REC.GAMES.FRP.DND
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Short Form
Version 4.06
Compiled by Joel Hahn
Last revised 07/15/01
Introduction
Welcome to rec.games.frp.dnd! This file is the Short Form of the
Rec.Games.Frp.Dnd Frequently Asked Questions list. It is intended to be
the most important introductory information from the full FAQ, distilled
out for easy reading and comprehension. It is not intended as a
replacement for the full FAQ.
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Table of Contents
1: What is D&D?
2: What is rec.games.frp.dnd?
3: Is there anything I should read before posting to
rec.games.frp.dnd?
4: What other newsgroups are out there for role-playing junkies
like me?
5: Where can I post this?
6: Are there any gaming groups in my area?
7: What are common problem posts?
8: Some people's posts go off the right edge of the screen; is my
newsreader broken or something?
9: What is TSR's/WotC's e-mail address?
10: What do those weird abbreviations mean?
11: What do those strange terms mean?
12: Are there any WWW pages for *D&D?
13: What books do I need in order to play *D&D?
14: Is there anything else?
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1: What is D&D?
A: D&D is an abbreviation for Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy role-
playing game. It made its first public appearance in 1973, hit the
general market in 1974, and has been popular ever since. It was
later revised and split into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) and
Basic Dungeons & Dragons (BD&D). Basic Dungeons & Dragons was
later dropped from active production, and when Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons went through its most recent revamp, the "Advanced" was
dropped, leaving the game as just "Dungeons & Dragons" once again.
Dungeons & Dragons is the most widely recognized and played
role-playing game.
For the purpose of preventing confusion, I use "*D&D" as a
generic term referring to all of the forms this game has taken
over the years.
2: What is rec.games.frp.dnd?
A: Rec.games.frp.dnd is a Usenet newsgroup (not a "board" or a "list")
dedicated to discussions pertaining to AD&D, D&D, and so forth.
The original charter for the group can be found in Section 1 of the
full rec.games.frp.dnd FAQ.
3: Is there anything I should read before posting to
rec.games.frp.dnd?
A: Yes. Answers to many of the first questions which may spring to your
mind have been collected and are regularly posted for you. Many other
things which are considered faux pas--either on Usenet in general, or
in this group in particular--are listed, so you may hopefully avoid
many of the pangs of "newbiehood"; this mini-FAQ can only get you
so far. The documents to read are:
1) The complete rgfd FAQ. It is posted on the first day of each
month, and is archived (with many hyperlinks added) on the Web at
(Note that the web
version may not be updated as frequently as the posted version.)
Many of the topics only touched on here are dealt with in more detail
there. The most recent posted version is archived at
.
2) The newsgroup news.announce.newusers, specifically the following
six posts there:
* Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
* Rules for posting to Usenet
* A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
* Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
* Hints on writing style for Usenet
* What is Usenet?
These six posts are also available via FTP from rtfm.mit.edu,
in the /pub/Usenet/news.announce.newusers/ directory.
3) The newsgroup news.newusers.questions, especially the
news.newusers.questions FAQ, which can also be found on the web at
.
Many behaviors which are acceptable elsewhere on the internet are
not acceptable on Usenet, and many behaviors accepted in other
newsgroups will not be tolerated here. As a poster to this
group, it is your responsibility to learn the customs of Usenet
and of rgfd before you make your first post, which you can easily
do by reading through the files listed here, especially the full
FAQ. Also, it is a good idea to read every message in the group for
about two weeks or more before posting your first message, in order
to get a good feel for the group and what goes on here.
4: What other newsgroups are out there for role-playing junkies like
me?
A: Here are the roleplaying newsgroups that are probably of most interest.
Many more are listed in the full FAQ.
alt.fan.dragonlance Fans of Dragonlance, unite!
alt.games.adnd Like rgfd, only different
alt.games.adnd.forgotten-realms Discussion about the Realms
alt.games.frp.dnd-util Discussion of programs, etc.
rec.games.frp.advocacy Which game rules are the best/worst?
*rec.games.frp.announce Con info, gamers wanted, WWW page ads
*rec.games.frp.archives Fiction, new spells, house rules, etc.
rec.games.frp.dnd Discussion of *D&D
rec.games.frp.industry Industry issues, concerns, discussion
rec.games.frp.live-action Discussion of live-action role-playing
rec.games.frp.marketplace Buy/sell (usually used) gaming supplies
rec.games.frp.misc Discussion not covered in other groups
*rec.games.frp.moderated Discussion not covered in other groups
* = Moderated newsgroups; all posts are automatically mailed to the
moderator, who then decides which ones are of posting calibre (or
simply which are actually on-topic) and posts those.
