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Archive-name: games/roleplay/dnd/part2
Posting-frequency: monthly Last-modified: December 2003 URL: http://users.rcn.com/aardy/faq/rgfdfaq.html See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
REC.GAMES.FRP.DND FAQ
Part 2
Netiquette
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* designates topics which have been updated.
+ designated topics which have been added.
B1: What is this "netiquette" thing anyway?
B2: So, what's the deal with this board?
B3: Are there any gaming groups in my area?
B4: "...Me, too!"
B5: Why should I play *D&D instead of Rolemaster, Torg, or some other
RPG?
B6: "D&D IS EVIL & SH*T, DON'T PLAY IT." What do I do when this gets
posted?
B7: Do those "MAKE MONEY FAST" ideas really work?
B8: If X fought Y, who would win?
B9: Where can I buy/sell old books, modules, & other stuff?
B10: How do I get past a certain point in this D&D computer game?
B11: Some people's posts go off the right edge of the screen; is my
newsreader broken or something?
B12: How creative should I get with my .signature file?
B13: Do I have to be an elementalist mage to post a "flame" or start a
"flamewar"?
B14: Where can I post this?
B15: Is all "d20" discussion on-topic here?
B16: Why hasn't anyone responded to my posts?
B17: I posted a question; why hasn't anyone answered it?
B18: Why isn't anyone talking about Al-Qadim?
B19: Would anyone like to start a campaign here on the newsgroup?
B20: I missed a message; could someone please repost it?
B21: Why are people telling me to stop writing my responses above the post
I'm responding to?
B22: What's wrong with posting with MIME or in HTML?
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B1: What is this "netiquette" thing anyway?
A: "Netiquette is not just about the niceties of behavior or avoiding
embarassment. Netiquette is like the double yellow line in the
middle of a highway." --Howard Rheingold
Netiquette is shorthand for "net etiquette". Usenet is a cooperative
community that only works for as long as people are cooperating.
Thus, over the years each newsgroup and Usenet as a whole have
created sets of rules and customs, essentially deciding what will and
will not generally be tolerated by other posters--what constitutes
good "net manners", if you will--in order for the maximum amount of
readers to get the maximum enjoyment from each group. Examples of
netiquette issues include what the proper newsgroups for certain
topics are, and what constitutes a good general posting style.
Usenet is all about communication. It is divided into separate
hierarchies and newsgroups so that it is easier to find the topic you
wish to discuss. Netiquette is not just about good manners, it is
also the basis for the most effective communication in this medium. If
your posts are polite and easy to read, it is much more likely that
people will want to communicate with you. If your posts make you
look arrogant, or merely careless, clueless, or sloppy, few people
will want to take the time to muddle through what you have to say to
find the kernels of your posts. And those that do will not be very
inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Many types of behavior which are acceptable elsewhere are not
acceptable on Usenet; you can easily discover these potential
pitfalls by reading through the files listed in the Note to New Users
at the beginning of this FAQ. There are also many behaviors which
may be acceptable on other newsgroups which are not acceptable here,
and some things that are done here that may or may not be acceptable
in any other groups on Usenet. Many of these are described in this
section of the FAQ. The best way to understand what is and is not
acceptable is to read through the entire FAQ and read every message
in the group for at least two weeks before making your first post.
As a poster to this group, it is your responsibility to learn the
customs of Usenet and this group, hopefully before you write that
first post.
The individual "rules" of netiquette exist for various reasons,
which include:
To avoid looking like a clueless wonder or a total jerk, and thus
avoid being treated as such by the rest of the readers of the
group;
To help make everyone's posts clear, legible, and able to be read
and understood by the greatest number of people with the least
amount of effort by all concerned; and
To prevent a discussion group from becoming a clearing-house where
anything can be discussed, thus making it extremely difficult to
find posts that actually deal with the topic of the group
Netiquette does not actually prevent anyone from posting whatever
they darn well please; nothing and no one can do that, short of
forging cancels. However, it is a good idea to follow netiquette, or
at the very least take the time to learn why a given rule exists
before challenging it.
Breaking the customs (whether on purpose or on accident) may
not seem like much to you in many cases, but it will usually cost
you in terms of credibility and, to some extent, popularity. You
appear as if you didn't bother to take the time or effort to find out
about those things that this group considers important, behavior-wise.
This turns most posters off--you'll already have one strike
against you, making it that much more likely that you'll annoy or
even anger the other posters, so they won't be in the mood to read
what you're trying to say. Besides, if you can't be bothered to
listen to the group, why should the group take the time to listen to
you?
