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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Oh Dear
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 1996 22:35:16 -0400 (EDT)
At 05:26 PM 9/21/96 +0100, Pete wrote:

> [Pete's bragging about screwing over his players deleted]
>
>Players screams, hurls abuse, bounces up and down in seat, produces
>copious quantities of steam from various orifices, and questions my
>natural habits and parentage (can't understand why :-)
>
>Other players follow a combination of slapping foreheads and "Burn -
>damn you" glares at me.
>
>Anyone got any ideas why????

*boggle*

If I weren't such a nice person, I'd tear you a new asshole by questioning
your competence as a GM who has to resort to cowardly "dirty tricks" instead of
telling the player you don't think he should have powered armor and asking if
you used to post to this mailing list as "Fat Cat" who had a similar "screw
the players" attitude. I'd also mention I (and most players I know) wouldn't
stand for this one bit, and would immediately go look for someone more
competent.

Instead, may I suggest you start a "Paranoia" or "HOL" campaign and
spare
them the grief?

--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484
Message no. 2
From: Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Oh Dear
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 03:48:36 +0100
In article <199609230235.WAA21594@*******.net>, Ubiquitous
<weberm@*******.net> writes
>At 05:26 PM 9/21/96 +0100, Pete wrote:
>
>> [Pete's bragging about screwing over his players deleted]
>>
>>Players screams, hurls abuse, bounces up and down in seat, produces
>>copious quantities of steam from various orifices, and questions my
>>natural habits and parentage (can't understand why :-)
>>
>>Other players follow a combination of slapping foreheads and "Burn -
>>damn you" glares at me.
>>
>>Anyone got any ideas why????
>
>*boggle*
>
>If I weren't such a nice person, I'd tear you a new asshole by questioning
>your competence as a GM who has to resort to cowardly "dirty tricks" instead
of
>telling the player you don't think he should have powered armor and asking if
>you used to post to this mailing list as "Fat Cat" who had a similar
"screw
>the players" attitude. I'd also mention I (and most players I know) wouldn't
>stand for this one bit, and would immediately go look for someone more
>competent.
>
I already have a spare asshole thanks :-)

1) This has been answered in another post.

2) I don't mind the player having powered armour. The point of it was,
he was using a dodgy fixer because the guy said he could get one, the
fixer was never questioned, and the armour was never tested. If you buy
things at bargain basement, you have to expect some "foibles".

3) No I'm not this mythical "Fat Cat". I do screw the players over,
especially when they deserve it. But I am also generous when I need to
be. I am going to nag at my players to get on this list, at the moment
they're whining about the quantity of mail, but there is a limit... I
want someone else here who will tell you what I'm like.

4) As for leaving the game and going elsewhere. I've been gaming for a
long time, and GMing for about 15 years, most of my players are
original, I also GM occassionaly for a local group, and have been for 4
years, they keep asking. So I must be doing something right. :-)

5) I think I may feel sorry for any GM you work with, the above comment
seems to indicate that you will hold a GM to ransom - "Kill my
charactrer and I won't play anymore!" (I could be wrong, and have
misinterpreted your post, but that's how it looks. I don't stand for
blackmail, I shoot people who do that.

6) I have been successfully running a number of games for a long time,
and only one person ever complained. That complaint was taken to heart
and acted upon. Now I have beer, cookies and pizza to hand, cost shared
by the group. Not only do the players enjoy themselves, but muchies are
near to hand as well.

There are much tougher GMs here than me. I make no limitations on the
kind of equipment that a player has access to, and have taken all the
weapons and gear from Fasa's manuals, and the documents I've found on
the internet, stuck it all into a database, and allow the players access
to anything they can afford. But occassionally I will frag with them.
Let's face it when was the last time you bought a mint condition second
hand car with absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with it??? One of my
players just recently bought a second hand car from a garage, he was
assured there was nothing wrong with it, and they had just serviced it.
Last week the head gasket blew, the sump sprang a nasty leak, the water
hose near the radiator cracked, and the exhaust manifold fell off. Gosh,
excuse me for reflecting real life in my games, and not running the
perfect PC Utopia that you appear to expect. :-)

You may have noticed the smileys attached to the original post
indicating "joke" - or did we suddenly have a serious humour loss?

>Instead, may I suggest you start a "Paranoia" or "HOL" campaign
and spare
>them the grief?

Played Paranoia, got bored with it. It was OK having five clones that
died constantly. But after a while there's only so much you can do with
the game. HOL, couldn't stand it.

I have run Cthulhu, and still occassionally do, but my players prefer
the lights on when they play, and I like atmospheric Cthulhu, and will
monopolise it. Tried EarthDawn, found it a little too lethal, a bit
like Rolemaster without the tables. MERP, too many tables again. AD&D,
too simplistic and downright boring - most common phrase "I'll hit it
with my mace" yawn.... Renegade Legion/Centurion/Star Trek (tactical
and RPG), Runequest, Space Master, Stormbringer, Traveller and many
others. Some of them we still play occassionaly.

As for sparing them the grief. What grief??? I reiterate, they have
been playing in my games for a long time, three of them GM games of
their own, which I play in, and suffer as much. I work very hard to
create a believable world, rather than a world reliant on dice, and in
the real world occassionally people get ripped off, in my SR world,
occassionally people get ripped off. Live with it, it happens, it's a
fact. :-)

>
>--
>"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
> Caxton translation,
> V15 1484
I noticed. :-)

Pete
--
Pete Sims
Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we
can perform without thinking about them.

Further Reading

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Thwap!