5: 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--as this group is
designated for discussions of the game itself. The most common are
listed below; more are listed in the full FAQ. Some of the following
are dealt with in more detail in other questions here, as well as in
the full FAQ; what follows is only a thumbnail guide to posting
*D&D-related material. Please observe these guidelines, as it will
make everybody happier in the long run.
Non-text (EXE, DOC, JPEG, etc.): rec.games.frp.archives
SSI/TSR/Interplay computer games: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, or
comp.sys.mac.games.adventure
"Test--Please ignore": misc.test
Which RPG is the best or 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
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
Discussion of TSR/WotC itself: rec.games.frp.industry
For sale/auction, or Want to buy: rec.games.frp.marketplace
6: 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 fly thousands of miles every week just
to game with you.)
There is a simple, relatively painless method to solve this.
Post your request in rec.games.frp.announce. That's one of the types
of "announcements" the group is designed to hold. Think of it as the
"gamers wanted/local information" bulletin board of the
rec.games.frp.dnd gaming haven. Since that group has less total
traffic than rgfd (and greater percentage of the total traffic of that
group is made up of such posts), such requests are much easier to find
there than amid the abundance of daily posts in rec.games.frp.dnd.
If you have web access, there are several web pages dedicated to
helping gamers find other gamers in their area. Etrigan's page at
, Effie Rover's page at
, and
WotC's page at
are but three good examples.
7: What are common problem posts?
A: Here's a list of some things to generally avoid at all costs when
posting to rgfd--or any Usenet newsgroup, for that matter. (Some of
them make you look stupid or like a newbie, some of them make your
posts more difficult to read than it's worth, some of them waste
bandwidth, some of them are breaches of netiquette, and some of
them are hot-button topics which almost always lead solely to
flamewars rather than calm, rational discussions.)
For reasons not to post messages like these and, in some cases, the
correct action to take, see Section 2 of the full rgfd FAQ.
* "...Me, too!"
* "I [dis]agree."
* "I'd like a copy of that!" (use e-mail for your request)
* Any post which responds to another post, yet doesn't quote any
of the original.
* Any post which quotes the entirety of another post, then adds a
few words or just a couple lines.
* Any post which quotes another post without saying who wrote the
original post.
* Any post which quotes another post, then adds a response above
the quoted text.
* Any post that includes a V-Card, is done as HTML rather than
plain text, and/or includes MIME attachments.
* "D&D IS EVIL & SH*T, DON'T PLAY IT."
* Any responses to "D&D IS EVIL & SH*T, DON'T PLAY IT."
* "MAKE MONEY FAST" or FASTCASH.TXT
* Any responses to "MAKE MONEY FAST"
* "Who'd win if X fought Y?"
* "Test--Don't read" (post this on misc.test instead)
* Any responses to "Test--Don't read"
* "Why aren't there more homosexuals in RPG's?"
* "Medieval women were totally repressed by the patriarchy."
* "Here's a description of how the orcs I was GMing raped a PC."
* "Why isn't anyone talking about Product X?" (Start the topic
yourself)
* "How do I subscribe/unsubscribe to this group?" (It's not a
listserv, there's no unsubscribing)
* "Why hasn't anyone responded to my posts yet?"
* "I guess no one saw this so I'll repost it for the fourth
time"
* "I missed that post; can someone repost it?" (Go to the Usenet
archives at and do
a search)
8: Some people's posts go off the right edge of the screen; is my newsre$
A: Please, please, PLEASE remember to hit Return every 75 characters
or so. Many machines (especially Windows-based ones) either allow
lines longer than 80 spaces or do not wrap lines correctly. On many
newsreaders, your posts may come out looking like the question above.
On others they may come out looking like something that got shredded
and reass
embled in a random order, and thus may be as difficult to read as
these fiv
e lines; most people will skip such posts rather than try to figure
out what the poster was trying to say. A 75 space line allows for
easy reading, and followup markers then won't cause lines to run over
80 characters as quickly.
9: What is TSR's/WotC's e-mail address?