Occasional mistakes or lapses of reason happen to everyone, and most
people know to take this into account when considering a response to
a post. If a poster consciously decides to use bad netiquette,
though, especially after the error of his ways has been explained to
him, that poster should be prepared to take flak for his decision, and
be neither surprised nor indignant when the rest of the readers of the
newsgroup bring societal pressures to bear on the "rogue" element to
help him become a productive member of the microcommunity that is the
newsgroup.
If the decision to breach netiquette is due to an informed
disagreement over what "proper" netiquette should be, arrived at after
carefully reading of the existing documents and pondering the
possible reasons behind the current rule and ramifications of
changing that rule, that is one thing. Pure orneriness and/or total
cluelessness is another matter altogether, and will usually prompt
rebukes from other members of the group. This does not give everyone
license to flame away whenever they see a breach of netiquette; that
in itself is bad netiquette--a gentle reminder and suggestion of how
to improve matters is usually a lot more productive than an outright
flame.
B2: So, what's the deal with this board?
A: Once and for all, this is not AOL, nor Compuserve, nor Prodigy, nor
Delphi, nor GEnie, nor Fidonet, nor a BBS. It is Usenet, one of the
networks which is joined to the Internet. Specifically, this is one
newsgroup from among the 22,000+ total newsgroups which make up
Usenet. It is not a listserv (although there is an AD&D listserv, and
some other newsgroups are Usenet gateways for listservs), bboard, board,
list, SIG, or base; several of those terms may technically describe
Usenet, but they are no more "correct" than referring to the right
side of a ship as anything other than starboard. This is a
"newsgroup"--"group" for short--which is part of the Big 8, rec.*,
rec.games.*, and rec.games.frp.* hierarchies of newsgroups.
B3: Are there any gaming groups in my area?
A: Usenet is read by people around the world, from New Zealand to Norway.
If you're looking for players in Galveston, Texas, it is pointless to
ask people in Germany to come over and play. Doing so only wastes
bandwidth, time, and money for everyone outside of your neighborhood
who reads your request, and tends to really annoy people. This is true
even if you think your gaming group is so good that people will want to
travel thousands of miles every week just to game with you.
There are several methods you can use to get your request out to
the people who are most likely to be interested in your request for
games or gamers, while reducing to almost nil the amount of potential
aggravation for the majority of the people reading this group. Please
use one of these courses of action.
The main method is to post the request on the newsgroup
rec.games.frp.announce. Anyone looking for a group, or any groups
looking for players may read that group for announcements of this
nature, thus leaving more space in this group for discussions pertaining
to the game itself--as well as making the announcements easier to find,
by fact of only having to page through a couple of dozen posts per week
to find a particular one rather than the couple of hundred posts per
day of rec.games.frp.dnd. In this, the set-up is similar to
rec.games.frp.marketplace, and people who know how the hierarchy is
arranged know to watch that group for such announcements. If your
newserver does not get rec.games.frp.announce, try writing your
newsadmin and requesting that it be added to your site's feed.
Another good method is to use one of the web pages set up for
finding gamers in your area. One such is the "Internet
RolePlayer Registry" section of AccessDenied, located at
<http://www.accessdenied.net/dev/entry.htm>, another is Effie Rover's
Game Finder at <http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/gamefinder/index.cgi>,
and another is at <http://www.rpg.net/etrigan/rpg.html> and is run by
Etrigan. Wizards of the Coast also runs a "Players Registry" of its own
at <http://nafsasp.wizards.com/Registries/TSR/Welcome.asp>. Either
look into the existing requests to see if there are already people in
your area looking for games or gamers, or input a request of your own
and wait for any results.
If neither these methods seems very palatable to you, then I
suggest you find a local-area-only newsgroup (such as a university-,
city-, or country-specific one; an example would be something along
the lines of chi.wanted for a Chicago-specific group), or inquire if
there is a message board in your local gaming shop and post a note
there. These two actions are guaranteed to go only to the people most
likely to respond to your requests.
B4: "...Me, too!"
A: A post that does nothing but quote back the previous post in its
entirety and simply adds on "Me too" wastes the time of everyone
who reads it. If you translate the wasted time into man-hours, you
get a heck of a lot of wasted time. When you figure into the equation
all of the people who pay by the message for Usenet access, it
translates into a lot of lost money as well. If you see something you
agree with, send the poster e-mail. If you want a copy of something,
send the owner of whatever it is an e-mail message. Don't post it.
This is simply good netiquette. I would ask that all new readers
please peruse "Ask Emily Postnews," regularly posted to the
newsgroup news.announce.newusers. 'Nuff said.
