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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: FAQ 5.60 Part B
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 11:28:14 +0200
Frequently Asked Questions for NERPS@********.ITRIBE.NET part B
Version 5.60 (29-09-98)

Compiled by Gurth <gurth@******.nl> based on earlier versions of this
FAQ by former Project Leaders Robert Hayden and J.D. Falk.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. THE CURRENT NERPS PROJECT(S)
1. NERPS: Organizations
2. NERPS: Stuff
3. Deadlines

B. SUBMITTING MATERIALS TO NERPS
1. Registering a Submission
2. Formatting Guidelines
2a. First Lines of Paragraphs
2b. Shadow Comments
2c. Time/Date Stamp Dates
2d. Stray At Your Own Risk
3. Submission Guidelines
4. Discussion of Articles
5. Issuing a Revokation
6. Revoking Someone Else's Submission
6a. Revokation by the Project Leader

C. GETTING PAST LOGS
1. Getting Past Logs via FTP

D. COMPLETED NERPS PUBLICATIONS
1. NERPS: ShadowLore
2. NERPS: Foundations
3. NERPS: Edge Runners
4. NERPS: Underworld
5. NERPS: Lost And Found

E. SUSPENDED NERPS PUBLICATIONS
1. Neo-Anarchists' Guide to the World (NAGTTW)

F. GETTING COMPLETED NERPS PUBLICATIONS
1. Via the World Wide Web

G. ADDITIONAL LIST INFORMATION
1. Related Mailing Lists
1a. ShadowRN
1b. ShadowTK and PLOT-D
1c. SRCard
2. Mailing List Advertising Policy
3. Just who are these administrators anyways?

_________________________________________________________________________
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
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A. THE CURRENT NERPS PROJECT(S)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

NERPS projects are ever-changing and seldom last for more than a few
months before being completed or incorporated into a new project. A full
discription of the current project(s) is included below. Only submissions
for the following projects will be accepted. (Don't forget to read
section B of this file for full details on how to submit materials.)

1. NERPS: Organizations

People who think alike tend to get together and form group to further
their collective goals. This book is about organizations of all kinds in
the Sixth World, from magical groups to intelligence agencies to
policlubs to gangs to smaller corporations to international street mime
conspiracies (well, maybe not...).
Any kind of organization can be included in the book, however, the focus
is on smaller organizations that do not have all that much influence,
plus those influential ones that have received little coverage in
FASA-published material.


2. NERPS: Stuff

Everyone needs Stuff. Handy things to own (or handy spells to know) that
make life so much easier, whether you're a corper, a runner, or a street
bum. Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of nice-but-nearly-
useless equipment in Shadowrun. NERPS: Stuff attempts to redress the
balance -- any piece of equipment or magic that adds flavor to the game
world is welcome. The equipment might even be useful to someone, but
that's not the prime requisite.


3. Deadlines

There are no deadlines for the current projects.

*************************************************************************

B. HOW TO SUBMIT MATERIALS TO NERPS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

There are specific submission and formatting guidelines for all materials
that MUST be adhered to or you risk the chance of your creation being
rejected. While putting up with these guidelines may seem like a
hinderance and a genuine pain in the ass, there are reasons for this. In
other words, READ WHAT FOLLOWS AND USE IT! :)

1. Registering a Submission

Before submitting an article to the NERPS list for inclusion in one of
the current projects, you must register your intention of writing and
submitting the article. This registration is simply to let the list know
what it is you are planning to submit later on, so there can be
discussions about it and others planning or writing articles related to
the subject you chose can exchange ideas with you and/or make the two
articles compatible.

To register your future submission, you need to send an email message to
the NERPS list with the following format:

REGISTRATION
Project name
Title of submission
Your REAL name (required for copyright purposes)
Your email address
--------
Up to twenty lines describing what it is you will be submitting


A list of registrations will periodically be posted to the list as a
reminder and you are expected to submit that material prior to the
closing deadline, if and when one is set.

