HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: murphy@npri6.npri.com (David P. Murphy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: superhero game suggestions
Date: 6 Jan 93 18:33:29 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA

i am sheduled to begin GMing a superhero game (our group finally got tired
of AD&D and wants a change :-) and would like to hear opinions about 
HERO CHAMPIONS or any other system.  for instance, what is "Superworld"?
is there any merit in the Marvel (c) system?  is there a decent combination
of dicing and role-playing?  how about realism vs. fun?  and finally,
why don't my local dealers know anything about superhero games?

ok
dpm
-- 
murphy@npri6.npri.com 602 Cameron St. Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 683-9090

              When every one is dead the Great Game is finished.  Not before.
                              --- Hurree Babu, "Kim"
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: TWERPS publisher/availability?
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, NH.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 17:22:30 GMT

slb3y@cc.usu.edu (Punk Rocketeer) writes:
>     Can someone please tell me who publishes TWERPS?  That is,
>assuming it's still in print.  I saw it at a con in April, but didn't
>buy it at the time.  Now I'm kicking myself for that decision.

Still in print, published by Gamescience, carried by many distributors:
hence, your local retailer can order it for you.  They even have two new
modules, one a Star Trek spoof and the other a collection of more useful
options for all genres.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
From: by670@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Marc-Eivind Cruz Evensen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: A Shadowrun Question (both 1st and 2nd ed.)
Date: 10 Jan 1993 07:29:37 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


On SINs and SINless...
    The rules are truly unclear on this point, being SINless seems to be 
important somehow, but it also appears that having a SIN is essential to
functioning within the normal bound of society at any level. Who knows?

On helicopter flights...
    Even now, helicopter (I'm told) are not required to file flight plans.
As mentioned in another post, the police would be idiots to try and ground
all the high-tech hardware in the air on a given night, better to let them 
shoot each other down. Of course, if someone open fire in general, they
might be obliged to take some sort of action.

-- Marc
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: mathers@sibelius.trl.OZ.AU (Steven Mathers)
Subject: Re: AOL accounts for various gaming companies
Reply-To: s.mathers@trl.oz.au
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 21:46:14 GMT

What games have ATLAS published?  I have not heard of them here in OZ.

Are ATLAS interested in other games besides RPG stuff?  I have an
empire board game that is in the late stages of design and playtesting
and I am starting to look for an interested publisher.

Steve Mathers.
From: mauht@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr A Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SF Poll
Date: 11 Jan 1993 23:34:46 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: nutmeg.csv.warwick.ac.uk


In article <1695@blue.cis.pitt.edu>, seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
|> In article <1ismoeINN28q@early-bird.think.com> laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) writes:
|> >It depends on what people are in the mood for.  I enjoy occasional Space
|> >Opera (I'm looking forward to GURPS Lensmen), but I also enjoyed a
|> 			       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|> 
|> 	Ohmigod.
|> 
|> 	Please, please PLEASE, PLEASE tell me this is some kind of very,
|> very SICK joke! 

Nope! It was announced in issue c28 of Roleplayer, so I assume it's true.
|> 
|> 	Of all the systems I could have imagined for the Lensman series,
|> GURPS is one of the very last. GURPS would be marvelous for Ender's Game,
|> but for Masters of the Vortex???

Personally, I regard 'Masters of the Vortex' as something of an abherration, which
I hope that whoever is writing the worldbook will ignore, but that's just me.
(There aren't any redheads in it, for starters :-)
|> 
|> 	This is the system that tries to make REALISTIC SUPERHEROES,
|> for Gog's sake! GURPS psionics are, at best, an average attempt at
|> the powers. There's nothing to distinguish it from anything else...

