Monster Island Newsletter Jan'94 (42K) From: warden@mack.einet.com (Scott Micheel) Date: Wed, 02 Feb 1994 05:37:50 +0000 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ m m mm mm t ee m m m m oo nnn sss t ee rrrr e e m m m o o n n s tttt e e r eeee m m o o n n ssss t eeee r News 01-25-94 e m m o o n n s t e r ee m m oo n n sss tt ee r #21 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Headlines this time: the Ryan Gaffuri Controversy eMailing in your Turn Publication data: eMonster News is published ideally on the 25th of each month, come hell or high water. Publisher and Editor is warden@einet.com <Scott Micheel>; send all submissions, questions, letters of comment, and subscription info to that address. eMonster News is distrubted free for the asking to anyone able to receive it on INTERNET, CompuServe, GEnie, Delphi, America Online, Prodigy, or any other service tied into the net. Current press run: 114. To avoid problems with my mailer, I send this out in batches; for a full listing of players on the net, send a note to Scott (below). eMonster News is not affiliated with Adventures By Mail in any way, and nothing in here is necessarily official. We like to think they like us, though. Please copy, post, print, or otherwise distribute this newsletter to as many players as you can; especially if they have email access. We want to promote this here game! Editor & Publisher Scott Micheel warden@einet.com Keeper of Blurbs Aaron Fuegi fuegi@cs.colostate.edu Group Man Brian Derks normandyknight@cup.portal.com Monster Mapper & MI BBS Jim Wuerch 71203.255@compuserve.com Weapons/Armor Expert Shawn Bilodeau imaginos@imagesys.com Capture Creature Captain Larry Barrows lrdbear@aol.com Statmaster Jack Vinson vinson@unagi.cis.upenn.edu Seeker of Demigods Ben Vincent bjvincen@mtu.edu Lord of the Hard Sell Tom Richardson salmanila@aol.com +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The Great Ryan Gaffuri Controversy Ryan Gaffuri runs Ishmael, a former member of Shroud's Own. SO is known as the foremost 'evil' group in the game, and has a reputation as a secretive, insular, and bloodthirsty group. But Ryan's actions have spawned a great deal of debate, and at the very least, gotten him booted out of Shroud's Own. In a quest for information, Ryan insinuated himself into several other groups (not least of which is the Disciples of Light) by pretending to be a new player looking to join the group. He then passed all the information he learned over to members of his own group, including newsletters with sensitive information in them. Anyway, the wrong people found out about this. (Rumor says that Ryan's monster stayed at the Odd Terepus while members of the White Tiger Clan were there; they recognized his name and discovered that his monster was a Shroudovian and a member of SO). Suffice it to say that Ryan's name became well-known in an amazingly short period of time. For a discussion of gaming ethics, you should go to Bif's Monster Resort BBS, where the discussion has been raging the fastest. I understand that there is talk of a proposal to ABM being distilled out of it. I hope to bring you some more news on this next issue. But this time, I thought I would offer some space to Ryan himself, and Morgan Hartick, leader of Shroud's Own. But first, the letter that broke the news here on the net; From: Ben Vincent The word is out about Ryan Gaffuri. There was a lot of discussion about it during the last few weeks on Bifs, and eventually Chris Meyer told Glenn Fuller the name. Glenn (the recruiter for SO) says he discussed it with the other leaders and they confronted Ryan (apparently he hadn't been sharing any of the info anyone gave him because he offered to show it to them -- they declined). I guess they've asked him to leave. They didn't like the reputation SO was getting as a bunch of spies -- apparently Ryan contacted nearly every group in one way or another and everyone on Bifs had some version of an SO infiltration story... I suggest you contact him and see what he says is going on. It might be worthwhile for you to download the last 200 messages in the Main area on Bifs; there's been a lot of discussion of gaming ethics and death policies and things. A lot of ideas are going to be presented to Jack shortly and a broader support base would be useful. I think you'd find the discussions very interesting. Sender: "Morgan Hatrick" <mamnon@aol.com> Subject: Slander, Lies, and Shroud's Own Shroud's Own has been the subject of numerous PR attacks; I think it's about time I cleared up a few misconceptions about Shroud's Own. We keep a political distance from the rest of the Island because we roleplay our position; the dark forces in the north aren't dark enough, in our opinion. Their affiliations with Light monsters disqualify them from allying themselves with us. We have nothing to gain from making allies, and we don't do charity work. Shroud's Own has