-Which edition do you use?
-Do you regularly use any particular RM Companions or similar?
-How do you arrange the actual play? Using calculator? Any systems for keeping track of tables?
I really like Rolemaster Standard System and think the extra book keeping is worth it.
I usually make people's first character. There's just too much information to assimilate. I've been working on a character generator for a long time but I probably won't ever finish it.
The players should have a copy of their attack tables and spell lists. A pdf of Arms Law and Spell Law is a must. One day I will convert all the Armory attack tables to the old format. They're easier to read but lose just so much of what is good about Arms Law, like the first critical from an edged weapon against armour being a krush and alternating slash and piercing criticals for weapons that can do both.
Combat will only run fast and smoothly if you use the turn sequence properly. It is absolutely essential that you declare parries before rolling initiative or it's too easy to full parry when you lose the initiative and full attack when you win it. Of course if the enemy does this as well, it cancels out quite a bit but slows combat considerably. So you declare actions, roll initiative, and everyone rolls their attack and looks up the results at the same time. Doing it sequentially in initiative order will slow combat down a lot. Then you apply the results in order of initiative and may have to modify some of the results due to criticals. But the slowest thing you can do is have the GM do all the work and make the players wait while they work out each attack in turn. Smart GMs will limit the variety of attacks available to the monsters so they don't have to flip pages all the time.
It is really easy to track experience. Don't use the sheet provided! Just have a heading for each player on your scratch sheet and track it along with damage to their enemies. Damage and criticals to shared foes can be noted with arrows on the page. You just note spell levels and skill use under the player's heading. It's messy but not as messy as another sheet of paper on a cluttered table.
Rolemaster works best with experienced players who have experience with D&D and have actually read the rules. If your players want to be powerful, start them at tenth level. It's easy, just assume maximum stats and development points. Buy one level of skills, and multiply the ranks by ten. Don't retotal the bonuses each level like one fool I know did, there's no need.
Nice summary! What's the Armory?
My own approach last I ran RM1/2 (years ago) was to brutally simplify things, but NOT simplify the charts and tables (as I have heard some do). The nickname "chartmaster" can be seen as something to embrace. So I used RM 1 character generator (but handling each skill as a sort of skill category, e.g. climbing was handled as general athletics, and soft leather was the only armor training necessary). But we always used the Maneuver tables and attack tables (RM2). I do have the Standard System somewhere though. Oh and we never used AT 1 (except, I suggested, in Conan-like games, with barely clad barbarian heroes), and I think we started a lvl 5 or so.
The Armory is a collection of 50 more attack tables for weapons that were generally treated as modifications to other tables. For instance a "Long Kynac" is just a +10 dagger in Arms Law. It also has the Thrown Henchperson table and Mullet (fish) I wrote a whole critical table for the Mullet which I was quite proud of but is sadly lost to the ages. "You broke his arm? Are you using a frozen fish?"
Combat will only run fast and smoothly if you use the turn sequence properly. It is absolutely essential that you declare parries before rolling initiative or it's too easy to full parry when you lose the initiative and full attack when you win it. Of course if the enemy does this as well, it cancels out quite a bit but slows combat considerably. So you declare actions, roll initiative, and everyone rolls their attack and looks up the results at the same time. Doing it sequentially in initiative order will slow combat down a lot. Then you apply the results in order of initiative and may have to modify some of the results due to criticals. But the slowest thing you can do is have the GM do all the work and make the players wait while they work out each attack in turn. Smart GMs will limit the variety of attacks available to the monsters so they don't have to flip pages all the time.
I'm going to amemd my first post to include this.
Did anyone here try this one?
(https://img.dokumen.tips/doc/image/55cf91cb550346f57b90c133/rolemaster-robin-hood.jpg)
I haven't run RM for many years.
Way back in the 90s and early 2000s I ran RM 2nd ed in person at people's places and all the players had a pretty good idea how RM worked, so while RM2 was a rules mess, especially as we used lots of the companion books, we all managed to muddle through it.
Later in the early 2000s I ran RMSS and about half the players knew vaguely how RM worked, although most of the players were DnD players I poached.
I also had the benefit of Excel spreadsheets by then and even one of the players wrote some software to manage turns etc. So that was pretty cool.
I ran those games in person too.
These days, if I could even get players, I'd probably use the new RMU and buy the Software companion for it to generate characters and manage combat etc.
the new RMU looks pretty good and easier to learn and has made what I think are good compromises and improvements.
Although I've not run it, so basing what I said on a few skim reads of the Core rules.
I expect I'd end up running it online initially at first, as I think it'd be hard to find players for it locally.
MERP
Middle Earth Role-Playing was simplified Rolemaster and really hit a sweet spot for playability for me. Sometimes Rolemaster just got too rules heavy to be enjoyable for me.
