| From: | ShadowRN FAQ <jdfalk@************.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | [faq] ShadowRN Frequently Asked Questions, part II |
| Date: | Tue, 5 Sep 1995 03:00:01 -0400 |
ShadowRN FAQ, Part II
Last modified August 5, 1995
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List Policies & Related Resources
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1. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIST
1. A Disclaimer
2. Off-topic postings and policies related to
1. The "What is magic(k)?" discussion
2. The supercalifrajilistic ammo discussion
3. Chain Letters
3. Why should I read this entire FAQ?
4. Replying to previous messages
5. About Flaming
6. Mailing List Advertising Policy
2. HOW TO GET PAST LOGS AND OTHER SHADOWRUN INFORMATION
1. Using the LISTSERV 'GET' command
2. Getting past logs via FTP
3. Getting past messages via Gopher or WWW
4. FTP, Gopher, and WWW sites for Shadowrun materials
3. SHADOWRUN RELATED MAILING LISTS, NEWSGROUPS AND OTHER FORUMS
1. ShadowTK
2. PLOT-D
3. NERPS
4. EARTHDAWN
5. ALT.CYBERPUNK.*
6. REC.GAMES.FRP.CYBER
7. ALT.MAGICK
8. ShadowRun MUSH
9. FASA Email Addresses
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIST
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A Disclaimer
By nature of the topic of this list (cyberpunk fiction and
role-playing), it should be warned that discussions often contain
violent, sexual or adult themes, as well as anarchistic political
discussions. The responsibility (blame?) for each posting falls
entirely into the hands of the original poster. The listowners,
postmaster, and the HEARN administration assume no liability for the
contents of postings.
----------------------------------------
Off-topic postings and policies related to
While the topic of this list is specifically related to ShadowRun, it
has been determined that the topic encompasses far more than the
specific rules within the FASA manuals. Part of the all-important
part of any role-paying game is the atmosphere that the players find
themselves in. Often, this cannot be adaquately explained within the
written rules.
To this end, there is a very liberal posting policy with regards to
topics. This is to allow everyday babble and observations to create a
virtual society of sorts on the list, and to give all who participate
in and opportunity to explore that society.
Thus, you will often see postings that are only vaguely related to
ShadowRun being posted. Often this has to do with politics
(especially information politics) or with recent technological
breakthroughs. While there are no hard-set rules with regards to what
off-topic postings are permitted, it should be reminded that we all
come here because of our interest in ShadowRun, so postings should at
the very least be of interest to all, and be within the umbrella of
being source material for the shadowrun society.
Officially, the following actions will take place with regards to
off-topic postings.
1. Non-Shadowrun threads that live for more that 24 hours will be
pointed out by the listowners. At that time, either make the
thread once again Shadowrun relevant or take it to private
email.
2. If after 48 hours, the thread still continues, the listowner
will start deleting people from the list. If that happens, you
are free to come back, but at the very least, the deletion will
serve as a warning to stay relevant.
Persons who repeatedly violate the rules and disrupt the use of the
list by others will be be dealt on a case-by-case basis, but action
can include (but is not limited to): temporary removal from the list
(for example, six months), permanent removal from the list or
notification to the violator's sysadmin or service provider.
The "What is magic(k)?" discussion
One of the most common ongoing threads on the ShadowRN mailing
list has to do with the nature of magic (or, as some call it,
magick.) It will often begin with come confusion about the
Shadowrun magic rules, and quickly turn into a discussion of
obviously conflicting worldviews. At this point, it is no longer
germane to the mailing list, and should be moved to either
private EMail or a more appropriate mailing list.
The supercalifrajilistic ammo discussion
Another common thread has to do with different types of special
ammunition, usually related to such esoteric ammo types as
dikoted (diamond coating) or depleted-uranium. These, also,
usually begin with some confusion about official FASA published
ammo types, and degenerate into arguments which are no longer
any more than slightly germane to the mailing list.
Chain Letters
Do not send chain letters to ShadowRN. 'Nuff said.
----------------------------------------
Why should I read this entire FAQ?
Well, if you don't (and it's pretty obvious that you are, at least in
part), chances are you'll end up posting a question to the list which
has already been answered so many times that it became classified as
a Frequently Asked Question, and has been answered here in this FAQ.
