Quest Digest 26/5/95

From: ">>-Josh->" <J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk>

Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 00:00:00 +0000

____________________________________________________________________
|                                                                    |
|                          THE QUEST DIGEST                          |
|             The forum for the E-mailing Quest-players              |
|       Compiled by Josh Gallagher: J.P.Gallagher@durham.ac.uk       |
|                        Date: 26th May 1995                         |
|____________________________________________________________________|

o This is not an automatically generated compilation, so if all
  contributions could be sent to me in a seperate e-mail with paragraphs
  initialled, I would appreciate it a lot.
o Please do not use this list for your own purposes; people do not
  appreciate thousands of pieces of mail arriving a day!
o If you ever want taking off the list, just say, and I will be happy to
  do so.  I don't want telling off for any nuisance mail!
o All material here is the exclusive property of the author and may not
  be used elsewhere without their permission.

JPG> *grin* Finished my exams.  Sorry, had to get that in first.  This
brings up a subject that a lot of people have been commenting on.  What
happens to the Quest Digest over summer?  Unfortunately I have no
net.access as yet over the summer holidays (and besides, I'm in America
for a month :-)  ) so I shall be unable to continue to produce the
digest, as has been the case through the Christmas and Easter holidays.

JPG> So, is anyone willing to take up the burden of producing this digest
for me, from June 22nd?  This is the date my term ends, and will be the
last day I can produce a digest. (I know it's a while yet, but last time
I left things to the last minute and iit wasn't sorted out very well.)
Any offers will be gratefully accepted and reviewed.  It won't be too
much work, as most on the list will lose their access during summer.

JPG> Right, now on with the messages...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quest Helpline service.
This helpline is chaired a by a panel of experienced Quest players, who
will be available to answer any queries or solve any problems to do with
Quest. Send e-mail to <godfrey2@cov.ac.uk> and give "Quest help" as the
subject line. Contact me if you want to join the panel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 14:01:53 GMT
From: editor@elbon.demon.co.uk (Paul Noble)

>NPO> Has anybody had any success using Teleport One as a
>defensive spell, rather than as an extra travel spell.
PN> It can be used and it does work, I think Gerry Duffy knows more, if not
actually using it but I have heard that it works. Better idea would be Dispel 2
though - if they go to wreak you, you send them upto 25 sectors away! Not
before dumping several million tables/desks/chests/chairs on them! Evil!

PN> NEWSLETTERS!!!!!
I had the Post strike then when it finished I sent out the newsletter ish40. It
has yet to be printed along with all the other papers because the person
responsible for the photocopier has gone on their holidays. I don't know when
service will be resumed but I just received 2 letters today asking where it has
gone and can they have a copy off me. I don't think I'll be supplying the
entire game with papers, unless KJC want to pay postage/print/paper costs and a
humble labor charge ];)

>PN> I just got a 58 skill mage in G14.
>JPG> How much for?
PN>1001gp

JPG> *mumbles 'git' under his breath*.. my maximum this turn was 42. :-(

>CC> Really? Do tell ... I *hate* groups who steal from other groups.
>Might as well stick a sign on their heads "kill me". Tell him I'm in Falt
>at the mo - going north-west if he wants to follow ... If he's got the guts.
>Might interest him to know, though, that I have a standing "put money
>into bank" order at the end of each turn. He'd only get great axes - the
>dangerous end, that is ;-)
PN> Flee, was the group in question, as far as I know they are about 24 turns
old and have already got a total death! Not that that will faze you at all, but
I think he's going to fight against Fenrisogg storm (something like that
anyway) so I doubt he'll pursue you.

>JPG> Didn't they used to recruit for the navy by dropping shillings in
>pints or something... then once you got to the bottom of the drink, you
>had discovered, and therefore accepted the payment, and were obliged to
>work for the navy.  If you had anything to say about it, you had to deal
>with big people with pointed sticks. :-)  Perhaps evil groups should be
>able to force mages into slavery... :->
PN> perhaps instead of forking out a massive 50gp for a character you should be
able to coerce them into your group, using either Terror or Charm, maybe both!
Sort of Good priest Evil Priest routine. ];)

>DR> What about secret levels that you can only get to with specific keys or
>have to answer riddles etc.
PN> The implimentation of the inner sanctum of the temples could be good. Also
quests from evil temples to go and desacrate a Baldor temple, then others could
get quests to go and ritual the desacrated temple and purify it again.

