The Ice Cave F.A.Q., vers 1.0

. What is the Ice Cave?

The Ice Cave is an independent site supporting the Delta Green setting for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.

When originally set, the Cave was simply an archive of digested, indexed past discussion threads from the Delta Green Mailing List.

Subsequently, the site grew to include various utilities and services for Delta Green keepers and players.

The main purpose of the Ice Cave is still to provide Keepers and Players of CoC/DG with informations, options, opinions data and sundry oddities, by showcasing the the huge potential of the DG List.

. Why is it called Ice Cave?

Sounded cool.

. Who's in Charge?

The Ice Cave is mantained by Davide Mana <doctor.dee@iol.it>, that volunteered to do so in the summer of '98, thinking it was a pretty good way to learn HTML.

He suffers from insomnia (possibly unrelated) and is not - rumors notwithstanding - a Yithian host.

. How does it work?

Discussions over a variety of topics by gifted individuals make up the bulk of the traffic on the Delta Green Mailing List.

Topics deemed worthy of the general interest are identified as soon as they die down, and in the following days/weeks, the single messages are digested, shortening headers and (sometimes) quotations, and deleting e-mail addresses of contributors (for the sake of privacy) and spoiler spaces.

An HTML document containing the resulting test is then composed, adding an index, turning quoted URLs into links.

. What about Humorous posts?

If they are relevant (or simply related) to a discussion they are included, and sometimes not indexed.

. What about "Me too" mails?

Mails that do not add any new data or opinion on a given subject are not included in the digested version.

. Who decides what's archived, and when?

Davide, as the resident curator of the collection, is the sole responsible for the choice, compilation and uploading of new documents.

Suggestions or specific requests from DG Listmembers or visitors are the primary selection guideline, subordinated only to the curator's whims.

. How often is the Cave updated?

Barring accidents, the Cave is updated monthly.

Some areas, such as the Slang Dictionary and the Freebies Page, are sometimes updated separately.

All updates are announced on the Delta Green Mailing List, listmembers stoically enduring the waste of bandwidth.

. What about the Copyright on this stuff?

To paraphrase a classic....

The Ice Cave contents are published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership.

The intellectual property known as Delta Green is TM and ©the Delta Green  Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this archive are © of the respective authors, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

. How do I get my stuff published in the Cave?

Join the DG List (instructions are found on the Ice Cave main page), post your ideas, discuss them with the other guys, be patient.

. How do I find .....?

There's a search engine on the main page.

There's a page describing contents by wing you can reach through the main page.

Important/Often Used Features are marked by a bright yellow colour button/form.

. Why are players asked to keep off?

They are not.

They are invited to "exercise some restraint" in order not to spoil their own games and enrage their Keepers.

The Ice Cave contains spoilers, like in cartloads, for novels, movies, RPG material and what else, and there are no big warning signs or other such devices.

Visitors are warned as they enter.

That's it.

Isn't this site rather bleak?

It is.

But we are relying on contents, not flash.

We're keeping graphics and thinghies to a tasteful minimum to ensure minimal connection times.

And in case you are using a textual browser, or one that does not like Javas and stuff, you still are not missing anything essential.

. What's this policy about Listmembers as NPC all about?

New listmembers are invited to introduce themselves by submitting an NPC sheet based on their real self; the cave archive is here so that Keepers can use these special NPCs to season their games.

It works like this

You send me <doctor.dee@iol.it> (or the list) a character sheet for yourself, to be used as an NPC by some evil keeper somewhere. It should contain

But the main point is - make it Realistic.
We all know, of course, that we DG List members are all perfect 18-STATers with no less than 85% in all skills, legions of women (or men, or gerbils) worshipping our shadows and huge nasty depots of ultratech gizmos and assorted stuff, but for the sake of sanity (the SAN of those puny mortals out there, of course), let's try and pass ourselves off as humans, ok?

This also means that apart from a few lucky (?) individuals [mr Daniel Harms and H. P. Lovecraft among them], no one should have a stratospheric Cthulhu Mythos rating.

We can put the MiB in the cathegory, but all others are invited to stick to the rules and make it no more than.... what was it, 25%? Anyway, you get the idea.

You can check out some of the list regulars making a display of themselves at

http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/dgmlnpc.htm

This is more or less it.

New submissions will be added to the Ice Cave on the next update.

. How comes H.P. Lovecraft is listed as a DGML member?

Beats me.

But we would not be here had it not been for him. And he's very much present on the list - he is quoted daily.

Does not post much, tho'.

But he's probably a lurker.

Is the Delta Green WebRing a part of the Ice Cave?

No. It's the other way around.

The Ice Cave simply hosts the DG WebRing home site.

. I don't play Call or Cthulhu. What am I doing here?

You tell me.

But there's a section dedicated to adapting Delta Green to other games and systems, if you like. And you can peruse our fiction collection.

. What's this thing with naked molerats?

Don't ask.

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