A: If you want to write to Dragon or Dungeon Magazines, the primary
addresses are:
[email protected]
[email protected]
If you want to contact the RPGA, the address is:
[email protected]
If you have a question about game rules for *D&D, the addresses to
try are:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
There are several other contact addresses, including many of the
editors in charge of the various lines; most are listed in the
full FAQ.
10: What do those weird abbreviations mean?
A: Here is a guide to the most common abbreviations and acronyms found
on rec.games.frp.dnd. The first list is those terms which are
found almost exclusively in posts to rec.games.frp dnd and/or the
entire rec.games.frp.* hierarchy. The second list is those terms
which are in general use on Usenet and the rest of the Internet.
Many more abbreviations are listed in the full FAQ.
Gaming-Related
*D&D Any version of the D&D game
AD&D, ADnD Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, any edition
AD&D1 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st edition
AD&D2 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition
AD&D2R Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, revised 2nd edition
AoO Attack of Opportunity
BD&D, BDnD Basic Dungeons & Dragons, as opposed to AD&D
D&D, DnD Dungeons & Dragons, any version except Advanced
D&D3 Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition
DMG Dungeon Masters Guide
FR Forgotten Realms
GH Greyhawk
GM Game Master
IMC In My Campaign
IYC In Your Campaign
OD&D Old/Original D&D, as opposed to AD&D or D&D3
PH Player's Handbook
rgfd Rec.games.frp.dnd
rgf.* Rec.games.frp.* hierarchy
3e Dungeons & Dragons, third edition
WotC Wizards of the Coast
General
:-) Smiley (tilt your head 90 degrees)
AFAIK As Far As I Know
BTW By The Way
FWIW For What It's Worth
IDH(T)*IFOM I Don't Have (The) In Front Of Me
IIRC If I Remember Correctly
IMHO In My Humble/Honest Opinion (but rarely actually is)
IOW In Other Words
LOL Laughing Out Loud
Ob... Obligatory reference to... (e.g. ObD&D, ObCthulhu, in a
post otherwise about something else)
REQ Request
ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RTFM Read The F***ing Manual!
SO Significant Other (i.e. date/fiance(e)/spouse)
WRT With Regard/Respect To
YMMV Your Mileage May Vary
11: What do those strange terms mean?
A: Glossary:
bandwidth: Taken from radio jargon, this refers to the amout of
information which can be transmitted over a given cable. It
usually appears as "Stop wasting bandwidth", which generally
means "Don't post unless you actually have something relevant
to the group to say."
flame: A nasty, inflamatory message. It does very little except
repeatedly insult another poster (or the recipient, if it is
sent via e-mail). Also, "to flame."
flamewar: 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. If a topic or a certain poster always gets
your shorts in a knot, learn to a) cool down completely before
posting, b) reply via e-mail instead of posting, c) use a
killfile or skip certain posts (or just learn to not respond to
certain topics or posters at all), and d) avoid "hot topics" and
other such posts that generally lead to flamewars.
killfile: A file usable in several popular newsreaders which
allows the reader to filter out disliked topics or posters. Also,
"to killfile."
lurker: someone who reads a newsgroup but does not post. Also,
"to lurk."
Monty Haul: Named after the host of _Let's Make A Deal_, this is
a style of campaigning in which the DM gives out phenomenal
amounts of treasure and magic to the PC's with very little risk
involved--usually just by opening "Door #2" instead of "Door #1"
(which has a group of angry orcs behind it).
munchkin: A player who creates min/maxed characters for the
purpose of being able to "win the game" by destroying large sections
of the countryside with every blow rather than creating a balanced
character for the purposes of role-playing. Also: "a munchkin
PC", "munchkinism."
newbie: Anyone new to Usenet or a particular newsgroup, or
someone who makes a netiquette mistake which shows that they
haven't bothered to learn the customs either of Usenet as a
whole or of this specific newsgroup. One can discover these
customs by lurking on the group for several weeks and reading
through the Usenet FAQs (listed in above and in the full FAQ).
signal-to-noise ratio: On Usenet, this is the proportion of
useful articles to useless ones. In order that the most people
might enjoy reading this group, please try to keep the signal
as high as possible and the noise as low as possible.
spoiler: This is a post which gives details about a product that
might spoil the surprise factor for people who haven't read
through it already, especially for modules, novels, and movies
(regardless of how old they are). Proper netiquette is to
include the warning "SPOILERS" in the subject line and at the
beginning of the post, then include a full page of blank lines,
and then include the information. This allows people to avoid
the details if they do not wish to have their enjoyment of the
product in question spoiled.
troll: In D&D parlance, an evil, large, green, regenerating monster
especially susceptible to fire and acid. In fishing, to drag a
baited hook through the water in order to snag a bite. On Usenet,
the latter definition was taken and applied to someone who
intentionally posts inflamatory material in order to elicit as many
flames as possible. Given that, the former definition seems
strangely appropriate as well.
