Rolemaster: Playing with Magic

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

Having played a few sessions with the new Rolemaster playtest rules it’s probably time to tell you a little about how the new system’s magic has been working out.

Spell Law, as described in the earlier article, presents magic through three distinct yet interconnected Realms of Magic. These are the Essence, Channelling and Mentalism realms. In our campaign we have five heroes, four of whom have access to spells; the Ranger and Paladin are both of the Realm of Channelling, the Dabbler is of Essence, and the Mentalist is (unsurprisingly!) of Mentalism.

Low-Level, Low-Power… Yet Useful…

We’re playing at Level 2 right now, having taken the heroes quite quickly up from Level 1. This means that the spells available to our heroes are relatively limited in power.

In Rolemaster you can have a maximum number of Ranks in a Spell List equal to twice your current character Level. Thus, at Level 2, our heroes can potentially know each Spell List up to the 4^th Level Spell. Casting spells above your character level is harder but possible, so some of the heroes have taken advantage of this. It’s important to realise, however, that each Spell List must be developed in the same way as any other skill: by spending precious Development Points as you ascend the Levels; this increasing your Rank in each Spell List can be expensive, especially for professions like the Ranger or Paladin who pay more than, for example, the Mentalist per Rank.

So, how useful is the magic proving? In short, very useful.

There has not been a single session so far in which each spellcaster has not opted to use their Spell Lists at least once. Magic in Rolemaster augments the abilities of the heroes, so it is sometimes a minor benefit… but any benefit is precious, especially at low-level.

An example:

Lykos (the Mentalist) is absolutely dreadful in a stand-up fight: as the son of a merchant family with minimal interest in the matters martial, the character can barely manage a Short Sword with a +10 bonus. In combat, however, Lykos has been standing back and using his Mind Attack spell list (which he has 3 Ranks in).

Mind Attack includes three great spells for combat: Jolts I, Hesitation, and Minor Pain. The first of these, most commonly used by Lykos, stuns the target should they fail to resist it. This means they can’t act for a round… which allows Lykos’ compatriots to clobber them without much threat of reprisal. It might not seem like much but in a fraught and dangerous fight, Lykos can actually deliver this spell repeatedly against a lone target with little trouble, effectively neutralising them. The other spells, while more potent, deliver similar augmenting effects: Hesitation slows reactions in Initiative, and Minor Pain zaps 25% of the target’s Concussion Hits. Ouch!

Risky, but Not That Risky

The other main thing to note about magic is that it always carries the risk of a Spell Failure, and thus a roll on the Spell Failure tables to see what happens… but only rarely disrupts play in a significant way. Thus, even with riskier higher-level castings, the players are able to make an attempt and judge the risks for themselves. We’ve had one disastrous moment when the Ranger found himself reasonably harmed by a spell failure, but nothing (yet) big enough to really deter spell use. This has meant that the guys feel their spell lists are worth the investment.

No Pesky Spell Limits

Finally, it’s worthy of note to say that the artificial spell limits of old D&D, such as so many spells per day, is not a part of Spell Law. The limit is set by your Power Points total, which you can invest in to improve and which is easily managed.

Certainly, sooner or later, your hero will run out of juice and have to stop casting. This is good game design which simply forces players to manage a resource. Yet you don’t ever feel desperately short of a spell unless you’ve been utterly reckless with your casting.

Magic used when needed, wisely and with care, is a constant support to the group. So far, at least, we’ve not come close to running out of Power Points.

Verdict?

We remain positive about the new Rolemaster. There are little niggles, such as the Initiative system, which we opted to simplify using the options in the game, but on the whole it’s playing well.

As for magic… well, it’s potent in a non-flashy kind of way.

Just take it from us that a well-placed yet seemingly innocuous power can prove decisive. And, to our minds, that’s the stuff that good roleplaying is made of.

Game on!

Revised Bio:

Rolemaster: Taking a Stab

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

We’ve had two sessions playtesting the new Rolemaster so far. Each session has, quite deliberately, focused on the combat system. That’s not to say that the adventure is merely a vehicle for testing rules, because it isn’t… but that we’ve given the combat rules a pretty cool test drive. This article summarises what we’ve found out.

The new Rolemaster deserves these three words: Fast, Dangerous and Fun.