NOTE: the format outlined above is not necessary for most emails sent to
the NERPS list. You should use it only if the email contains a
registration for an actual article you are intending to write.


2. Formatting Guidelines

As might be expected, there are formatting requirements that must be met
prior to submission. This is to save later re-editing when the document
is assembled. Failure to use the required formatting can result in the
summary rejection of your submission.

Each submission will begin with the name of the project it is intended
for, alone on the first line.

The second line is the title of your submission.

The third line will contain your name and email address. (NOTE: for
articles with more than one author, each name and address should go on
its own line.)

Finally, the fourth line will contain a row of eight dashes, as shown in
the example below. This is, believe it or not, actually not an important
part; it was from this section that a number of informational files were
automagically created using UNIX text manipulation programs such as
"grep" by previous Project Leaders.
However, this is not done anymore at the current moment, and so the
dashes are only retained because editors can be just as stupid as mere
mortals at times, and can fail to notice where the header ends and the
actual article begins.

Everything after the line containing the eight dashes will be considered
the submission (although .signature files and irrelevant material will
be removed). The only exception to this is a revokation certificate.


>BEGIN EXAMPLE<

UNDERWORLD
Fixers & Their Allies
Jane Average <jane@********.host>
Jack Doe <jackdoe@****.country>
--------
...etc....
...etc....
...etc....

>END EXAMPLE<


NOTE: the format outlined above is not necessary for most emails sent to
the NERPS list. You should use it only if the email contains the actual
article you are submitting.


2a. First Lines of Paragraphs

In the actual submission, do NOT begin each paragraph with a tab or a
number of spaces. These are annoying to the editor, who has to remove
them because he prefers to use the automatic paragraph indentation
function that word processors and layout programs come with.


2b. Shadow comments

If your article is a piece of "game world" material set in the 2050s
(as opposed to an article containing information for the actual game
rules), you may want to include "shadow comments" made by people in the
Shadowrun game universe. These should confirm to one of the following
formats, depending on whether the dates used are up until 2057, or later:

Up to and including 2057:
The first paragraph of each comment will have five larger-than
signs, followed by a square open bracket, like so: >>>>>[
Likewise, the end of the last paragraph of the comment must have
a square close bracket followed by five smaller-than signs:
]<<<<<

The line after the last paragraph contains two dashes followed
by a space, and then the name (or alias) of the person making
the comment. Then another space, and the time/date stamp.
The time/date stamp contains the time and date the comment was
made; the time consists of a 24-hour clock, with hours, minutes,
and seconds, each separated by a colon. The date consists of the
month, the day, and the year, each separated by a dash; only use
the last two digits of the year. Between the date and the time
is a slash.
This all means we want you to use this format:

>>>>>[Hey, this is really neat!]<<<<<
-- Joe (16:15:03/9-15-58)

and not something like:

>>>(This is not so cool.)<<<
-Joe<16:15:03/09-15-2058>

The reason for this somewhat rigid way of handling time/date
stamps is to create a uniform appearance throughout the NERPS
books, and again to save the editor time in altering the non-
conforming time/date stamps.

It is possible to have certain commentators use custom time/date
stamps (such as that of the Smiling Bandit in FASA's Shadowtech
book), but do not overdo this. Only highly skilled deckers know
how to create forged time/date stamps, let alone alter them to
display another text entirely.

For examples of this type of decker comment, refer to any
Shadowrun sourcebook published until mid-1996.

2058 and later:
Start the first paragraph of the comment with a "larger than"
sign in parentheses: (>)
Also use this same sign on the last line, which holds the
poster's name, handle, and/or email address. A time or tagline
may be added on the next line if you desire, but this is not
mandatory or even very common.

Refer to Portfolio Of A Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets, Target:
Smuggler Havens, and other recent FASA books for examples of
this style of post.

Note that a single larger-than sign, without the parentheses,
is easily confused for a reply marker by most people reading
mail, therefore it is recommended you use the (>) symbol shows
above for articles posted to the NERPS list; the Project Leader
will replace them with the appropriate sign when editing the
book.