B5: Why should I play *D&D instead of Rolemaster, Torg, or some other RPG?
A: This is a group for discussing *D&D, in all the forms it has taken
over the years. It is not a place to discuss the relative merits of
those games when compared to non-TSR games. This includes discussion
about why people should stop playing *D&D and switch to some other
game, as well as discussion of which edition of *D&D is the best or
worst. It just so happens, however, that there is a newsgroup which is
dedicated solely to discussions of which game systems are the best
and/or worst to play. It's just a few steps north of here, and is
called rec.games.frp.advocacy. Try it, you might like it. The
discussion there mainly centers around meta-game issues--i.e. what is
the best game mechanic for a given action--rather than invective-filled
flame-fests, so consider yourself warned.
For other notes on where to post certain topics, see the question
below and the newsgroups listing and descriptions in Section 6 of this
FAQ.
B6: "D&D IS EVIL & SH*T, DON'T PLAY IT." What do I do when this gets
posted?
A: Most likely, some poor schmuck walked away from his computer and a
friend decided to play a practical joke, or someone is just trying to
yank your chain. The best thing to do in such cases is to ignore it.
That's right, don't even bother commenting on how much flamebait the
unlucky poster is. Doing so just diverts time and energy away from
discussion of our favorite game, and makes serious postings that much
harder to find.
For a hyperbolic, tongue-in-cheek take on this issue (which really
is a parody, regardless of what the page may claim to the contrary),
read Niilo Paasivirta's Game of Satan essay at
<http://www.co.jyu.fi/~np/rpg/DnD/>.
B7: Do those "MAKE MONEY FAST" ideas really work?
A: No. Nyet. Absolutely not. Negatory on that, good buddy. The "Make
Money Fast" schemes you usually see posted are almost always "Ponzi
schemes," a.k.a. "pyramid schemes." The person who starts the pyramid
of names may make the money he describes, but the poor schmucks at the
bottom tend to actually lose money. Since the offer promises returns,
and most people who reply don't see a red cent, the U.S. government
considers such schemes to be fraud. Currently, if you send such a
letter out via snailmail, you can be arrested for using the U.S. Mail
for fraudulent purposes and end up doing jail time; the FCC is working
on getting the sending of such messages over the Internet to be wire
fraud, due to the fact that the Internet uses telephone lines for
propagation. Currently, the U.S. federal laws on fraud & wire fraud
do not take the Internet into account, but several state laws do. So
spreading such schemes over the Internet is not technically illegal
everywhere in the U.S. ... yet. And if your state is one that frowns
on such things, you'd best watch your step.
The easiest thing for everybody is to simply ignore the message.
Since they are typically simultaneously posted to hundreds or
thousands of newsgroups, the original poster will probably not see
your witty discussion. Sending a private e-mail to the postmaster at
the poster's site may be a good idea, but posting replies, even wildly
humorous ones, just takes up bandwidth with useless topics. Just say
"No" to "Make Money Fast" schemes.
B8: If X fought Y, who would win?
A: This type of question is most often found in the form "Enterprise vs.
Death Star," or, more appropriately, "10th level fighter vs. 10th
level mage," "Raistlin vs. Elminster," or "Driz'zt vs. Da Bears."
(For da record, even wit' a mini-Ditka, Da Bears take it, 42-3; Da
Bears let da elf have a last-second field goal so he don't feel so
bad. Pass da brats, will ya?) Asking this type of question is also a
sure-fire way to not make any friends among the long-time posters.
When it comes to fiction, the one true answer is...whomever the
writer/poster wants to win, wins. Alternatively, in novels that
feature one of *D&D's big hitters, a la Driz'zt or Raistlin, if
cross-world dueling actually happens, it generally ends in a draw so
that no group of fans feels that their hero got shafted. It may seem
fun to speculate, but when because this is fiction, there is no sure
way of determining a winner. Picking one just gets the fans of the
character you picked to lose mad (and usually flaming) at you. In any
case, almost every combination of X vs. Y has already been done to
death on the group. It is not in the group's best interest to discuss
such things further.
For characters with published statistics, it is possible to use
probability and statistics to determine the average result of repeated
clashes between the chosen characters. Average number of hits,
average damage per hit, average number of rounds it takes for one to
win. However, because of the way statistics work, the average result
doesn't tell you what the actual result of any single fight would be,
only what it likely would be. Because the game also involves strategy,
magic, and luck statistics can only get you so far; after that, the
winner is decided by characters' (and players') preparation,
craftiness, and actual dice roll results, and you're right back into
the realm of fiction and thus endless (and unwinnable) debate.
