Quest Digest 2/5/96 From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 02 May 1996 00:00:00 +0000 ___ _ / _ \ | | 2nd May 1996 | |_| |UEST__| |IGEST \__ | / _ | | |_ | |_| | An e-mail discussion forum for the fantasy |_ / \___/ play by mail game; "Quest". Compiled by Josh Gallagher. J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk o This isn't one of those automatic list thingies, so could all articles be sent clearly marked with paragraphs initalled to me. o If you want off the list, just say! No hassle, no pressure. o All material here is the exclusive property of the author and may not be used elsewhere without their permission. ___ / _ \ Welcome to another Quest Digest. As per usual greetings | __/DITORIAL go out to the new additions to the list. If you're \___| reading this in rec.games.pbm, why not join the mailing list and have it delivered straight to your email inbox? In this issue we have discussion on various points including more on the robbing from official alliance HQs, killing those monks, a Swedish pubmeet report and official alliance service charges, amongst other issues. Thank you to all that have written in this week. So, on with the articles... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1996 14:54:44 +0200 (MET DST) From: pontus.gustavsson@mailbox.swipnet.se (Pontus Gustavsson) PG> Inspired by a previous pubmeet in Lund, arranged by a couple of game 9 players (of which som are on this list! Hi!) some years ago, we decided to get together to discuss Quest, get loaded and have a great time. And so we did! We were 12 players present (I couldn't see Kevin there though...) of which 6 were students playing in game 9 and the rest game 12 and 16 players. The G16 Dragon Circle leadership was there (Hilmersson & Knutsson), and so was the King of Fordip, leader of the HAWK in game 12 (Pontus Gustavsson) together with two of his members. PG> First we believed the whole pubmeet would be a complete flop, as we were only 4 players present, but after a while we discovered a bunch of other players who were sitting in another section of the pub! The fun could begin! We soon spent a fortune on beer and started looking at stats and discussing Quest. PG> We all learned something new. One thing I didn't know was that if you have more than one thief, you scout more of the surrounding sectors when roaming the wilderness. With three of them you cover all 8 surrounding squares! Also I had the opportunity to see some maps from a home made mapping program, which is much better than the three I've seen so far. The creator of this program is on this list. Can you tell us when you've finished it? PG> Some of us couldn't afford more than a few of the incredibly expensive beers served at the John Bull Pub, and therefore made frequent walks to get some fresh air... We were all much happier when we entered the pub again! (You claim my wine tastes of yeast JB?) PG> The pubmeet lasted until pretty late, and if you want to know how it ended just read PN's E-mail sig or read the G16 newsletter... (Sorry about that Paul...) No, we did not get thrown out and we did not get arrested for kicking police dogs, instead we went to MacDonalds to get something to eat. (The cheapest dish on John Bull Pub costs around #6-7... A sausage and some other stuff!) There we almost did get thrown out though... After that some of us (the same person who wanted to give the Mac Donald idiot a good kicking...) wanted to go to the Sex & Drugs (sounds like fun!) party in the old fire station in Lund, but then we would have to walk for an hour or so and we therefore dropped that idea. PG> The evening after, those of us who knew each other from before came together in Kristian Knutssons house, got loaded again (The home made wine got better and better, I even managed to make some of my friends believe I've bought it!) and watched Life of Brian, a large number of Monty Python sketches and of course Holy Grail... PG> I'm very satisfied with the weekend, and more pubmeets will follow, we promise. There will probably be pubmeet in Gothenburg too (Organised by Mr Hilmersson) so even more Quest players can come. Stefan and Lars, are you interested? PG> By the way, who payed for the Guinness and the pint of John Bull which NOBODY (except the owner of the pub...) remembered drinking...? :-) PG> Written by Pontus Gustavsson, lover of Guinness and leader of the HAWK in game 12. (JPG> Right, I'm tired of writing 'PG>' now. :) Next time it's your job, Pontus! *grin*) >From Pontus Gustavsson: Someone asked about borrowing money: Don't worry nothing happens. The maximum amount you can loan is 1000 gold. After you've done that offer the gold