FAST

Firstly, once you get your head around the concepts that drive the combat rules, it plays pretty quickly. We were totally surprised by this.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Rolemaster is a detailed system which is modelling fantasy combat with a lot of options. It’s no abstract engine which hand-waves the details. That said, Rolemaster is relatively quick… quicker than D&D 4e, GURPS and Pathfinder.

Why is it quick? Easy: you are making a single dice roll on a table, looking it up and applying the result; if you Crit, you make a second roll. That’s actually less fiddly than the usual D&D-esque “roll to hit, roll to wound”. It’s consequently pretty slick and fast to administer.

DANGEROUS

Rolemaster combat is deadly. We’ve noticed (at low-level play) that you either get steadily chipped away at, incurring an increase in penalties to your actions from the low-level pain… or you take a Crit and really get hammered!

The players have been enjoying the fights much more than they did playing, for example, D&D 4e. The reasons are mixed but include the fact that, if you get lucky, you can smash a foe with a single Critical Hit… and get to hear the amusing epitaph that the Crit table generates. This adds laughter and detail to what, in other games, is often just a simple bit of extra maths. Rolemaster Crits add flavour… and danger!

Risky fights are more pleasurable than easy fights. One of the criticisms levelled at so many fantasy games at my table is the fact that, with modern cinematic effects, the foes really aren’t so much of a challenge. Rolemaster combat, being dangerous no matter what the foe is, ups the stakes… and thus ups the joy.

Three Ghouls against four Heroes is not much of a fight in many games. For our group of Level 1 heroes this was a major battle. Getting one character seriously injured and another hurt enough to have to seriously consider withdrawing is actually more fun than some might think.

Following their victory last session the players have decided to leave further investigation of the tomb they had discovered for a month or so… because, in Rolemaster, it takes time to heal your now three-fingered weapon hand, or your broken ribs.

FUN

Rolemaster has injected a great deal of fun back into the fight scene. As a GM who finds it hard to juggle all the details of a combat scene, I appreciate the help that the system gives me.

From asking the players to declare their intentions BEFORE they roll Initiative, through structuring their actions through the 10-second round, to the imaginative and amusing Crit results… the system provides me with plenty of hooks for describing the action.

In fact, most of the time, the players are either describing their actions in loads more detail than they used to with other games… or I am reading them a tasty description from the Crit tables.

Pace, danger and description all boost the fun for our group. Rolemaster gives you this… once you let it. That’s so much better than when we were playing D&D.

CAVEATS

It would be remiss of me not to place some caveats on my comments because, like any game, Rolemaster is not for everyone.

If you like cinematic action with high-magical powers and amazing feats then, frankly, Rolemaster is not for you. This is a more grounded system, modelling a form of “fantasy realism” (if such things can exist). Being able to regularly hit with a weapon is a pretty neat skill, you know.

If you don’t like detailed rules and don’t care what the difference between a Spear and a Short Sword is then, really, Rolemaster isn’t for you either. This system makes using a Dagger a very different experience to being able to reach the foe with a Spear at 13’ and, consequently, not be at much risk from them.

If you don’t care if wearing a Breastplate and no arm or leg armour makes a difference then, again, you don’t need to use Rolemaster. It’s great wearing Plate armour… unless the enemy strikes a Crit to your arm where you have no protection. Rolemaster has this covered, but only if you want it. If it’s easier to just call it “Armour Class” then that’s fine, as far as it goes.

If you aren’t bothered about the tactics of combat then, again, Rolemaster is probably not worth the effort. This system encourages Spear users to rank up behind another friend and poke the bladed tip from over their shoulder. It’s a game which rewards covering your buddies with your large shield, not just yourself. Rolemaster provides encouragement for spell-casters to deliver non-flashy but highly useful stunning spells to their foes.

Frankly, if you’re just happy with “roll to hit, roll to wound, subtract Hit Points” then, really, Rolemaster is too much for your needs.

SURPRISED?

We were pleasantly surprised. In truth, having wrestled a little with the paradigm-shifting first combat in session one, we found ourselves really enjoying session two.

Rolemaster seems to require an assumption-smashing change of mindset if you’ve played other fantasy RPGs. This is quite painful in some ways because change is always difficult for players. However, once the shift is made, and the players get the new regime, Rolemaster fights really take off. After just one fight we were far more comfy with the rules and had far fewer look-ups in the books.

I was surprised and, I can tell you, also relieved. My players were not entirely sure about those huge Combat Charts when they first saw them… but now we’re pretty much enjoying the easy detail that they deliver.