This will cause a number of people to respond with answers such as
"Read the FAQ," "It's in the FAQ," and even "What kind of a
moron
doesn't read the FAQ?"
It may even spark a conversation about exactly what kind of moron
doesn't read the FAQ. Legend tells us of other, long-dead mailing
lists, in which this topic became such a point of deliberation as to
totally drive out any discussion related to the original purpose of
the mailing list, eventually taking up so much bandwidth that
hundreds of systems worldwide crashed from the influx of mail.
Also, it makes you look like a butthead.
----------------------------------------
Replying to previous messages
(adapted from a Frequently Reposted Message by Doctor Doom)
When one seeks to juxtapose one's own views with an earlier message,
i.e. reply to an anterior posting, one should:
1. Facilitate differentiation between original and cited material
by denoting text from the former correspondence with initial
line characters (">" and "]" being typical), rather than
simply
append one's own material at the end.
2. Quote, or cite, only those lines pertinent to your reply or
commentary, that is to say, avoid repeating the entire message.
3. Quote the earlier posting previous to insertion of one's own
script, RATHER than including the preceding post at the end of
your message. Hence, observers may see what instigated one's
reaction, and following that, specifically what one's reaction
or reply actually was.
In line with this is the popular procedure that "intermingles"
the respective texts, by which one replies to specific lines of
text individually, followed by another citation, followed by
more response material, and so forth.
4. Indicate the prior posting's authorship by identifying said
message's originator at the beginning of the earlier material,
and not by the inclusion of the (typically) multiple-line
signature file.
I only mention this in interests of the greater good and due to the
fact that others have made similar complaints. It is poor Net
etiquette for those who choose to plow through the volume of mail
this list produces and to have to contend with such obviously
unnecessary verbiage -- especially those members who must actually
PAY for electronic mail service.
----------------------------------------
About Flaming
The New Hacker's Dictionary defines the Flame as:
1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.
2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively
uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude. 3.
vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with hostility at a
particular person or people. 4. n. An instance of flaming. When
a discussion degenerates into useless controversy, one might
tell the participants "Now you're just flaming" or "Stop all
that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to speak).
Flaming is highly discouraged on the ShadowRN list, because in the
end it only only wastes everyone's time, bandwidth and quota, and
seldom if ever leads to any resolution of problems. If a discussion
reaches the point where people are calling everyone names or
insulting, a warning will be issused from the listowner saying
something along the lines of "take it to email". If the flamers
continue to flood the list with their hate-mail, they will be deleted
from the list.
One of the other problems is that often someone "insults" someone in
a satirical way. This is something that happens quite often in the
real world, but the real world has the benefit of body-language and
tone-of-voice to show that it is only polite joking. Cyberspace
doesn't have that feature.
In order to make sure that your humorous flame isn't taken seriously,
make sure you include a smiley or some other indication to show that
you are only joking,
----------------------------------------
Mailing List Advertising Policy
The Shadowrun mailing lists accept commercial advertising for
payment. We offer a fee waiver if you can show us the cancelled check
for a $1000 (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 $1999 (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.
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HOW TO GET PAST LOGS AND OTHER INFORMATION
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Using the LISTSERV 'GET' command.
Logs of activity on SHADOWRN will be kept online and be available via
the listserv at HEARN. In order to get a directory listing of the
SHADOWRN related files, send the command INDEX SHADOWRN to
LISTSERV@*****.BITNET. You should get a response in a little while
that lists all of the files available.
The log files will be named 'SHADOWRN LOGyymm{A-E}', where 'yy' is
the year of the file, 'mm' is the month and the final letter
indicates the week, with the first week being 'A', and the start of
the 5th week being 'E'.
To get one of them, send the command GET filename, where filename is
the name of the file you wish to receive (example: GET SHADOWRN
LOG9506D). After a bit, you should receive that file in the mail.
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Getting past logs via FTP.
SHADOWRN logs are also available via FTP at hearn.nic.surfnet.nl, in
the directory /archive
The archives for the ShadowRN list are named 'SHADOWRN.LOGyymm{A-E}'
using the same naming format used when ordering the files via mail as
desribed above.
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Getting past messages via Gopher or WWW.
Specific messages from the ShadowRN list are avaliable via Gopher at
hearn.nic.surfnet.nl, under LISTSERVs public archives.
