Rolemaster?

[jdrakeh]

Snarkiness aside, it's a game that is not as much complicated as cumbersome. It tends not to run fast and smooth if many characters (PCs and NPCs together) are doing many different things. With each weapon having its own chart and much of the combat requiring numerous modifiers and/or cross referencing, it feels quite clunky and not my style at all.

This is very easy to get past if you print out copies of the respective weapon charts for the weapons that a given PC carries and let the player of that PC hold onto them and reference them during play. Granted, this was a pain prior to the advent of PDFs, but in the age of electronic books, Rolemaster has become much easier to prep for and run.

 

[TheNovaLord]

a hell yeah to that

everyone has one or two weapon sheets the need
i put everyones character info on a single A4 page in word, except spells where i print off from a pdf the sheets they need

like most games, keep the PC's entertained and they will pay attention.

Re: MERP. it isnt that much simpler...well maybe levelling up is, but when our group level up i stop Gming at 10pm or so and everyone is finished within 30 minutes.

as jd says....the electronic age has been a boon for rolemaster players.

 

[jdrakeh]

as jd says....the electronic age has been a boon for rolemaster players.

I started off with Rolemaster 1e (the black box set) and remember paying to copy and laminate all of those individual charts (in fact, I probably still have them someplace). Gah! Things are much easier now!

 

[tenkar]

Rolemaster Express is also an option:

Based upon the Rolemaster Classic rules, Rolemaster Express brings you all the excitement of Rolemaster in a small, streamlined simple to use package. Rolemaster Express brings you everything you need to begin playing Rolemaster today!


* 4 Races
* 4 Professions
* Condensed Combat System
* 30 Spell Lists (to 10th level, covering 2 realms)
* 20 Monsters
* Streamlined XP guidelines
* Streamlined Treasure Generation
* Starter Adventure
* Rolemaster Classic Compatibility Guidelines

4 bucks in PDF at PDFs : ICE Online Store

 

[JoeGKushner]

I love some of the stuff in Rolemaster.

Arcane as a magic source. It's an ancient, more primitive yet possibly more powerful... power source (as 4e would put it.)

Essence as an arcane magical field that essence users (magicians) can use to manipulate the forces of reality, but is interfered sith by wearing armor. That made a lot more sense to me than early D&D versions which shrugged it off.

Clerics that didnt' wear heavy armor!

Some awesome magic items (Pulverising Fist of Mar!) and some fantastic enemies (Black Reapers anyone? Or am I miresembering those suckers from RMCI?)

The tyrany of the dice though.

I remember an 8th level baskir (think berserker) getting his brain frozen by the cold aura of a wraith...

A 10th level fighter mage getting pinned to a wall by a spear demon...

Many a character almost bleeding out thanks to a few lucky hits...

Combats became all about ambush, maximing defenses, pitying those fools that didn't carry shields and wondering if they were going to be able to afford to put everyone back together at the end of it all.

The Shadow World setting was also epic in scope. Unless you started players off at higher levels or didn't use some of the greatest elements of the setting, like the Heralds of Night, it could be frustating to know of things like Lore Masters and the Unlife and really not be able to do much about it.

 

[TheNovaLord]

Joe

you are correct about black reapers

think you hit the nail on the head with the early shadow world modules (vog/cloudlords/iron wind)....you read them and think
"this is all very nice but i was hoping the start the party off at 1st level not 15th!!"
some of the more 'modern modules' (ie only 20 years old) corrected this by being more like a smaller campaign area with 6-8 smaller ready to run scenarios

in the campaign everyone is now 5th. the sorceror is just beginning to feel his awesomeness....sure he will turn to the dark side at some point!!

 

[JoeGKushner]

Shadow World was very cool. I remember the floating cities, the Essence Storms and all sorts of other great things that I yanked for my D&D campaigns.

And some of the intelligent magic items from RMCII were classic! Stormbringer got I think two samples, an Excalibur variant and some other noble blade stuff.

 

[kitsune9]

So, I've been chatting with a guy at work who's fairly into this system. I've also been checking out some of the rulebooks. Looks and sounds fairly interesting, like something I wouldn't mind giving a shot. However, it looks horribly complicated. Is it, or are those mostly optional rules I don't have to use?

On another note, which version is best or are they all fairly similar?

I played Rolemaster at a convention and really dig it. I have the MERP version, one of the Rolemaster editions, and HARP. Overall, I like the complexity of the system and combat can be deadly. However, the drawback is that math can get in the way and looking up charts for effects can be time-consuming, but I think with experience in playing, players can get over that hurdle, particularly players that are looking for a complex game.

Ultimately, it's a matter of taste and what you're looking for in a game at the time.

 

[TheHeretic]

Rulemaster...
Hmmm...
Not good, definitely not good.

 

[TheNovaLord]

4th edition: "Drudgery & Drags...on"

see anyone can be clever with words...