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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5307945" data-attributes="member: 42582">I GMed Rolemaster for nearly 20 years, so I like those sorts of games too - although I think it will be a while, if ever, before I return to them in a big way.And I didn't start with them - I started with Cook/Moldvay D&D, and only played a bit of Traveller on the side - but fell in love with Rolemaster the first time I played it.I think "purist-for-system" can scratch a few different itches. It can certainly support exploration play, like Classic Traveller planet-crawling. But I've found it can also support very character-focused play, because of the richness of detail these systems tend to give you in character building (think Rolemaster, or Traveller, or Champions - even a RQ character, while perhaps a little sparse in comparison, is very rich compared to an AD&D PC). The issue I've tended to find is that purist-for-system combat mechanics, being a bit more focused on causal realism, are often pretty deadly. Which can be bad for a game focused on loving attention to the PCs.Paradoxically, though, these same detailed and deadly combat mechanics that can kill off PCs like flies also often give the PC a chance to shine and express him/herself that (in my view) isn't found in a game like AD&D. So it's too simplistic just to say that they're the bane of a character based game. And luckily, mid-to-high level Rolemaster tends to have the healing magic to work around the deadliness problem while still allowing full rein for PC self-expression! (I've never tried to solve the problem in Traveller or Runequest.)</blockquote>

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