2c. Time/Date Stamp Dates

The dates in the time/date stamps (when using the pre-2058 method of
adding comments) should preferably all be around the same time, again to
create a uniform look to the NERPS book. For example, an article
supposedly written in 2054 stands out in a book where all other articles
are dated in 2057, and such a thing would be unusual in an information
society like the one portrayed in Shadowrun. Information gets old very
quickly, even today. The other way around is even stranger, of course.

Naturally, all this goes for the non-comment parts of your article as
well. For example, in a book dated in 2060 a piece of fiction set in 2050
will stand out just as much as a comment made in that year.

For any NERPS project, it would be best if your dates are all in the
year we live in, plus 62. This is because FASA books are almost
invariably set in the current year plus 61 (e.g. books published in 1996
are set in 2057), but since NERPS books take a lot of time to finish, it
is best to take a "safety margin" of one year for them.
If you are not sure about which dates to use, don't hesitate to ask
about it on the list.


2d. Stray At Your Own Risk

If you do not follow these guidelines, it is very likely that your
submission will not be accepted. You will be notified of this by private
email by the Project Leader <gurth@******.nl>.


3. Submission Guidelines

Assuming you have the formatting correct, you then need to submit your
item. To do this, you need to post it to the discussion list for everyone
to look at (see Part A of this FAQ, section 3). Once posted, your
submission will enter a phase where everyone can comment on it.

You may also receive a private email message from the NERPS Project
Leader <gurth@******.nl> confirming that the submission was received.
If you don't get this confirmation message within 36 hours, something
may be wrong, or Gurth may have forgotten to confirm the message -- the
best thing to do is enquire (to him privately) as to what is going on.

If you wish to make changes, you can repost an updated version to the
discussion list. Revokation of previous versions is not required for
re-submissions.

NOTE: If you have written up your submission on most word
processors, especially those capable of exporting it in "Rich
Text Format" or "Word for Windows" formats, you can send
Gurth <gurth@******.nl> that version. It will save him editing
time at the end. Please be sure, though, that you send a text
version to the list for others to see.
Feel free to contact Gurth for a list of word processors
supported; the major ones include WordPerfect and Microsoft Word
up to v6.0 for Windows (Word for Windows 95 uses this last
format as well).

Unless the submission is revoked (see parts 4 and 5 of this section),
the MOST RECENT incarnation of that submission will be ultimately entered
into the final document.

Only items posted to the discussion list will be valid for entry into
the final project. Anything sent to the Project Leader only will not be
considered a submission.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Each submission must be sent in by itself. This means if you
have three things to send in, you must make three seperate
mailings.
Remember, though, that if your submission is only a screenful
(24 lines long) or less, it probably needs to be fleshed out or
combined with other thematically similar information.


4. Discussion of Articles

Once an article has been posted to the list, it is open to discussion
by the listmembers. All listmembers are encouraged to post their
comments about the article to the list, so the author can determine
what works well and what could be improved about the article.

Similarly, authors are encouraged to read the comments, respond to them,
and adjust the article based on all (sensible) comments made by other
listmembers. Once the article has been adjusted, re-post it to the list
for further discussion.

In all cases, the version of the article which was last posted will be
included in the finished NERPS book. If the author feels a suggestion
should not be included in a re-write of the article, that is his or her
right.


5. Issuing a Revokation

If, during the discussion period, a particular entry is determined to
be, for some reason or other, not proper for final inclusion, the
original author can issue a revokation.

To issue a revokation, submit an entry TO THE LIST with the same
formatting as if you were submitting an item (type, title, and name+email
address), but where the text would normally appear (after the eight
dashes line), replace that with the word REVOKE. At that point, the item
will no longer appear in the final document.


>BEGIN EXAMPLE:

UNDERWORLD
Jane Average <jane@********.host>
--------
REVOKE

>END EXAMPLE:


6. Revoking Someone Else's Submission

It is possible to revoke another author's submission. This is no simple
task, though, and should be reserved only for submissions that are truly
bad or munchkinous.

