Re: what about TSR and GPL

[Paul Tiseo <ptiseo@mediaone.net>]

At 10:26 PM 12/22/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I believe TSR (which I didn't stand for Technical Support Rules but I

	It actually stands for Tactical & Strategic Rules. (Does it show I've
played it since first edition?) But, I do think you're right in that they
used TSR only now, with no reference to the original company started by
Gary Gygax.

>can't remember what it did stand for and it no longer "stands" for anything
>knid of like KFC and AT&T) used to allow character creation programs and
>such but they had to include a copyright notice or some such thing.  I
>don't know if it ever extended to complete computers games or not.

	They never allowed it. In fact, they were coming down hard just before
being bought out by Wizards Of The Coast on AD&D net material. Some web
sites were shut down because of them. (Mind you, they were carrying some
copyrighted AD&D stuff, but not all of them.)

>Personally I wouldn't want to use the AD&D rules too closely.  Magic
>point systems are much nicer than the memorize system.  The tables for

	Point-systems come with different problems, such as highly increased
versatility of mages. This can hamper game enjoyment (at least for the
others in the group) by making magic-using characters too powerful. I
happen to like both systems for different reasons. The challenge in a
'memorize' type system is anticipating the right spells for a given
mission. Pick the wrong spells beforehand and that can make for a short
game...

>attributes are annoying because they aren't very regular basically
>requiring the entire table rather than a formula.  The combat system
>(AC/To Hit) is similar to many games so you can probably get away with
>using it.

	Agree. Actually, for a while, I vaguely remember TSR tried to claim that
AC and Hit Points were their exclusive property. I don't know whatever
happend to that. Again, the buyout might have changed some things and I
left the game just before that...