>JPG> You don't need to eat?? What am I hunting for rations for then?  I
>hadn't heard this one... and if it's in the latest newsletter, I was sent
>an old one, and then the turn said I was sent one but the envelope
>didn't... maybe with the next turn...
PN> With great trepidation I let one of my groups go down to 0 food, I thought
either it would do nothing or all my party would die of starvation in 1 day. It
does nothing, since then I haven't cast make food or Manna. When in towns you
buy enough food for every char for only 5 gold!

PN> I agree with what RO said, (it was too big to quote) there was a player who
wrote to me for the G1 paper and gave his example of Deflect Magic 3, he cast
it 4 times and still was hit by a ball of fire and an acid blast. I know the
confusion or sleep do actually work (I think =)) it happened in G6 where one
group was outclassed and cast one of the above spells and the mages were unable
to cast back. Does Choking Gas do the same sort of thing (nothing!)?

PN> To stop hit and run magic tactics all it'll take is the flee point to be
put before any conflict at all, that and a fixed FF in relation to the
attitude, effective against parties only. Against monsters you sometimes have
to have 5% flee and hostile, just to save orders.

PN> Double printed turn sheets, I don't care for them myself, I feel like I'm
being swizzed of half my turn. It's as if its an update =( Everybody feels good
when you get your turns through and they are FAT! It's as if you've really got
your moneys worth. Days gone by now, it'll take shit loads of big melee fights
and buying a newspaper to get a FAT turn once more.....wahh!

>CC> BTW, Does anyone know what happens when you keep getting messages
>saying "You alliance is in danger of collapsing due to lack of members."?

PN>Is that an official alliance? If so Hurrah, five official alliances!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: maximus@IAEhv.nl (Frank Maximus)
Subject: WWW-pages
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 00:12:40 +0200 (MET DST)

Hello all,

Due to some heavy work for the business I almost got no time to start-up
the quest pages at 15-May 1995.
I promise the quest pages will start at 29 May 1995. Okay?

JPG> I already got a link to them Frank.. :-)  Even if they don't
exist... (anyone who wants to see my excessively cutesy homepage (use
netscape 1.1 to see what I'm on about) it's at
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3gex8 )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 18:23:43 +0100
From: Martin Lind Jans <mjxmi@carlbro.dk>

MLJ> What's this about food not being needed? I still find food-rations in
dungeons, in fact i have over 150 food-rations and I havent even cast
that priest-spell that gives food (whatzitzname).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ctc@coventry.ac.uk (Chris Clarke)
To: j.p.gallagher@durham.ac.uk

CC> To Stefan, Thanks for the artwork. I will be mailing you the stories after
the exams have finished.
Also, I have added a coupe of monsters to the list and I have found out that
Lizard Men are 60 gold per sector. Fuller list pending.

CC> To the Eight Gods alliance. game 6.
Two of my groups have fought. I've compared this with your list of injuries
and experience. Let you know what happens when I've finished working it out.
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Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 10:33:51 +0100 (BST)
From: Lord of Spoons <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk>

AH> Can anyone tell me if KJC charge for fax turns? As the Hertford Post
Office seem to have been subject to a, no doubt highly top secret
government experiment, uni-directional time distortion field. This
means that although I post my turns first class they only seem to get
processed and returned a week later. As we all know KJC process turns the
day they get them it cant be their fault can it? No of course not. Also
not forgetting that the future looks rosey, since KJC are taking on yet more
games they can hire a new programer, who will soooooo good that he can
program quick enough to find the spare time to help process the turns on
these new games *and* the backlog of current turns.....ooops I mean find a
way to reverse the uni-directional time distortion field which is nothing
to do with KJC not having enough staff at all. Honest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: J.P.Gallagher@dur.ac.uk
Date:          Tue, 23 May 1995 11:40:50 +0000

NB>  I need ideas of what you would like to see in a new open-ended fantasy
PBM game.  I don't want a list of improvements that you woud make to Quest.
But what would you honestly like to see if you were playing a new game.  Or
imagine you were writing a game yourself, what would _you_ put in it?
No clues yet as to what I'm up to.  (I don't think many are needed).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 17:45:28 +0100 (BST)
From: "C.H.E.B." <ctc@coventry.ac.uk>

> JPG> Okay, so I was horribly ignored on my request about the flaming...
> *grin* You know who I'm talking about (Chris)... Anyway, read on an find

CC> Hey I demand the right of reply. And who care's, it's only an Australian.