The point of using a 'realistic' system for superhero roleplaying is (as someone
else said recently) so's you can easily include as much realism as you like: it's
much easier to ignore the realistic bits of a system, than to try to make an
essentially cinematic system realistic. As to the psionics system, I think it's
an interesting attempt: it needs a little fixing in places (essentially the costs
of power groups need to be modified - I have a couple of ideas, but this ain't
the place to discuss them), and for Lensmen it needs considerable modification,
or, possibly a complete rewrite, but the GURPS psionics system was not originally
designed to model the Lensmen books.
|> 
|> 	GURPS works best in "realistic" milieus. The Lensman universe is 
|> a completely heroic one -- a person with a GURPS 18 strength would barely
|> make it into the soldiers of the Patrol, and would get crushed like
|> a bug by any member of the Valerian corps. 500 point characters would
|> be the NORM...

Who said you have to play GURPS with 100 point characters? (Kimball) Kinnison
is 250-500 points at the start of Galatic Patrol, and 500-1000 by the end of the
fifth book (I can never remember which of 2nd Stage Lensman and Grey Lensman
comes first). The Arisians are 1000-5000 points at least, which puts the Children
somewhere in the 2000-10000+ point range.... 
|> 
|> 	Please tell me this is a nightmare.

Not for me it isn't! Hopefully it won't be just a dream...

Btw, any suggestions for a better system to run a Lensmen campaign in? 
-- 
*****************************************************************
*Alexander Lewis "Second and Special" Jones - the terminal sloth*
*****************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: durrell@pinball.arcade.uiowa.edu (Bryant Durrell)
Subject: Re: Small company advertising/smart moves?
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:35:55 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa

In article <1993Jan12.063933.28499@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> jnephew@tirith.carleton.edu (John A. Nephew) writes:
>Especially don't miss Dave Nalle's magazine, ABYSS.  He'll probably shred your
>game (Just kidding, Dave... :>), but you may learn something along the way. 
>Read all reviews with an eye toward improving your next effort.

Hey, I promise not to shred any game that doesn't deserve it.  :)
Dave doesn't do *all* the Abyss reviews these days...

>* Attend conventions.  Give out flyers, and donate some prizes in exchange for
>advertising space.

If you can manage it, get someone to run a LARP at an SF con based on
your game.  Just to take one example, right after Vampire came out
Steve Crow ran a Vampire LARP at the local SF con and I am morally
certain that this sparked the Vampire craze around here.  Which is 
still continuing.  Course, the LARP has to be run well for this to
help, but that goes in general, and you will reach around 40 people
at once (as opposed to maybe 6 for a single RPG con event), and 
those people can be great word of mouth.

-- 
Bryant Durrell					   durrell@chop.isca.uiowa.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 I feed on the flesh of the living, and I vote.
From: thornley@milli.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: What do you look for in a magic system?
Date: 12 Jan 93 18:43:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: news2.C0r806.5M5
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.

In article <1993Jan7.195612.14616@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> dddawson@lpl.arizona.edu (Doug Dawson) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.182913.22367@ncsu.edu> jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH) writes:
>>The whole AD&D
>>concept of 'memorizing' spells is hideously inappropriate.  Off-hand, I
>>can think of only ONE fantasy world that uses anything even remotely
>>similar. 
> 
>  For what it's worth, my understanding has always been (based on
>  comments by Gygax) that the D&D spell system was essentially lifted
>  straight from the fantasy works of Jack Vance.  This agrees well with
>  the little Jack Vance I've read.

The reference I saw was to _The_Dying_Earth_, which is a pretty good book
in its own right.  The magic system is fairly well described, and it is
obvious which parts TSR copied outright and which they ignored.

In TDE, spellcasters have spells in books, and study them to imprint them
on their minds.  This is a very difficult process, and spellcasters have
very serious limits on how many spells they can carry at a time; a good one
might be able to carry four major and two minor.  These spells are usually
hideously effective when cast; the Excellent Prismatic Spray, for example,
pierces the target with a large number of multi-colored magic lines,
killing him or her instantly.  There are spells that won't kill instantly,
allowing the caster to interrogate the victim first.  In these books, the
winner of a magical duel is the one who gets off the first effective
spell.  (Casting the spell is almost instantaneous, BTW.)