Game on!

Bio

UbiquitousRat is a long-time roleplayer and gamesmaster who has a history with gaming going back to 1979. In 1994 he joined Games Workshop, spending 12 years in the gaming industry at the coal-face of tabletop wargaming. In 1998 he founded the Friday Night Roleplay group at his home in suburban Nottinghamshire, UK, and ever since has been the primary GM. The group was involved in the playtest of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2^nd Edition and Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, as well as giving air to the development of 6d6 RPG. The core five players are all looking forward to the new Rolemaster and everyone is excited to be sharing

Heroic Mykenaea: Making Rolemaster Fit

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

Heroic Mykenaea was conceived just ever so slightly before we decided to sign up to the new Rolemaster public playtest. Our group had been going through a bad patch, having abandoned Dungeons & Dragons 4e and drifted through a short campaign using GURPS. What was missing was a sense of commitment to a setting, something that would allow me as a GM to commit to writing and the players to commit to turning up regularly. With this need in mind, it was a series of short steps that led us to Rolemaster.

What is Heroic Mykenaea?

Heroic Mykenaea is a swords & sorcery genre fantasy campaign loosely based on the myths and stories of Mycenaean Greece (Achaea). It is a world mixing Greek myth, magick, Olympians, Chthonic Cults, heroic action, and swords & sorcery fantasy themes.

Mykenaea was born from the suggestion of a player that we use real-world maps upon which to base our own setting. At the time we were talking about a post-Apocalyptic world and the idea was quite novel. Unable to agree on a game system, however, we began to discuss other setting ideas.

Just as I was considering using the excellent new Hackmaster rules, and actually began to plan some NPCs using those rules, the news broke about a new edition of Rolemaster. After a consultation with the group it was agreed to sign up for the playtest. The first campaign maps were drawn from a Google Maps image pulled from the web, and you can view some of the cartography that developed from the idea on the wiki.

Adapting to Rolemaster

How do you adapt a setting to fit a game before you’ve seen the rules? Truth is, you can’t.

Mykenaea was designed making decisions based loosely upon the earlier editions of Rolemaster. We knew that the core of the game, whilst being re-designed, was also seeking to remain faithful to the 35-year or so history of the system.

We decided that, while the setting would be Greek-inspired, we would not allow history to limit our vision. Consulting a summary of pre-Classical history it was apparent that what is known about the “Heroic Age”, prior to the 5^th Century BCE, is relatively limited to the stories of Homer and some sketchy archaeology. This was fertile ground for an alternate universe in which magick was mixed with the heroic mythology of Homer and others.

As GM, I made a series of decisions and then began to draft the background (available on the wiki) that I felt would get the players started. These decisions were:

To set the adventure in the period just prior to the classic Heroic Age heroes, with the first major campaign event to be the destruction of Thera.
To allow as wide a selection of magick as possible in the setting… but making it secretive and hidden.
To use as many of the Rolemaster character Professions as possible.
To emphasise an old-school and sandbox style over our usual story-driven approach.
To commit to using as few House Rules as possible.

How have we adapted so far?

We meet once a fortnight on a Friday night. We’ve had two sessions since the release of Character Law a month ago. Session One, which formed the basis for “An Evening with Rolemaster”, was all about character generation. Session Two began our campaign.

Rolemaster is a generic fantasy RPG system so it fits to any setting quite readily and is designed to be flexible. Each decision made as GM has been recorded on our Rolemaster Player’s Guide for Mykenaea. It has been really simple to adapt.

We’ve left out only one Profession from the core rules: the Monk. This is because the Eastern-inspired martial arts stereotype is too much even for my warped vision of ancient Greece to handle. That being said, it has been fun to adapt some other staples to the setting.

A good example of this adaptation has been the inclusion of the Paladin, chosen by one of the players. Here the heroic idea for the character has influenced the setting: our Paladin, being the outcast eldest son of a king, is a true Scion of Zeus; he is blessed and favoured by the King of the Olympian Gods and destined for… something cool. The Paladin is simply referred to as the Scion, conjuring images relevant to the period instead of the classic mediaeval vision.

Magick in Greece?

Erm, yes. Like I said earlier, this is a fantastical vision of Greece.

It’s loads more fun to include magick (the spelling is deliberate) than to leave it out. Partly we wanted to playtest all the Rolemaster rules… but mostly, we love magickal heroes. Looking at the party created, we only have one non-spellcasting Profession: the lone Fighter. The others are the Ranger, Scion (Paladin), Dabbler and Mentalist.

