Neonchameleon
Legend
Heh, those are the things why we also like WFRP1e and DCC RPG critical charts. I am planning to run RoleMaster someday by the way. I have yet to find out which ruleset to use and how to make my life easier. I'm pretty sure it's not as slow as horrible as many depict it, but unfortunately most opinions I can find about the game are either by those who never played it and just criticise, or veterans with 20 years of experience that know the charts by heart.
As someone in that category (I've run both Rolemaster and MERP), it's an interesting system and the lighter version I had at the time (MERP) was far the better. Although totally unsuited for Middle Earth; a critical of "Skeleton liquified, use a spatula" may be darkly funny, but it isn't Tolkein.
Rolemaster is, as a lot of games are, two pretty good systems joined by a weld down the middle and that really would be better apart. As [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] says, the character creation is long and complex and wants lovingly detailed characters. The combat system is entertaining, swingy, bloody, and both lethal and crippling. It has a problem simmilar to 4e in that the combat is entertaining enough people want to use it (although for very different reasons) - but use it too much and the game chokes because of the high lethality and time taken for character creation.
I also haven't revisited the RM combat system because I suspect it will have been visited by the suck fairy thanks to computers. The "Make a basic attack and get an interesting and graphic result" approach is something that is very easily done by a CRPG or MMO that can actually illustrate what's happening.
MERP IMO works much better as an RPG because it cuts both parts down so it's easier to hold them together. But for all I'm downplaying it, I had a fair amount of fun with both parts of the system. The non-combat is a solid late-80s simulationist structure and the combat is entertaining.
And now I come to think of it I almost want a Toon-style hack of the RM combat system. One where you can go wild - but the PCs will survive. And in which you can have "Falling anvil" as its own weapon group (also containing grand pianos) with their own critical effects.