everything it needs--for power, information, and comraderie, we look within our own ranks. We can afford to stand apart. Because of this distance we maintain, Shroud's Own has presented itself as a likely target of negative propoganda. The other reason is because we are powerful and becoming more so. It's because we roleplay our postion (Shroud's evil cause) to the hilt that we seem a great threat, and therefore subject to slander. If those who feel threatened can reduce our credibility, then they have less to fear, and no one likes to be afraid. There's another group of people who has slandered us; these are the people who believed the first wave of hearsay that was spoken against us. There's a few rumors floating around right now that I'd like to clarify for the benefit of all. Here's an oldy-but-goody: Shroud's Own has been badgered about killing one of its own members, yet we're completely guiltless. It was said that we bragged about what we did, but the truth was, we came clean with the announcement of an ugly reality. We did what we had to do; where ever we find our enemies, we'll kill them. Recently, Ryan Gaffuri has generated a great deal of negativity about Shroud's Own. Tray Custar was very much like Ryan, but Ryan is more vocal. Everyone would understand if we dealt with Ryan like we did with Tray, but they slandered on account of Tray anyway. There's a real funny one out lately--one of Shroud's Own quit us to join The Black Death. When Ben Vincent read our policy on running monsters only in Shroud's Own, he tried to convince us that it should be OK for him to run his other monster outside our group because that other monster was so far south. I told him that we could make no exception, but I did offer a severance of 50 oculars, no hard feelings, and he was also given the benefit of the doubt from the start. Many would consider a DOL member joining us an infiltration, but I said we'd call it a misunderstanding, and move on. We were very generous with our handling of this affair, but now it's being used to make us look less desirable. We achieved the greatest victory the island has ever seen. Because we're Shroud's Own, every effort must be made to diminish our glory, otherwise our actions will be allowed to speak against their slander. So, while we said nothing, (except among ourselves) our slanderers and Ryan ran off at the mouth. The term "pyrrhic victory" was applied to the Odd Terapus Massacre; such a demonstration of power could not go unslandered in the eyes of our enemies. What would the rest of the Island think if they found out that Shroud's Own policies actually do pay off! This massacre was far from a pyrrhic victory--we did not try to poach their temple. That temple is too close to the existing Shroud's Own temple, and too close to the Black Death temple. Also, we had no intention of stopping the sanctification; we waited for a time when we knew the most Kabukians would be there. That Light temple is a Kabuki death-trap that will continue to do more for us than it will for Kabuki, and the death cries of so many lightsiders is music to Shroud's Own ears. Before you convict Shroud's Own, insist on proof, not hearsay; you'll find the slanderers can't provide any. Shroud's Own must be great indeed, to inspire so much; we've done nothing except gather our power around us--are they scared? If anyone has any questions about Shroud's Own, don't listen to rumors, come directly to us--we'll be glad to put your mind at ease. On a lighter and friendlier note, I'd like to commend Brian Derks for reporting the truth as he knew it about the Odd Terapus Massacre. He presented an objective account of the facts. From: "Ryan Gaffuri" <INT201A49@orion.depaul.edu> Please submit this into the newsletter. About Shroud's Own having knowledge of my activities; the way SO is set up, Everything is run through Morgan. So NO ONE besides Morgan knew what I was doing. You may not believe me, but some of you must have contact with someone in SO, maybe from another game? These people did not lie to you, and you should not take it out on them. Morgan knew what I was doing. I sent him DOL and WTC newsletters along with other info. I have been told that he has returned these without reading them. That may be so, but when these newsletter were 3 weeks late to him (because of a printer problem) he asked me what was taking them so long! No one else saw them and no one else knew I sent them. I don't expect you not to come after me. I look forward to it if it happens. It gives me something to do in the game. But Morgan isn't innocent either. I did not forward any of the mapping info I gathered to *anyone*. The SO remains map poor. Please don't use that as an excuse to attack members of SO. They have not seen your map info, and will not. Shroud's Own is plenty capable of taking care of themselves (look at what they did to the WTC.) Though I am no longer a part of SO, I