In the case of one class archetype vs. another, the argument can go
on and on ad nauseam, as everyone can come up with some reason for
each one to win over all the others, even when statistics are
involved. What it usually comes down to, since the main classes are
pretty much balanced, is whichever character wins the initiative, gets
luckier with the dice, or has more time to prepare, wins the battle.
End of argument.
B9: Where can I buy/sell old books, modules, & other stuff?
A: Rec.games.frp.marketplace is dedicated to the buying and selling of
gaming material of any nature. If there is a book you've always been
looking for, or if you want to sell off some of your books, please
post in rgfm. Such posts do not belong on rgfd, and only serve to
make the natives restless and the poster the recipient of numerous
flames.
If you are thinking of checking out rec.games.frp.marketplace in
hopes of finding those items you've always been looking for, a place
to look first is <http://www.acaeum.com>; they list almost every
D&D/AD&D item to ever be printed, with a suggested or average actual
price for each.
If you are looking to buy gaming material, and have been unlucky in
finding what you are looking for in rec.games.frp.marketplace, you
may want to try an on-line store which traffics in gaming material; a
list of those which are suggested most often when this question arises
is contained in Section 6 of this FAQ, as part of the issue of *D&D web
pages. Additionally, there are almost always several auctions of
*D&D books and modules going simultaneously on web sites such as eBay,
at <http://www.ebay.com/>.
For other notes on where to post certain topics, see the list below
and the newsgroups listing and descriptions in Section 6 of this FAQ.
B10: How do I get past a certain point in this D&D computer game?
A: As the old BASIC games used to go, "Thank you for playing... hope you
had fun!" Sorry, but such questions really can't be answered here, as
this group is for the discussion of role-playing games, not computer
games. Try comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure,
(or comp.sys.mac.games.adventure, for MacUsers), rec.games.video.sega,
rec.games.video.nintendo, or rec.games.video.3do.
Walkthroughs of many of the SSI games, including Eye of the
Beholder II, III, and Dark Queen of Krynn are available through the
Web at <http://www.gamesdomain.com/walkthru.html>; many
other computer games, including the Bard's Tale series and Baldur's
Gate, are also represented there. Further information on the SSI
games can be found at <http://www.ssionline.com> and
<http://www.interplay.com>. The latter web page also leads to
information about Baldur's Gate.
B11: Some people's posts go off the right edge of the screen; is my
newsreader broken or something?
A: Please, please, PLEASE remember to hit return every 75 characters
or so. Many machines either do not allow lines longer than 80 spaces
or do not wrap lines correctly. A 75 space line allows for easy
reading, as many newsreaders will just ignore all characters in a
line after character 80, and then followup markers won't cause lines to
run over 80 characters as quickly.
B12: How creative should I get with my .signature file?
A: A signature file, or, for the UNIX-inclined, .signature (.sig for
short), is a file that your newsreader can automatically attach onto
the end of every Usenet post you make. It is intended to contain such
information as your name, Internet address(es), other contact methods,
and so forth, that you would otherwise have to manually type in each
time you want to post. Many people also include witty quotes or
comments, ASCII pictures, and other such fun bits.
However, once you see the same .sig twenty times in one day (or one
week, month, etc.), it can get quite tiresome. This is especially
true for large sigs, and/or ASCII art. In the interest of preserving
everyone's sanity, Usenet as a whole has unofficially adopted the
standard of a four-line by 80 column .sig (otherwise known as the
McQuary limit, named for George McQuary, one of the regulars over in
alt.fan.warlord). That is, if you can't fit it into four lines of text
or less, each of which is 80 characters long or less, it probably isn't
worth saying. This standard is flexible somewhat, as tasteful .sigs of
five or six lines are usually tolerated. Anything longer than that
wastes bandwidth and quickly becomes a target for flames. Anything
longer than 80 characters per line will usually get mangled by
newsreaders and end up almost completely incomprehensible--see the
previous question for more information.
For some reason which I just cannot fathom, people on this group
seem to have a propensity towards the use of ASCII representations of
dragons, castles, swords, and other such fantasy elements in their
.sigs. This sort of thing is cute once, but quickly begins to grate
on one's nerves, especially those people who end up having to pay to
see a screen of nothing but someone else's .sig. Besides, if you've
seen one sword .sig, you've seen them all. If you feel the creative
urge, stop over in alt.fan.ascii-art in order to relieve it; don't do
it here, as it takes up bandwidth better spent discussing *D&D. If
you insist on keeping a gigantic .sig, with several comments and
quotes, a multi-screen ASCII picture, all 15 ways to reach you from
various points on the Internet, your snail-mail address, and your
work and home phone numbers, then rgfd is not really the place for
you. If this fits you to a 'T', then you need to hie yourself over
to alt.fan.warlord, the Home of the Big .Sig.