12: Are there any WWW pages for *D&D?
A: There are a lot of WWW sites dedicated to role-playing games,
specifically *D&D. Here is a small sample; many, many more are
listed in Section 6 of the full FAQ, and even that list is nowhere
near exhaustive.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/main.asp?x=dnd/welcome,3
Official D&D web page
http://www.rpga.com/
The RPGA's official web page
http://www.rpgplanet.com/dnd3e/
Eric Noah's 3rd ed. previews and conversions page
http://www.effierover.com/
Effie's Concordance of the D&D books and magazines, Game Finder,
Great Wyrm listing of D&D-related web pages, and more
http://crpp0001.uqtr.uquebec.ca/www_wanderer/rpg.html
Everything you wanted to know about *D&D and more
http://dax.cs.wisc.edu/~woodelf/RPG/RPG.html
Extensive list of RPG web pages, etc.
http://www.acaeum.com/
List of (almost) everything published for *D&D, along with
descriptions and suggested prices
http://www.irony.com/
On-line dice roller programs, a virtual village, and many
random town/cave/etc. generators
http://www.webrpg.com/
WebRPG, with "gamers wanted" ads, artwork, chatrooms, files,
fun surveys, lots of links, etc.
http://www.rpg.net/
RPGnet--reviews, campaign ads, links, files, art, etc.
http://www.dragontrove.com/
Dragon Trove, an online RPG store
http://www.hitpointe.com/
The Hit Pointe, selling used and out-of-print D&D and AD&D
material.
http://www.judgesguild.com/
Judges Guild's official web page
http://www.gygax.com/
Gary Gygax's homepage
13: What books do I need in order to play *D&D?
A: Technically, as a player, you need absolutely nothing. Nada.
Zilch. A pencil, paper, and dice certainly are useful, but can
easily be borrowed; rules can be explained by the DM or more
experienced players.
However, it is usually move convenient to have a personal copy
of the rules for easy perusal in and outside of the gaming
sessions. To this end, it is advisable to get the Players
Handbook (preferrably the same edition which the group is using).
Your DM may also suggest any of several other books that could
help you to play a character in his campaign. Beyond that, it comes
down to personal preferences; nothing else is truly needed, despite
what the promotional material for the game may say.
Unlike players, a Dungeon Master generally (with some exceptions)
needs a bit more in the way of rulebooks. The minimum needed by most
people to be the DM of a satisfying *D&D game is: the Dungeon Master
Guide, the Players Handbook, and the Monster Manual. These three
references form the core of the game; everything else just adds window
dressing. Whether or not you decide to include any of that "window
dressing" is up to you, but none of it is absolutely needed to be a DM.
14: Is there anything else?
A: Most likely, yes. See the full version of the rec.games.frp.dnd FAQ
for more information about all of the above topics, as well as many
other questions and answers. It is posted to the newsgroup on the
first of each month, and is archived on the web at
If, for any reason,
you should need to contact the FAQ Keeper, he can be reached via
e-mail to .
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Disclaimer
TSR, Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, AD&D,
Dungeon Master, Dragon, Dungeon, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms,
DragonLance, Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, Mystara, Spelljammer,
Birthright, and Players Option are registered trademarks of TSR, a
subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, which is in turn a subsidiary of
Hasbro. Several other trademarked names appear throughout this work; the
author hereby states that he is using the names, including the above-
mentioned ones, in editorial fashion only and to the benefit of the
trademark owners, with no intention of infringing in any way upon the
trademarks. The author is not affiliated with nor endorsed by TSR,
Wizards of the Coast, or Hasbro.
Copyright notice, legal mumbo jumbo
This FAQ is Copyright (C) 2001 by Joel A. Hahn. All rights
reserved. It may be redistributed freely, but only in its entirety and
with attributions intact; no part of it may be changed, added, or deleted.
This means you, bub!
***End FAQ***
--
Aardy R. DeVarque
Feudalism: Serf & Turf
Rec.games.frp.dnd FAQ: http://www.enteract.com/~aardy/faq/rgfdfaq.html
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