251 lines
11 KiB
Groff
251 lines
11 KiB
Groff
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[LTUAE - the game, Part 3]
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Secondary Goals.
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The secondary goal of LTUAE is to acquire net.friends and
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charisma. The person with the most net.friends (when Gerry
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finally goes mad) wins the game. In the case of two or more
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players getting the same number of net.friends, the person with
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the least number of net enemies will win. Similarly, if multiple
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players have the same highest number of net.friends, and the same
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number of net.enemies, then the person with the most charisma
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will win.
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If you lose too much charisma, you lose net.friends, and gain
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net.enemies. A person with no charisma is unlikely to have any
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net friends.
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You can also battle against other players rather than just 'The
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Gerry' - each person has their own 'sanity points' [100 each],
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and they are rendered insane/impotent if their sanity count
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recedes to between 3 and 11 points [randomly chosen]. A person
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who has lost more than 75% of their sanity points will no longer
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be allowed to use addons/powerups. The rules are similar to
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those governing 'The Gerry', except that the 'I'm leaving!' rule
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will immediately and permenantly wipe out a player - who will be
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confined to his or her room until the game is complete. Players
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who wipe out other players may collect all unused bonus points,
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but any addons the defeated player had, are not available to the
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victor.
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Bonus Points, Addons, Power-ups and Saving Throws.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The game is made somewhat easier with the addons and power-ups.
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Unfortunately, as a raw newbie, you don't have any addons
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available, and you must amass bonus points in order to purchase
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them from the regional Fidonet coordinator.
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Bonus points can cascade around your ears, or be as elusive as
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unicorns. The way you play the game *will* affect how well you
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fare in collecting bonus points.
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Bonus points can be cashed in for addons at the start of a day's
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mail session. Addons do not appear until the next mail session,
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when they are available for immediate use.
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Current addons and power-ups include
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Item I Cost I Use
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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V32Bis Card - 10 bp Increase your baud rate to 9600!
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Get an early start on getting
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those messages out. Minutes can
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make the difference between a
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coup and a complete flop!
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Bamboozler - 5bp Enables you to infect up to five
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messages in any one day with
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'Bamboozle magic'. Each
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bamboozled message will reduce,
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or rend inappropriate, a response
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from any computer simulation.
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Doesn't affect 'The Handlinger'
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or 'The Rimmer'.
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TNT
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Registration 20bp With the registered version of
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TNT, you're able to quote better,
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and your individual message
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length limit it upped to
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12Kbytes. Your session limit is
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also increased so that you can
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call twice per day! This
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power-up lasts the entire game
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(Unless pinched by by The Dac)
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UUENCODER/ 3bp Most useful for sending encoded files
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UUDECODER to net.friends, and similarly
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clued up froods. Stops 'The
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Heppell' dead in it's tracks.
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Has been rumoured to cause
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consternation with other
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simulants too!
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Macquarie
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Dictionary 3bp Stops pedants. Only useful for
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newbies, and actively reduces the
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number of messages that oldbies
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can post, by 10% per day.
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Friend of 10bp Allows you to get the Sysop to
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The Sysop badge. screen your messages for a single
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day, and avoids unpleasant
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confrontations - you get to
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decide which messages you won't
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get. Limited to 10 messages in
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any one day, and only has a 1/3rd
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chance of working when invoked.
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Dupechecker 10bp Excellent for when the
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MessageMonster comes to town.
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Can cut the MM down to size in a
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single day. Once used against
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the MessageMonster, it is
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rendered useless.
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Zen Mysticism 100bp Allows you to see the stats of up
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to ten players in a single mail
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session. Check out their
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net.friends, net.enemies, sanity
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points, bonus points, addons, and
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their current message stats.
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Reusable until revoked. This is
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a very useful item, and almost
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compulsory to win the game!
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Capricious 5bp Cancel someone elses message.
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Cancellation Can only be used once, and the
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message writer is informed that
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their message was destroyed.
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(But not who did it!)
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Cannot be used to destroy any of
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the standard LTUAE simulations
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messages, but can destroy
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messages addressed TO those
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simulations. Excellent value for
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money.