> NPO> Has anybody had any success using Teleport One as a
> defensive spell, rather than as an extra travel spell.

CC> Friend of mine had 0% retreat and Teleport 3 as first ranked spell on
ASL of 0. But then he had 9 mages and no weapons!

> JPG> What puzzles me is... which way would it teleport you?  For ranked

CC> Random, I think.

> > CC> Interesting. Anything which results in interesting opponents is fine
> PN> nope, I'm just 56 so I ain't worring yet. Are you strongly
> evil or good? perhaps find a crusade? Go hunting all the very

CC> Baldor aligned. Not by design, just wasn't in a town with a Novala
quest and got swung around.

CC> I'm considering going for a kill every type of monster challenge. I
know of someone in G7 attempting a "visit as many settlements as possible
in 80 days" challenge.

> PN> If it's any consolation your group and others like yours are
> a target for the younger players, something to aspire too and
> when strong enough duff up.

CC> I made a bit of a boo boo yesterday. I decided to get my very young
group (which I was considering running) some experienc by getting them to
fight my Luggage. Naturally, I knew how dangerous that group is, so I
dutifully lowered the new groups' flee factor. So Turn 2, flee factor
20%, lost one character. Oops. The Luggage are so embarressed.

> > CC> No point doing more than 1 Luck.
> PN> I thought Luck was supposed to be cumlative? Is Flame?

CC> Flame, dunno, Strenth definitely. Certainly not luck.

> JPG> *grin* coincidentally the day I finish mine. :-)

CC> Luggage kill Josh ... ;-)

JPG> Night Shadow's priests cast Hiding, so Luggage haven't a chance of
finding them...

> JPG> Didn't they used to recruit for the navy by dropping shillings in
> with big people with pointed sticks. :-)  Perhaps evil groups should be
> able to force mages into slavery... :->

CC> You have *no* grasp of reality, have you?

JPG> *pout*

CC> [slanging match between moi and ozzie nerd deleted]
JPG>  If ppl want to
> complain, could they do it to me _first_ instead of my sys admin?

CC> Delighted Josh, but it was what he was saying which annoyed me, now
HOW he said it.

JPG> Well, no reply from Pete yet, so maybe it's all over?

> RO> hours...for it normally takes exactly one week to get my results back.

CC> Can't you play with a more local company?

> getting really pissed. Someone complained about the difficulties when phoning
> KJC...funny: do you think I understand a single word of those people at the

CC> At least you've got through. I've been trying to complain about those
crappy results and all I can get is an answer machine "No one is
available.". Agghhh!

> insulting them is of any use (now don't you bite my head of Chris ! :)).

CC> Wouldn't dream of it. I'm all for reasoned discourse, first. Then
pure abuse second. When I originally mailed about KJC's poor service I
was in a seriously bad mood. Wouldn't you be in they'd lost your 100th
(landmark city) turn?

> RO> fact that KJC runs many games (some might say too many...me included, I only
> want Quest :)), we Questers are not the only ones who want improvements. I

CC> True, but we pay #1.80 per turn, so we deserve equal treatment to
everyone else. It's taking *far* too long to get even simple things
programmed. EG powderpacks. (PLEASE do something about the G7 travel
system, someone).

> CC> Kevin, _please_ get rid of that printer. PLEASE. I will discuss that
> at the London meet. (Threaten, me, nah!)
>
> JPG> Hate to disagree here Chris, but I don't mind the printing on the
> back of the page.. took a little getting used to, but it's not that much
> hassle for what must be a considerable saving in paper... and hence

CC> yeah, but are we getting a saving? No, thought not. I want my normal
results back. These are *so* TACKY.

JPG> *grin* changed my mind anyway.. they _are_ annoying... and I _still_
don't have a copy of the latest KJC news... they sent me the old one
first, then when I asked for a copy of the new one, they sent me an old
copy of the Game 11 newsletter.  Now I'm not sure whether I have missed
my game's latest newsletter too. :-(  So I asked for the latest of
each... foolproof.. I hope..

CC> For those that are (or even aren't interested), there are the
following pub meets in the next few months (there may very well be more):
  10 June, London
  24 June, Birmingham
  Late September, Blackpool
I hope to get to all three. See you there....