There are magical implements that seem to duplicate what can be done with
cast spells.  There are implements that seem  to work differently, and other
supernatural beings (such as gods) with their own abilities.  Magicians do
things other than cast spells, such as grow people in large vats.

Magic can be studied on a scientific basis, and mathematics is very important
in learning it.

TSR lifted the system of memorizing limited numbers of spells from books and
having easy casting thereafter from Vance.  They drastically expanded the
spell lists and the number of spells that can be memorized, and made the
individual spells far less powerful.  They defined more of the other
supernatural beings in terms of spells, and ignored the more scientific
basis and other magician activities.

DHT
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: please.Princeton.EDU!hibschmn (Johann Allen Hibschman)
Subject: Re: What do you look for in a magic system?
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 22:20:34 GMT

In article <C0p56K.I5p@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert  
J. Hall) writes:
> 
> What I'd like is a set of spells, each with a variety of configurable options 
	
> that effect the outcome and difficulty. Given enough options, each spell
> is going to be a bit different and will give the Wizard lots of decisions to
> make.
> 

   I've worked a lot with a system much like this.  The system currently being  
used for PrinceCon (begin shameless plug: March 12-14, Princeton, NJ; mail me  
or see r.g.f.announce :end shameless plug) works like that.  Mages get a  
certain list of base spells that have a set level.  These spells can be  
modified to increase duration, damage, range, etc., all of which increase the  
effective level of the spell.  We then assign a spell point cost based on the  
effective level, but that's not vital to the concept.  The essence of the  
system is that mages are good enough at magic to make modifications at  
"cast-time".  These modifications should be easy to do, since the mage knows  
what he's doing, as opposed to completely improvised spells.

   Suprise, I also like systems where mages can improvise magic.  Ars Magica  
does this fairly well, but I'd like to see a system with known magical laws  
which magi can take advantage of.  For example, a mage pulls a splinter off of  
a door and then breaks that splinter while casting a shatter spell.  Through  
the Law of Contagion ("once together, always together" or some such), the basic  
shatter spell is amplified.  This would make each spell more of a puzzle/  
roleplaying experience.

   A compromise would be to have guidelines for several basic spells which can  
then be applied to many situations.  The PrinceCon magic system does this by  
having base spells to handle things like Mending/Breaking, Transforming, Fire,  
Weather, Locating, and Illusions.  These cover a lot, and having fairly  
specific rules on how to apply these spells to specific situations makes things  
run smoothly enough to use in a con.


---
Johann Hibschman
hibschmn@phoenix.princeton.edu
From: bartzako@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Bartzakos Peter)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: The Fantasy Trip: Problems with Illusion
Date: 10 Jan 93 22:45:39 GMT
Organization: Universite de Montreal


	I find that the illusion spells of The Fantasy Trip (TFT) are
too powerful.  A wizard may select any creature (that is small enough
to not exceed the hex limit of his version of the spell) to be
simulated.  The illusion then has all of the powers of that creature
(like some powerful version of AD&D phantasmal force) until it loses
all hit points (normal combat) or is disbelieved. This encourages all
savvy wizard players to take illusion.  If you use one-hex illusion,
choose a grizzly bear (30 strength).  If you use four-hex illusion,
choose a four hex dragon.

	Disbelieving the illusion requires that the belligerent take
no other action that round and if he is not intelligent, he will fail
his Disbelieve roll nevertheless (and suffer attack from the
illusion).  As well, strength costs of illusions are very cheap
compared to a SUMMONED creature of equal power, so there is no
incentive to have a Summon spell (the only advantage of the Summoned
creature is that it cannot be Disbelieved, which is still not worth
the cost).

	My ideas are: 
a) to ban illusions,
b) limit the power of the illusion (of course you can make an illusion
of a bear, but it will have the strength of and do damage like a
man...) or
c) increase the strength cost and decrease the duration of the spell.

	Any other ideas?