for a BT so you can get more money. Why should he not try to use the banking facilities, Josh? Roy Thomas asked in the digest recently if anybody had come across any undead anywhere: If you want to kill some undead monsters, just rank miracle 201 and enter a deep dungeon. I promise they exist! :-) Regarding the discussion on a cyber Quest game: Opening a KJC envelope is a special feeling... I'd like to see game 18, a normal game with connected people only, where you get the other players addresses and can choose how to get your turns, fax, E-mail or snail. The turn fees should be cheaper for E-mail players. Anyone brave enough to fight a dragon: Dragons are weenies. I have a member in game 12 who recently killed a dragon with his 30- turn-old group. (He got half of his chars killed, but he got it!) Young groups should be careful though. By the way, I've heard rumours that dragons offer quests to groups with 12000+ exp. It seems to be a false rumour, does anyone know for sure? MDS asked about useful tacics against monsters: USE ENGULFING GLOBE! I have killed evrything from Earth Elementals to Monks of Sundonak with it, and I have never failed! If your skill is too low, try Black Void. Works on Dark Oaks, Monks and most other monsters, but isn't as reliable as EG. About preset alliances: What is this? People should be put in an alliance which they can never leave??? To prevent powerplaying? Computer run alliances is OK, but people must be able to change their minds later if they want! About NA groups: If you have an NA spy in your HQ, tell all your friends in the same city to do as many B99 table as they can and give all the tables to the NA group... When he leaves town his energy will drop to zero and we all know how fun that is... He he... This is the only method I have found to make an NA group leave your HQ, anyone know a better way? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 09:46:23 +0100 (BST) From: Allan Hooper <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk> > From: THOMAS LARKIN <TLARKIN@tcd.ie> > TL>I would also like some sort of preset alliances AH> It shouldn't take KJC too much effort to start Quest off with BSE type affiliations, each with their own HQ, background and roleplaying guides. Time for the BSE players on this list to add thier idea's methinks. AH> On alliance costs - I think the 30K to start an alliance is perfectly fair. If five groups cant get 30K together they wont survive long as an alliance anyway (except for NA alliances). What does this get you? The 200gp a turn charge is easily recouped by saving groups the cost of a sleep. The main advantage is saving the friendly fire nightmares that some players (I'll mention no names to save Dave Rees the embarasment) and some alliances (Derek, likewise ;)) were famed for. AH> The skills are obscene. No wonder NA is so popular, as any alliance that make (ab)use of the skills can have 30 old groups that can take out 100+ turn old groups with ease. It ends up in the gaming equivalent of incest when the only players without NA are the same old players who have their alliance rebuild their groups. It also destroys game balance completly. It takes no time, skill or effort to get a shit-hot group if every turn you get handed 15K. Personally I refuse to prostitue my groups in this manner. Indeed in over 70 turns of being in alliances I've only ever recieved 15K once, and that was a reward for killing 12 PC's in under two months. Which when compared to the 2000gp+ TQ on offer is not a large amount. > From: Dave Rees <chaos@thanes.demon.co.uk> > DR> I do feel that KJC were a little too generous in allowing OA's to keep > all the cash form training, although I think they were a little undergenerous > in the amounts that could be charged. <snip> AH> IMO the skills should not have the per turn charge. Instead the minumum charge in the alliance rulebook should be the amount eaten on each buy. That means alliances could charge 200gp (or lower) for weapons training, saving the alliance members 750gps per B99 or charge higher amounts 250gp (or higher) and gain the alliance some funds. Also it would then actually make mage skill and research viable. AH> If it was like this then alliances could only afford the valuable +x equipment every once in a while unless groups handed money to the alliance to buy the +gear on the cheap. The OA advantages are still there but they would just take longer to take effect. AH> Oh dear, I seem to have gone on a rabid anti-OA ramble. Never mind as this will probably be my last note for a while as I embark on what could be the next White Wolf product, Exams : The Failing. (JPG> The revision starts in an