Re: CARPs

In (3014) Computer Aided Role Playing, Jo Jaquinta
[email removed] writes:

>       But, once again, no one has expressed any interest in it. What's
>the problem? It does half of what everyone has been asking for in this
>thread and a quarter of the remainder is under development. Why don't
>you people out there use it?

Jo, in my specific case, I don't have a use for it and I can't get it EASILY.
I have to use BITFTP and it is real picky about going overseas for things.
When we go live on Internet within the next few weeks, that will most definatly
change.  Now, I don't have a use for it because I can't get anyone here in
Louisville to play Traveller.

I think it would be more in demand if we had computers where we play.  We have
four gaming Zones per se.  At one house, we play around a ping-pong table.  The
computer is upstairs in a office.  At another, we sit on couches and chairs.
The Amiga is in the same room but not really available where we sit.  The DM
has at times used Deluxe Paint on the Amiga to do Dungeon mapping, but it
slowed things down, though it was rather useful.

At the other two locations the computer is in an office while we sit around in
the living room.  Only the one house where we use the PingPong table would
gathering the group around the computer to look things up would work well.

[email removed] (Derek Wildstar) writes:

>Rob Miracle writes ...
>>The real drawback to CARPs (Did I just create a nifty new acronym?) is the
>>portability of the hardware.  I don't know of any one with a 10 seat computer
>>lab with a multi-user computer at home for this (When I win the lottery . . .)

>Well, it depends on what kind of hardware you want to write for.  I happen to
>have three PDP-11's sitting around here (an 11/44, and 11/34, and an 11/23)
>in operable condition.  The 11/23 has 8 serial ports, and cards can

Again, this requires a dedicated facility.  The powerbill on that 11/44 must be
a killer :-)  I wish I had those facilities, but space is another issue as well
as portability.

Computers in role-playing are very useful.  I use them to generate systems,
NPCs, Cargo, and names.  I usually keep my most important characters in
electronic form.  I wrote a program that would take the sector data and
generate the Postscript subsector maps for each sector (based on works from the
TML).  I use drawing software to create maps and art work when it makes sense
to do so.  I also use a lot of hand drawn art as well.  I would love nothing
more than to have a computer handy as a GM and I would love to have the Library
data sitting there for the players.  I just can't afford a Laptop to make it
portable.

Just more random comments!

Rob