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Rolemaster Races & Monsters: Friends or Foes?

I’m curious and interested about exploring niches of Rolemaster and fantasy RPG’s in a novel way–subverting tropes, high level adventures, monsters as PC’s, eliminating the Profession system etc. In my last blog I discussed some one-off adventures I’m working on that consists of a party of “monsters” and both Peter and I have written blogs about certain creatures being classified as a Race or Monster. All of this touches upon whether various creatures or traditional monsters would make good PC’s–a subject I’m looking forward to exploring much like I’m doing with 50th lvl characters.

But these questions ignore the broader issue–why are certain races and creatures “Monsters” or adversaries to begin with? Should PC appropriate races be determined by a race’s intrinsic morality? Does RMU’s creature creation system open the door for any creature (assuming a base level of  intelligence) to be played as a PC? Assigning levels, special abilities and skills to creatures draws them into the Character Law system–why not open the door a bit wider for PCs–not just more traditional races, but “monsters” as well?

 

Perhaps the residue of Gygaxian Naturalism reinforces our views that monsters reside outside the natural world and setting. Without a childhood, ecosystem, culture and hopes and dreams these monsters lack the foundations of “Personhood”–they are merely there to be obstacle to the players. But what if that weren’t the case? Perhaps your game world would be like the cantina setting in ANH or TFA–filled with an endless variety of races, creatures and monsters anthropomorphized for the purposes of a working game narrative. Perhaps “monsters” aren’t inherently evil, but motivated by the same self-interest and beliefs that direct us all.

 

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Rolemaster Unification: One Size Rule fits ALL!

For me, one of the great innovations in early RMU Betas was the new sizing/scaling rules. Of course, much of that rule was modified due to player feedback, but the core idea is still incredibly useful as a scaling and informational tool for the game. In it’s basic form, the size scaling allowed for damage adjustments between combatants of differing sizes. Player feedback argued that on the fly adjustments added to much work to the game flow, and subsequent RMU beta’s incorporated size differentials into the weapon charts. However, the size rules can be applied to more than melee attacks. What information does/can a Size impart:

  1. Toughness: A size difference implies that a larger target will take less damage from a smaller. However, a GM can also apply a size label to a creature that is different from their actual size to make them more tough and harder to damage. For example, a Steel Golem may be human sized, but for combat purposes be treated as Large or Very Large.
  2. Deadliness: Larger size opponents should do more damage to smaller targets relatively. But again, a GM can adjust size to model a unique deadliness or efficacy of a smaller creature to perform as if larger as in the example above.
  3. Geometry: Size labels can impart information about the general dimensions (DIMS) in relation to other objects. This allows the size rules to not only apply to beings, but to objects like vehicles, space ships, wagons, carts etc. This allows easier comparison of one object to another. For example, a Skyship to a flying Dragon.
  4. Capacity: Tying into geometry above, using the size rules to impart carrying capacity: weight allowance or # of passengers can impart useful game mechanics without further explanation. A medium rowboat could hold 1 human size passenger, a large tent could shelter 2 people, a very large cabin could hold 4-6 people.
  5. Weight: While size rules can bend and adjust to scale certain effects, it is also a placeholder for weight/mass. That can be useful in Ram/Butt/Crush results.

What mechanic can use the Size rules? Combatants and melee have already been changed in newer Beta rules, but that doesn’t mean the mechanical framework should be dismissed.

  1. Spells. Spells are often defined by range, AoE and a presumed default size. Should a massive dragon cast the same size firebolt as a 7th level magician? With size rules, it doesn’t matter–size is established via the Spells or the size rules. In addition, size rules can establish effective radii. A small fireball might have a radius of 5′ while a medium would have a 10′ radius.
  2. Traps. Looking through the old MERP modules it’s clear that traps were a prominent feature. Most traps deadliness were modified by 2 components: a + to hit and a multiple of damage. Both had to described. With size rules you can just scale traps up or down via size. Not only does that model efficacy but it sets size parameters as well. A “Small” 5′ wide pit trap isn’t going to be a very effective on a Huge Troll.
  3. Structures. As discussed above in capacity, the size rules can establish occupancy limits for huts, tents, lean-to’s, cabins, towers etc.
  4. Vehicles. Rolemaster is part of a wider genre ecosystem. Spaceship hull sizes can be quantified in the same way a Dragon, Kraken or other gigantic creature.

