***Begin Part 2*** General2/RGFD 10: What do those weird abbreviations mean? A: A guide to the most common abbreviations found on rec.games.frp.dnd: :-) Smiley (tilt your heat 90 degrees), with endless variations *D&D Any version of the D&D game AD&D, ADnD Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ADnD-L AD&D discussion mailing list AFAIK As Far As I Know BoA Book of Artifacts BTW By The Way CB* Complete Book of series Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes & Halflings, Humanoids C*HB Complete Handbook series Fighter's, Priest's, Thief's, Wizard's, Psionics, Ranger's, Bard's, Druid's, Paladin's, Barbarian's, Necromancer's D&D, DnD Dungeons & Dragons, sometimes Deities & Demigods DL DragonLance DMG Dungeon Masters Guide DMG1 Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st edition DMG2 Dungeon Masters Guide, 2nd edition DS Dark Sun FR Forgotten Realms GAMA GAme Manufacturers Association GH Greyhawk GM Game Master IMC In My Campaign IMHO In My Humble/Honest Opinion (but rarely actually is) IOW In Other Words L&L Legends & Lore MC Monstrous Compendium (usually followed by the appendix number) MM Monster Manual/Monstrous Manual MMII Monster Manual II MoP Maunal of the Planes MPGN ftp.mpgn.com, the Multi-Player Gaming Network site OA Oriental Adventures OD&D Old/Original D&D, as opposed to Advanced D&D PBeM Play By E-Mail PH Player's Handbook, any edition PH1 Player's Handbook, 1st edition PH2 Player's Handbook, 2nd edition rgfd Rec.games.frp.dnd rgf.* Rec.games.frp.* hierarchy RL Ravenloft ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing RPGA Role-Playing Gamers' Association RTFM Read The F***ing Manual! ToM Tome of Magic UA Unearthed Arcana YMMV Your Mileage May Vary 11: 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. 12: 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 two simple, relatively painless methods to solve this. First, you can set the distribution of your message so that it is only read by a certain geographic area, for example, only North America (na), the United States (us), or Texas (tx). Some large metropolitan areas also have their own codes. If you are unsure how to set the distribution on your newsreader, or cannot figure out the best code to use, ask the sysop for your Internet server. They're paid to tell you how to do such things. I am not. The second method is to post the request on the newsgroup rec.games. frp.announce. The moderator of that group has indicated 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 annoucements of this nature, thus leaving more space on this group for discussions pertaining more to the game itself. 13: "...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. 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," regularaly posted to the newsgroups news.questions.newusers and news.answers. 'Nuff said. 14: "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 pratical 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. 15: While we're on the subject, is *D&D really the tool of the Devil? A: No. See GAMA's response to this, if you can find it. If you can't find it, then see the Internet posters' response to this in the rec.games.frp.* FAQ. Next question? 16: What other newsgroups are out there for roleplaying junkies like me? A: There are several groups dedicated to roleplaying games. Most notable is the entire rec.games.frp.* hierarchy, including: rec.games.frp.advocacy Which game system is the best? rec.games.frp.announce Con announcements, gamers wanted rec.games.frp.archives Fiction, programs, house rules, etc. rec.games.frp.dnd Discussion of *D&D rec.games.frp.marketplace Buy/sell (used) gaming supplies rec.games.frp.misc Discussion of all other RPG's If you have something to say which doesn't really fit in rgfd, but seems to fit more in one of the others, please post it there. This is especially true for auctions, sales, and items wanted posts, which belong in rec.games.frp.marketplace, and entire combat or magic systems, which belong in r.g.f.archives. 