	I should add that in the games I have played or GMed, the
starting points for characters was either 34 or 36 points, rather than
the 32 points recommended in the rules.  Perhaps this makes it easier
for wizards to start with the 13 intelligence required for illusions,
while ensuring a high dexterity to make the spell succeed (eg. int:13,
dex:13, str:8 for a 34-point character and int:14, dex:14, str:8 for
36 points).

-- 
"I have never understood why it should be necessary to become
irrational in order to prove that you care.  Or indeed why it should
be necessary to prove it at all."   (Avon to Vila in Blakes 7)
From: "jeff zeitlin" <jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: frp survey
Date: 5 Jan 93 04:49:34 EST
Reply-To: "jeff zeitlin" <jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Executive Networks Information

  My apologies to all who responded to my survey of November and
  December of last year.

  I am in the process of painfully reconstructing my laptop's hard 
  disk, which suffered a corruption of unknown origin.  Unfortunately, 
  the only extant electronic copy of the survey writeup was on that 
  disk, and the hardcopy has not been (and probably will not be) 
  returned to me.

  Once data recovery is complete, it _will_ be posted here and in 
  ....misc; out of the 55 (approximately) respondents, more than 30 
  requested copies of the results.  That's enough in my book for a 
  general post.

  A couple of comments:

  The survey was indeed badly designed; I got almost no interesting 
  information from it.  The only correlation I could find was on game 
  genres: (number of respondents who names a game of a particular 
  genre as their #1 game) versus (length of time that the genre has 
  been around).  And at that, since I didn't have accurate info as to 
  when the first FRPs were published, I couldn't establish a numerical 
  result.  Other apparent relationships could have just as easily been 
  artifacts of the Net, rather than due to any real connection.

  Once again, apologies for the delay.

  J/
  jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com

 * QMPro 1.0   * How long has your cat owned you?
--
Executive Network Information System  (914) 667-4567
International ILink Host
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: malloy@crash.cts.com (Sean Malloy)
Subject: Re: Weapons Laws
Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA
Distribution: usa
Date: 08 Jan 93 23:24:59 PST
Keywords: Cthulhu, guns, laws

In article <79458@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt7797a@prism.gatech.EDU (Travis Works) writes:
>In <1993Jan7.221309.23724@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> jgl2p@landau5.phys.Virginia.EDU (Joseph G. Louderback) writes:
>>I'm running a Call of Cthulhu (tm) game, and would like some 
>>information.  Does anyone know a good source for gun control
>>laws in the 1920s, especially in the Northeast?  The game is
>>set around New York City.  The source need not be exhaustive
>>.  Thank you for your time and bandwidth
>
>I know that the first _national_ "gun control" law wasn't passed until 1936.
>It's purpose was to "reduce crime", by imposing a $600 registration fee on
>certain firearms (that was a _lot_ of money back then!)  It's main sponsor
>was the Mafia (who remain one of the strongest supporters of gun control).
>But in the 1920's, a law-abiding citizen without a criminal record was generally
>trusted not to suddenly go out and kill everybody, so almost any firearm would 
>be legal for them to carry (it wasn't too uncommon for civilians to own
>fully-automatic Thompson's).

Not necessarily true; there was the Sullivan Act in NYC, which was, despite
its claimed goals, an attempt to get guns out of the hands of the
immigrants (who wouldn't have the money/connections to get permits). In
Chicago, there was fairly restrictive gun control, both for pistols and
(marginally less strict) for rifles. The curious thing was that the
Thompson SMG fell into a hole between the laws, so there was no restriction
on its purchase at all, which is why it became the stereotypical weapon for
Chicago gangsters.

For some interesting history on automatic weapons, I refer you to _The
Social History of the Machine Gun_; it has some amusing details. The one I
particularly liked was an ad from the Thompson Arms Company touting the
Thompson SMG as the perfect home-defense weapon, with an illustration
showing a cowboy on the porch of a ranch house firing away at a group of
attacking Indians on horseback.


