Cambridge University R|e-Playing Society Newsletter the Fourth 1993/94 As the chill winds following the Great Flood turned tail, and ran for cover, the pact of six turned once again to their clandestine meeting. Or they would have done, had they remembered to tell each other about it. The King sat there, huddled in his corner, glimpsing around. Now was that all? Yes, there were only one of them. Everybody else had resigned during the conference. Yes, that was it. He was in control fwlly now. Or was it he that had resigned. Cme to mention it, maybe that was why everyone else was missing. This was going to be easy. He could make up his own rules, and write them down very nicely, and colour in all the letters, and make sure that everybody new what they were. But, of course, nothing had really changed. Everyone would ignore them anyway. "Now, the first item on the agenda is the Varsity Match. We are going to win this year, and it is jolly inconvenient if Oxford want to turn up, so shall we just say that we have already won it. OK, no objections. That's another success to be noted in our diary. Brilliant. Thys is going so well." Knock. Thud. Splinter. The door caved in, the chair propping it shut tumbling to the floor, leaving a group of rather irate humanoids filling the frame. "It would have been nice if you had told s}eone other than the Secretary about this meeting. You know he has to be reminded 5 minutes before hand to stand any chance of being there." It was obviously not a face of intense amusement that the Apprentice wore. And to make matters worse, Ratty and the Magician were in complete agreement. They barged in, dumping piles of parchment onto the floor in a vain attempt to find somewhere to sit. "Are we ready to commence?" introduced the Magician. "Yes, Yes, Yes, Let's. Please. Come on." "Someone tell the Scribe, and we'll begin." They all looked round towards the vacant chair. No quill, no ink, no parchment (but that was nothing new), but more importantly, no Scribe. "Who lost him? We had him five minutes ago." The Apprentice looked mildly concerned, being still quite new to the way thatsuch matters were handled. "Ratty, go and find him." Ratty scuttled out through the now vacant door frame, pausing only to leave a 'Tenant Wanted' sign on it. Before the others could blink, he was back. "I... I... I've found him. Come. Quickly. Now..." Behind him lay the prone form of the Scribe. No movement. Weekly Meetings Meetings will continue to be held in the Upper Hall at Emma for the rest of term, except for the 15 February,01 March and 8 March. An alternative location will be found for these dates by the meeting before (8 February9. Alternatively ask a Committee Member or check the note at Emma on the relevant day. As I am constitutionally obliged, I must inform you, that you are encouraged to adjourn to a public place for the purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages after leaving the meetings. I guess this may be a little impractical if the game finishes after 11pm though. Video Evening This terms video evening will be held in a Christ's Z Base}ent near you, on the 12 Feb from 6-12pm. The wide and wonderful selection will consist of: Running Man, Bladerunner, plus one other (probably with 'RUN' in the title), depending on what we can beg, borrow or steal in time. Pub Meetings Once more we will be descending to wreak havoc, death and destruction upon the hapless civilisations of Catz Bar with our now notorioussitting-in-a-corner-not-drinking-too-much-while-talking-quietly-a bout-roleplaying. The meetings will be on Mon 31 Jan (hope you all enjoyed that one), Mon 7 Feb, Wed 16 Feb and Thur 3 March. Please turn up. The committee has to, and is getting mighty lonely. Part II Physics never was stimulating conversatin, but it's better than Part II Mathematics. One Off A one off evening will be held on the 8 Febvuary instead of the normal campaigns. Anyone wishing to GM for the evening please contact one of your long-suffering Committee. Players can sign up for the game of their choice on the evening. Rag Dungeon For all of you with so little to do, and no friends that may notice your absence, we are offering our annual opportunity to contribute to the science of sensory deprivation (and even raising some money for worthwhile charities). The point of this item - the Rag Dungeon will be held over the weekend of the 19/20 February. We need lots of GMs. It is mwch easier if a couple of GMs can get together and work in shifts, as 24hrs solid ad-libbing is very taxing, but the secretary is a real man, and can manage it all on his own. Players will be able to sign up in the two preceding weekly meetings, so we need to know what games YOU are planning to run before then. It is to be noted that neither the society, nor the GMs are expected to provide caffeine and food for the players. Society Phial-space The secretary has been slavishly toiling over the computernetwork, risking his sanity for the causes of the society. This is definitely worth a pay rise (or at least getting paid - Ed.). Anyway, the results are as follows. The Phoenix filespace is still intact, and living (for the moment) on CURPS@PHX. If you have a phoenix account, then you can find out more by typing TYPE CURPS.README The PWF filespace is now operational, although experimental, but all of the data on it should be accessible. It is just a case of making it user-friendly to those people who insist on using Macs that haven't been set up properly, (like every single one I have seen so far in this Unyversity). The best way, so far, to access the data is to either FTP it over to an account on your college computer room, or to view itdirectly from a combined-PWF account on the CENTRAL-PWF server, volume UX, directory \SOC\CURPS. If you understand this, then you will probably manage to figure it out yourself anyway. If anyone ventures out from the dark recess of their rooms, and tries this, let me know on > I am finding it very difficult trying to get this working when I have no idea of the bugs in the system. My machine IS set up properly, and it's NOT a Mac! Varsity Match Once again, we gripe a bit about how nobody can be bothered to organise events, and the committee have to spend all of their free time running games. This orgy of game-playing wi|l take place over the weekend (long) of 11/12/13 March, with the grand white-wash on the Saturday afternoon. Non-combatants are welcome to attend, provide and participate in the entertainments. Further details will follow. By the way, does anyone want to stand and defend our honour in this glorious event? Annual Dinner The annual dinner (fancy dress / black tie) will be held in Emmanuelle (subtle reference to the video evening) on the 26 February. At the moment we are debating over which menu we will include. My personal choice is: Starter Smoked Fish Platter Main Course Escalope of Veal Barnaise Sauce Sweet Chocolate and Hazelnut Pie Coffee & Mints but as I am writing the newsletter, that is what you are going to get. Tickets will be 25, which wi|l include either mead or wine, but we need to know your preference when you purchase your tickets. Tickets are available from Charlye Brown at society meetings. There will also be a vegetarian option, because I am not a heartless carnivorous - bastard, despite the fact that I chose veal. Society T-shirt If you want to see the design, then go and hammer on Charlie's door at some ungodly hour in the morning. If you want to be sure that he's in, then try at around 4.30 a.m. He hasn't been told about this yet, though. The last chance to order is at the pub-meet on the 7 February, as we are sending a committee member to get them printed after that. Wouldn't it be a jolly good wheeze to have them ready for the Rag Dungeon? This Weuk's Inmates at the 'Institute for the Criminally Insane' Are: President Chris Watts (Charlie Brown) W32 - Christ's Vice-President Mark Mackey (Lord of Doom) Trinity Hall Secretary Mark Brown ( * ) 6 Fen Court - Peterhouse Assistant Secretary Ian Lewis (The Legs) Rm. 1, 34 Warkworth St. - Emma Junior Treasurer Tom Williams (The Wallet) E301, Wolfson Court - Girton External Officer Ed Carter (AWOL) 37, Lingholme Close 0223-312448 * The author of this staggering literary masterpiece, and worth all the praise that you are about to offer. (I.e. sod all - Pres.)