Cirex
First Post
Hold on, let me check the charts for it.
Aha...
Hmmm...
I see...page 13515...
Oh...
Yes, go ahead.
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Tell Me about Rolemaster
- Thread starter Rechan
- Start date
Hold on, let me check the charts for it.
Aha...
Hmmm...
I see...page 13515...
Oh...
Yes, go ahead.
Thunderfoot
Hero
You forgot to roll success....
Jack of Shadows
First Post
Well,
Rolemaster (RMSS specifically) was my fantasy rpg of choice prior to 3.0. It can be a great system is you have someone at the table who can teach you how to play. With out someone to teach you it is perhaps the most arcane, confusing, and tedious system to learn. Once you've learned it you can whip through most of the mechanics really easily. The game can be a real blast to play, my group certainly enjoyed it.
However, if you want to keep your sanity have copies of the weapon, spell, and relavent crit tables copied out for each player. Otherwise you will spend a lot of time at the table flipping pages. This alone can make the difference between hating the game and loving it. Trust me on this.
JoS
P.S. Warn players not to push their luck. I once turned my character and a 60-ft radius around him into a blackened field of glass trying to get off a spell I shouldn't have tried.
Rolemaster (RMSS specifically) was my fantasy rpg of choice prior to 3.0. It can be a great system is you have someone at the table who can teach you how to play. With out someone to teach you it is perhaps the most arcane, confusing, and tedious system to learn. Once you've learned it you can whip through most of the mechanics really easily. The game can be a real blast to play, my group certainly enjoyed it.
However, if you want to keep your sanity have copies of the weapon, spell, and relavent crit tables copied out for each player. Otherwise you will spend a lot of time at the table flipping pages. This alone can make the difference between hating the game and loving it. Trust me on this.
JoS
P.S. Warn players not to push their luck. I once turned my character and a 60-ft radius around him into a blackened field of glass trying to get off a spell I shouldn't have tried.
MrFilthyIke
First Post
Rather than worry about playing RM, just go into it with an open mind and play.
RM is a great game in the hands of an experienced GM. Don't let the charts fool
you, it can play fast as long as everything is participating...you know, just like in
D&D.
RM is a great game in the hands of an experienced GM. Don't let the charts fool
you, it can play fast as long as everything is participating...you know, just like in
D&D.
pawsplay
Hero
Something like GURPS or Savage Worlds can be equally "realistic" if you adjust the dial. Runequest is fairly "realistic." RM is gritty, in the same way Warhammer is gritty. Dying, maiming, descriptions of spurting blood, embarrassing self-injury, woeful spell failures.
I have run and enjoyed Rolemaster (and MERP), but I'll be honest, it's a game that sends players screaming for the hills. Character creation takes at least 45 minutes, even for someone experienced. Character advancement is relaistic, i.e. you can't pick up a smidgin of a foreign language here, a new spell list there, skill with the greatsword in your spare time, etc. Classes are basically aptitude + years of education. Someone like the Grey Mouser doesn't "multiclass," you pick a class up front that specializes in fighterly skill with a handful of light weapons, good access to thief skills, and a slight discount on open Essence lists. Trying to shift course later can be painful, even fatal.
Another thing it has going against it is sourcebook spread; if you turn all the dials on, you end with a very different game than running core. And it has more classes than could sensibly fit in one campaign, unless you run a multiversal game.
Still, it's a very well developed game with years of playtesting behind it. It has a nice blend of visceral action, fiddling with skill percentages, and flexible campaign assumptions, which is why I was attracted in the first place.
For that kind of gaming, I would definitely use GURPS these days, maybe with Warhammer FRP, Runequest, or Fantasy Hero as backup choices.
I have run and enjoyed Rolemaster (and MERP), but I'll be honest, it's a game that sends players screaming for the hills. Character creation takes at least 45 minutes, even for someone experienced. Character advancement is relaistic, i.e. you can't pick up a smidgin of a foreign language here, a new spell list there, skill with the greatsword in your spare time, etc. Classes are basically aptitude + years of education. Someone like the Grey Mouser doesn't "multiclass," you pick a class up front that specializes in fighterly skill with a handful of light weapons, good access to thief skills, and a slight discount on open Essence lists. Trying to shift course later can be painful, even fatal.