To revoke another's submission, you must get no less that five (5)
others to support your revokation (making the total at least six). To
issue a revokation in this style, use the following example:


>BEGIN EXAMPLE<

UNDERWORLD
Fixers & Their Allies
Jane Average <--- This is the name of the original author
--------
REVOKE
name1 email1
name2 email2
name3 email3
name4 email4
name5 email5
name6 email6

>END EXAMPLE<


Name# and Email# are the names and addresses of the MINIMUM six people
who support that revokation. More than six people can, of course,
support it.

NOTE: The individuals listed in this revokation certificate may be
verified with, so beware of fraudulent revokations.

Once the six persons have been verified as supporting that revokation,
the item will be removed. Also note that the revokation MUST be posted
to the list to be considered valid (everything is part of the public
record here).


6a. Revokation by the Project Leader

The Project Leader may revoke any article he feels is unsuitable for
NERPS, for whatever reason. An announcement concerning the reasons for
such a decision will be posted to the list, and the decision may be
revoked based on comments offered by the other listmembers.

Note that this functions as a kind of "safety net," and is used
_extremely_ sparingly, being reserved only for articles that are
considered truly munchkinous or too far-fetched (or just plain silly).

*************************************************************************

C. GETTING PAST LOGS
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

1. Getting Past Logs via FTP

The logs for the NERPS list are available by anonymous FTP to
ftp.itribe.net. When asked for a login name, type "anonymous" (without
the quotes), and for the password, enter your email address. Once logged
in, you can navigate through the directories to the NERPS logs and
download them. The logs can be viewed using any normal text editor.

*************************************************************************

D. COMPLETED NERPS PUBLICATIONS

1. NERPS: ShadowLore

This first publication contains eighty-six pages of new races, magic,
cyberware, bioware, gadgets, contacts and rules designed to spice up any
Shadowrun game.


2. NERPS: Foundations

This second publication contains almost 100 pages of new material for
your Shadowrun world. It contains overviews of several characters,
locations, and plot ideas designed to be easily dropped in, such as NPCs
and Sprawls, or to give GMs an idea for a campaign.


3. NERPS: Edge Runners

ShadowRN veterans might recognize the title as a net.sourcebook
originally put together by Erik Jameson <Gkoth2258@***.com>, the former
list.member.grumpy. In early 1996, it came out as a NERPS publication,
after it had been updated a bit. Edge Runners is a net.alternative to
FASA's Prime Runners sourcebook, containing powerful characters that GMs
can use as NPCs in their campaigns.


4. NERPS: Underworld

Underworld is a collection of articles designed to give players more
options than being just shadowrunners -- it focuses on the criminal
underworld, with articles about tools and tricks of the trade, playing
fixers or police officers, the Russian mafia, and more. It came out in
late 1996.


5. NERPS: Lost And Found

This compilation contains ShadowLore II, DragonLore, and Shadows Of
The Mind, three NERPS books that were started but never finished. The
material from these three has been re-edited to include as much of the
original text as could be found (including items that would originally
not have made it into the books).

*************************************************************************

E. SUSPENDED NERPS PUBLICATIONS

These are the NERPS publications that got started but were never
finished, for a variety of reasons. They can, theoretically, be picked
up and completed at any time -- provided there is enough interest on the
list in doing so. However, keep in mind that some or many of the authors
of the original material may have left the NERPS list for browner
pastures, so they will not always be around to answer questions about
the material they wrote a few years earlier.

Currently, there is one NERPS publication in a statis booth:


1. Neo-Anarchists' Guide to the World

The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to the World (NAGTTW) was to be a
sourcebook that follows similar lines to books like FASA's Neo-
Anarchists' Guide to North America, Native American Nations, and
California Free State. However, it should focus on those areas of the
Sixth World about which FASA has provided little or no details. Due to
a general lack of articles, it has been suspended for the moment.


