Remember these MERP/Rolemaster critical hit tables?

I remember those. There was a critical hits article in Dragon (one of many, and something that would be fun to see Mearls take a hand at in UA) that I was able to adapt to have a chance at inflicting these on AD&D characters. I don't remember the exact math, but it was rare enough to not be omnipresent, but common enough to pucker a couple sphincters.

The part that amazes me is that people look back on that crap with fondness/nostalgia. I always hated it. And I hated how un-Tolkienesque it all was in the context of MERP.

Sure, their lore/fluff was awesome. The system sucked.

Elfcrusher said:

The part that amazes me is that people look back on that crap with fondness/nostalgia. I always hated it. And I hated how un-Tolkienesque it all was in the context of MERP.

Sure, their lore/fluff was awesome. The system sucked.

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Any particular part of the system you hated most or just all of it?

A friend of mine always quoted a critical hit table where the big result was. "Foe cleaved in half. +10 on next roll. Universe is no longer a grape." No idea if these are the source but I always wondered what the universe was now that it's grapeness has been shattered.

Rolemaster had a chart labeled "Ram/Butt/Bash/Knockdown/Slug." The game was golden, just for the chart hilarity alone.

The new ICE just announced that they are planning to publish the new version of Rolemaster later this year. It has been a long beta process, but it sounds like we will have the new version -- with new critical charts -- in our hands by the end of 2019:

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=18956.0

Cherno said:

Those tables were great just for reading. I remember some quite cleary:

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I think one has also an added effect that has all watchers being unable to do anything for a few rounds because they are laughing their butts off after witnessing a particularly embarrassing performance by one attacker.

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Worst move ever, All opponents out (some number) rounds laughing, pulled groin (some penalty until muscle repair done).
Yeah, my warrior did that fumble. Though it was so embarrassing and painful for him, the foes laughing at him was enough of an edge to let the party win the combat. We also had a healer in the group, so 10 minutes later he was walking normal again.

Ever notice that on the crits (except for the special tables for the really big opponents), the higher the result, the more deadly it is, EXCEPT for results of 66, which tend to be instant kills.

Had another situation where the group still pulled through and won despite things going wrong. One of our semi-casters got nailed with something that destroyed his heart and did a massive amount of bleeding per round. This would normally be an instant kill because of the heart being trashed, but when he was created he'd actually rolled up that he had a second heart!
This was trouble for him, but he was still active. He was able to surprise the enemy because of this and we won the battle, and healed him before he ran out of hits. Of course an organ repair later, and he was good to go. Again, don't underestimate the value of having someone that can heal the rough stuff around, especially in Rolemaster.

The most extreme thing that I ever saw happen in RM though was when one of our groups was below level 10, and we encountered a guy (don't remember if he was human or elven or what) that went to attack us. We had no idea who he was, but our short guy (dwarf or some other short race) actually won initiative and threw his boomerang at him. Got an unbelievable result due to open ending. Then when it went to the crits, he also open ended multiple times. This was rather odd, but our GM used the Super Large crits for some reason. Got an instant kill, and his boomerang broke. (Don't know if that was in the crit or just the GM getting a bit of petty revenge or dramatic emphasis.) He cussed a bit, and then he started with the calculator. He then gave us each an insane amount of xp. We were floored.
Then he explained it and showed up. We had just killed one of the Dragon Lords ! So much lower level characters, first time encountering a dragon (much less a dragon lord), etc. It was flat out crazy!
Apparently we weren't supposed to be able to kill him (duh), as he was so much more powerful than we could imagine, but he was statted as an encounter, not as an event, so the GM went with the rules and adventure as written.
As a side note, that particular character retired, built himself an inn, and had the pieces of the boomerang mounted for everyone to see.

There are a lot more stories about playing and running RM, but those were some of the crazier things that came up.

Alexander Kalinowski said:

Oh, most definitely - I love all things d100! I also remember depression criticals, LOL. And my freshly inducted Rider of Rohan - who got vaporized by a random demon encounter. Grrrr! (Didn't Tolkien Enterprises help ruin ICE to get the license back in time for the movies? I seem to remember reading something to that effect in Designers & Dragons.)

For anyone who loved the games, there's a dark fantasy game in development called Against the Darkmaster which looks a bit like a revamped and modernized version of the game(s).

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Indeed! I'm one of the Against the Darkmaster authors and I remember those charts very well (actually, I might be cheating a bit, since last time I've played MERP was less than a year ago...), and they were one of the things that pushed us into making our own game.

I still remember my first character, a wose ranger, having his eye destroyed by a uruk-hai in the first round of combat. Then the halfling in the company, in that same round, managed to score an insane roll against the same uruk and disembowled him, killing him instantly.
We were coming from ad&d 2e, and just amazed that something like that could happen. We were immediately sold on the game and ended up playing it for many years, eventually switching to RM.
I could go on rambling for hours about epic stuff and funny things that happened thanks to those tables.

Hurin88 said:

The new ICE just announced that they are planning to publish the new version of Rolemaster later this year. It has been a long beta process, but it sounds like we will have the new version -- with new critical charts -- in our hands by the end of 2019:

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=18956.0

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That's great, I'm so happy to hear it! I've been waiting a long time for it. I'm definitely gonna buy it!

Hurin88 said:

The new ICE just announced that they are planning to publish the new version of Rolemaster later this year. It has been a long beta process, but it sounds like we will have the new version -- with new critical charts -- in our hands by the end of 2019:

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=18956.0

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Wasn't that announced about 5 years ago?

Olgar Shiverstone said:

Ah, Rolemaster!

There are dark rumors of a roleplaying system more complex ...

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Yup, I know that one. It's called "real life".

Somewhere buried deep in my dung... erm, basement, I must still have several cubic meters of RM stuff ... should look around for it some time ...