From: owner-the-edge-digest@ (The Edge Digested) To: the-edge-digest@robin-nvh.bvsd.k12.co.us Subject: The Edge Digested V1 #74 Reply-To: the-edge@robin-nvh.bvsd.k12.co.us Sender: owner-the-edge-digest@ Errors-To: owner-the-edge-digest@ Precedence: bulk The Edge Digested Thursday, July 2 1998 Volume 01 : Number 074 Today's subjects from The Edge: [The Edge] sales at Gen Con; CoC; retailers Re: [The Edge] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re=5b2=5d: =5bThe Edge=5d Illuminatus=21 Trilogy?= Re: [The Edge] sales at Gen Con; CoC; retailers Re: [The Edge] Go Frank! And along came Hastur... Re: [The Edge] Re[2]: [The Edge] Illuminatus! Trilogy [The Edge] Elder Gods in Al Amarja Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings [The Edge] Please ignore the Betelgeusan... Re: [The Edge] Please ignore the Betelgeusan... Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings Re: [The Edge] Re: [The Edge] Go Frank! And along came Hastur... Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings [The Edge] Nihilism deck? [The Edge] OTE vs. Call of Cthulhu Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings Re: [The Edge] Nihilism deck? [The Edge] Sunglasses Re: [The Edge] Illuminatus! Trilogy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 15:34:23 EDT From: AtlasGames@AOL.COM Subject: [The Edge] sales at Gen Con; CoC; retailers > p.s. Does anyone know if Atlas will be selling any OnTE cards and if so for how > much? Any other give-aways? I've got a couple people I'm going to drag over and > try to get them to learn how to play... We'll certainly have OnTE for sale at Gen Con, at the same prices we offer via mail order -- $20/display for boosters, $15 for starters. We may have other specials too (like for folks who buy a booster display of each). (Reading further in the digest, I see David Freier has already said as much, but hey, confirmation from the original source never hurts.) I hope I remember to bring my omni deck, so I can finally kill and bury the piece of $#*#. Plus, we leave at 5 AM tomorrow for Origins, so anyone planning to be there be sure to stop buy, clean out our OnTE stock, and win our Omni cards away from us! In another message, Frank Adams writes: > Have any of you mixed OTE and CoC? What were the results? Good, Bad, > Ugly? Are there any pitfalls you encountered? What were they? You might be interested to learn that John Tynes of Pagan Publishing fame, who wrote "Kill John Doe" (the adventure in WILDEST DREAMS), originally ran the scenario with CoC rules. I'm not sure if he did it as a one-shot or in a campaign... On the topic of retailers: If you and your fellow OnTE players have a favorite store, and that store has any trouble getting OnTE, encourage them to contact us -- we're happy to sell direct to them (and credit cards make it easier than ever). And, yes, they can even sell at the same low prices that we offer direct to consumers and still make a profit. - -jn [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 12:46:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Philip Flores Subject: Re: [The Edge] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re=5b2=5d: =5bThe Edge=5d Illuminatus=21 Trilogy?= On 30 Jun 1998, FRANK M ADAMS wrote: > > <<> p.s.s. Do Kergillian's taste more like Lobster or Chicken? > > before or after implantation? :)>> > > Why...before, of course. After implantation, they taste like pork. - -Philip Flores (who can't believe he just made a cannibalism joke) philipf@acbc.com [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 15:57:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Kevin Patrick Hogan Subject: Re: [The Edge] sales at Gen Con; CoC; retailers > we leave at 5 AM tomorrow for Origins, so anyone planning to be there be > sure to stop buy, clean out our OnTE stock, and win our Omni cards away > from us! Woo hoo! I'll bring the Deck of Eternal Loss and attempt to continue my improbable winning streak. Anyone else on the list going to be at Origins? --Kevin (dromedan@umich.edu) [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 16:22:45 -0400 From: Christopher Cunningham Subject: Re: [The Edge] Go Frank! And along came Hastur... FRANK M ADAMS wrote: > p.s. Where do the Kergillians hail from? I'm just wondering if > they might have encountered the space faring Mi-Go or some of the > other CoC space races. I thought an ancient rivalry between the two > would be very interesting. how about: the kergillians discover that this planet is the resting place of some dormant elder god(s), and they immediately pull up stakes and bug out, leaving the characters wondering what could be so horrific as to frighten off these powerful alien invaders. perhaps a friendly alien (ala ford prefect) lets them know, or they finally capture a kergillian, only to have him/her say/grant anything they want, so long as he/she is allowed to get off this doomed rock. or perhaps the kergillians become the unlikely allies of humanity against the lovecraftian horror(s). maybe their original homeworld was destroyed by this old one's minions, or they themselves were once one of its servitor races. this is not to say that the kergillians become nice guys; more like the lesser of two evils from the human standpoint, and humans, from the kergillians' viewpoint, do have unusual capabilities, in spite of their backwardness, and might be of some use against this powerful evil. thanks for the food for thought, chrislee [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 16:26:28 -0400 From: Christopher Cunningham Subject: Re: [The Edge] Re[2]: [The Edge] Illuminatus! Trilogy FRANK M ADAMS wrote: > > p.s.s. Do Kergillian's taste more like Lobster or Chicken? > > > > before or after implantation? :)>> > > > > Why...before, of course. > After implantation, they taste like pork. > -Philip Flores (who can't believe he just made a cannibalism joke) that's all right, i thought the same thing myself. o.k. who out there didn't think it? [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:18:19 -0400 From: "John M. Baker" Subject: [The Edge] Elder Gods in Al Amarja Mr. Cunning wrote: > > how about: the kergillians discover that this planet is the resting >place of some dormant elder god(s), and they immediately pull up stakes >and bug out, leaving the characters wondering what could be so horrific >as to frighten off these powerful alien invaders. Well, here are other possibilities: 1. The Kergillians are actually friends of the Mi-Go or the like... 2. The Throckmorton Device is actually a manifestation of Daoloth. Soon, the fascists can call upon the Hounds of Tindalos for assistance. 3. Sir Arthur Compton has joined forces with Mr. Tramh Le Thuy in an attempt to awaken an elder god into world annihilation. 4. The Betelgeusans used to be a servitor race of an Elder God, but the Kergillians came in and dominated them. They are now on Earth to finish the removal of the Elder God from the pantheon and assume that power for themselves. Just off the top of my head... John Baker [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:26:32 -0500 (CDT) From: David Buckley Ebrey Subject: Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings > > has anyone used the basic rules for OTE for alternate settings? > personally, i have run a fantasy adventure game using OTE rules > with some success (at least the players thougt it was ok). > > also, has anyone made a serious effort to portray Al Amarja at > a significantly different time period (say, pre 1930, c. 1848, > c. 1000, c. 2200)? > > eric Related question: has anyone kept the conspiracies and surrealism of OTE yet set it in the "normal" modern world. David [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 08:25:09 -0600 From: Keith Baker Subject: Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings >Related question: has anyone kept the conspiracies and surrealism of OTE >yet set it in the "normal" modern world. I had a character in one of my campaigns who was a crippled, mutated sub-random inventor who constantly had dreams about being a heroic spy working for some top-secret agency (not one of the Al Amarjan conspiracies). During a long road trip, I suddenly handed everyone pregenerated characters - -- agents of this secret organization, with the original player taking the role from his dreams. The characters were investigating some mysterious activities in a small town in Vermont, which turned out to be a Kergillian infestation working with a brilliant human geneticist. The beauty of the situation was that they never actually figured out that it was Kergillians they were dealing with, despite the fact that they were all OnTE players and all the clues were there. It worked quite well, and had much more of an X-Files feel than my traditional conspiracy-strewn games. Of course, the upshot was that this road trip episode ended up having long-term consequences