will continue to provide help and aid to it's members, except for Morgan Hatrick's monsters. I ask you again to not judge them by my actions. (I will not help any enemies of Morgan's to find him either, so don't even ask.) I do have a few personal bones to pick with Morgan. He didn't notify me of my dismissal from the group, though he did tell others. I found out from one of them. I called Morgan and he said that he was working on a letter to me. It is rumored that he wanted to keep me in the dark until he could get a group of monsters together to kill my monster. Morgan has sole control of SO. I am the only player that I know of that has tried to organize a group of SO players to travel together. No one else communicates. Morgan wants it that way. He wants everyone to get their information from him. He did not even want me to join the Discussion group as a member of SO and wanted me to stay anonymous on the Newsletter. I have sent a very brief statement to Morgan for entry into the BMT. If it is even entered into the BMT, I expect a reply that is much longer. I have tried on several occasions to enter stuff into the BMT, but Morgan said that the stuff he had to say on behalf of SO was more important. I am now the third person that Morgan has eliminated from Shroud's Own. The first was Tray Custar (Boa), Ben Vincent (Zagrolder) was 2nd (he's now in Black Death) and me. When we attacked and killed Boa, Morgan didn't tell us the identity of the target until after the fact. According to Ben Vincent, after Morgan found out he had another monster in DOL, Morgan told him to drop SO's totems. I don't think Ben knew that it was SO policy to only run characters in SO, it is SO policy to notify people of this ahead of time and to let them go peacefully. Then Ben found out from someone in the group that Morgan tried to have Zagrolder killed. Ben was upset, and told the DoL about the problem, and said he would share information with them, or anyone who wants it (I don't blame him.) I and several people I contact within the group did not find out about Zagrolder's removal until told in November. Morgan did not even notify us. Morgan denies trying to kill Zagrolder. Morgan believes that any group that does not strictly have Dark members is an enemy and that we are alowed to attack them on sight. I thought that we should try to work with other dark groups and fuvah groups. That is one of the underlying reasons why I did what I did, to find out who was hostile and who wasn't. About the WTC attack. Several members of SO wandered accross the temple that the WTC was rebuilding. Morgan asked me to spend three turns next to it and cast Detect Rival Followers. This put me in grave danger, but I even volunteered to have Ishamael sit in the square so the temple couldn't be sanctified. I contacted him after each of these turns to tell him what I discovered and even wrote a report for our newsletter. Morgan then had most of the players participating in the attack *send him their account numbers* and *he wrote out and sent in turns for them.* I refused to send him mine. As a final note; I have goodwill toward SO, and I hope most of them may have for me. But if my Ishmael is attacked by members of SO, I am quite capable of making life hard for them; I still retain a *lot* of data on the group, and have a lot of contacts who will recieve the info with glee. Anyone personally offended by me, I have to say 'tough.' I have played other games and done other things. I am not dropping the game and I am looking forward to this new challenge. All I ask is that you don't hold SO accountable for my actions. Thank you for listening. From: mamnon@aol.com Subject: For Lack of Honor I want to remain polite and civil, but that leaves me at a loss for words when I consider what I must say concerning Ryan Gaffuri. I am appalled at the number of people who have been lied to, and the amount of money wasted on long-distance charges, etc.; all because of one person's utter lack of gamesmanship. I'm truly sorry that Ryan Gaffuri ever wore our totems; I apologize for his actions on behalf of my group, and I ask you to please believe that he is in no way representative of our membership. The members of Shroud's Own are roleplayers, our monsters are evil but our players are just regular people. I don't want to be too hard on Ryan, but he doesn't seem to realize where the game leaves off and real life begins. Ryan has devoted TREMENDOUS amounts of time and energy into subversive activities at the expense of others. I have observed firsthand the negative effects of his deceitful campaign. So many people have complained about Ryan's unscrupulous methods; they told me he was ruining the game. I can only say that we of Shroud's Own promise to conduct ourselves with honor and integrity, and by ostracizing Ryan, we are doing what we can in the name of ethical gamesmanship. I don't want to get personal, but I'm very