As GM, I decided to limit all the Closed Spell Lists (see the Spell Law article for details on what that means) and allow only Base and Open Lists to be chosen. This allows me to introduce Closed Lists (which tend to be the most powerful spells) later in the campaign, and on a need-to-access basis. The players like this limitation… and have to justify their inclusion of powerful spells. One player has already got me to allow a lone Closed List as part of his hero’s background.

Races and Cultures

It’s worth mentioning the Races and the Cultures too.

I’ve dropped Halflings from the setting but included something called Pel-Dimini, which are a kind of Half-Elf. Rolemaster provides Elves and Dwarves, so I absorbed those rules to fit the Dimini and the Sesklo races respectively. The system provides me with the tools to create the Pel-Dimini so I’ll be adding them to the setting at the moment I first need them.

As for Cultures, these allowed me to have different Human groups. The native rural and urban Pelasgian Men are different from the cosmopolitan Achaean Men; the Minoans are seafarers and cosmopolitan too. Even the non-Human races can fit into their homelands using the appropriate Cultures… and I’ll be making a Greek-style Slave culture as soon as I need it too, using the rules in Rolemaster to facilitate it.

Verdict?

So far, so good. It’s been really easy to adapt the new Rolemaster to my setting. In fact, the new system has inspired some decisions too… like how magick works.

During the most recent session we decided to use some of the simplified gaming options, such as the Simple Rounds optional rule (which makes combat run quicker). What is great is that Rolemaster provides such options as part of the system. This has meant that, so far, we’ve only generated one House Rule… and even that might be something that the playtest renders obsolete if the suggestion reaches the designers.

All in all, it’s been the easiest setting build I’ve ever worked on. The players seem to be getting into it too… and I’m itching to run the next session.

Ghouls, anyone?

Bio

Rolemaster: Introducing Arms Law

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

Arms Law was the third book released for the new Rolemaster public playtest, and it sits alongside Character Law and Spell Law at the core of the rules. Having had a little over 72 hours to have a look at it, here are some initial reactions.

What’s in Arms Law?

The top 10 cool features of Arms Law are:

An integrated combat system designed to model round-by-round detailed action.
Actual differences between different types of armour, and built in rules for mix-and-match pieces of armour.
Flexibility in player choices, including the ability to mould your available actions into a 10-second round. You have up to 100% of activity, and can choose exactly how you use it.
One roll to hit also delivers the damage; a second roll might be made for a “Crit”, to see what colourful additional effect your hero gains.
45 Attack Tables, each supporting a different weapon type to reflect its effectiveness.
7 additional Attack Tables for elemental attacks, such as Fire Bolt and Lightning Ball.
11 Critical Tables providing bone-crunching and exciting detail on what happens when you score a “Crit”.
Ranged and Melee Fumble rules which give similar detail for the fails.
Optional rules to streamline stuff you find too detailed for your group’s tastes.
The trademark Rolemaster choice to split your skill with weapons between attacking and parrying.

Tables? Really?

Let’s deal with the issue of tables. Yes, Rolemaster uses tables.

In the oldest fantasy RPG, and most derivatives, to make an attack you do the following: roll to hit (using your skill), roll to wound (using various polyhedral dice), apply damage to the Hit Points of the target. At zero Hit Points your target falls unconscious and dies. Critical hits, those that get an exceptional result, simply do more damage.

In Rolemaster, using a simple table to make an attack you do the following: roll to hit, looking up your result in cross-reference to the armour type of the opponent. The result gives you the damage done, plus (sometimes) a Critical result. If you “Crit”, you make a second quick roll on the Critical Table to see what colourful and dangerous additional effect you achieve.

Here’s an example: Goriel swings his longsword at an Orc wearing chain armour. The player rolls d100 minus the Orc’s defensive bonus plus Goriel’s offensive bonus. The total is 139, which means that Goriel scores 12 Hits plus a B-type Slashing Critical. Rolling on the Crit table, a simple d100 roll, Goriel discovers that (on 85) he strikes the Orc’s head, cutting open its forehead and causing serious bleeding… which forces the Orc to shake his head to clear his eyes and lose 20% of his actions.

To my mind, this is way more interesting and engaging than, “I rolled a 17, I hit. I scored 7 points of damage”.