While on the subject of .signature files, please remember to
delete the signature files from posts you respond to. You are the
one writing the message so your signature is the only important one;
no one needs to see or get confused by multiple different .sigs.
If readers want to know who wrote any text you are quoting from the
previous message, they have to look no further than the very first
line of the post, where "Someone (someone@foo.bar.com) wrote:" is
added by almost every newsreader in existence--and if your newsreader
does not add that line, you should always try to add it yourself, so
that others can easily determine to whom you are responding.
B13: Do I have to be an elementalist mage to post a "flame" or start a
"flamewar"?
A: No you don't, and trust me, you don't want to try. Nor do you want to
be on the receiving end of one.
A flame is a nasty, inflammatory message. It does very little except
repeatedly insult another poster or a group of people, or the recipient
if it is sent via e-mail.
A flamewar is a flame in response to a flame in response to a flame,
and so on, ad nauseum.
Neither flaming nor getting involved in flamewars is conducive to
a long net.life or a good net.reputation. Some topics are "hot
buttons", which can do very little but devolve into flamewars. Many
have very little to do with *D&D except tangentially. Some examples
are homosexuality, the place of women in society, religion, rape, and
ethics & what constitutes "good" or "evil". In general, if one of
these topics comes up, don't bother posting! Each of these has been
discussed to death in the past, whether or not you were here to see
it. (If you weren't here for one of these discussions, but still want
to read about it, please see the Usenet archives at
<http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search> rather than posting
about it.) Very few posters here want to see more flamewars start,
especially on these topics, so staying as far as possible from them is
a good idea.
There are also some rgfd-specific touchy subjects which, in general,
are best to simply stay as far away from as possible. Some examples
of these are the whole copyright issue, combat realism, which version
of *D&D is the best/worst, whether *D&D is better/worse than any other
RPG, and just about any other topic discussed either in this section
or in later sections of the FAQ.
There are several methods you can use to avoid flaming someone.
First and foremost, do not post while you are angry. If a post
incenses you so much that you are moved to flame the living daylights
out of the poster (or if you notice that you are so angry you can't
type straight), then stop. Don't post. Count to ten. Save the
message for later reading and go on to the next message, or take a
break from Usenet altogether. Then, when you've had a chance to calm
down, read the post again and decide if it really deserves a reply, or
if everyone is better off if you just ignore it altogether.
If you notice that one person's posts consistently get under your
skin, or if one topic really gets you hot under the collar (or for
that matter, is just something in which you have zero interest), you
should seriously consider using a killfile. That way, you would not
see any posts by that poster, or with that topic at all, and would
therefore have little temptation to burst into a flame. If you are
unsure how to use a killfile with your newsreader, consult the help
manual, or ask your friendly local sysop, as it changes too much from
newsreader to newsreader to list all the possibilities here.
B14: Where can I post this?
A: There are several types of posts which are technically about *D&D, but
do not belong on rec.games.frp.dnd. Some of them are dealt with in
more detail above and in other sections of the FAQ, but here is a
thumbnail guide to posting *D&D-related material. Please observe
these guidelines, as it will make everybody happier in the long run.
*D&D-related programs/binaries: alt.games.frp.dnd-utils,
or rec.games.frp.archives
Discussion about *D&D programs: alt.games.frp.dnd-utils
TSR--They Suck, Really: alt.flame.tsr
SSI/TSR computer games: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg
"Test--Please ignore": misc.test
Which RPG is the best: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Which RPG is the worst: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Which game company is best/worst: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Convention announcements: rec.games.frp.announce
Announcement of PBEM openings: rec.games.frp.announce
Gamers wanted in Area "X": rec.games.frp.announce
Fiction: rec.games.frp.archives
Resources for *D&D (net.books): rec.games.frp.archives
New rules for combat, init, psi: rec.games.frp.archives
Multiple spells, monsters, NPCs: rec.games.frp.archives
Unfinished resources for *D&D: rec.games.frp.archives,
or r.g.f.dnd
Very short resources for *D&D: rec.games.frp.archives,
or r.g.f.dnd
Discussion of *D&D resources: rec.games.frp.dnd
Discussion of *D&D, etc.: rec.games.frp.dnd
Buyout of TSR proposed by WotC: rec.games.frp.industry
How to get an RPG published: rec.games.frp.industry
Copyright and RPGs: rec.games.frp.industry
For sale: rec.games.frp.marketplace
Wanted to buy: rec.games.frp.marketplace
Dragon Dice: rec.games.trading-cards.*
or alt.games.dice
When you post items in rec.games.frp.archives or if you post a
program/binary in alt.games.frp.dnd-utils, it is suggested that
you post a short note in rgfd pointing out where to go to find
your post.