serious about what I've said here. I hope Ryan can tell when he's not wanted. If he reads this, I would request that he neither call my house, nor attempt any correspondence with me. In response to a few of Ryan's latest fables: He says I specifically requested the information he stole from other people. --What I did was to request information he had alluded to sometime back; there was a time when we had no idea what Ryan was up to. When I received the info and learned of Ryan's methods, everything changed. I returned all he sent me (to their respective sources), and banished him from our ranks. Ryan is now trying to play "troubled-hero-on-the-run". He professes an interest in aiding Shroud's Own. However, he is entertaining an ill-conceived fantasy, because Shroud's Own will have NOTHING to do with him. He says he wants to help the members of Shroud's Own, but each time he even speaks our group's name, we cringe. Ryan indicates that Shroud's Own has little cooperative spirit or infrastructure--I think he's trying to "help" us by spreading further misinformation. For clarification on anything Ryan says regarding Shroud's Own, please contact Glenn Fuller--Minister of Policy, Jeff Taylor--Executive Officer, or myself. Ryan spoke of killing Zagrolder many times. In letters he sent to me and others, he explained his desire to kill Ben Vincent's monster. Ryan has always walked apart from the rest of us; Shroud's Own had no desire to execute Zagrolder. Ryan's intentions were yet another example of how he was taking a clear policy and creating confusion and attempting dissent. Ryan has mentioned sending a submission to be included in the BMT. I can assure everyone that, of course, it will be included, unless it's an attack on personal character; vulgarity will also disqualify it. Ryan has implied that I would abuse my editorial position in relation to his submission. As I've always maintained, all items of a political/personal nature would be included, with a few exceptions. Items have been cut which were inflammatory, vulgar, or repetative, and each group is held to a reasonable amount of space in each issue. I am beginning to take real offense at Ryan's spiteful attacks. If his defamation campaign continues, I will be seeking protection from ABM, and/or a civil court of law. There have been many people hurt by Ryan's activities; if you're one of the many who've been hurt by him (financially or otherwise), please forward an explanation of your troubles with Ryan to me. If you have any evidence, please include it. --Morgan [I don't intend to continue this exchange, but I felt that the readers of the newsletter would appriciate being aware of the situation. -- Scott] +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Emailing your turns to ABM From: cfjones@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (jonesey) Warning on emailing turns: I sent in a turn on Dec 11 or 12 with an address change (going home for xmas break) and it wasn't processed (the change, I mean). Got back to school today, and there's my happy turn waiting in my stinkin' mailbox, where it's been since the day after I left school. Now instead of 3 turns behind I'm 5 or so. Grrr. Here is the format I use so that things look neat and are right aligned (I do it with spaces, also monster number changed to protect the innocent =+): T 8 I 1111 B 344 1 X 374 1111 W 5 99 Here is a copy of a msg I sent to Bob at abm. Bob: "Since submitting turns by email is a new (ad)venture for MI, I thought you might like some help. As you probably know, there is a Monster Island newsletter that is sent out each month by electronic mail by Scott Micheel. The latest newsletter had your new address and some information about emailing turns. The current press run is 99 people, so there are a lot of potential email turns coming your way. The biggest headache I can see for you guys is simply figuring out how to process the turns, since they will all be formatted slightly differently. I have heard that you would prefer not to receive turns by email, but I think that we could make it easy on you by setting up a standard format that is easy for abm to process. The format could be distributed to players with email access via the newsletter. Using email saves us (the players) time and money, and we all have a vested interest in helping you out if we can. And this is what he replied: Jonesey: "You asked about speed of processing Email turns. To guarantee getting a turn to us in time it would have to be in my Email box by 9am ET. I download all my Email around that time. Usually I access both PSI and AOL again later in the day but by then some of the Quest games will have already run for the day. Usually we process MI a couple times a day so its possible that a MI turn could still get done the same day even then." I also gave him my opinion that it would be no fun to get MI results by email. ABM is running a game of