17: Are there any FTP sites for *D&D? A: There is one official FTP site for the distribution of AD&D products, licensed by TSR. It is located at ftp.mpgn.com. Some of you may remember the old greyhawk.stanford.edu archive, which cut off all anonymous access early in 1994. Rob Miracle at MPGN took it upon himself to save as much of the greyhawk archive as possible, and that is what is at MPGN. Some of the greyhawk files infringed on TSR's copyright, and were removed (i.e. scans of Dragon articles), and others have since been removed at the request of individual authors who disagree with the policy MPGN installed as part of the license agreement with TSR. MPGN is greatly limited at this time in the number of simultaneous anonymous logins it may have; six during normal business hours (EST), and three during the evening and nighttime hours. If at first you can't get in, try, try again. If you want to see what files are in the MPGN archive, but don't wish to tie up logins and prevent people who wish to actually up- or download files from doing so, there is a WWW site which has the entire AD&D directory, and a few of the files available for your perusal, at . 18: How about WWW sites? A: There are several WWW sites dedicated to roleplaying games, and specifically AD&D. www.acs.uiuc.edu/adnd/ Mike Duff's site, the prime *D&D WWW site. www.rpi.iastate.edu/~toigom/copyright/index.html Mark Toigo's site dedicated to the controversy surrounding TSR's current policy regarding copyright and the Internet web.cs.ualberta.ca/~wade/HyperDnd/ Wade's Roleplaying Games site; includes a full directory of ftp.mpgn.edu, and a few files from there as well. 19: Are there any other *D&D-related resources on the Internet? A: ADND-L, the AD&D duscussion mailing list, which is similar to this newsgroup in size; the difference is that all messages are sent directly to your mailbox, instead of being stored on a remote server as Usenet is. To subscribe to ADnD-L, send an e-mail to LISTSERV@GITVM1.GATECH.EDU or [LISTSERV@UTARV1.PUCC.BITNET] <--***Anyone know the correct address?*** with the message SUBSCRIBE ADND-L , where the name is either your own, or a pseudonym. The difference between the two addresses is that the Bitnet address allows the digest format (where you get everything in one large message), whereas the Georgia Tech address does not. A major difference between ADND-L and rgfd is that contributors are limited by common practice to two posts per day on ADND-L, both in order to cut down on the amount of mail received and to keep enough space on the listserver archives to maintain a six month backup. Anyone can look up and retrieve recent articles. To this end, many of those people who have a proclivity towards longer posts put a table of contents at the top of each message. If you are looking for more generalized information, or just information which is not *D&D-specific, a good place to check is the rec.games.frp.* FAQ, posted regularly on rec.games.frp.misc and archived at both ftp.rtfm.edu and MPGN. The only other resource commonly available on the Internet which has not already been discussed is the AD&D chat area on IRC, namely #AD&D. There, you can have real-time conversations with other gaming enthusiasts about live, the universe, and roleplaying. There are also occasionally gaming sessions run on IRC, which are advertised on #AD&D; if you're interested, look there first. However, if you have an America Online account, you may visit the newly-opened TSR area and enjoy spending time online with TSR employees. If you're not on AOL (which is the vast majority of people here), tough. GEnie, Compuserve, and Delphi also have large discussion areas dedicated to AD&D. Check around in the Games Special Interest Groups and you'll find them. However, if you do not have an account with one of these companies, you're out of luck; there is no way to get there from the rest of the net. 20: Is there really an "AD&D Guide to Sex?" A: Yes. It was last revised in October, 1994, to remove any specific references to the *D&D game, and was archived at the old agena site. Unfortunately, the very next week, agena bowed to pressure from TSR and deleted its entire AD_D directory without warning. At this time, no version of the Guide to Sex, nor any of the half-dozen other Guides that were archived at agena can be found at any FTP site, due mainly to questions of copyright. However, several versions are floating around the net, and two or three times a year, someone offers to send copies to everyone who wants one. However, should this occur, please send private e-mail to the kind soul; you do not need to alert the entire world to your desires. 21: Where can I find the Net.*.Book? A: MPGN has several of the Net.Books archived, however, difficulties stemming from the disclaimer they require to be on all *D&D-related files have caused several compilers to take their existing books off of the site, and not submit new ones at all. Some examples of Net.Books are: Net.Libram of Wild Magic Great.Net.Spellbook Great.Net.Prayerbook Net.Riddles.Book Net.Book of Classes ***End Part 2***