-- 
random sig #41:
 Sean Malloy        Navy Personnel R&D Center | I don't have to take this abuse
                    San Diego, CA 92152-6800  | from you -- I have hundreds of
 malloy@nprdc.navy.mil        < different     | people waiting to abuse me.
 crash!malloy@nosc.navy.mil   < systems       |
From: lward@husc11.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SR: Runnin' in Miami.
Keywords: Help
Date: 12 Jan 93 19:28:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc.lward.726866904

valentin@husc10.harvard.edu (Brian Valentine) writes:

>Hi guys.
>My group is going to be going to Miami next weekend.
>If anyone has run there, or has useful ideas on what it may be like in 
>2053, please mail me.  DO NOT POST, please! I would like to surprise my
>players. (even those who read this group)
>Thanks.
>-Brian Valentine
>valentin@husc.harvard.edu

The most important thing to remember about Miami is that there is a long
standing tradition to give highly-wired, Germanic, female samurai double
the normal amount of Karma.  Really.  I swear.

Sincerely,
Not one of your players.
From: staats@athena.mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RQ: The Relation of the Red Goddess and Orlanth
Keywords: runequest,rq,gods
Date: 11 Jan 93 20:39:49 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I use the illumination material from Cults of Terror along with the LE religions
from Gods of Glorantha.  Together this gives the LE both aspects of civilization,
an Eastern "integrative" philosophy, and the "Wild West".  Players frequently
come out of the LE in my campaign with mixed feelings.  It has been a source of
some wonderful roleplaying.  The LE definitely does tolerate chaos, and to many
other cults, that is anathema.  A good LE character to add for roleplaying
effects would be an illuminated leader type person who is nice and befriends the
group, maybe even helps them out of a tough scrape.  But, as the adventure
progresses the party finds out that their mentor is actually forwarding a Chaotic
plot.  I used the idea of a "balance" cult in my campaign whose sworn purpose is
to prevent either factions of Law or Chaos from gaining enough power to justify a
war on the other.  It leads to a lot of fun scenarios.

In service,

Rich Staats
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
From: wljohnso@nyx.cs.du.edu (William "Hmph!" Johnson)
Subject: Re: ROLEPLAYING WH40K
Summary: Yeppers
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Keywords: Why?
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 22:37:46 GMT

In article <43117@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> dtnguyen@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Take Life One) writes:
>Has anyone ever tried to roleplay characters based upon the
>Warhammer 40K system? I'm not talking miniature rules only, more
>like an actual roleplaying with individual characters. E mail or
>post at your leisure. Thanks
>
	A friend of mine in Boulder has been running a WH40K game using
the Space Master rules. Seems to have gone over well, if not a touch
depressing and violent.  Personally I have little facination with WH40K so
I didn;t see the point.

-------------------------------------------|
| William "Wes" "Arrr!" "Golden Earring"   | You're In A Bit Of A Rut...
| "Gener" "Sierra" "Mohican" "Mr. Kamikazi"| But You're Still Unique!
| "Bite Me" "Deal With It" "Sentri" Johnson|     --Golden Earring
-------------------------------------------|
Net Address: wljohnso@nyx.cs.du.edu
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: True Reason (Was Re: Fantasy version)
Date: 12 Jan 93 22:17:24 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd2.cis.pitt.edu

In article <C0rD4E.49v@news.cso.uiuc.edu> irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:
>Actually, while that may be true, I use it as the "Humanist" philosophy
>prevalent in the renaissance : Man can understand and is the measure of
>all things.  This way of thinking flies in the face of the previous thinking
>which felt there were things "Man was not meant to know" of shouldn't know
>or some such.  Later, like in the late 1800's, when the modern philosophies
>took over, people found that man may not be the end all of existance, and
>even that life was meaningless, religion hypocritical sometimes and so on.

	Eh? When did we "discover" this?

	I'm not sure what was meant by man is the measure of all things,
but I didn't notice someone saying that Man can't understand all things...
given time. (I exclude the Godelian limitation, since I find that it 
shouldn't be applied to anything above strictly mathematical problems).

	Certainly as far as *I* am concerned, human beings are the end-all
of all existence. Without them, I certainly wouldn't be here.


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;