quest play-by-email to try it out, but Bob agreed with me that MI would not be so good to play that way. I asked him about standardizing email 'turn cards' and said that I was willing to create an email standard to make it easier for them, but he implied that since they do not have a parser, it doesn't really matter as long as the turn looks like a snailmail card. I suggest (to you) that we come up with an email standard, simply to reduce the possibility of confusion on all sides, and distribute it to the group. What do you think? My turn setup follows (names changed to protect the innocent): MONSTER ISLAND TURN Monster #: xxxx Acct #: xxxxx Day Cycle: x T 2 W 5 23 T 8 J 31 T 8 Z 20 T 1 J 26 T 1 J 26 T 8 I xxxx B 344 1 X 374 xxxx W 5 99 Note that I leave enough space to put 4 characters in each column. If you can think of any improvements, send 'em my way. *****Editor says: A standard format is a great idea, to reduce problems on all sides. I do have two comments on your propsed form; there are supposed to me monsters with 5-digit monster numbers, so to be prepared for that you should have 5 spaces. Also, I don't know what type of software or printer ABM uses, but it might be better to have the columns separated by Tabs, rather than spaces. Also, to borrow some hints from another pbm company, I would probably add the word END after the last order, or even "END, number of orders = xx". Anyone out there have any ideas? +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Letters from our readers......................... From: JHAGEDORN@VAX1.UMKC.EDU Subject: WEAPON TRAINING My monster is skill level 4 in missle weapons. I had him try to buy skill level 4 weapons training at the far Inn, hoping that he would receive some training. Unfortunaly I was told that the weapons master did was not able to train me. Oh, well It was worth a try. I bought advanced stealth at the black swan and recieve 62 stealth. From: syhunter <syhunter@vela.acs.oakland.edu> Subject: MI : Jim Wuerch contact? Try as I might, I still cannot contact Jim Wuerch to procure a registered copy of the Monster Mapper. I send him a letter via US Mail about a month ago and have received absolutely no response, even at the new address that you gave in the previous issue of the E-Monster News. As far as I can tell, he is either unwilling to respond to inquiries about his software or he has been killed and is therefore unable to respond. I'm sure he could make a lot more money selling his product if he'd write back to people who asked for more information, oh well... From: cfjones@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (jonesey) - Congrats on a 99 press run! We are no doubt going to break 100 in January. When I was 'running' things, as much as things can be controlled around here, the run was around 50 as I recall (spring 92). Of course all we had then was diehard netters and a couple of aol types, not the huge proliferation of services we have today. As Hannibal Smith was so fond of saying, I love it when a plan comes together. Just an historical note: in reading about the various newsletters, my memory was given a jog by the mention of THE MEGA-UNOFFICIAL MONSTER ISLAND HINT LIST, which I published on November 25, 1991 (you've come a long way, baby). I had put a message soliciting MI players in rec.games.pbm, and someone put my address in the MI Journal, along with that of Cheryl Frech. after a few weeks, we had 20 or so people exchanging messages chaotically at a high rate, and I saw the need to try to make some sense of things. Someone sent me a hint list originally compiled by Cheryl Frech. It was a mess, and after being whipped into shape, it debuted at around 3000 words. It was revised once, then again on January 23, 1992, and now stands at 3300 words, but it has not been revised since the inception of the newsletter. I can't imagine how long it would be if I were to try to put it together today, since the game had only been running for 2 years then and the oldest players were younger than 70 turns. My own young monster (mistah hurtz) was around 25 at the time of first publication, and is now 91 and 5 turns behind. (One of the original mysteries in the first hint list was what the hell a purpumkin is used for. Some things never change...) From: Benjamin Vincent <bjvincen@mtu.edu> Subject: new spell As far as I know, this is the actual blurb (from Jeff Ross aka Marlin Perkins, as seen on Bif's Monster Resort) Spell #2 and #802 Ensnare Creature This advanced disciple spell magically captures a creature in front of you. Issue the Cast Spell order: C 2 or C 802. The former to use immediately and the latter to use as a defensive battle spell. There is no action point cost. The Spell Point cost varies depending on the creature. If you haven't done something with a creature captured this way by the time you make camp, the creature is released - which might lead to a battle with it. Full