Weapons and Armour

In Rolemaster each weapon and your choice of armour actually makes a difference.

Lighter armour (or having no armour) makes you HARDER to hit, whilst heavier armour makes you EASIER to hit. However, no armour opens you up to massive damage, whilst heavy armour protects you. This is more logical than the traditional idea that your armour makes you harder to hit… and has no further effect.

Weapons affect armour and creatures in different ways too. A pointy spear is different from a slashy sword. Hammers crush whilst daggers stab or slash. Some weapons are more useful for penetrating different types of armour and killing certain kinds of creature. You find this out through trial and error.

The practical upshot? Rolemaster combat is more detailed but really about as fast as the traditional fantasy RPG, if not faster. It also delivers more exciting results and colourful descriptive details.

Player Choices

As with all of Rolemaster, the system encourages and rewards player choices. The Initiative system, which takes a 10-second round and asks you to decide how you will act in 10% chunks, gives players real flexibility in a fight. Don’t want to make an all-out 100% effort attack? No problem, make an 80% attack (with a -20 penalty on your hit roll) and use the remaining 20% to move, reload your bow, or whatever.

The only beef that I have, at least on a first reading of the rules, is that the default Initiative system presented is really very detailed. Of course, as with all things Rolemaster, there are two other optional systems available to make life simpler… so I’m probably going to use the simplest with my group.

Options, Options

That moves us to consider the Options. One of the biggest advantages of the Rolemaster system is that it comes ready-built with options for either more or less detail. Being someone who likes to play “old school”, I can easily strip out rules which seem too complex for my taste. The writers have provided me with optional alternatives too, which means that I don’t have to waste precious GM time working up a “house rule”. Frankly, that’s a big selling point for me.

And finally…

That’s Rolemaster ready to play. From here on out it’s time to get those heroes into some adventures and let you know how this system really works.

Over the next few articles we aim to talk you through how we’ve been adapting Rolemaster to our house-built setting, Heroic Mykenaea. We also want to share the ups and downs of the system playtest so that you can decide if it’s worth a look when the final product arrives next year.

Please feel free to comment on what you’ve read so far… and if you’ve got any questions, drop them in to the comments below.

Game on!

Bio

Rolemaster: Introducing Spell Law

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

Having had roughly 36 hours to read and digest (at the time of writing) the new Rolemaster rules, this article presents an overview of what Spell Law is all about.

Spell Law was the second book released for the new Rolemaster public playtest, and it sits alongside Character Law and Arms Law at the core of the rules.

What’s in Spell Law?

The top 10 cool features of Spell Law are:

171 Spells Lists, or roughly 4, 275 spells
Three Realms of Magic
Base, Open, Closed and Evil spell lists, helping GMs to manage the power
Loads of utility and informational spells, not just combat magic
Options for GMs which magnify the roleplaying aspects of magic
Possible spell failure, making magic risky but manageable by clever players
Cool and simple magic enhancement items
Magic Ritual rules to allow for larger magical endeavours
Spells for 15 of the 21 Professions in Character Law
The possibility for even a Fighter to learn a spell or two

Spell Lists

It was with genuine glee that I printed off and poured over the 171 Spell Lists in the book. A Spell List is a collection of related individual spells which are learned in progression from the easiest rotes towards the most powerful effects.

Each list has 20 levels of spells, one through 20, and then additional spells at levels 25, 30, 35, 40, and 50. In short, you can cast a spell at the level equal to your Skill Rank in the related Spell List. Doing the arithmetic, you will see that Spell Law contains around 4, 275 spells. But that’s not all.

Spell Lists are also classified based upon their ease of learning and power. Open Lists are the easiest to grasp, while Closed Lists (and also Evil Lists) are the toughest to learn. Each magical Profession also has their own customised Base Lists, which are of medium difficulty to learn.

Realms of Magic

Rolemaster presents magic through three distinct yet interconnected Realms of Magic. These are the Essence, Channelling and Mentalism realms.

Essence is the classic Mage magic, utilising the raw energies of life to create elemental and other cool effects. The elements of Cold, Earth, Fire, Light, Water and Wind are all at the mercy of the Essence worker.

Channelling is all about pulling down power from an external power, usually imagined as a deity or other supernatural entity. Of course, as with everything in Rolemaster, this is up to your own setting and GM’s call, but the spells are tangibly different in feel to those of the Essence Realm.