in the main campaign. Clones of one of the GMCs the players had captured began to appear. A GMC who had escaped (a genetically enhanced girl) showed up as an adult, pursued by older versions of the characters the players had used in the road trip game. The crippled inventor was kidnapped; it turned out that he was actually the older version of his spy character, and that the agency the players had been working for wasn't so nice after all. Eventually, the Kergillians got involved to help save the day... Or so it seemed at the time. On a random note, my friend Lee Moyer (who has done artwork for OnTE and OTE, among other things) drew a highly entertaining picture of a disguised Betelguesan, wearing a trench coat, enormous hat, and a Groucho Marx disguise... [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 11:12:26 -0400 From: "John M. Baker" Subject: [The Edge] Please ignore the Betelgeusan... Keith Baker wrote: >On a random note, my friend Lee Moyer (who has done artwork for OnTE and >OTE, among other things) drew a highly entertaining picture of a disguised >Betelguesan, wearing a trench coat, enormous hat, and a Groucho Marx disguise... Oh, yes! Is there any chance of letting us other folk get a look at the picture? John Baker [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 21:52:37 -0600 From: Keith Baker Subject: Re: [The Edge] Please ignore the Betelgeusan... At 11:12 AM 7/1/98 -0400, you wrote: >Keith Baker wrote: > >>On a random note, my friend Lee Moyer (who has done artwork for OnTE and >>OTE, among other things) drew a highly entertaining picture of a disguised >>Betelguesan, wearing a trench coat, enormous hat, and a Groucho Marx >disguise... > >Oh, yes! Is there any chance of letting us other folk get a look at the >picture? Assuming I can dig it up and Lee has no objections (I'd be surprised if he would, but you never know), I'd be happy to send copies to anyone who wants one, either xeroxed or scanned. Just let me know off the list. [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 12:16:48 -0600 From: "Carl L. Congdon" Subject: Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings Eric Jome wrote: > > has anyone used the basic rules for OTE for alternate settings? > personally, i have run a fantasy adventure game using OTE rules > with some success (at least the players thougt it was ok). At www.black-gate.com , there is a Thundarr the Barbarian rpg set up around the OTE rules. Pretty neat! Also, I used OTE to roleplay a quasi-superheroes game, based loosely on DC Vertigo's "The Invisibles." Went sorta well... [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 12:26:48 -0600 From: "Carl L. Congdon" Subject: Re: [The Edge] Re: [The Edge] Go Frank! And along came Hastur... FRANK M ADAMS wrote: > I haven't been able to generate any interest in getting an OTE game > going, but since I'm a huge Call of Cthulhu fan, I'm going to try to > suck players in that way. I've always thought the two games could go > hand in hand and with the awesome Delta Green supplement, it's just that > much easier. > Have any of you mixed OTE and CoC? What were the results? Good, Bad, > Ugly? Are there any pitfalls you encountered? What were they? Shadis magazine had an article about that. Wish I could remember the issue number... > p.s. Where do the Kergillians (sp?) hail from? I'm just wondering if > they might have encountered the space faring Mi-Go or some of the other > CoC space races. I thought an ancient rivalry between the two would be > very interesting. In the Shadis article, it said that they were one and the same. > p.s.s. Do Kergillian's taste more like Lobster or Chicken? This comes under the heading of "Things Man Was Not Meant To Know" ;) > > [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge > [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of > [O] (un)subscribe the-edge [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 18:24:16 +0200 (MET DST) From: Myles Corcoran Subject: Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Carl L. Congdon wrote: > Also, I used OTE to roleplay a quasi-superheroes game, based > loosely on DC Vertigo's "The Invisibles." Went sorta well... Any chance you might describe the game? I've been rolling ideas around for an Invisibles game for a while now, using either OTE or an Everway-like system. Fortune deck cards like 'The Apple', 'A Smiley Grenade', 'Wanton Violence' etc spring to mind. I can see a card