The great aspect to the size rules is that its incredibly easy to add  categories-especially if you don’t worry about qualitative labels. I use 10 sizes, I-X, just to make scaling calculations easy and direct. Is it possible to add more? Yes, it’s easy and “scalable”. Certainly, for Scifi or modern settings it might be helpful to expand the sizing: smaller categories for molecular/nano level objects and much larger to incorporate massive space stations or even planet size categories!

I’m not re-arguing the role of size scaling in combat–only recognizing the power of scaling efficacy as short-hand for the Rolemaster system to unify 5 varying aspects of a creature or object. As a GM I find it invaluable.

 

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Sunday Musings. Projects in the queue and the Monster Squad!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! (here in the USA).  We are winding down another year at Rolemasterblog so maybe Peter will do a “Year in Review”? We have lot’s of ongoing projects and some cool stuff planned for 2018. Personally, I have so many irons in the fire it’s feeling a bit overwhelming! I thought I would do a quick overview from my persective:

  1. Back in April we started a challenge to write 50 Adventures and publish them over 50 weeks. Now we are heading into our 5th week! These are short adventure hooks, place, ideas or small layouts you can drop into a campaign etc. You can find the latest HERE with links to the others already published.
  2. Legends of Shadow World (LoSW). Along with the 50 in 50, I decided I wanted to design a high level adventure for Rolemaster; both as a challenge and to really test the system and rules. Ultimately, I ended up with a 5 part tourney series using 40th to 50th lvl PC’s. The first Chapter can be found HERE, and the second chapter The Temples of Muartaar will be available shortly.
  3. BASiL. My rewrite of Spell Law has turned into a beast–I was fine tuning spell lists and ended up adding over 3 dozen more lists in the last few months. I think I am almost at 250 total spell lists with 25 or 30 that are Shadow World specific. The individual spell count is just over 6500 spells with a lot less duplication that the original Spell Law. My hope is to publish these under a generic d100 format: either by individual lists, groups or realm.
  4. The Book of the Pales. I have this 85% done, but started working on a few other things. I’m hoping some downtime over the holidays will let me finish this sooner. I’m enjoying this work–it greatly expands upon the Pales in Shadow World, establishes some rules for adventuring, adds new creatures and explains some underpinnings of the world to support assumptions in Summoning/Gate spells. Interestingly, this has led to a broadening of the work into the more alien, non-physical realms like the Outer Void.
  5. SWARM. I’m debating whether I should bother uploading my SWARM ruleset–either as alternative rules for RM or as a generic d100 book.  Rules are so arbitrary and every GM has their favorites, I’m not sure this would appealing to anyone and adventure content and new spell lists might be more useful than my  rules.
  6. LEGENDARY SERIES: Monster Squad! So my new project after LoSW is a series of adventures using a pre-generated group of…MONSTERS!!!! (btw: isn’t a monster just a point of view?) . A recent post on the forums HERE along with several posts Peter and I did has had me thinking about a adventure group made up of traditional “monsters”. I’ve always like to subvert tropes in my games, and the premise of flipping the players perspectives to that of traditional foes is very appealing. This follows with the recent tradition of a band of anti-heroes like Suicide Squad or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The original Monster Squad would make for a great classic adventure–I’m going to write that and post it next October for Halloween. This would include:

  • Dracula (Vampire)
  • Mummy (Egyptian Pharaoh)
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon (Lizard or Merman)
  • Frankenstein (Flesh Golem)
  • Wolfman (Were Creature)

Unlike the movie, this adventure would have the creatures as pre-gen PC’s. I’ve got a great outline for an adventure that would be around 15th to 20th lvl and 3 ideas for plots and foes. What possible enemy or situation would force this group to band together…and save the WORLD?!!

