

                            REC.GAMES.FRP.DND FAQ
                                   Part 2

                                 Netiquette
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
* 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: What codes can I use for Distribution?
  B5: "...Me, too!"
  B6: Why should I play *D&D instead of Rolemaster, Torg, or some other 
      RPG?
  B7: "D&D IS EVIL & SH*T, DON'T PLAY IT."  What do I do when this gets 
      posted?
  B8: Do those "MAKE MONEY FAST" ideas really work?  
  B9: If X fought Y, who would win?
  B10: Where can I buy/sell old books, modules, & other stuff?
  B11: How do I get past a certain point in this SSI/TSR game I just 
      bought?
  B12: Some people's posts go off the right edge of the screen; is my 
      newsreader broken or something?
  B13: How creative should I get with my .signature file?
  B14: Do I have to be an elementalist mage to post a "flame" or start a 
      "flamewar"?
  B15: Where can I post this?
  B16: Why hasn't anyone responded to my posts?
  B17: Why isn't anyone talking about Al-Qadim?
  B18: Would anyone like to start a campaign here on the newsgroup?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
B1:  What is this "netiquette" thing anyway?

B1:  What is this "netiquette" thing anyway?

A:  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 about effective communication.  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 name 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 12,000+ total newsgroups which make up 
    Usenet.  It is not a listserv (although there is an AD&D listserv, and 
    some other groups are Usenet gateways for listservs), bboard, board, 
    list, SIG, or base.  It is a newsgroup, or "group" for short.

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.  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.  The moderator of that group has indicated in the past 
    that such postings are within the charter of that group, and he will 
    accept them.  Anyone looking for a group, or any groups looking for 
    players may read that group for announcements of this nature, thus 
    leaving more space on this group for discussions pertaining to the 
    game itself.
      Another good method is to use the "Campaign Locator" section of 
    Mike Duff's web page, located at <http://www.mcs.com/~duff/rpg/>
    or the a similar one <http://www3.ios.com/~etrigan/rpg.html#meet>
    run by Etrigan.  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 seem very palatable to you, then I 
    suggest you find a local-area-only newsgroup (such as a university-, 
    city-, or country-specific one) or the message board of 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.
      However, if you have your heart set on posting your request to 
    rec.games.frp.dnd, then there is an additional course of action open 
    to you, if your news reader has the capability.  This is to limit 
    the distribution of your message.  Simply set the "Distribution:" 
    line in the header of your message so that the message is only seen 
    by a certain geographic area, for example, only North America (na), 
    the United States (usa), Texas (tx), or Dallas-Ft. Worth (dfw).  If 
    you are unsure how to set the distribution on your newsreader, or 
    cannot figure out the most applicable code to use, ask the sysop for 
    your Usenet server.  They're paid to tell you how to do such things.  
    I am not.
      Some things to remember when considering whether or not to use
    the Distribution feature:

    1) Distributions don't work 100% of the time (in other words, they 
    still might end up all over the world); using one of the other above
    methods, such as posting to a local hierarchy newsgroup, if 
    available, is much more reliable.  However, this is not an excuse for 
    ignoring distributions when posting to a world-wide newsgroup!
 
    2) You may only use a distribution if you are posting from within that 
    distribution's area.  IOW, Texans cannot limit articles just to a 
    distribution of Illinois news servers.  The way around this is for you 
    to find someone inside the target distribution area who is willing to 
    post the note for you and send that person your article through 
    e-mail.

    3) Try to use the most appropriate distribution for what you are 
    trying to do.  If you are looking for a local game, use your city, 
    county, or state codes.  If you are looking for people who are 
    currently at a university but will be in your area for the summer, 
    perhaps usa (or whatever country you are in) would be most 
    appropriate.

B4:  Now that I've figured out how to use Distribution, what codes can I 
    use?

A:  As stated above, there is a code for every inhabited continent, and 
    most countries, as well as many, many move local codes, down to the 
    city level.

    The most commonly-used geographic distributions:

    world  *everywhere* [default]           midlands  Midlands, UK
    aa  Ann Arbor, MI                       milw  Milwaukee, WI
    ab  Alberta, Canada                     mn  Minnesota
    akron  Akron, OH                        mo  Missouri
    atl  Atlanta, GA                        mtl  Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    atl  Atlantic Prov's (NB, PEI, Newf.)   na  North America (Mex, Can, 
                                                USA)
    aus  Australia                          ne  New Engl. (CT, MA, ME, NH, 
                                                RI, VT)
    austin  Austin, TX                      neworleans  New Orleans, LA
    az  Arizona                             nj  New Jersey
    ba  San Francisco Bay area, CA          no  Norway
    bc  British Columbia                    ns  Nova Scotia
    belwue  Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany     ny  New York
    bergen  Bergen County, NJ               nyc  New York City, NY
    ca  California                          nz  New Zealand
    can  Canada                             oau  Orlando, FL
    ch  Switzerland                         oc  Orange County, FL
    chi  Chicago, IL                        oh  Ohio
    chico  Chico, CA                        ok  Oklahoma
    cle  Cleveland, OH                      ont  Ontario, Canada
    cmh  Columbus, OH                       or  Oregon
    co  Colorado                            ott  Ottawa, Canada
    dc  Washington, DC                      pa  Pennsylvania
    det  Detroit, MI                        pdx  Portland, OR
    dfw  Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX               pgh  Pittsburgh, PA
    dsm  Des Moines, IA                     phl  Philadelphia, PA
    ed  Edinborough, Scotland, UK           pnw  Pacific Northwest (ID, 
                                                OR,WA)
    edm  Edmonton, UK                       qc  Quebec, Canada
    es  Spain                               rg  Rio Grande Valley, NM
    fj  Japan                               ru  Russia
    fl  Florida                             sac  Sacramento, CA
    ga  Georgia                             sba  Santa Barbara, CA
    hfx  Halifax, NS, Canada                scot  Scotland, UK
    hk  Hong Kong                           sea  Seattle, WA
    houston  Houston, TX                    stgt  Stuttgart, B-W, Germany
    hsv  Huntsville, Alabama                stl  St. Louis, MO
    ia  Iowa                                su  Soviet Union
    ie  Ireland                             tba  Tampa Bay Area, FL
    il  Illinois                            tn  Tennessee
    il  Israel                              tor  Toronto, CA
    in  Indiana                             tx  Texas
    ka  Karlsruhe, Germany                  ua  Ukraine
    kc  Kansas City metro area              uk  United Kingdom
    ks  Kansas                              usa  United States of America
    kw  Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., Canada    utah  Utah
    ky  Kentucky                            va  Virginia
    la  Los Angeles County, CA              vic  Victoria, BC, Canada
    lon  London area, UK                    wa  Washington
    lou  Louisiana                          wgtn  Wellington, New Zealand
    md  Maryland                            wi  Wisconsin
    mi  Michigan                            wny  West NY (Rochester, 
                                                Buffalo)
    miami  Miami, FL                        za  South Africa
    
    And there are also usually company, university, etc. codes, as well.

    1) The distributions are cumulative, so someone in Dallas, TX will see 
    all posts with a distribution of dfw, tx, usa, na, or world, but not 
    (for example) ba, no, can, and so on.  However, a post can only have 
    one distribution area set, so if you want something read by Dallas and 
    Houston, it would be prudent to set the distribution to tx.

    2) Although many correspond to domain names, usenet hierarchies, 
    and/or postal abbreviations, not all do; it's not particularly safe to 
    assume in this case.  If you're not sure, look it up above or ask a 
    sysop!

B5:  "...Me, too!" 

A:  This is a pet peeve of mine.  A post that does nothing but quote back 
    the previous post in its entirety and adds "Me too" on the bottom 
    wastes my time, and the time of everyone else 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.

B6: 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.  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.
      For other notes on where to post certain topics, see the question
    below and the newsgroups listing and descriptions in Part 6 of this
    FAQ.

B7:  "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.  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.

B8:  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.

B9:  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 the record, even with 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.
      The one true answer is...whomever the writer/poster wants to win, 
    wins.  Alternatively, in novels which feature one of TSR's big 
    hitters, a la Driz'zt or Raistlin, all cross-world dueling is frowned 
    upon; if it actually happens, it should end in a draw so that no group 
    of fans feels that their hero got shafted.  It may seem fun to 
    speculate, but there is no sure way of determining a winner; and 
    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.
      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.  What it usually comes down to, 
    since the main four 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.

B10:  Where can I buy/sell old books, modules, & other stuff?

A:  Rec.games.frp.marketplace is dedicated to the buying and selling of
    gaming supplies 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.acm.org/~papay/tsr_prices_intro.html>; 
    it has a list of almost every D&D/AD&D item which has come up on the 
    block, with the average prices for each, compiled from up to three 
    years of data.
      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.

B11:  How do I get past a certain point in this SSI/TSR game I just 
    bought?

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, for 
    MacUsers), or rec.games.video.
      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, are also 
    represented there.
      In addition, if you have an America Online account, you can get help 
    there, but not too much in the way of hints.  The keyword is SSI.

B12: 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 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 followup markers then won't cause 
    lines to run over 80 char's as quickly.


B13: 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 do 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 .sig (otherwise known as the McQuary limit).  
    That is, if you can't fit it into four lines of text 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.
      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.

B14:  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 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 are 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, 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.  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, and just about 
    any 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.

B15:  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
      Discussion of computer programs:  alt.games.frp.dnd-utils
      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, TSR, etc.:    rec.games.frp.dnd
      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.advocacy."

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.  And sometimes 
    technical problems at one site can delay the routing of messages.  It 
    can arrive on some sites within minutes, or take days to get to those 
    same sites.  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 quickly respond to anything that is 
    said.
      In addition, it is possible that no one found anything 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, so it will seem as if they are not getting out when indeed, 
    they 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: 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.

B18: 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, and IRC.  See
    the Resources section of this FAQ, as well as several questions 
    elsewhere in the FAQ for more information on roleplaying via 
    the net.

***End Part 2***