JPG> I shall certainly be at the Birmingham one.  Which pub?  Is Mark
Payne organising it?  And, um, will I recognize anyone? :-)  (I've
managed to miss meeting Chris in Coventry three times now I think... so I
haven't a clue what she looks like. :-) Met several other people though..)

JPG> Chris, you get the award for the most massacred post of the day
(i.e. the one I inserted the most comments in.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Neil Benson <9365040@mull.sms.ed.ac.uk>
Date:          Thu, 25 May 1995 12:02:56 +0000

NB>  I have a slight problem and I need your suggestion.  This
applies particularly to Bill, Clive and Keith, and any other KJC5
players.  In case you are filled in I should explain that I play a
character in the game called Colquin Evanchester.

NB> I play my group as his deputies, write my letters as he would,
run a guild in his ego and generally try to role-play him as best I
can.  Colquin is a noble knight, and sheriff of the city of Zanul.
I'm quite fond of Colquin.  He's a fun guy to be sometimes, although
a little square.  He and I get on well.  Players enjoy the authentic
scrolls he sends and there's beginning to be a response from the two
double page spreads in the game 5 newsletter.

NB>  Colquin's stats aren't much to boast about.  He's a human
fighter in charge of a group who haven't much experience of combat.
But last turn his brother, Davinon, spotted a tribe of kobolds in the
forest, and Colquin ordered the charge against them.  So the Zanulian
Proxy took off after the kobolds, via the bear who was also traipsing
through the woods.

NB>  Well the bear turned out to be an air elemental and after a
brief skirmish with that damned whirlwind we looked liked we'ld just
come through a hurricane.  Anyway the kobolds were there and we
managed to swipe about ten of them.  But the air elemental was still
there, and no sign of the bear.  To cut a long story short, the acid
blast had no effect, the ball of fire had no effect, our weapons
didn't have any effect.  The only thing that did work was Battlelust.
So we battered the air elemental furiously, not able to succumb and
live to fight another day.  Colquin was lost.

NB>  So now my character lies dead.  Another two page spread in his
name will be in the next newsletter.  It's all a little embarassing
really, but so far no-one except you guys know about this.

NB>  What do you think I should do?  I have a few riches, I could
recruit a 1001 gold new HF and call him Colquin and hope nobody spots
the diffrerence.  Or I could have his brother Davinon run the group
and publicise Colquin's death, but Davinon is a rather dark
characater and likely to lead the Zanulian Proxy into a  descent into
the arms of Ythcal.  Any other suggestions are welcome.

NB>  P.S. The turn was three days late, and ten out of fifteen orders
failed.  Another stlg1.80 wasted.

JPG> My suggestion, for what it is worth... The character is _dead_, and
this happened in the game, therefore you should roleplay this fact out,
not replace him, and bring in Davinon.  If you don't want the group
consumed by the evil that is Ythcal, then gradually introduce another
character to take over the group, maybe shunting Davinon out.  If you get
enough members, perhaps Davinon could lead a splinter group aligned
towards Ythcal.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stefan Andersson <t94stean@und.ida.liu.se>
Date: Fri, 26 May 95 13:58:45 +0200

SA> Is anyone setting up a Quest-area on Internet or how is it? I've
got my own homepage at:
http://www.edu.isy.liu.se/~z94stean/
and have plans on such an area (those visiting this place will find an
icon for Quest, but with nothing Quest-related yet). I haven't had the
time to do anything yet, and when I heard Frank should put something
together I thought I only should throw in a link to this place, but he
doesn't seem to have started it yet... I haven't more time right now
(all these exams...), but if people send me articles to put here I would
be delighted to start up a Quest-area. The articles should be related to
Quest and contain hints or whatever you feel should be interesting to read.
(Send me your FAQ, Chris C... please...).
It will not be a placed where we discuss a lot of things as this Digest,
only a place where new and old players can go and find useful, interesting
and fun articles on the subject Quest.

SA> Finally, does anyone else have problems reaching Ewan Jones homepage?
It seems I can reach his school, but not his homepage. Do you know anything
more on this subject, Ewan?