Mentalism is the magic of the internal self, projected into the world, the power of the mind and will. Mentalists (yup, I still love that name) are all about influence and shaping perceptions. In some ways these are the most limited spells in terms of range and scope, focused on individuals or small groups, but their power can be profound.

We also need to mention that there are Semi- and Hybrid- spellcasters. Semi-spellcasters, like the Paladin, Ranger or Bard, mix their own Base Spell Lists with skill at Arms. Hybrid-spellcasters, like the Sorcerer, mix two of the realms of magic (in this case Channelling and Essence to make lovely destruction magic).

An All-Round Magic System

There are a lot of aspects to Spell Law that I really enjoy. At the risk of skimming over the details, here’s a run-down.

Firstly, I like that magic is risky and yet manageable through clever play. You need to make a Spell Casting Roll each time you cast, but you can decide how long you want to spend wiggling your fingers and chanting. You can decide cast fast at higher risk, try to cast with either hands full or your mouth gagged, or even try to be subtle and sly so that others don’t notice. All of these options are handled by simple modifiers to a basic Spell Casting Roll. One d100 roll, pass or fail. Spell failure gives you a roll on a nasty table tuned to your realm of magic.

Secondly, I love the way that Rolemaster helps the GM to make magic more believable as a roleplaying issue. For example, spellcasters learn spell lists as they ascend in level. However, the GM is reminded that the spellcaster needs access to the spell list within the context of the setting in order to progress in their learning. Thus, as a GM, I am reminded that I can arrange for spell books to be stolen, lost or destroyed if I want to frustrate the linear development of magic for the heroes. This kind of detail is not onerous, is also optional, but is written right into the fairly “Old School” tone of the rules.

A third thing I enjoy is that there are cool rules for Magic Rituals too. These involve multiple casters working in concert. They also allow for slower-to-cast effect with altered parameters. One example would be casting the Level 4 “Concussion’s Way” spell, Heal III, for up to a x5 healing effect; this makes 15 Hits recovered into 75 Hits healed, all for the trade-off of visiting the local temple and getting the priests to perform the ritual over a few hours. This gives the GM all manner of roleplaying options, and the players have incentive to use local priests and temples even if they reach high levels.

Overall, I like that this is a system geared towards all-round spellcasting, not just combat casting. Anyone can learn a spell or two (if you allow it in your campaign) but magic reaches into all aspects of play, not just the combat scene.

Last Words

Spell Law excites me because it puts a lot of options back into roleplaying. Instead of simplistic generic effects conveniently labelled as “magic”, this book gives you a coherent magic system which feels magical.

Spell Law is available as a FREE download for the duration of the Rolemaster Public Playtest. Why not grab the .PDF and have a look for yourself?

Bio

Rolemaster: An Evening with Character Law

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

The public playtest of Rolemaster began a few short hours before our regular Friday Night Roleplay meeting. To be honest, I was holding out hope that this would be the case because I’d been bigging-up the start of our new campaign using these rules for months. The hour was here and this is an account of how things went down. This is slightly longer than usual, but we’ve got a lot to cover.

The Rolemaster Books

Two of the five core books for Rolemaster got released in the first wave: Spell Law and Character Law. The latter book is what we spent time using at our first session, although the guys did dip into Spell Law a tiny bit to choose Spell Lists. We’ll drop you another article on Spell Law just as soon as we’ve explored it in depth.

Character Law covers the core rules relating to creating and running a hero in Rolemaster. In addition to the material dedicated to a step-by-step walk-through of designing a hero, you also get chapters covering Equipment, Experience and Advancement, Maneuvers and Movement, and The Environment. Combat, for the curious, is found in Arms Law which (at the time of writing) is expected to release to playtest in a few days.

Character Law

Overall we were mightily impressed with Character Law. Bearing in mind that we received the rules a scant 2 hours before meeting, we managed to build four heroes (with four players involved) in around two hours. This included about 30 minutes of time spent by the players writing notes in answer to the background questions in Chapter 3 (of which more in a moment).

The book is nicely laid out over 77 pages, with two columns of text. Even without art it looks neat and is very accessible. As far as playtest documents go, it makes the usual “Word file turned .PDF” look laughably cheap.

There is a very nice introduction and overview of character creation to draw you in. In terms of style, this is a very clean read which is clear. The only problems we had with understanding it were due to players (and me) trying to speed-read sections; on a proper read the text seems very clear. The game comes over as simple to understand and play, but certainly not simplistic.