Quote from: Trond on October 01, 2023, 07:31:18 PM
Did anyone here try this one?
(https://img.dokumen.tips/doc/image/55cf91cb550346f57b90c133/rolemaster-robin-hood.jpg)
Goddamn, but I love that book. I still have my copy.
Quote from: jeff37923 on October 02, 2023, 08:21:05 PM
MERP
Middle Earth Role-Playing was simplified Rolemaster and really hit a sweet spot for playability for me. Sometimes Rolemaster just got too rules heavy to be enjoyable for me.
Yeah, I've never played straight RM, but I have a few supplements because we used them with MERP. Now, I just ordered the two new Rolemaster Unified books in part because I'm thinking of messing around with a First or Second Age high level MERP game using the various characters statted out in the MERP books, who generally get RM stats & professions. You could literally play the Fall of Gondolin or run Morgoth's combat with Fingolfin.
Quote from: Trond on September 30, 2023, 11:59:51 AMRolemaster: your favorite way to run the system?
All players have all possible attack and crit charts they may need printed out and ready to go. (Or really, back in the day, photo-copied, but same thing.) Minimum system mastery needed after your first couple of sessions to not get kicked out is to know how to split your Offensive Bonus between actual attack and parry each round. [If this sounds harsh, it is not hard at all, no connection to how complicated the rest of RM may or may not be.] GM has copies of the Standard Moving Maneuver and Standard Static Maneuver charts in front of him, looks up more specific ones only on very special occasions. If you don't like character creation, fair enough really, I'm on your side on that one, but use a spreadsheet or get the GM or another player to do it for you. Whining about it during game play sessions, or especially during combat, is the second reason to get dropped from the game.
Quote from: Trond on September 30, 2023, 11:59:51 AM
-Which edition do you use?
Back in the day, RMSS. I do see the attraction of Classic for (relative) simplicity, but I never acquired the whole the line the way I did the Standard System. Or at this distance I can finally acknowledge that MERP is really just the Rolemaster lite we always needed and that HARP tried to be, and we don't have to pretend that your Fire Bolt throwing Essence user fits into Middle Earth without any rough edges.
What I'd have liked to try is Spacemaster. I had a beat up second hand box set I got cheap at a game store, that also had a couple of random setting supplements thrown in the box that looked cool. But we only did fantasy, no Space so it never got used. I used to get the urge to run it, and while I do consider Rolemaster and Spacemaster fully playable systems and better than they're critiqued as, Traveller still manages to always beat it out for my attention nowadays.
Heh, Traveller combat with Rolemaster critical tables. Now there's a scary thought.
Quote from: David Johansen on October 07, 2023, 10:56:04 AM
Heh, Traveller combat with Rolemaster critical tables. Now there's a scary thought.
Never even thought of that. The scale is very different, much fewer "hit points" in Trav than in RM so you'd need to figure out a conversion ratio, but there probably is a way.
Totalling Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance would give you 21 hp on average, first level mage territory. :D
Here's something I have sometimes thought about: Runequest Character creation plus Rolemaster attack and crit tables.
Palladium's system is just about a perfect drop in. Even so, I like Rolemaster character creation, so much depth and texture to it. There are a lot of short cuts you could use while using RM. RM2 could easily use pre selected stats and skill packages. Essentially a pregenerated character. You could even go as far as assuming the stat bonus for profession related skills is +10 and then give +5 per level and call it done.
I run RM1/2, and generally try to avoid adding a bunch of skills from the companions (although spells, items, professions, optional/house rules are all fair game, but kind of campaign dependent). And yep, I use a calculator at the table. Players often have photocopies of their weapon tables (but not always).
If you are sharing a copy of Arms Law, learn from my errors. A binder full of Sheet protectors just don't flip through as well or fast as the bound book.
While the pdf of Arms Law and Spell Law are wonderful resources for a Rolemaster GM, they can also be used to print the weapon tables out on parchment. Yes I did and integrated the Armory but after a while I went back to the older table which is just plain better. Don't get the red cover Arms Law.
Quote from: David Johansen on October 07, 2023, 04:16:00 PM
RM2 could easily use pre selected stats and skill packages.
I had forgotten it, but they tried something like this once. Before the end ICE put out a pirate-themed box set called
Run Out the Guns! Rolemaster mechanics, but character creation was picking a nationality/background and a shipboard role and adding the stats and skills together to get your character. Approximated levels 3-4 in RM proper if I recall, so you had some competence out of the gate.
I thought at the time the whole thing was well done. Included equipment for the era, attack and crit charts, notes on sailing, and a starter adventure. Either there was no great demand for it, or it was just too little too late.