with Dane hurling a molotov as perfect for this last one. I've also toyed with using OTE as a super heroic RPG system. Anyone else have any suggestions other than dice bloat for super-traits? Myles [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 13:05:46 -0600 From: "Carl L. Congdon" Subject: [The Edge] Nihilism deck? I hate CCG's. Even so, an OnTE sounds like it could actually be fun. Since everyone's been batting around "themed" decks, here's a question: has anyone ever put together a Nihilism deck, featuring Comptons, LeThuys, and Glorious Lords, not to mention a few handy allies? I think it would be fun to see if the bad guys might actually win... [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 12:12:56 -0500 From: Greg Cooksey Subject: [The Edge] OTE vs. Call of Cthulhu I've also thought of this as a possible alternate setting. I think it would work pretty well, either with Delta Green, or with 1920's Cthulhu, for an alternate Al Amarja time period. I dunno, they just seem to fit together pretty well in my head. Unfortunately, I haven't played either one yet, although I'm trying to get a group together for some OTE this summer before I go back to school. Anybody in Madison, WI in the fall play OTE or OnTE? [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 13:25:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Joshua Kronengold Subject: Re: [The Edge] OTE: alternate settings Myles Corcoran writes: >On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Carl L. Congdon wrote: > >> Also, I used OTE to roleplay a quasi-superheroes game, based >> loosely on DC Vertigo's "The Invisibles." Went sorta well... > > Any chance you might describe the game? I've been rolling ideas >around for an Invisibles game for a while now, using either OTE or an Way cool; how many other Invisbles fans are there on the list (Me Too)? >Everway-like system. Fortune deck cards like 'The Apple', 'A Smiley >Grenade', 'Wanton Violence' etc spring to mind. I can see a card with Dane >hurling a molotov as perfect for this last one. I've been contemplating ways to merge the Everway and OTE systems for a while; Everway has some really cool bits (fortune deck, traits which give abilities in reasonably well defines unrelated areas, powers, drama), while OTE's system is better in general (IMO). > I've also toyed with using OTE as a super heroic RPG system. >Anyone else have any suggestions other than dice bloat for super-traits? I've been toying with this for a while myself -- one thing that came to life is that OTE really should have the ability to separate one's ability/skill with a trait and one's power, even if that could complicate things a bit (and only a bit). For instance, I played a burned out mage in a reviewtest late last year, and ended up defining his Sorcery trait as 2/4 -- his ability to do things other people couldn't do (ie, use sorcery at all, control it, etc) was 2 dice, but the actuall power of the effects was 4 dice (so he could go toe-toe with a 4D alien and stand a chance...as long as his magic obeyed him at all). This seems to me the way things should be on average -- a 2D fringe scientist should be able to produce effects which have a normal power of 4D, and must be resisted against 4D, not the 2D of their skill, etc (it may be a Bit over the top, but it should certainly be within the normal range of a starting character, even if only at the upper end). Naturally, someone might want to play with these numbers - -- take a 4D telekenetic who can only move things with the strength of an ordinary man; her control over her telekenesis is extreme, but when she tries to yank an object away from someone, they can probably hold onto it, and as for creating nuclear explosions by manipulating sub-atomic particles, well, that doesn't fit within the power level either. What does this have to do with superhero games? It occurs to me that most supers don't actually Have traits higher than your average starting OTE PC; what they Do have is power on those traits higher than that normally within the range of your typical PC. Now, what this doesn't explain is the actual game effect of power, which I haven't entirely established -- When it comes down to it, if power is equal between the action and the acted apon (I punch myles), it factors out. If, on the other hand, it's not equal, it should have an effect on the action even before skill is factored in; in extreme cases (I punch the Hulk), it