size deep pits (i.e. 24 hands deep) can accommodate most any creature - so this spell can get you something big to trap a pit with. Warning: Jossmen like to use their vast stockpile of spears on anyone who releases a Creature in a square where they live. From: JHAGEDORN@VAX1.UMKC.EDU Subject: loggerhead camps I have some information on loggerhead camps. According to the loggerhead camp blurb, there are between one and two dozen loggerheads in a camp. So after our group killed 27 loggerheads, I called jack to find out what was going on. He told me that it is possible to have to kill as many as 50 loggerheads inorder to clean out the camp. He said though that 40 would be more likely. I dont understand why the blurb says that there is one to two dozen when there is almost twice that amount???? So I guess that we will have to hang in there to get the last dozen or so... From: Gerald Hagedorn <hagedorn@umr.edu> Subject: bugs There is one otherthing that I forgot to mention and that is that there has been a bug in the routine that erases loggerheads from the camps. So what was happening is that people were killing loggerheads and they were not getting increminted. This bug has been fixed and camps that were being cleaned out have be adjusted. Jack said that there will be several camps that will be cleaned out within the next week or two. From: kevin997@alaska.relay.ucm.org Hello, and thank you for sending me my first editon of eMonster! I think it's great, and I look forward to seeing it again, soon! I just wanted to see if I could get some of the back issues? And, was hoping you could mention that I am a member of the Island Geographic Society....do you guys do that, do personal ads and stuff? Anyway, if you do...I'm soon to become a Disciple of Kabuki, but I'd like to follow a Demigod. *****Editor Says: Back issues are available for the asking; I have all of my issues, and a handful of jonesey's & Cheryl's. From: salmanila@aol.com Subject: Temple locations, etc. Of course I prefer to see your Temple lists in Fire Rider's coordinates. Ces't la vie. The new list looks real good. There's another Fuvah Temple, 'Scarlett II', @370y,420x, and I've heard they've started another almost due east of there in the Kunbar. And I still think that S7 @272,361 is Fuvite. From: salmanila@aol.com Subject: Prices From the new Lord of the Hard Sell: I am honored and humbled at this grand task ahead of me. I hope to be the Consumer's Reports of Monster Island. But I need help from you scattered adventurers. Thanks go out to jhagedorn and russcal for their info. They filled in a lot of blanks. As a northerner, my knowledge of Dixie is all second-hand. Who has info from the Crooked Nose, Hamilton's Cove, the Blushing Lady, and the Cocked Spyglass? What do they sell, with prices and order codes? What is their pricing for weapons, etc, training, and Inn Stay prices? You know, the works. And do they have Garlic Grits on the menu? I am very interested in appraisals from any Inn with Poor or High pricing. So far, I know only 2: The Grackle is High for weapons and Drokorn's Stead is Low on armor. [The Grackle and Happy Junglemon seem to be the best places to sell, overall. And Drokorn's Stead is the pits.] Who has appraisals on the following, and where from? Or if they have any value? Damaged Iron Shield [346], Gnitgnoff [98], Lime Elixir [64]], Locked Large Box [384], Opened Large Box [394] (and has anyone seen small boxes?), Tortoise Shield [44], Black Ball [354], Kudo Bone [399], Reptron Salve [56], Silver Ring [206], and Zoingo Ruby Dagger [364] Coming soon will be a complete [?] list for Inn pricing. I recently received a bunch of price lists from the DoL on Bif's Monster Resort BBS. I am also working on Far Forge prices. Who has info from them, particularly the Dark Anvil, Borsthead's, and Silver Hook? So far, I haven't seen more than 2 different prices for any item at Forges. And I'll probably list separately those items [magical or whatever] that cannot be sold. Did you know that Unread Scrolls are valuable but identified ones cannot be sold? If I can't use a read scroll, I'll leave it at a Temple for someone else to find. From: Gerald Hagedorn <hagedorn@umr.edu> Subject: I am back Hi, I am back on the net. My new address is hagedorn@umr.edu I would like to get a reply from everyone, I am going to do some house cleaning, and would like to make sure everyone is still alive out there. There are several people that I have not heard from in a while. From: fuegi@cs.colostate.edu (Aaron D. Fuegi) Do you have any idea how the hillock repopulating works? Are they all repopulated at the same time (like that thing many, many turns ago about the wild growing spree that seemed to repopulate everything) or is it some kind of wait X turns after cleaned out deal? *****Editor says: If 'twere me, I would keep a count of turns, and have it checked every turn for repopulation, with a larger