It's a shame they never got Bladelands out. It was supposed to be Run Out The Guns for fantasy.
I ran a campaign of Run Out The Guns a couple years ago and it was fun but without armour, high Quickness characters are a bit broken.
Quote from: David Johansen on October 07, 2023, 04:16:00 PM. RM2 could easily use pre selected stats and skill packages. Essentially a pregenerated character. You could even go as far as assuming the stat bonus for profession related skills is +10 and then give +5 per level and call it done.
I have to admit, I like this sort of minimalist approach. Many RPGs have a lot of detail that don't add much to the experience. In RM I always felt that the action/attack/crit tables (including the optional ones) add to the fun, but character creation could be a bit of a hassle.
Quote from: Philotomy Jurament on October 07, 2023, 06:30:02 PM
I run RM1/2, and generally try to avoid adding a bunch of skills from the companions (although spells, items, professions, optional/house rules are all fair game, but kind of campaign dependent). And yep, I use a calculator at the table. Players often have photocopies of their weapon tables (but not always).
Finally someone admitting to using a calculator! 😄 I always had my trusty HP on the table when running RM.
For the weapon tables, I remember trying having everything as a GM , but we also tried me having all the crit tables and players having their own weapon tables. Both worked, thanks to ample use of post-it stickers on the pages. It wasn't nearly as much of a hassle as people would have you believe
On the old one point at a time table you can just run your thumb up and down the attack table to do the math.
Quote from: David Johansen on October 07, 2023, 09:01:16 PM
It's a shame they never got Bladelands out. It was supposed to be Run Out The Guns for fantasy.
Well executed that could have been awesome. I never even heard of it.
Kind of a shame nobody's going that direction rather than trying to resurrect Rolemaster the way they're going about it. The catch 22is the closer they stay to legacy the more I think "yeah, but I already have the books," and the farther away you get in some random direction the more I think "yeah, but that looks like some dude's Rolemaster heartbreaker." But a fantasy Run Out The Guns! character creation system would address the largest substantial critique of Rolemaster.
Although simply addressing the critique leaves open the question of whether RM's time has passed just in market and cultural terms. Possibly it has.
Tangent - I remember wishing years ago they'd had a Rolemaster computer game in the vein of the first Baldur's Gate. Automate some of the combat processes and wander an overland map and dungeons. Would have been interesting to see if that would have gotten more people hooked on the joys of crit tables, and just possibly driven more development of faster character creation and game play at the table. But the time for that has passed as well, there's not much of a selling proposition up against modern open world computer games.
I've heard mixed things about Bladelands. There were ads in some of the later projects before the bankruptcy. From the sounds of things the magic and races are very setting specific and the setting is from the miniatures game Blade Storm that ICE produced.
Years ago, I did a 1d10 version of Rolemaster to illustrate that the system isn't actually all that complex. I got told to take it down or else. Nicely but still. When the current CEO recruited me for the revision committee he told me it was just what was needed and how great it was. Never the less there's no sign of them doing anything of the sort. I never claimed it was perfect, for one thing bleeding is ten times as bad as it is in regular RM. But I'll always be a bit resentful about it.
MERP was a great point of entry in the eighties because Lord of the Rings was so popular. I'm not sure what you'd use now. I did dearly wish they'd use Dennis L McKerrin's Mithrigar but that's just a bit of spite towards Tolkien Enterprises.
When I was on the revision committee I fought hard for training packages that were essentially pre-loaded levels so you could skip the entire skill purchasing process. It didn't get in just like everything else I advocated for. I've got a lot of negative feelings towards the revision process so I avoid commenting on the new version. It is what it is. It stands or it falls on its own merits. It seems to be selling well. I'll never run it.
Quote from: jeff37923 on October 02, 2023, 08:22:29 PM
Goddamn, but I love that book. I still have my copy.
I actually finally got a copy of it a couple years ago. Pretty good book in all ways.
To answer the question, though, I played a lot of MERP, so I guess that's my favorite way to run it. Smaller skill list, less stats, etc. We used the Arms Law crit tables, though, after I bought a giant box of RPG stuff at the thrift store on base and got a copy of the original. I had the Standard System, or whatever it's called...they one that was 3-hole punched. Not a fan whatsoever. The 2nd??? edition (literally have no idea how they name this crap...the one published in 1989 I think) is the one I've run directly as simply Rolemaster instead of a MERP version, and I think it's a pretty decent game. Honestly, I like spell lists quite a bit; they force PCs to stick with a theme.
I managed to find a hard copy of MERP online and it still has all the original content, which is nice.
The core book, some paper minis maps, a guide book etc.
MERP is a great way to pick up RM in a simple form.
So is RM FRP too though.