The history of ICE's editions of their games confuses the hell out of me. If a person were :crazy: enough to look into Spacemaster, which edition should he focus on?

I understand there's SM1, which is probably forgettable. I don't understand the difference between SM2 and SM:P. Is it just about setting? Major rules clean-up/screw-up? Which are the essential books to get? The boxed set?

Also, there's an SM2 from '85(?) and one from '88/'92, I think. Differences?

Lastly, what was the original setting like? Ultimately, though, I'm most interested in the best rules version.

I'm a big fan of 2nd edition SpaceMaster.  The first edition was not very different mechanically as far as I can tell.  The 1st edition modules I own look fully compatible with my 2nd edition boxed set.

The original setting was an Imperial Terra sort of thing, with various noble houses involved in intrigue.  Aliens were somewhat downplayed in the core books.  The whole thing struck me as more Dune oriented than say, Traveller's 3rd Imperium.

'85 is more in line with the 1st edition.  The second edition was published in '88.  The '92 edition was the three books from the '99 boxed set bound together as one large softbound, IIRC.

I don't have any experience with the 3rd edition, "Spacemaster Privateers", but I have heard second hand that it's a totally different game.  Whether you like Privateers or SM2 would probably depend on how much you like Rolemaster-level complexity.  Spacemaster 1st and 2nd were little more than the Rolemaster engine set in outer space.

Even if you want Spacemaster 2's arguably simpler character generation, the Spacemaster Privateers Blaster Law is well worth picking up for energy weapon specific critical hit tables.

Spacemaster 2 is a better organized and thought out game.  The setting is a fairly bland imperial universe with lots of transhumans and genetically modified human subraces.  The aliens are truely alien only in the sense that I can't imagine using any of them except the Snee in a game.

Spacemaster Privateers uses the skills and categories system and training packages from Rolemaster Standard System.  It's about twice the book keeping, but personally, well worth the extra effort.  The setting is...a matter of taste...an ancient race seeded seven races across the stars for some unknown purpose, the super smart hamster / "cousin" it race reaches the stars first and in one area contacts the humans of earth first and in another the vicious psycho cat warriors.  So you get a evil cat empire that eventually starts running into a very peaceful democratic confederation of races.  The higher tech confederation wins the first war so the evil cat empire make peace for long enough to steal the technology they think they need to win and then starts a new war.  At the start of the campaign they've taked over half of the confederation, which in desperation has implemented a privateers act because a draft is still unthinkable...

A lot of people are put off by the races, but I think the author has a good point about the value of furry races.  They're easy to pick up and know how to play them.  He's one of these people who thinks any life we'll find out there will be impossibly alien, so he went with an engineered solution.  Personally the races are overspecialized in the extreme.  Don't bother twinking your character out, pick a race that's good at the career you want and you're already 99% of the way there.

The system's publication got torn in two by ICE's bankrupcy and it shows.  The books are poorly organized and at time just needed more development time.  ICE is looking at doing a reprint of the core book with the erratta and tables fixed, but how soon is anyone's guess.  Even so, there's a lot of great stuff in there.

I did races up for an alternative setting and an accelerator for character creation that gets it down to half an hour both of which appeared in The Guild Companion.

Also, HARP Space (or whatever the final title will be) should be coming out in the not-too-distant future.  I find the HARP rules much easier to work with than the Rolemaster engine and they more customizable.  So far the layout and production quality of the HARP products have been top notch.  They're currently heavily into playtest, I believe.

You can find out more in the HARP forums.  (Main website is http://harphq.com.)

Privateers is based upon the Rolemaster Standard System?  Thanks for the warning, David!

Scifi HARP! I had forgotten all about it. I like HARP, too--I consider it my entry drug to RMFRPG. I should probably wait for HARP Space, and if I can make sense of it work my way back to SM...

It's odd about the settings... they seem to have gone all out space opera, but intuitively, somehow a "hard" setting feels more appropriate for SM. No idea why I'm thinking that.

Or you can go buy the HARP SF Beta now and get a credit on the final product.

The fans got tired of waiting and pushed ICE into releasing it.

Heck I foresee it becoming the standard aproach to publishing.  Make a little on preorders / playtest, avoid messy errors in the core book.

sounds like a good business plan.  use the fan base and available technology to turn out a good final product.

Space Harp?

AAAIIEEEE!  VACUUM FLOWER-CHILDREN!