chance the longer it has been. But I don't know. I can confirm that they *do* repopulate, I have evidence of one just recently found to be full again. From: Dana Barker <73734.1241@compuserve.com> Group pursuits: Joel Halpern has been super nice, keeping in contact with me. I'm leaning toward his group, right now. I'm waiting for the others to contact me; and see what they have to offer me. I want to find a "good-fit" for Bunn. I've written to nearly all the Light groups (as well as Fire Riders, and Order Of the White Rose). The ones I've heard from are: 1. Cult Of Nine Lives 2. Sons Of The White Rose 3. Paladins Of The Island Guild (All of these are really interesting). Maybe the others are busy or something. I need to hear from all I wrote to, before I make a decision. Peace & Good Karma, Dana & Bunn From: Timothy Edward Ciciarelli <tec2t@fermi.clas.virginia.edu> I was wondering what kind of wrestling skills you need to defeat a blood mummy. I've got 19o 12d 1t... will this cut it? *****Editor says: Looks good to me. My Stompin Rocksoul can do it, with only 18o 9d 0t (though he used a silver knife and has some silver armor) From: "Bob Cook" <p00661@psilink.com> Organization: Adventures By Mail, Inc. Subject: Re: Monster Island info Thanks for the nice plug in the PBM newsgroup! I enjoyed reading it. *****Editor says: Official recognition! :-) I bask in glory! :-) Anyone interested, check out rec.games.pbm newsgroup. If you have any suggestions as to how I should revise or add to it, please tell me. From: Gerald Hagedorn <hagedorn@umr.edu> Subject: Loggerhead camp I talked to Jay Tummelson and found out that he cleaned out the camp. Here is what we found; one Oil Lantern, Silver Dragon Statue, two unreadable scrolls, One short sword, and One Black Ball. I was a bit dissapointed with the treasure, but not greatly. The camp we cleaned out was in the Kunbar, We are heading to the Starth to rebuild a temple and clean out another loggerhead camp. Hopefully it will have better treasure. Also I can confirm that the Oil Lantern does not use regular coconut Oil; you have to make a voodo concaction to get it to work. From: "Jerry E. Ritchie" <73537.2505@compuserve.com> Here is one of the many lists the DoL keeps on Bif's Monster Resort; the Group Conversion Table. We have many more; just call up Bif's to learn about them. The DOL has even appointed a new staff position : List Director, Sharyl Leis, 337 Oxford St, Winnipeg, MB R3M 3H9, Canada The new staff position function exactly as it sound - a single person to manage all of the DOL's various lists of data. All lists (as are all back issues of the eMonster News) are available online at Bif's Monster Resort. Current Lists include: Far Post Buy/Sell, Group Coordinate Conversions, Far Inn/Far Forge Buy/Sell, Making a Living, Far Structure Locations, and soon to come Temples, and Far Inn / Far Forge services. ******************************************************************************* The following is a list of group coordinate system conversions: DOL -> FIR ( 97x, 45y) GOF -> DOL ( 22x, 19y) DOL -> GOF ( -22x, -19y) GOF -> FIR ( 119x, 64y) DOL -> SFF ( 22x, 56y) GOF -> SFF ( 44x, 75y) DOL -> WHR ( 2x, 35y) GOF -> WHR ( -24x, -54y) DOL -> C9L ( 42x,-116y) GOF -> C9L ( 64x, -97y) DOL -> COG ( 92x, 0y) GOF -> COG ( 114x, 19y) DOL -> NET ( 397x, 309y) GOF -> NET ( 419x, 328y) FIR -> DOL ( -97x, -45y) SFF -> DOL ( -22x, -56y) FIR -> GOF (-119x, -64y) SFF -> FIR ( 75x, -11y) FIR -> SFF ( -75x, 11y) SFF -> GOF ( -44x, -75y) FIR -> WHR ( 95x, 10y) SFF -> WHR ( -20x, -21y) FIR -> C9L ( -55x,-161y) SFF -> C9L ( 20x,-172y) FIR -> COG ( -5x, -45y) SFF -> COG ( 70x, -56y) FIR -> NET ( 300x, 264y) SFF -> NET ( 375x, 253y) WHR -> DOL ( -2x, -35y) C9L -> DOL ( -42x, 116y) WHR -> FIR ( -95x, -10y) C9L -> FIR ( 55x, 161y) WHR -> GOF ( 24x, 54y) C9L -> GOF ( -64x, 97y) WHR -> SFF ( 20x, 21y) C9L -> SFF ( -20x, 172y) WHR -> C9L ( 40x,-151y) C9L -> WHR ( -40x, 151y) WHR -> COG ( 90x, -35y) C9L -> COG ( 50x, 116y) WHR -> NET ( 395x, 274y) C9L -> NET ( 355x, 425y) COG -> DOL ( -92x, 0y) NET -> DOL (-397x,-309y) COG -> FIR ( 5x, 45y) NET -> FIR (-300x,-264y) COG -> GOF (-114x, -19y) NET -> GOF (-419x,-328y) COG -> SFF ( -70x, 56y) NET -> SFF (-375x,-253y) COG -> WHR ( -90x, 35y) NET -> WHR (-395x,-274y) COG -> C9L ( -50x,-116y) NET -> C9L (-355x,-425y) COG -> NET ( 305x, 309y) NET -> COG (-305x,-309y) DOL - Disciples of Light FIR - Fire Riders of Kafu Zush Ma GOF - Guardians of Fuvah SFF - The Stark Fist of Fuvah WHR - Order of the White Rose C9L - Cult of Nine Lives COG - The Cadets of Gascoyne NET - eMonster (InterNET) Newsletter DOL (0,0) is a Kabuki Temple 7 north and 3 east of the Twisted Tabulor. WHR (0,0) is the Dragon's Tale Far Inn. C9L (0,0) is Filton's Far Post. If your group isn't listed use the following Far Inn locations to calculate your group's conversion to DOL coordinates and from there you can convert to the other