WWW readers (Netscape, Mosaic, Lynx, etc.) can be pointed to:
gopher://hearn.nic.surfnet.nl
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FTP, Gopher, and WWW sites for Shadowrun materials
The following sites contain Shadowrun-related information.
--------------------
Name: University of San Diego anonymous FTP service
Address: cerebus.acusd.edu
Contact: Jerry Stratton <jerry@******.acusd.edu>
Info Updated: May 27, 1994
Notes: Currently includes space for AD&D, Shadowrun, and Brand X
(an original superhero roleplaying game). This is the
distribution point for the _Neo-Anarchists Guide to
Everything Else_ and NERPS, the net.books for shadowrun
players. Also contains archives of ShadowTalk in .ZIP format.
This is considered to be the _MAIN_ Shadowrun FTP site,
and you will often here it referred to as just 'cerebus' in
casual conversation on the list. Also note that the name
was just recently changed to cerebus, so this site might
also be referred to accidently by its old name, 'teetot'.
--------------------
Name: Woodelf's RPG Link Collection(?)
URL: http://dax.cs.wisc.edu/~woodelf/RPG/RPG.html#index
Info Updated: 23-June-1995
Notes: A truly amazing list, this collection includes just about
every RPG-related resource on the World Wide Web, in
Gopherspace, or available via FTP.
--------------------
Name: The Jayhawk series archive sites
Address: ftp.white.toronto.edu
ftp.cs.pdx.edu
Info Updated: 1-May-1991
Notes: Mary Kuhner's <mkkuhner@********.washington.edu> Jayhawk series
of stories (high quality shadowrun writeups) are available in
several archive sites. Mary has offered to mail the stories if
you can't get to one of the servers.
site1: ftp.white.toronto.edu
file: /pub/frp/shadowrun/jayhawk
site2: potemkin.cs.pdx.edu [ftp.cs.pdx.edu]
directory: /pub/frp/stories/jayhawk
--------------------
Name: Australian FRP Archive
Address: yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in /pub/frp/shadowrun
Contact: Aaron Wigley <wigs@****.cc.monash.edu.au>
Info Updated: 09-Dec-1992
Notes: This site contains mirrors of Shadowrun sites, as well as
unique information. Submissions should follow guidelines
shown when connecting to the site about uploading
material. Please limit your accesses to between 0800 GMT
and 2300 GMT (1800 - 0900 AEST).
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The following is a list of World Wide Web sites maintained by various
listmembers. All contain information related to Shadowrun and/or the
mailing list(s), and most contain links to each other.
----------------------------------------
Address: http://www.oat.ts.astro.it/~marcucci/sr2/index.html
Contact: Paolo Marcucci <marcucci@***.ts.astro.it>
Info Updated: 07-23-1995
Notes: This is the most complete site for Shadowrun-related
material, bar none.
--------------------
Address: http://www.ip.net/shadowrun
Contact: Mark Imbracio <mark@********.ip.net>
Info Updated: 07-23-1995
--------------------
Address: http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~hayden/html/shadowrun.html
Contact: Robert A. Hayden <hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu>
Info Updated: 07-23-1995
--------------------
Address: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html#shadowrun
Contact: Gurth <gurth@******.nl>
Info Updated: 07-23-1995
--------------------
Address: http://www.icis.qut.edu.au/~chrisr
Contact: Chris Ryan <chrisr@****.qut.edu.au>
Info Updated: 02-06-1995
Notes: Mostly contains Earthdawn information, including the
FAQ for the Earthdawn mailing list (see below) and some
info on tie-ins between Earthdawn and Shadowrun.
--------------------
Address: http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~djw2/
Contact: Nightfox <djw2@***.edu>
Info Updated: 03-20-1995
--------------------
Address: http://instruction.ucdavis.edu/html/Adam/Shadowrun/shadowrun.html
Contact: Adam Getchell <adam@*******.edu>
Info Updated: 03-20-1995
--------------------
Address: http://tam2000.tamu.edu/~jch8169
Contact: Doctor Doom <jch8169@*******.tamu.edu>
Info Updated: 04-04-1995
Notes: One of the best, but it may disappear this summer (1995.)
--------------------
Address: http://www.cybernothing.org/jdfalk/html/shadowrun.html
Contact: J.D. Falk <jdfalk@************.org>
Info Updated: [always up to date]
Notes: This is the home of the ShadowRN and NERPS mailing list
FAQs, as well as a number of other documents relating
to the NERPS e-publications.