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Chicanery Star 5bp Send a message as another user to
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any other user! Other players
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cannot detect any difference
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between your forgery and the real
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thing - but the computer LTUAE
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simulations aren't fooled by
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these messages. Excellent for
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stirring up a dull game, or
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getting your own back after
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middling defeats in energetic
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arguments.
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6 Pack of 12bp These are phantom players who are
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Coruscating designed to be complete lamers, whom
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Newbies! you, with your inner knowledge,
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can set up, and slaughter without
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fear of retribution. Just the
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thing for building up your
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echo-presence, and working up to
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Oldbie status.
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14" Rotary 2bp A spellchecker for those times
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Debugger when only 'perfect' will do.
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Single one-shot usage, definitely
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no refills.
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Sensayuma 4bp Stops 'The Rod' in his tracks.
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There is a limit to how many addons and power-ups you can have at
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any one time. This limit is essential random, but you'll know
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when the computer sez 'Tshk, too much cheating', and your least
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expensive addon/power-up is vaporised.
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Saving throws are made with a six sided die. 1-3 means failure
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to connect. A four or a five is success, and a six entitles you
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to roll again. The computer has the die [ROLLDIE.COM, in C:\],
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and each roll result will be posted echowide for all to see.
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Some notes on the MessageMonster.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Sandy can invoke the MessageMonster, in fact, she invokes it
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everyday, whether or not she wants to, and loses 30% of her
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incoming mail, and 30% of her outgoing mail. She can direct the
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MessageMonster onto any other player, including other computer
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simulations. The MessageMonster, once sicced upon your computer,
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will cause between one and ten days worth of complete havoc. You
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have no control over what the MessageMonster will do, and the
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best course of action is to lay low for a while until the Monster
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leaves. A small MSDOS utility program called 'AMISAFE.COM' is
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available to inform you if your computer is currently infected.
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WARNING, the MessageMonster can, and regularly does, infect
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multiple players at the same time! Watch out you don't pull out
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of an alliance due mainly to the antics of the unpredictable
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MessageMonster. Owning a Dupechecker will remove the
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bad old MessageMonster in a day, but that day's mail [incoming
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and outgoing] is still likely to be affected. Be prepared.
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Some notes on EmilyPostNews
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The concept is a direct-rip-off from David Brin's _Earth_. A
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group of hackers concoct a style-daemon which sends reprimanding
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messages to posters of ill-formed, or ill-meant messages. In
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LTUAE, EmilyPostNews is weiled by The Val, and causes any
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affected player to lose mail posting ability for two turns.
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Acquiring Bonus Points.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Write nice fairy-floss messages to 'The Byrne' a lot, and do
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things that attract the attention of The Heitman. Notice the
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inbuilt limitation of The Byrne, and the catastrophic affects of
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overtaxing the resource - The Dac really does remove all addons,
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and that can be a crushing blow to sycophants of The Byrne.
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Get stuck into 'The Gerry', it is the one 'enemy' you know you
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can trust to do the wrong thing. Manouver, wheedle, cajole, and
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generally hassle the simulation as much as you can. Thirty
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messages from one person is far more effective than a similar
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number of messages spread out between many users. And be wary of
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having too many users attacking the Gerry at once - its attention
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seeking algorithm will start to strengthen its resolve to
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persevere.
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If you think you can counter the questions of The Handlinger,
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then you may want to challenge it.
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Those who attack Spewbabe unprovoked are just looking for
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trouble.
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Most of the simulations should begin posting within the first 14
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days of the game, excepting _The Rod_, but that isn't a great
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loss.
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It is rumoured that there is another simulated player in the
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game, called the HVG persona. It's behaviour is largely unknown,
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and you would be well advised to sit back and observe, before
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rushing into an encounter where you come off second best.
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Take special care to note the Statistician's messages; with
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judicious application, the figures will prove invaluable to your
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quest.
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TWILTUAE and The Solo perform important functions, and should not
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be taunted. Undefined results can occur if these usually benign
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simulations are attacked.
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///
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[end of LTUAE RPG Rules]
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Dac
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