hour or so... (that's what I've been telling myself for about a week now)) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Apr 96 12:33:43 BST From: Phill Coleman <colemanp@cs.man.ac.uk> pjc >> Re undead - I've got the descriptions but I've never fought any. pjc >> Re. Dragons - I've fought one, but it kept on casting One spell and then running away, never getting into melee combat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Apr 96 14:40:10 +0100 From: "sjaak zomer" <zomerosi@box.nl> SZ> Maybe a weird question. Have anybody got any success sending KJCGames a turncard with their new e-mail address?? I mean the orders@KJCGAMES.COM address. Almost all of my messages (send outside business-hours) doesn't seem to get through... While when I send it between 09-17 hours everythings goes as it should be, I think. Really weird. SZ> Any Quest 15 players outthere?? JPG> I've sent turns to that address over the weekend before, but since you sent this I've been sending them in off in office hours to be sure! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 11:25:56 +0000 (GMT) From: Paul Burke <PAUL.BURKE@UCG.IE> PB>After reading the last digest I began thinking about the whole notion of NA status. Someone was thinking about what would occur if a group or groups in an alliance headquarters found a NA thief in their midst, and what would happen. Surely the theif wouldn't be able to merely wave a little flag with 'NA' on it and be on his merry way. I don't think that the thief should automatically call on his group in this instance either (this goes for all thieving against groups, in a HQ or otherwise). If a thief, NA or not, decideds that it's a good enough risk to rifle through a sleeping groups possessions, that thief should be prepared to face the concequences. If they are found, perhaps if they can't escape (and call their own group for a fight as it is now), they should have to go into combat for one melee round before they get away. This adds a nice risky touch to stealing from groups. PB>There are so many NA groups around at the moment, that it is hard to pick a fight, even around a city! Even though some groups over 20 turns old claim they just want to explore and map (yeah, great fun), they must be braindead if they wish to make there explorations in a wild land full of dangerous monsters and violent bands of warriors. What will they do if they come across a dragon, wave their little NA flag again and scuttle off, under the eyes of the dragon? Surely they must have to fight sometimes, perhaps a small chance each encounter with a hostile enemy. Even the famous medieval explorers from Europe had to have soldiers with them in case of an unavoidable fight. PB>Lastly, everyone seems to be being offered TQs of over 2000gps. Why isn't my group, the Bloodguard? The most we ever got is a measly 800gps. JPG> I got a 1260/character for a 9 sectors werewolf, and that's the biggest I've seen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Matthew Sach <d52yp6@altair.dur.ac.uk> MS> I have, in the last couple of weeks, taken my group off holiday in Quest game 6, and I heard just after an interesting story about Monks of Baldor. Someone was offered a quest for about 1000 per person to kill a group of these guys. He assumed that they would be difficult to kill, as they would keep healing themselves, but that if you hit them hard enough and often enough, then all would be fine. MS> Oh, how wrong he was! MS> He used a Call Spirit when aligned to Sundonak, so that he would not run away from the combat, and various other spells. MS> What he found was that none of his (remarkably good) fighters ever hit, and all of the monks were hitting twice a turn, doing hefty damage (Monks of Baldor?!?). Due to the spirit, his group, with a total of around 600 hit points was reduced to 1 elven mage with 1 hit point, before it was thought best to run away! MS> My question is, do you know how to kill monks? Someone else I know has complained about similar (though not quite as devastating) results with Monks of Sundonak. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- JPG> Okay, that's the lot for the moment! Keep sending in your observations, questions and any in-game banter you fancy sharing with us. One thing I would like to know is how many KJC games out there have game histories filed with KJC? We in game 11 recently heard that no new players were being put in games without a history (one is now being prepared for Game 11). Do any other non-KJC games have a history written out for them? Just my idle curiosity.... JPG> Until next time, happy Questing! >>-Josh-> "You can't always get what you want" - Rolling Stones Up