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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 3748548" data-attributes="member: 20741">Yes, there is a Rolemaster Express - wihch is essentially the role previously filled by MERP prior to 1998 and the loss of the Middle Earth license.And there is HARP, which is an evolution of RM - so much so that it's not really RM anymore - but it certainly shares elements of it.I'm leaning to a house rule Rolemaster 2e though. Essentially, it will be  Rolemaster 3.5, if you will.Essentially, the entire flow of a combat round in 3.5 is maintained and plopped holus bolus into RM. Full round action, std action, initiative, etc - take it out of D20 3.5 and transplant it in in more or less straight into RM2 in unmodified form.  We retain the concept of Class I, II and III spells in RM as well - so that means higher level spells take longer to cast - or you risk an Extraordinary Spell Failure if you are casting the spell quicker.This, in effect, slow down the rate at which spell are cast in the game initially - or makes rapid casting in one round a more dangerous affair. (see the role tac cheats play noted above)What would persist from RM2 is the essential combat resolution mechanic, criticals, spells and monster and character stats.Add in the tactical cheat concepts to allow the players to re-rolls of their own rolls - or my rolls that directly affect them in combat to take the edge off the lethality a wee bit - and proceed from there.This probably sounds a little bizarre to a lot of the usual "I hate 3.5!!!" threads that appear here. Most of those complaints arise out of AOOs and perceived complexity in the game. But as noted in my initial rant, that's not my complaint at all.My complaint is mainly with the power structure, lack of consequences and the central role that magic items play in 3.5. Magic items as the meat of a character, as opposed to the icing-on-the-cake role that items play in earlier editions of the game (and virtually any other FRPG system). Combat tracking as a result of stuns, bleeding and negatives inflicted in combat or as a result of hit point status is more fiddly in RM2 combat, but it's all good if you are used to it and the players are too and assist in note taking during play. Fact is, we play that way already in 3.5, actually. It's an old habit developed during our RM days and we never stopped as we played D&D 3.xx. Our combats pretty much fly by under RM rules in contrast to the experience of most groups.I don't anticipate that much of a change from current combat flow.  A little more drag sure - but the emphasis is on far more spectacular results as they happen.The one main impact of Rolemaster combat is that numbers of foes matter far more in RM than they do in D&D 3.5. Upping the power level of a monster in an encounter is not nearly as important as upping the number of the foes attacking. That's the nature of the critical system.  Sheer numbers of foes matter a helluva lot more.</blockquote>

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