A couple of ideas I’m tossing around for a Monster Squad set in Shadow World:

  • Demons. Erickson uses Demons as NPC’s in his Malazan series and in fact, has some chapters written from a Demon’s perspective. (he was magically wrenched from his farm and found himself in the middle of a battle)!!! I already discussed Neng, but how cool would it be to have a Pale III or IV as a PC?
  • Undead. Playing a vampire is obvious..and cool..but how about a Wraith or Lich?
  • Fey. I’ll write the adventures for Shadow World, so throwing in a Dryad or other Fey might be interesting.
  • Krylites. Insect humanoids! Electricity guns! yep that’s cool!!
  • Golem. I just finished the book Heart of Stone and used an Eog Golem in my LoSW adventures. I like the idea of a sentient construct as a PC. Flesh Golems are neat but how about one of stone, steel or enchanted alloy?

My last idea for the “LEGENDARY SERIES” is an adventure using holiday/fantasy creatures. This might be a great intro adventure for kids or just a fun version for Rolemaster Lite/d100. Something like this:

The goal is to create on-off adventures using famous characters to add some fun and accessibility to new players but using the gritty RM ruleset. Who wouldn’t want to “E” 66 Santa? Any suggestions for a cool Monster or character PC?

 

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Rolemaster Profession Review: The Many Flavors of Magic-Users.

I got a couple emails on my last blog regarding Shamans so I thought I would expand the conversation to include “Magic-Users”.

First off, my over-arching point about Shamans is an extension of my discussions on Clerics and Priests in general. The Rolemaster Cleric is really just the Channeling archetype; there are numerous variations that could be treated as “sub-classes” or unique Professions (like Shamans or Animists). Herein lies a systemic problem with Rolemaster–what determines whether a class idea needs a whole new profession with base lists and individual skill costs or whether it can just be a variation of skill selection using an established profession? Why have an Animist/Druid and not the Shaman? Why should there be a “Barbarian” profession and not a “Mercenary”?

The same could be said for Essence users–why is there just a “Magician” and an “Illusionist”? To fit into the D&D system? Instead, let’s flip our viewpoint–there are just Pure Essence Users, but their title (professional name) is dependent on the class or type of spells they master. Since I’ve expanded the elemental lists with BASiL, there are now enough spell lists for each elemental type that there at least half a dozen Magician types. Add in a few other tropes and the Essence Caster can be expanded just like the Channeling Caster.

Here are some templates that I use in my SW campaign:

“Elementalist”. This a broad term for a Mage that has mastered one or more of the Elements: Wind, Water, Earth, Cold, Fire, Light, Dark. Depending on that focus they may have a more specific professional name: FireMage, Windlord, Earthcaster, Dark Magician, Light Wizard etc. (In our campaign, “Elementalist” is the moniker for a Mage who masters 3 or more Elements and an Archmage is a caster who masters 3 or more “realms”).

“Aspected Mage”. This is Mage whose core powers are focused on an aspect or discipline: “Sound”, “Defense”, “Dimensions”, “Necromancy”, “Magic”, “Demonology”–really the sky is the limit. Generally I like to have at least 3 similar spell  lists to define an Aspect or Focus; otherwise I’ll just throw the list into open or closed. Obviously, I stick to BASiL, but with the various Companions including Elemental Companion, Guild Companions and user generated lists, you can put together a HUGE list of possible Mage focuses.

This process creates very diverse but specific Mage types; each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Peter has discussed rolling Channeling into Essence–doing that would greatly expand the various Mage disciplines: you could have “Healing”, “Creations”, “Weather”, “Flora and/or Fauna” aspects for Mages along with the traditional elements and other standard RM Essence lists.