listed groups' systems and figure the conversion to their system: The Happy Junglemon DOL ( 29x, 22y) Cocked Spyglass DOL ( 81x, -69y) Dorkorn's Stead DOL ( 7x, 98y) The Illuminated Torch DOL ( 40x, 162y) Grimley's Fiendish Spot DOL (-18x, 20y) --------------------------------------------- This information is distributed compliments of the Disciples of Light. Monster island players are free to copy each list in whole or in part as long as this note remains attached. Everyone is requested to contact the DOL with any updates/corrections. BBS: Bif's Monster Resort (317) 962-BIFS 8N1. --------------------------------------------- Revision History 1.00 11/15/93 Released 1.01 11/20/93 Added COG from Sharyl Leis via Bif's 1.02 11/23/93 Added C9L from Michael Curry via Bif's 1.03 01/08/94 Added NET from eMonster 20, corrections, and finished conversions from previous 2 updates. From: cashewnut@aol.com On your list of Far Posts I have the following Info: ? 55, 161 = Filton ? 70,191 = Dallan ? 63, 107 = 64, 107 Kiltor ? 12, 30 = 13,30 Kiltak ? 165, 234 = Migton ? 81, 250 = Wastak ? 1?, 124 = 17, 124 Kilton. also you list -19, -85 as Willam, I list that one as Willan. In #19 you gave a list of Far Inns prices and services, when I downloaded it and put it on my wordprocessor all the columns got screwed up and I can not make heads or tails out of it. Maybe you could mail it to me and see if it comes out ok. If not maybe I could get a hard copy or something. From: Michael Powell <74146.2211@CompuServe.COM> Another great way to improve your wrestling is hitting an ancient graveyard 2 or 3 times in one turn. You get lots of cemetary creepers and loot besides. Of Course you also take a *lot* of damage. *****Editor says: I found a great place to get Wrestle skill; a spot near the Dragon's Tale with two barkbrutes and two mudges all in a row. I have been getting +3 offense, +1 defense every turn for three turns now. I reccomend that starting monsters try mudges first, barkbrutes second, Graveyards third, and Tombs fourth (it was a Blood Mummy that beat the stuffing out of me and started this whole thread in the first place.) From: thogek@alumni.cco.caltech.edu Subject: eMonster question: King Ock Mushroom Groves There was a discussion in the newsletters some time ago about what to do at a King Ock Mushroom Grove. Did anyone ever figure this out (and I just missed it)? *****Editor says: It's a mystery for the ages. From: Joshua Singer <jbs@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk> I think I read once that the higher levels of weapon skills can be attained by joint training between monsters at a fort. Can any group substantiate this? From: Benjamin Vincent <bjvincen@mtu.edu> Some people are having trouble getting mail to you at this address. I was wondering if it would work for me. *****Editor Says: Obviously he reached me fine. Others are having some trouble. Anyone *not* receiving this should contact me. At the old address, I mean. If warden@einet.com doesn't work, my old address at warden@triton.unm.edu should forward everything to me after a short delay. Reply-To: vinson@unagi.cis.upenn.edu (Jack Vinson) Subject: Re: Monster Island statistics If anyone wants their monster's successes noted, I can add notes to this table for bragging rights. Obviously, not everyone wants their Monster's statistics given away. The table is pretty self-explanatory. Each Turn is in a row with the low/high for each statistic below its average. The number in () on the second line is the number of monsters reported for that statistic. Note: I have information on one Baby Ruk and after 8 turns, it blows away all competition on toughness, muscle, monsterliness, blurbs and kills. I've removed it from the statistics to provide a more balanced view of things. Average Monster Statistics Turn Toughness Muscle Badness Stealth Monsterliness Blurbs Kills ---- --------- ------ ------- ------- ------------- ------ ----- 1 52 26 30 10 138 11 (8) 47/58 18/33 25/43 3/25 120/158 8/16 0/0 8 70 42 35 12 258 49 12 (47) 20/93 27/79 16/60 4/33 211/355 31/66 4/23 16 85 64 42 14 368 74 26 (47) 67/100 40/108 17/67 5/34 284/490 48/96 10/51 24 102 87 52 22 486 96 42 (44) 76/125 46/131 26/90 7/57 377/581 62/124 19/78 32 119 105 63 26 593 119 64 (39) 84/145 64/155 27/95 8/55 421/733 83/158 33/117 40 131 113 73 32 675 133 81 (27) 106/160 74/157 34/105 15/80 489/805 98/161 46/121 50 147 131 86 42 801 157 108 (24) 132/174 93/181 56/115 17/76 583/935 112/210 66/166 75 170 158 110 53 996 187 149 (11) 159/183 135/201 81/129 20/73 806/1130 136/228 80/207 100 188 200 131 66 1287 234 233 (8) 175/206 173/243 98/148 46/84 985/1436 199/280 155/292 125 207 229 148 82 1482 258 320 (4) 197/219 218/251 133/164 50/146 1265/1748 241/283 218/461 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Stay tuned for next months exciting episode of Skippy the Wonder Slug... Same Slug-time, same Slug-channel, demand yours today! Up