Running my finger over a chart during a fight takes me right out of it. this is why I like ascending AC.

Quote from: Aos;514813Running my finger over a chart during a fight takes me right out of it. this is why I like ascending AC.

I had no idea there were braille charts!

Quote from: One Horse Town;514816I had no idea there were braille charts!

I'm dyslexic and I have an extreme (and sometimes amusing) right-left confusion- if my finger isn't on the number everyhting goes to shit.

Quote from: Aos;514819I'm dyslexic and I have an extreme (and sometimes amusing) right-left confusion- if my finger isn't on the number everyhting goes to shit.

My profuse apologies, mate. 'Twas but an irreverant comment.

Quote from: One Horse Town;514822My profuse apologies, mate. 'Twas but an irreverant comment.

I wasn't offended in the least.

Quote from: Aos;514793I must admit that I hate to hit charts.

Love them, personally. Infinitely superior to anything that followed them, as far as my game table is concerned.

Quote from: Benoist;514824Love them, personally. Infinitely superior to anything that followed them, as far as my game table is concerned.

If you just add crits, it's even better!

I love me some Role Master! It's so simple when you think about it. And yet, there's that weird notion out there that RM is super rules-heavy or something. I guess I just don't get it.

Quote from: Benoist;514828I love me some Role Master! It's so simple when you think about it. And yet, there's that weird notion out there that RM is super rules-heavy or something. I guess I just don't get it.

It's only rules-heavy if you've never played it.

If you can read in columns and rows, you're golden.

Cult of the collector strikes again.

BRP has an appealing and versatile simplicity to it that continues to work for me after all these years.

GURPS seems pretty solid in its core.

Quote from: Aos;514819I'm dyslexic and I have an extreme (and sometimes amusing) right-left confusion- if my finger isn't on the number everyhting goes to shit.

Me too (without the left/right thing). I use a ruler on charts.

Quote from: One Horse Town;514832It's only rules-heavy if you've never played it.

If you can read in columns and rows, you're golden.

Cult of the collector strikes again.

I think the main reason it gets the rules heavy label is the number of rolls. Havent played that much of it. But my understanding is MERP used the rolemaster engine (idpf i am wrong please let me know), and i played that a bit in the 90s. A lot of the guys called it Roll Master because of the charts. They were fun though.

Quote from: One Horse Town;514832If you can read in columns and rows, you're golden.

It's been twenty years since I played it (and I only played it briefly), but I seem to recall that the real boggart of the rules was not the complexity of any particular table but rather the sheer number of tables. For example, using mixed groups of NPCs with different weapons I would frequently end up in the "check this table, flip flip flip, check this table, flip flip flip, check this table" sequence that would completely bog down combat.

Probably more straight-forward from the player's side, since you usually just need the table for your weapon.

If memory serves, I also think the rules didn't help themselves much by frequently printing resolution sequences that weren't particularly efficient. (IOW, the rules would have been easier to use if you resolved things in a different order than the rules told you to.) But, like I say, it's been awhile.

And, of course, the actual resolution sequences were usually much longer than in D&D.

So, not terribly complex (until you started piling on the options from the Law books). But very, very cumbersome.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;514859I think the main reason it gets the rules heavy label is the number of rolls.

Ironically, Rolemaster and MERP don't demand a lot of rolls. During combat, you have to roll once to attack (no defense roll), and another time in the critical chart if there is a critical.

Quote from: Claudius;514863Ironically, Rolemaster and MERP don't demand a lot of rolls. During combat, you have to roll once to attack (no defense roll), and another time in the critical chart if there is a critical.

This may be something exagerated by memory, but I seem to recall the crit charts sometimes required additional rolls on other charts pr re rolls and that nay be the reason for the whole roll master thing. Again though, i havent played since the 90s and exageration of systems perceived flaws tend to occur over time. Tis was my experience going back to 2E. A lot of the mechanics we remembered as flawed or quircky in light of 3e, really weren't so when we sat down to play the game again.