SA> Happy summer all!!! My last visit to the university and my e-mail-box
will be June 10th (+ some time in the middle of the summer...), and then
I can be reached via snail mail at:
Januarivagen 21A, 642 33 Flen, Sweden
until sometime around Aug 13th.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ewan Jones" <c1ej@dmu.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 13:38:02 BST

EJ> I don`t remember who it was that was on about their turns being sent
to someone else but you can now add me to the list, to cut a long story
short I had 2 turns processed at once for my game 10 group, the second was
sent to me while the first was sent to a fellow game 10 player in Wales,
luckily they have told me what happened but it could have been
disastorous. I understand mistakes can be made but isn`t this a little too
careless?
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Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 15:43:36 +0100 (BST)
From: Lord of Spoons <A.O.Hooper@herts.ac.uk>

> CMD> Perhaps we could usefully try and spend time thinking of ways for players
> who have "done it all" to enjoy the game more? The obvious answers are to get
> involved with a strong alliance, to help in the Quest Help Line, to consider
> editing a game newsletter.

AH> An option largly ignored is getting involved in the game
newsletter. Admittedly I went ages without doing anything towards it, but
it should really be looked at as the background against which the game is
played. Alliances can have all the wars the like but if Kharne in general
does not hear of it who will care? I like the rumours section but I think
people use it for things that should be in the newsletter - but who can
blame them as it gets printed without the month or twos wait with
newsletters and is also anonymous.

AH> As for ideas for older parties - when I finally go to hang my group
up I will do a proclamation to do a fight *to the death* against any and
all good groups with the balls to turn up and go down in a blaze of
glory...or a flood of acid, whatever.

AH> On a similar note to RoJ's idea - would anyone here take their
group to a tourney with something like a 10,000gp prize? To make it more
apealing put limits on spells so only self effecting or no-damage spells
allowed. Does anyone think I would get a good response?

> > CC> Interesting. Anything which results in interesting opponents is fine
> > by me. Has anyone come up with any ideas what to do with 100+ turn old
> > groups yet (and don't say weapons training, I've got 12 chars on ACE -
> > the other three are mages, before you ask).

AH> How about randomly kicking out a character or two? =) Which gives me an
idea - whats the best character anyones ever Xpelled? I know I have
kicked out a BF with ACE(100) in swords and 24 odd in bows...hmm a 86sk
BT also with ACE(100) in swords and 1000+ exp ....oh not forgetting the mage
with 1600+ exp who got booted too. BTW there is a good reason for all of these
characters going, I'm not just trying to cripple myself =). I have 10
characters on ACE too and the others are mages.

> CC> Not offering that amount of cash, you won't!

AH> Its called self-delusion - I'm quite good at it! =).

> DR> What about secret levels that you can only get to with specific keys or
> have to answer riddles etc.

AH> Indeed, in fact anything that needs more effort than a TQ would be
most welcome, Paul's idea also sounded pretty good to me too.

> JPG> You don't need to eat?? What am I hunting for rations for then?  I

AH> You really should have read Chris's FAQ. =).

> CC> I have recently had the misfortune to recieve my results on that
> double-sided printer. ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUS.

AH> I hate them, unless of course KJC are going to charge less for them -
which I doubt, if they wanted to charge less they would give reductions
for sticking multiple turns in a single envelope.

AH> I have been asked by a player without E-mail to ask about the
possiblity of an arena in cities where characters can do battles against
a resident champion or other groups champions.

AH> Also, since alliances can now own shops I presume the code is
there for others to own shops too. I would *LOVE* to own a tavern, I could
not care less if I made sod all money or had to pay something obscene to
buy the shop. Maybe its just me, but there might be a demand for people
to own a bit of Kharne no matter how small.

AH> I have also heard of a bug which leads to a whole party being made
IMMORTAL. I have asked some people to see if it possibly is true, if it
looks like it may be (as I suspect no one will be willing to lose a
whole group testing it) I will post it here for Steve to look into it,
otherwise there is not much point in posting a hoax.

AH> Does anyone have any ideas on racial restrictions for weapons? Can
dwarves use Longbows and Great Axe's properly?

JPG> It might just be my imagination, but I found that my dwarves had
problems with Longbows... Great Axes though did not seem to be much of a
hassle...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

JPG> Okay, that's it for the day.  I will send around the survey after
this again.  Please take the time to fill it in again...

JPG> Well, until next time, bye bye, happy Questing! :-) (And good luck
witth exams to those who still have them... how'd todays go Chris C?)

>>-Josh->
"Dreamer...  Nothing but a dreamer..."