However, this sort of short advertisement is discouraged
(but permitted) when you post a sale in rec.games.frp.marketplace,
and is strongly discouraged when you post items in r.g.f.announce.
There isn't any need to post ads for sales on r.g.f.marketplace
or for announcements on r.g.f.announce, because people who want
sales or announcements should already know to monitor those groups.
The basic type of material on r.g.f.archives or a.g.f.d-u changes
from week to week, so that the contents of the groups aren't as
predictable as "sales are on r.g.f.marketplace" or "con/game
announcements are on r.g.f.announce."
B15: Is all "d20" discussion on-topic here?
A: All 3rd ed. D&D is d20, but not all d20 is 3e D&D. This newsgroup is
specifically for discussion of D&D. Thus, some d20 discussion is
appropriate for this newsgroup, but not all d20 discussion is
appropriate for this newsgroup.
The exact position of the line between on-topic and off-topic for
d20 discussions is in about the same place it is for every topic
that is discussed on this newsgroup, from history to movies to
religion to alignment to guns to politics to other RPGs. By and large,
that means that if the discussion is about how to take elements from
other d20 games and integrate them into D&D, then that is on topic;
if the discussion is about other d20 games in their own right,
without any meaningful references to D&D, then that is off-topic.
For most non-D&D d20 discussion, see rec.games.frp.misc or
rec.games.frp.moderated.
B16: Why hasn't anyone responded to my posts?
A: Because Usenet is an asynchronous medium. In other words, when you
send out a post, it spreads throughout the net, taking various routes
to get to all of the many newservers in the world. It can arrive on
some sites within minutes, or take days to get to those same sites--or
arrive in minutes on some sites and never arrive on other sites.
Sometimes technical problems at one site will delay the routing of
messages to any sites further on down the chain. In any case, the vast
majority of people reading Usenet are not constantly on-line and
reading. It could be some time before people read a given message,
even if it has already been sitting on their site for a while. So
don't expect immediate responses. This is not a chat area, where
people can always quickly respond to anything that is said.
In addition, it is possible that no one found anything in your post
that they wanted to respond to. One of the largest causes of this are
unqualified endorsements, e.g. a post whose entire message is "I think
Planescape is cool. Does anybody else?". There isn't any substance to
such a post, thus there isn't much to respond to, except to say, "Yes",
and most people won't bother posting such trivial answers when there
are tougher questions to answer, such as "Why can't mages wear armor?"
Also, many people do not take the time to answer every post. Thus, it
is very possible for the entire group to skim over a given post,
assume that someone else will respond, and go on, leaving no responses
to an otherwise good post. It happens to everybody on the group at
one time or another. Just wait for a week or so, then try something
else.
There is also a possibility that your posting program has a glitch,
and your messages are not getting out. If you suspect this is the
case, do not post "test" messages to rgfd. Test messages should be
posted in misc.test, or any of the other *.test groups. An
autoresponder will tell you if the world saw your *.test post, whereas
you'd have to guess if the world saw your test post in rgfd. Remember,
however, that many newsreaders will not allow you to see your own
messages, in which case it will seem as if they are not getting out when
they actually are.
If you suspect any of the above has happened, the best thing to do
is wait a few days. If no one has responded after a week, do not
repost the same message! Try writing on another topic, or following
up to someone else's message and adding something to the conversation
rather than adding an "I agree" and nothing else. If you suspect your
posting mechanism is broken, check with a local sysadmin and/or try
posting to misc.test. Multiple postings of the same post, "I agree"
messages, and "Test--do not followup" messages do nothing but clutter
the group. For everyone's sake, don't bother.
B17: I posted a question; why hasn't anyone answered it?
A: This newsgroup averages around 200-300 new posts per day, 7 days a
week, 52 weeks per year. Most people who read the group see only a
list of subject lines of new messages, and then pick and choose which
they will read. If you want an answer to your question, you need to
first immediately pique the interest of the people in the group who
might know the answer, by using a descriptive subject line. The
following are NOT descriptive subject lines.