*************************************************************************

F. HOW TO GET COMPLETED NERPS PUBLICATIONS

1. Via the World Wide Web

Go to http://nerps.home.ml.org/ for the official NERPS web site. All
finished NERPS books can be downloaded from this site.

*************************************************************************

G. ADDITIONAL LIST INFORMATION
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

1. Related Mailing Lists

There are some other Shadowrun-related mailing lists on the Internet.
Among them are ShadowRN, ShadowTK, and PLOT-D. You can subscribe to each
of these in the same way you subscribed to the NERPS list (see part A of
this FAQ), except substitute the list name for the word "NERPS" in all
cases.


1a. ShadowRN

This list is for discussing Shadowrun in general, questions about the
game and its background, and anything else related to the setting. It is
not for discussion of the Shadowrun Trading Card Game, though.


1b. ShadowTK and PLOT-D

ShadowTK generates "interactive fiction" in the Shadowrun universe.
Subscribers post messages "in character" to create storylines; PLOT-D
serves as a background list for ShadowTK, where storylines and
characters can be worked out behind the scenes.


1c. SRCard

The SRCard list is intended for discussion of the Shadowrun Trading Card
Game (SRTCG) published by FASA Corporation.


2. Mailing List Advertising Policy

This policy is intended to fight mailing-list spamming.

The Shadowrun mailing lists accept commercial advertising for payment.
We offer a fee waiver if you can show us the cancelled check for a
$1,000 (U.S.) or more donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
One donation per advertisement, please. If you don't wish to donate,
simply post your advertisement to the list, and the operator of the
mailing lists will bill $1,999 (U.S).
The list operator will donate this amount, minus the expense of
collecting it, to EFF. Please note that the lists are distributed
automatically -- messages are generally not read or checked in any way
before they are distributed.

By the act of posting your advertisement you agree to accept
responsibility for the fee, you agree to indemnify the mailing-list
operator against any legal claims from you or others in connection with
your advertisement, and you agree to pay any legal and business expenses
incurred in collecting late payment. Our liability to you is limited to
a good-faith effort to deliver your message.

Reduced rates and/or waiver of fee are available for Shadowrun-related
and selected other topics of advertisements. You must consult the
mailing-list operator in advance of posting for any reduction or fee
waiver.


3. Just who are these administrators anyways?

Gurth, 24, used to study chemical engineering but failed the first year
twice, which earned him a "binding request" to end his studies in June
1994. Since then he's been unemployed and doesn't really care about it
anyway. He spends most of his time messing around his parents' house,
occassionally taking a break to go into town for some reason or another.
He has been called "intense" but didn't quite understand what was meant
by the remark. And no, he doesn't mention his real name to anyone but
his friends. In fact, he'd like them to use it as well for a change :)

On the net, Gurth is a very active member of the ShadowRN list but
doesn't do much else. He tried a number of other mailing lists and
UseNet, but most of these didn't hold his interest for very long. He
likes the net the way it is now, and would hate to see it get changed
into a corporate- or government-run thing. His main gripe with his net
access is the phone bills he has to pay...
He also maintains the world's first (but no longer one and only)
character mortuary, where dead characters from any RPG can be put to
rest. The URL is http://huizen.dds.nl/~mortuary/mortuary.html

Roleplaying-wise, Gurth has played mainly Shadowrun for the past four
years, though with excursions into various other games, most notably
AD&D, Earthdawn, and BattleTech. He has written and edited a large number
of net.sourcebooks for Shadowrun, and has now stepped into the footsteps
of Robert Hayden and J.D. Falk, to become the third-ever NERPS editor and
maintainer of the NERPS FAQ. His frequent postings on ShadowRN have
earned him the "title" of Unofficial Shadowrun Guru, which, although
meaningless, is a source of, in a way, pride to him. It would be nice to
see it officialized, though...

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--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
"Nobody's going to murder anyone here even if it means I have to
kill someone!" --Kane, detective/rigger
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about FAQ 5.60 Part B, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.