Now, imagine if you will your players encountering their opponent: a Mage surrounded by his minions for the final battle. They know the Mage is an Essence user…but what else? Now it’s not just a binary choice between a Magician and an Illusionist. Do they buff themselves against heat? cold? electricity? What if the Mage has mastered the Shield Law spells (BASiL). He would be able to buff his followers and himself from Elemental attacks, spells and missile and melee damage to a great extant. That’s a whole different tactical situation than what the PCs may be use too!

By simply broadening the spell lists and grouping them thematically, you can create dozens of distinct Mage types. This is not the same as allowing players to cherry pick the very best lists for their BASE. This doesn’t ‘break’ the game but adds a tremendous variety to it.

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Rolemaster Profession Review: taking another look at the Shaman.

The original Rolemaster probably ignored a few key class tropes in their original work. Paladins comes to mind of course, but in my mind one of the most important is the  Shaman!

If Clerics/Priests are defined as members of an organized religion, than perhaps we can define a Shaman as a leader of a decentralized or non-organized religion.  Maybe the society or group worships a local god, or a real god under an avatistic identity, but the belief system lacks the more coherent structure and trappings of an organized religious institution. If you are gaming in a “classic” fantasy setting, you’ll probably have, or encounter a variety of primitive societies: Orcs, Goblins, barbaric tribes etc.  These groups will most definitely have  a version of a “Cleric”, but different than the type found in Rolemaster that casts Absolutions and Channels.

A Shaman can make a great foe or adversary for the PC’s. They can have a interesting mixture of spells that give them offensive and defensive capabilities, and they could even be designed as a Hybrid caster to allow them access to Essence or Mentalism. This can keep the players on their toes if they are expecting the Shaman to use the “same old” Cleric Base lists!

The Shaman’s spell lists should be defined by the particulars of the culture. A Orc Shaman should have different spell lists than the Shaman of a barbaric jungle people. The Rolemaster Companion offered up “totems” and “animal spirit” lists for the Shaman, but I find that too culturally defining while creating clunky spell mechanics. What’s probably required is to create a number of different Shaman types whose spells reflect the needs and belief system of the culture.

Here are a few ideas or templates from Shaman that I’ve used in my SW campaign:

Kuriis Truthsayers act as tribal guides, healers and priests and stay loosely united through their ability to communicate with one another over long distances.These people worship “Shral”, which is a hybrid of Shaal and Ulya Sheck (the ostensible Empress of the region).

Profession: Using RM I would classify them as either Pure with some flexibility on lists or Hybrid using Channeling & Mentalism.

Base Lists:

  • Simple Imbed. The Truthsayers wears many charms and fetishes and will make them for the community when needed. These charms are usually necklaces and bracelets made from colorful and iridescent shells.
  • “Water Law”. As followers of Shaal/Neela, Truthsayers have access to Water elemental list(s). I use Command Water from my BASiL lists.
  • “Divinations”. I use Visions from BASiL: Channeling.
  • “Far Voice”: The Truthsayers have the Astrologer base list that they use to communicate with one another.
  • Natures Defenses: From BASiL: Channeling.

Vakshs Rune Priestesses. The Vakshs are cannabilistic Eritera living in the Jungles of Chaal-Chu. They have powerful Priestesses that use Rune Magic: magical tattoos embedded all over their bodies.

Profession. Use Cleric/Priest or Hybrid Channeling/Essence

Base Lists: All of the Priestesses magic is derived from permanent tattoos inscribed into their skin. They have a mixture of Evil Cleric and Evil Mentalism plus access to the Demonic Gate & Mastery spells plus some contingent powers in their Runes:

  • Skin Runes. The Rune Priests are covered in potent
    tattooes that provide “contingent” protection, Daily X
    and regular spells casting. The particular rune will glow
    red when activated.
    Constant: Fear 1st lvl to 20’.
    Contingent (activate automatically): Stun Relief III; Deflect I; Bladeturn I
    Daily V: Question; Mind Speech; Light Eruption; Vision

Shaman Warrior. These Shaman can be used in primitive martial tribes/cultures: Lugroki, Goblins, Barbarians etc. They have competent spell-casting ability but are also combat effective.