Making Heroes

We dived in the deep end. Certainly my players are nervous about whether they have made appropriate choices but, as GM, I’m going to allow some tweaking of the numbers after a session or two of actual play. Overall, however, everyone seemed happy with the rules and seemed to grasp the main concepts readily.

The nice thing about Rolemaster is that it begins character creation with a chapter entitled, “Background”. Here you are invited to think through a strong concept for your hero with a series of relatively easy-to-follow questions. The text explains the process of thought quite nicely, and my players set to reading and scribbling down thoughts for around 20-30 minutes. This was reportedly a positive experience, and really set them up for the next series of steps. For me, this was refreshing as most games tack the background thinking on at the end. Not so with Rolemaster: characterisation and story are front and centre.

Stats and Potentials

There are 10 Stats, exactly as veteran Rolemaster players will expect. Everything plays off of a d100 or d10-based roll. So far, we’ve not had to roll another die type. There is a choice of random or points-buy system for choosing your Stats.

We chose to points-buy and I am REALLY pleased that we did so. Rolemaster uses a really cool system whereby you choose the Potential value of each Stat – i.e. the best your hero will ever be in that ability – before you choose their current Temporary value. The players, although initially taken-aback, quickly reported that they liked this because it meant that they immediately envisioned the hero as he or she will ultimately be.

Essentially, Rolemaster sets the expectations of the players and draws them towards wanting to play their way to their potential. Actual starting values are relatively modest, meaning that you are a slightly-above-average hero to begin with. That being said, GMs have options to raise or lower the power level of their campaign by altering the starting points allowed.

As an aside, min-maxing seemed very much harder to achieve because the players realised that everything is important… and the first rule of Rolemaster, to my mind, is that you can choose anything but you are always making sacrifices of other stuff.

Races

Rolemaster offers Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Halflings, Humans, Orcs and Trolls as character races. It also gives the GM rules for designing their own races, which is a very simple process. Each race is balanced with the others through the one-time blessing of extra (never reduced) Development Points, used to buy Skills and Talents.

Each race modifies your Stat bonuses (not the Stat), Resistance Rolls (think: Saves), and other core details such as how many Concussion Hits (think: Hit Points) you begin with.

My players loved the choices available and really seemed to get a kick out of the Height and Weight chart. We also introduced the first Optional Rule from this chapter: Individual Stride, wherein the hero’s height affects how quickly they can move. Easy to implement and something my rules-wary players asked for. Amazed? I was.

Culture

Next you select a Culture, which is a sort of background package of free Skill ranks. There are loads of cool choices, including Reavers and the Underground culture, both of which we found to be very cool. Rules are also there for GMs to add their own Cultures, and this looks very simple to implement.

In short, the guys thought that this was a good no-brainer choice to round out their heroes. As GM I could see that this side-steps the need to encourage players to take a minimum of 1 Rank in Body Development, and other such bare minimum Skill levels, and adds flavour for the characters to boot.

Professions

Professions are not “classes” but it’s easy to start with that misconception. Professions are what your hero is funnelled towards being good at without constraining you like classes might. We chose to create a Fighter, a Ranger, a Mentalist (we LOVE that one!), and a Dabbler. There are 21 Professions to choose from.

Your character can train in any Skill, but your Profession makes some Skills easier to learn than others. Profession sets up the cost (paid for with Development Points) for your Skills. Each level you get new Development Points and can upgrade your Skills by purchasing Ranks. Each Skill Rank is worth a percentage bonus to your skill, starting with 5% increments. Professions also have nine “Professional Skills” to give you a small top-up bonus each time you buy a rank in each of them.

Buying Skills was the slowest part of the creation… and initially it confused my players. That is, until they read the text instead of just staring at the cost chart. Timing the process, it took about 30 minutes for each totally new Rolemaster player to complete spending their Development Points. What was great, however, was seeing them interact and advise each other.

Thinking about it, I don’t know many games where I have seen quite so much group discussion of which Skills or Talents might best fit another person’s concept. It was really cool to listen in on.

Talents

Talents are one-time bonuses and abilities that don’t fit the Skills list. Examples include bonuses such as Ambidextrous or Darkvision, and Flaws such as Mumbler or Blood Shy. These are simple to implement (bought with Development Points) and really colourful. There are just enough to make it tough to choose but not too many. My players just seemed to pick one and smile knowingly.

Overall?

As a GM this rules set excites me. But then I was excited about it anyway.