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SHADOWRUN RELATED MAILING LISTS AND NEWSGROUPS
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ShadowTK (SHADOWTK@*****.BITNET)
Shadowtalk is an interactive fiction mailing list based on Shadowrun.
Members of the list post as characters in genre, and by responding to
each other's posts "in character", stories are developed. These
stories may then be used by players and GMs alike as a basis for
contacts, NPCs, and adventure plots in their own campaigns.
There is a small companion ShadowTK FAQ that is posted to ShadowRN
once a month. A copy of the complete FAQ can also be requested from
Mark Imbracio <imbracio@********.ip.net>. It contains full
information on how to subscribe as well as information on posting
formats and periodic supplemental distributions of information.
PLOT-D (PLOT-D@*****.BITNET)
PLOT-D is a supplemental discussion list for ShadowTalk. The purpose
of PLOT-D is to discuss (as the name obviously implies) plotlines. It
also handles discussion of administrative issues in order to not clog
SHADOWTK or SHADOWRN with only remotely related issues.
----------------------------------------
NERPS (NERPS@*****.BITNET)
NERPS (Net Enhancements for Role Playing ShadowRun) is a mailing list
that serves as a committee base for a group of individuals spending
time organizing and writing up a series of net.shadowrun manuals.
These manuals contain everything from new races and spells to new
technology and alternate magic systems.
The specific project the list is currently working on varies and full
details can be found in the monthly NERPS FAQ, or a copy of the FAQ
can be requested from J.D. Falk <jdfalk@************.org> by sending
a message with the subject "gimme nerps-faq1" or "gimme
nerps-faq2"
(no quotes, body will be ignored.)
----------------------------------------
EARTHDAWN
FASA's fantasy RPG, Earthdawn, has its own mailing list. This list
covers all aspects of Earthdawn (rules, setting, campaigns, etc) plus
the crossovers to ShadowRun.
To subscribe to the list, send the following message to
majordomo@*****.iquest.com
subscribe earthdawn
List Owner: Chris Ryan <chrisr@****.qut.edu.au>
----------------------------------------
ALT.CYBERPUNK.*
On Usenet, there are a series of cyberpunk-related newsgroups. These
groups have little to do with ShadowRun, per se, but they do have
discussions of the cyberpunk genre of fiction and its implications on
current and future society.
alt.cyberpunk
This is a general group for discussion cyberpunkish topics. May
range from cinema to politics to tends in philosophical
thinkings,
alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
This group is devoted to the writing of cyberpunk fiction.
Several stories are posted periodic in installment fashion and
critiques are welcome.
alt.cyberpunk.movement
This newsgroup discusses the societal impact of the cyberpunk
movement.
alt.cyberpunk.tech
This group is devoted to discussions of new technologies that
the birth of a cyber age will bring about.
----------------------------------------
REC.GAMES.FRP.CYBER
Rec.games.frp.cyber is a Usenet newsgroup set aside for discussion of
the cyberpunk genre of role-playing games. Discussions in this group
include not only ShadowRun, but also CyberSpace, CyberPunk 2020,
GURPS Cyberpunk, and many others.
----------------------------------------
ALT.MAGICK
This Usenet newsgroup, which may not be carried at all sites, is for
the discussion of magic/magick in "real life," in modern times.
Alt.magick is not specifically for role-playing information, but
could shed some light on what FASA would consider the more esoteric
aspects of magical theory.
----------------------------------------
ShadowRun MUSH
There is a Shadowrun-Themed MUSH set up. At last word (July, 1995),
it was still open for public use.
The address is picard.dnaco.net 4201
----------------------------------------
FASA Email Addresses
The following two email addresses have been reported to eventually
end up before the eyes of somebody associated intimately with FASA:
* FasaMike@***.COM
* FASA.SUPPORT@*****.GEis.COM
This document is Copyright (c) 1995 by Robert A. Hayden and J.D.
Falk, all rights reserved. Permission is granted for it to be
reproduced electronically on any system connected to the various
networks which make up the Internet, USENET, and FidoNet so long as
it is reproduced in its entirety (either in two parts as here, or
combined), unedited, and with this copyright notice intact.
