Rolemaster?

[Rel]

Hey, I just picked up Powers & Perils anew earlier this year. Imagine how that feels!

Even though it is a bizarre mish mash of a system, I have this enormous love for Powers & Perils. I still call it "The best game I ever played for the money" because a friend and I each bought the box set for $5 each and played the HELL out of it for one summer.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

...there came a day, right after 3e was released and we gave it a test run while on a beach trip, that we said, "Our RM games are still fun but the pace with 3e D&D is so much faster and it now has a skill system...Let's do THAT."

One of my first reactions upon checking out 3e was "wow, they have a lot of RM ideas in here, but 'slimmed down,'" so I can definitely see that. I still see 3.x in that light, to some degree: "D&D meets RM-lite."

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Even though it is a bizarre mish mash of a system, I have this enormous love for Powers & Perils. I still call it "The best game I ever played for the money" because a friend and I each bought the box set for $5 each and played the HELL out of it for one summer.

I remember seeing the ads (probably in Dragon) and wanting to try the game, but I never did.

 

[jdrakeh]

I remember seeing the ads (probably in Dragon) and wanting to try the game, but I never did.

It's not so cheap to get into anymore, though you can occasionally find a really good deal on the core box sets if you look hard. I bought two complete core boxes (one of which was still in the original shrink wrap) from Troll & Toad for less than $20 each. When searching, I found that they averaged about $30-60 in much worse shape on eBay and at other resellers (e.g., Amazon, Noble Knight, etc).

Tracking down complete copies of Perilous Lands and The Tower of the Dead in similar 'like new' condition proved much more difficult (and much more expensive) at the time. I still want to pick up a second copy of Perilous Lands and, if I can find it, the Book of Tables (although I have the errata published therein, I'd still like the GM screen).

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of my first reactions upon checking out 3e was "wow, they have a lot of RM ideas in here, but 'slimmed down,'" so I can definitely see that. I still see 3.x in that light, to some degree: "D&D meets RM-lite."

Might have had something to do with Monte Cook being involved eh?

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Might have had something to do with Monte Cook being involved eh?

Yeah, very possible. I think the RM/MERP module, The Court of Ardor influenced Monte's Crater Ridge Mines thing in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, too. There was a fortress in The Court of Ardor that was almost exactly the same (i.e. in the "big picture" layout of the place, not details).

 

[defendi]

I write for RM too, and my Echoes of Heaven setting (finalredoubt.com) is produced under a RM license (as well as HARP, HERO, d20, and the GSL (pretty soon)). Anyway, my favorite is RMFRP, although I like RM Classic too. I like the older arms law (Either the Classic or RMSS version, the latter preferably) much better than the newest one, though. I feel the new one suffers from some math problems (and I fear I was the source of them, inadvertantly). My product Critical Matters is a 4e take on Arms Law (written with ICE's blessing, of course).

I'd suggest getting a pdf of arms law to make printing combat charts easier.

Anyway, I recommend the system whole heartedly. It would be very unusual for an RM combat I run to last as long as a comperable 4e one (the criticals can make combat fast and brutal). As for 3.x, at lower levels 3.x is a bit faster, but at higher levels RM is MUCH faster.