My players’ reactions were mixed but overall positive. The guy who fears the grind of “roll-play” was nervous about the arithmetic in totalling up Skill Bonuses (which totals five numbers for each skill), but also admitted that he was tired after a long day at work. Nobody seemed to struggle with this, however, and the other three guys seemed to feel it was acceptable.

What did we like? We like Stat Potentials in this rules set (which I hated in previous Rolemaster editions) because it sets you up with a “target” vision of your hero. We like the choice of Races and Cultures because they are not rigidly paired to force stereotypes. We like the choice of 21 Professions, including Warrior Monks and Sorcerers because they are all pretty appealing.

Overall, we also like the ease with which we have started playing. Two and one half-hours of play time is not bad for a serious RPG character session, and we spent 2 hours doing the details. We have four very cool-looking and totally unique heroes, and we are ready to play.

The only fly in our ointment was that there is not yet an official Character Sheet, and it’d be useful if a decent one comes out soon.

If you fancy taking a look at the playtest rules for Rolemaster, they are free to download once you agree to the basic terms of the test. Check out the Iron Crown forums article, “Director’s Briefing – the Rolemaster Playtest”. Just please don’t be a jerk and file share… get your mates to grab their own copy too.

Game on!

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The Rolemaster Files

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

The post below is written by UbiquitousRat, a guest blogger for The Iron Tavern.

The Rolemaster Files

Some time around 1985 my friends and I discovered a new fantasy RPG which would very quickly replace D&D in our regular gaming slot. Then a school boy gaming most nights at a friend’s house, I was a player of a character named Goriel Swiftfoot, a Halfling Thief. We immediately fell in love with this new set of rules because of two major innovations it presented to our gaming: flavourful critical hits and totally open character choices. This game was Rolemaster.

Now in 2012, after many years of confusion about which edition of Rolemaster might be the best to own (and consequently having collected all of them), I have been delighted by the news from Iron Crown Enterprises that there is to be a new edition of the game.

One Rolemaster To Rule Them All

Rolemaster is about to be reborn for the 21^st Century. A new edition is imminent for release into a Beta Playtest, open to anyone willing to pick up the eBooks from OneBookShelf. To save you the time and money, and given that I will be getting involved in the playtest myself, this post is the first in a series aimed at opening up the system for a closer look.

Our home RPG group is planning to launch a whole new campaign in our own home-grown setting of Heroic Mykenaea using these new rules. This series will also reflect on our struggles and joys in adapting the new Rolemaster to fit with our setting.

What are we expecting?

Rolemaster is promised in the form of five core books, each of them providing the tools for a different aspect of fantasy roleplaying. Initially the game will go into playtest using the first three tomes: Character Law, Arms Law, and Spell Law.

Character Law will present the core rules of the system along with extensive details allowing the players to create their heroes. In the grand tradition of Rolemaster we are expecting a large selection of Professions, representing the early training of a character, allowing us to customise and build heroes which will fit our setting in just the way we envision them. Tired of the restriction of “classes” or the woolliness of a skills-based system? Welcome to the best of both worlds.

Arms Law will provide the detailed but easy-to-play combat system for the game. Those gorgeously entertaining short epitaphs for the creatures unlucky enough to receive a critical hit (or “Crit”) will be back. Whether with combat or spell-slinging, there was always a certain joy to be had in sharing such classic moments as delivering an E Critical, the most severe form of damage, and reading the pithy description of events, for example: “All that remains of foe are charred bits of teeth and bone. Add +20 to your next roll.”

Spell Law will give us the classic and original Rolemaster magic system. We are expecting the Spell Lists, in which mages and other spell-casters learn related spells ordered into lists, allowing them to cast increasingly potent effects. Want to sling a Firebolt? Well, Mister, you need to learn Fire Law and master lighting candles first. As you gain levels you will eventually develop the skill with fire magic that you need. Focused on providing spellcasters with roleplaying options as much as raw power, Spell Law is a much-anticipated return to meaningful choices in spell play.

All-in-all this version is promised as both a new edition and a blending of the best from the past. The idea is to unify the disparate past editions into a version for modern gaming. Our challenge to Rolemaster will be to adapt it to fit our own fantasy setting.

Want to know more? Rolemaster is imminent and as soon as the books hit my iPad I’ll be bringing you an overview of what is actually in the game… and what it means for our campaign in Heroic Mykenaea.

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