should possibly even cause skill to become irrelevant, unless the skilled person can find a way to counteract the power difference. On the other hand, even a large power difference can be irrelevant, depending on the circumstances (me and the hulk engage in a martial arts contest where neither is trying to hurt the other, or play a video game, or engage in sports). Any thoughts? - -- mneme@dorsai.org Joshua Kronengold |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) - ---^---- "What part of 'Pthhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\ didn't you understand?" -- Me |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ - -/-\\\-- AKA mneme at mcny.com '---''(_/--' (_/-' [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 13:51:30 -0400 From: "John M. Baker" Subject: Re: [The Edge] Nihilism deck? At 01:05 PM 7/1/98 -0600, you wrote: >I hate CCG's. Even so, an OnTE sounds like it could actually be fun. > >Since everyone's been batting around "themed" decks, here's a question: >has anyone ever put together a Nihilism deck, featuring Comptons, >LeThuys, and Glorious Lords, not to mention a few handy allies? I think >it would be fun to see if the bad guys might actually win... > Somewhere, I believe in Drawn's Workshop, is a deck of mine I posted long ago called Erased, Over, Out. It's a Compton/LeThuy/Low-Life/Nekros deck of just wiping everything off the board. I've retooled it slightly (mainly to add Andrew Banks and M'ay Zung) and I'll dig it out, examine it again, and repost it. John Baker [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 14:55:20 -0400 (EDT) From: David Freier Subject: [The Edge] Sunglasses OK here is the deck I promised I would post. It thematic, based around cards with sunglasses pictured. Number of a particular card are in parentheses. HITTERS Spackle (2) Jorge Corriendo (3) Anwar Hallajin (1) Patrol Baboon (3) BLOCKERS Jill Grunder Ace J. Cirrus (2) Rita Milagro (2) Weegzon (2) Abanobi Famani (2) Johnny Kazoo (2) Robert "Doc" Cross Spike Pietro Ruffo Joey Ko (2) PULLERS Giovanni Mancini (net/criminal) Islam Petri (2) Qubilah Zeroual Mesut Economou (3) Jacob Brinker SPECIAL Slaughter Aniela Stansky Dolores Titania Tanja Voss GEAR / CONDITIONS / WHAMMIES Ring of Gyges Breackage (2) Smack Back Attack (3) Chaos Chancer (2) Fury (2) Wiretap Atavism: Priestess of Mu Kidnap (2) Touchy Explosives (2) Counter Intelligence Hidden Gear Good Luck Pistol Grip Chainsaw Concealable Weaponry (2) DuroTrench RESOURCES Mutant Sympathies Friends in Four Points (3) Stariway to Nowhere (3) Astral Wisdom (4) Friends in Broken Wings (6) I know there is one card I've left out the big nasty Pharaoh / Quisling weapon. I could've added it in, mut it would have ment more mucking around with resources, so I left it out. Enjoy! David "Throckmorton" Freier [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 09:34:00 -0500 From: "E. Lemming" Subject: Re: [The Edge] Illuminatus! Trilogy A caution on The Illuminatus Trilogy combined soft cover edition, it has been "edited" compared to the original separate paperback books published by Playboy. I imagine the hardcover is the same way. What is particularly upsetting to me is that this has not been indicated in any way. The "editing" removes 90% of the sex scenes from the original books. Eric Jome wrote: > > On 30 Jun 1998, FRANK M ADAMS wrote: > > > Also has anyone read the Illuminatus Trilogy? I just bought the > > hardcover and was wondering how high I should put it on my "Must Read If > > I Ever Get Some Time" list. Is it any good? How close to OTE is it? > > yeah, i have read it. there are bits and pieces that could make the > transition, but it is not the strongest in terms of linear plot and > re-usable characters. you should definitely read it as soon as > possible. :) > > also, check out Umberto Eco's _Fouchault's Pendulum_. more Edgey than > Illuminatus and easier to handle than Naked Lunch. :) > - -- -- -- Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. - Vernor Vinge - 1993 [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge ------------------------------ End of The Edge Digested V1 #74 ******************************* [O] You received this message because you are subscribed to the-edge-digest [0] To (un)subscribe, send a message to majordomo@robin.ml.org with body of [O] (un)subscribe the-edge-digest To get off digest, subscribe the-edge [O] To post a message, send it to the-edge@robin.ml.org