sleep spell) should have plenty to do in the way of role-playing.  If not,
then look further into that problem.
As far as beefing him up, give him one 1st level spell to start plus 4
cantrips (1 cantrip/level).  He cannot change cantrips for regular spells.
This will help him out, give him MANY more spells to cast, and give him
a little more headlight in respect to the rest of the party.
Of course, since you are beefing up the MU at 1st level you will need to
tone him down at higher levels, maybe not giving him certain spells at
certain levels, etc.  Otherwise the other players will get pissed, I know
I would.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Lance R. Marrou
   Work   - Marrou@IST.UCF.edu
   School - Marrou@Eola.cs.UCF.edu
From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: Paladins
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
	<BtJuJ2.C4L@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Aug25.155117.676@ccsvax.sfasu.edu>
	<1992Aug25.224312.9380@pony.Ingres.COM>
	<1992Aug26.022744.680@ccsvax.sfasu.edu> <BtLHM8.Fq3@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 09:29:04 GMT

In article <BtLHM8.Fq3@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:



   However, the thief, in the paladin's eyes, has broken God's law. Since the
   paladin is a duly appointed representative of a supernatural entity, he 
   is merely enforcing the dieties law. Again, there can be a conflict between
   the law of the religion and the law of the state. However, most paladins
   are empowered by both divine and mundane forces to act as their representative.
   The case where the police have to let someone go works in a legal system
   where you have different degrees of crime. In a medieval era setting, the
   justice system didn't make that distinction. Crime was crime no matter
   who it was against. 

   Axly



Oh boy, are you wrong. Look up medieval laws sometime. I believe there
are quite a numerous descriptions of "punitions" to give to a criminal
and these punitions varied from paying a fine to go into jail to forced
work to torture to cutting ears, hands, whatever, to death in various
horrible ways. These people had refined the art of torture to "exquisite"
levels. Like using V shaped wood blocks and inserting them between the two
bones of the leg with a mace... HURTS!

But the worst thing is that the punishement wasn't depending only on the
type of crime but also on the SOCIAL STATUS of the offended party.

Thus, a rich and "noble" man could rape a common peasant's girl and have to
pay a low to medium fine, while if the reverse was true the peasant would
have to pay a hefty fine, often more than everything he owned, thus making
him (and his family) automatically become slaves or serfs or the noble, who
could then torture them or make them work to starvation.

sSocial class is the moto here. What has that got to do with paladins, I
fdon't know, but IMHO the way pasladins are described as "enforcing the
law" and not caring about the poor souls of their community and being
uptight seems more to me like the CAVALIER description than the role model
paladin desription.

Of instead of cavalier just put in "knight".



--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
\---------------------------/
From: z_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Why are their level limits?
Date: 28 Aug 92 00:08:13 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Stephen F. Austin State University

In article <67056@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
> In article <1992Aug27.135619.703@ccsvax.sfasu.edu> z_copeab@ccsvax.sfasu.edu writes:
>>In article <67022@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
> 
>>> Because cleric spells are different than wizard spells.  
> 
>>	Except it doesn't say this anywhere.
> 
> The fact that clerical spells don't specify the three kinds of components 
> indicates that they are fundamentally different, at least to me.
> 

	Clerical spells do, at least in the 1st Edition.

>>	This is an extremely silly statement. Does this mean that if a bardiche
>>did less damage that a dagger, it would be okay, since its _fantasy_ ? 
> 
> Obviously, there should be at least some kernel of reason behind the rule; 
> I'm not saying that fantasy means that you can be completely and utterly 
> ridiculous.  None of the examples presented to date in this discussion have
> been completely wacky, like your example.

	No, they weren't. But you made a rather sweeping statement, and I
wanted to show you what would be justified by that kind of thinking. Also, the
examples are, to me, at least slightly wacky.

Brandon Cope
From: ba446@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Todd M. Hanson)
Subject: Re: Question on Armor Class
Reply-To: ba446@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Todd M. Hanson)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 06:29:05 GMT


In a previous article, ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) says:

>Which has always made me wonder why a shield-less, weaponless person
>doesn't have severe AC penalties.  If you were in a fight against someone
>with a weapon and you were bare-handed, you would be at a major
>disadvatange because the only thing you have to block with are your
>hands.

Check out the rules on unarmed combat (either phb or dm's guide). A
person with a weapon facing an unarmed person is +4 to hit AND DAMAGE.
This sounds like some pretty severe penalties to me.  :)

Also makes those cesti just a little less god-like.

Todd


-- 
* Todd Hanson                              ba446@cleveland.freenet.edu  *
*                                                                       *
*     "No woman's worth a bullet between the eyes.. "                   *
*          "Depends on who's eyes.. and which woman."    'Bugsy'        *
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: What is with these Katana's?
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:04:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: burrhus.1992Aug28.200413.21792
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA


	Here's something I've been wondering about for quite some time:
Why does a katana do d10 damage in AD&D?  Why is it so much better than a
scimitar or even a long sword.  Don't make sense to me.

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.dnd
From: mrmarcel@eos.ncsu.edu (MICHAEL RONN MARCELAIS)
Subject: Re: REC.GAMES.DND - Frequently Asked Questions - Read before posting
Keywords: questions,hints,faq,info
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 01:05:03 GMT

In article <71700@apple.Apple.COM>, warren@Apple.COM (Chris Warren) writes:
|> 
|> Archive-name: dnd-FAQ
|> Last-Modified: 1992/08/26
|> 
|> Posting Frequency: Once a week
|> 
|> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> --------------------------- rec.games.frp.dnd -------------------------
|> ----------------------------- FAQ in 4 Parts -----------------------------
|> ---------------------------- Rev date 8/26/92 ----------------------------
|> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> 
|> Contents:
|> 
|> Note: if you want to skip to a later part of this document search for the
|> string "Part <n>" where n is 1 to 4. On UNIX, using rn or more 
|> type "/Part <n>" (example "/Part 4:" to go to the section on Game Spoilers)
                                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Looks like someone lifted this off of comp.sys.ibm.pc.game

|> 11:  From where can I download D&D related stuff?
|> 
|> A:  here are someplaces. 
|> 
|>     [???please supply me with some sites.  I had a list at one point.
|>      but now I am unable to find it]

I know some stuff is at potempkin.cs.pdx.edu in the /pub/ftp/src directory
(I think)


+-------------------------------------+------------------------------+
|  Mike Marcelais                     | mrmarcel@eos.ncsu.edu        |
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|  Raleigh, NC  27607                 | #include <disclaim.h>        |
+-------------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| Real mail address might change.                                    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: What is with these Katana's?
Date: 30 Aug 92 06:34:14 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <Bts2HB.sv@percy.rain.com> pluther@percy.rain.com (Pat Luther) writes:

>In article <1992Aug28.200413.21792@burrhus.harvard.edu>, canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson) writes:

>>	Here's something I've been wondering about for quite some time:
>>Why does a katana do d10 damage in AD&D?  Why is it so much better than a
>>scimitar or even a long sword.  Don't make sense to me.

>Because a katana is a two-handed sword!

What, are you kidding me?!!!
Leonardo uses one in each hand, and he's not even that big (5'4" or so).


PS  :-)

-- 
Jorge Diaz                       | Sign in a restaurant:
Georgia Institute of Technology  | 
Office of Information Technology |   "We reserve the right to serve refuse to
ccoprdj@prism.gatech.edu         |        anyone."