Another thing it has going against it is sourcebook spread; if you turn all the dials on, you end with a very different game than running core. And it has more classes than could sensibly fit in one campaign, unless you run a multiversal game.
Still, it's a very well developed game with years of playtesting behind it. It has a nice blend of visceral action, fiddling with skill percentages, and flexible campaign assumptions, which is why I was attracted in the first place.
For that kind of gaming, I would definitely use GURPS these days, maybe with Warhammer FRP, Runequest, or Fantasy Hero as backup choices.
One difference between RM and RQ, and which (for me) weighs in favour of RM, is that attack vs parry in RM is a choice made by the player round-by-round, based on allocation of skill points from a common pool, whereas in RQ it is simply a dice roll to attack and then an independent dice roll to parry.
To put it another way: in RM melee combat is "conflict resolution" with "stakes setting" (how much do I risk by not parrying as much) rather than simple "task resolution".
In my experience, at least, this makes RM combat very dynamic and gripping for players, in a way that RQ cannot match.
MERPS (essentially Rolemaster light) was the first RPG I played, I have played some Rolemaster as well and I think the experience is fairly similiar. I think it is a fun game as long as the GM knows what he/she is doing. It is realistic in the sense that combat is deadly. Expect a large character turn over. This can be problematic since PC- generation takes a lot of time. I think a old school approach to PCs is good in that game, that is don't get attached to a PC at chargen since he might very well die early.
Charts are mainly a big thing in combat. Non-combat skills reminds me much of 3.0- skills (not that surprising since Monte Cook has written much for Rolemaster). The d100 necessitates that someone at the table is good with counting on the fly.
Ambushes are deadly, something I experienced as a GM.
Charts are mainly a big thing in combat. Non-combat skills reminds me much of 3.0- skills (not that surprising since Monte Cook has written much for Rolemaster). The d100 necessitates that someone at the table is good with counting on the fly.
Ambushes are deadly, something I experienced as a GM
.
Aus_Snow
First Post
My experiences with RM and MERP amounted to a helluva lot of fun, and an impression of relative lethality, in both cases. I was mostly a player.
Lethality relative to a few other systems I was initially more familiar with, that is. Like certain versions of D&D, f'rex.
I can only agree wholeheartedly that the GM's understanding of the rules is crucial to the smooth running of these games. Yes, like any game, but more so than many, is what I mean. We were fortunate to have such a dedicated GM for the most part, and I think I did OK when GMing. Not as well, but not too badly.
Lethality relative to a few other systems I was initially more familiar with, that is. Like certain versions of D&D, f'rex.
I can only agree wholeheartedly that the GM's understanding of the rules is crucial to the smooth running of these games. Yes, like any game, but more so than many, is what I mean. We were fortunate to have such a dedicated GM for the most part, and I think I did OK when GMing. Not as well, but not too badly.
When I moved to Iowa back in '97 I joined a friend's RM game for several years. Typically played a Fighting Monk and did pretty well, had a lot of fun. We used Talent Law and I think were at 3rd level and character gen before they finished their Excel spreadsheet for chargen was about 4 hours, add another hour if you were a caster. Eventually it was 1.5 hrs and still one more for a caster. When we went back to RM after a long stint of 3rd Ed D&D I made a character and while I was waiting for people to finish working on their characters, I went ahead and spent a half hour and made a complete 2nd character.
Our GM had taken most of his RM books apart, had 3 holes in every page, had reinforced them and put them all in binders. It was handy b/c he actually had all the character races and classes (professions, whatever they were called) consolidated for us.
When you're working on your character, figure out a few of the skills you want to work on and see which jobs you need to pick up to give you better skill costs in those skills. Being specialized is nice sometimes.
We got the invisible turtle result, as well as the arcane failure that basically tells you that you turned a 100' radius into smoking glass. Yeah, our corruption filled caster had a boo-boo that killed 3 of us heh.
Our GM had taken most of his RM books apart, had 3 holes in every page, had reinforced them and put them all in binders. It was handy b/c he actually had all the character races and classes (professions, whatever they were called) consolidated for us.
When you're working on your character, figure out a few of the skills you want to work on and see which jobs you need to pick up to give you better skill costs in those skills. Being specialized is nice sometimes.
We got the invisible turtle result, as well as the arcane failure that basically tells you that you turned a 100' radius into smoking glass. Yeah, our corruption filled caster had a boo-boo that killed 3 of us heh.
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