* Rules question
* Newbie to group
* Question
* I had a thought...
* Character question
* Is this on topic?
* 3e question
* !!1!!Important Question!!!1!
* I need your help
* AoO question
* How does combat work?
* This group
None of those reveal anything about the topic of the question. You
need to distill out the main topic of your question and put that in
the subject line. Note, however, that many people only see the first
40 or so characters in a subject, so you also have to be concise, and
include the most important information first, especially if your
question has to do with an edition other than the current one. Subject
tags can also help.
Here are some examples.
* AoOs for reach weapons on hasted characters
* Does dispel magic bypass spell resistance?
* What is the charter for this group?
* 2E: Depowering bladesingers
* S&F: Typo in Master Samurai attack bonus progression?
These give enough information that anyone browsing a list of subject
lines will have a good idea what to expect inside your post.
When you have a descriptive subject, be sure to actually include your
question in the body of your post. It doesn't matter if the subject
line says it all, saying "The subject line says it all" or leaving
the body empty only annoys the people reading your post. Annoyed
people are far less likely to provide helpful answers and more likely
to provide flames. For most rules questions, it is also a good idea
to show that you've tried to answer it on your own; include what
resources you've looked at, provide page numbers for what you think
are relevant (or contradictory) rules, and generally show that you've
already done your homework and are genuinely confused. Otherwise,
you're more likely to get responses of "Read the Manual" or "Search
the Web" as you are helpful answers. For questions about possible
house rules, include what house rules you've tried and what the
results were, as well as a brief description of the characters in
your group.
If your question is in reply to another post, and the topic of
your question has little to do with the original subject line, you
should change the subject to reflect this shift. It is usually a good
idea to keep the original subject at the end of the subject line,
in the manner of "New Topic (was: Old Topic)", to show the provenance
of the discussion thread. If the topic shifts again, you only need
to keep the most recent previous subject; otherwise, the subject line
gets too cluttered, which tends to annoy regular readers, and annoyed
readers are less likely to provide good answers, if they even read
your post in the first place.
For a more in-depth discussion of how to write questions that are
the most likely to elicit responses, see "How to Ask Questions the
Smart Way, by Eric S. Raymond, at
<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>. Though it is
centered on computer hardware and software questions, the basic
netiquette of asking questions is thoroughly examined there. It
also includes a section on why people who respond to your question
may seem unnecessarily short-tempered or mean-spirited that is just
as applicable in a role-playing game discussion group as it is in a
computer-related discussion group.
B18: Why isn't anyone talking about Al-Qadim?
A: It is difficult for any group to discuss every conceivable topic all
the time. There are many topics which have come and gone, and, while
they may be of interest to people, simply aren't being discussed at
this point. This isn't a snub on those topics, but rather a rest from
them. If there is a topic you feel isn't discussed enough, try
bringing it up--but not in the form of the wording of this question.
You might be surprised at the number of responses you get.
B19: Would anyone like to start a campaign here on the newsgroup?
A: No. This newsgroup is intended solely for discussion of the *D&D
games, not actually playing them. Besides, there is already more
than enough traffic as it is, without having an entire live, ongoing
campaign added into the mix. In any case, the charter for this
group precludes doing this, and the vast majority of readers are
perfectly happy with this situation.
If you are interested in roleplaying through Usenet, be sure to
look into alt.dragons-inn, where that sort of thing is the entire
purpose of the newsgroup.
If you are simply looking for an on-line game, there are several
possibilities to check out, including PBEMs, MUDs, IRC, and ICQ. See
the Resources section of this FAQ, as well as several questions
elsewhere in the FAQ for more information on roleplaying via
the Internet.
B20: I missed a message; could someone please repost it?
A: Probably, but it's easier on most other people--who'd rather see
something new than a repost of the same-old same-old--if you can
search the Usenet archives before requesting (or making) a repost.
Google.com (<http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search>) has all
posts to rec.games.frp.dnd (and almost every other group in their
newsfeed) archived back to April 1995, and regularly adds all new posts
that have been sent to the group. When searching for a recent post to
rgfd, you will want to create a filter, filling in rec.games.frp.dnd
in the Forum box, as well as any other pieces of information you can
use in order to narrow down the records searched and make it more
likely that you will find the post you're looking for. Therefore, as
long as you have any web access at all, you don't need to ask for
someone to repost anything--the information is there for the finding.
A final note: Every posted version of this FAQ since its first
posting in April, 1995 is available on Google.com; so if you miss a
section, or are viewing the Web version and can't wait for the next
update to that version, the newest version is still available to you.
However, be forewarned that it often takes them a few days to load
larger messages, so you may have to wait that long after it is posted
to be able to retrieve the most recent version.
A: Because it's difficult to understand the context of a topic that way.
B21: Why are people telling me to stop writing my responses above the post
I'm responding to?
A: It also wastes bandwidth to include the entire original post for the
sake
of writing a (usually) brief comment. This isn't Jeopardy!, and
Karnak the Magnificent does not read this group--it is bad form
to make someone guess the question (and thus the context of your
comments) from your answers. Regardless of the default behavior of your
newsreader, proper Usenet etiquette is to delete everything of the
original post to which you are not directly responding (including the
.sig), mark the original text in some way (usually by prefixing each
line with ">"), include an attribution line indicating who wrote the
post you are responding to, and include your comments after the original
comments, interspersing them among the original text (with a blank line
between the old text and your text), if appropriate. An example of
this posting style:
Vecna (vecna@greyhawk.stanford.edu) wrote:
> That Strahd, he's not a nice guy. I heard he even killed his
> brother because he was in love with his brother's wife-to-be!
Yup, it's true. Turns out it was all part of a pact with the
powers of the Mists (whom you might remember from their important
role in the movie The Fog), which caused him to become a vampire.
> I wonder what it would take to "convince" him to step down
> as the Lord of Barovia.
If I were you, I'd be more careful when saying that; the Mists
have ears...
--
Acererak
acererak@ayoh-hell.com
Making life hell for adventurers since 1979.
Some newsgroups, especially alt.* newsgroups, have elected not to follow
this general standard. That does not affect in the least the way the
standard is applied here.
B22: What's wrong with posting with MIME or in HTML?
A: Many newsreaders do not support MIME, and most do not support HTML.
Posting with MIME and/or in HTML makes your message extremely difficult
to read in a plain-text-only medium such as Usenet. MIME is more
appropriate for e-mail and for binaries newsgroups, HTML is more
appropriate for the web, and plain text is more appropriate for Usenet.
Here is what a typical MIME-encoded message looks like to a
typical reader of Usenet:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------8A600275790AF65CF5948270
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi all, I was wondering what sorts of things are discussed here.
--------------8A600275790AF65CF5948270
Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
name="aardy.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: Card for Aardy
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="aardy.vcf"
begin:vcard
n:;Aardy
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
adr:;;;;;;
version:2.1
email;internet:aardy@foo.com
x-mozilla-cpt:;15152
fn:Aardy
end:vcard
--------------8A600275790AF65CF5948270--
Here is what a typical HTML message looks like to a typical reader of
Usenet (>, <, and & changed to }, {, and # to be sure that no web-based
newsreaders try to render this as an HTML document):
{!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"}
{html}
#nbsp;
{p}LuckyDuck wrote:
{blockquote TYPE=CITE}A short tale of a bountiful treasure,
discovered by one lucky adventurer...
{p}Last week, I went into my local gaming store.#nbsp; I was
checking through
{br}their RPG section and found a bunch of used 1st edition AD#amp;D
modules,
{br}including Tomb of Horrors ($5 each) as well as a mint
condition copy of the
{br}D#amp;D Rules Cyclopedia (for $10).
{br}---------------------------------------------------------------
{br}LuckyDuck
{br}Netscape Forever!
{br}---------------------------------------------------------------
{/blockquote}
Well, at least you have some shops where they sell d#amp;d books.
Not even the novels show up around here... I would kill even
for a 10-year-old used book..
{br}#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
Green-Eyed Monster
{p}--
{p}"What-- me worry?"
{p}"Don't steal. The government doesn't like
{br}#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;
#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;#nbsp;competition."
{br}#nbsp;{/html}
Either is bad enough by itself, but when the two are combined, it is
virtually guaranteed that most people will either completely ignore your
message and go on to the next--as it's too much bother to try to find
and read the post with all that extra stuff all over--or ignore the
topic of your post and complain about the format. Since Usenet is
all about effective communication, this is not something you want to
do. If your newsreader defaults to using HTML (this includes most
Microsoft newsreaders and most web browsers with built-in newsreading
capabilities), you will want to find a way to turn off this "feature."
If your newsreader defaults to using MIME (this includes most
newsreaders which use HTML or have "V-Card" capability), you will want
to find a way to turn off this "feature" as well.
***End Part 2***
--
Aardy R. DeVarque
Feudalism: Serf & Turf
Rec.games.frp.dnd FAQ: http://users.rcn.com/aardy/faq/rgfdfaq.html
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