Profession: Semi. Use Ranger skill costs.

Base Spell Lists: If the culture follows the Unlife or Dark Gods, they’ll have some aspected list or Demon Gate/Mastery. Other ideas:

Those are just 3 ideas for creating more interesting “Shamans” in your game world. Of course, our house rules allow much more flexibility in character creation and mixing spell lists, but GM’s shouldn’t be afraid to mix and match lists to make the Shaman fit the culture. Channelers especially should have some variety as their Gods can and should provide the spell ability!

For more primitive cultures that lack formal educational systems, Shaman may be the only significant spellcasters in those societies–they should have a mixture of lists that provide best for their people and reflect the environment and belief systems.  Shaman with a creative mix of capabilities can be great opponents for you group–or interesting PC’s!!

 

 

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Rolemaster Spell Law Deconstruction.

If you follow the Rolemaster threads or the RMU threads you’ll see people  asking for clarification on a certain spell, list or spell mechanic. With so many spells, various realms and lots of companion spell lists, it’s not surprising that the Spell Law edifice is showing a few cracks after 30+ years. For me that started the process of “deconstruction”–tearing down Spell Law and looking at it from a unbiased and objective mindset.

Examining RM from an outside perspective is hard, especially after playing it for almost 35 years. Us older players perceive Rolemaster through “incrementalism”: a slow gradual process of accepting new rules, add-ons, discussions and analysis that occurred over decades. Rolemaster now is the result of layering new rules onto older accepted ones–even if the original rules don’t stand up to new scrutiny or are not needed since RM has transitioned past its role as a D&D bolt on.

Every time I sit down and work on spell lists, I discover some new issue, opportunity or conflict that I want to tackle to rebuild my spell system to something newer, better and more consistent. I have 5 rough spell law “issue groups” that I have pinned to my work space for easy reference. These are:

  1. Thematic or mechanical inconsistencies
  2. Exceptions to established rules.
  3. Bonuses for compound actions.
  4. Realm incompatibilities.
  5. Form vs function.

I use these to test spells and lists. What Realm should they be assigned? How does the spell work? Is it structurally consistent? What is the casting mechanism? Does it work using Rolemaster rules or does it require a one-off rule?

What are some examples of “broken” spells? (this is just my opinion!)

Bladeturn. Few spells garner as much discussion as the Bladeturn spells. But rather than contort mechanics to make the spell actually work in the game, how about we examine the spell fundamentals. Here are a few issues:

  1. Do the various Bladeturn spells work with the Shield  or Blur spell on the same list? Clearly Turn/Deflect works as some type of telekinetic process, while Shield is a energy manifestation and Blur is a visual distortion. So while they can be grouped thematically as a “defense list”, I would argue they don’t quite fit together mechanistically.
  2. Spell Law spent a lot of rule making energy establishing  class I-III for casting times and makes a case for a vocal and nonvocal components to casting. Given that, how do you then justify “instantaneous” spells? Essence casting requires 1-3 rounds, vocalization, hand gestures to cast…except a handful of spells littered throughout the Essence lists. That’s consistent. The reason Bladeturn is instantaneous is that it HAS TO BE, for the spell to work as intended.
  3. Even accepting the rule exception of instantaneous Essence spells, RM describes a melee roll as representing a “flurry of blows”. How then does an instant, specific bladeturn work when there is no discrete, single swing or stroke of a weapon that can be identified as “the one that hits” within an abstract combat round?

Solutions. I have come up with my own in BASiL, but a couple of quick ideas: incorporate Bladeturn/Deflect spells into the Essence Hand list where they belong; change its mechanistic underpinning. For instance, call it “Slow Blade” so it works within the context of a “flurry of blows”.

How about Charm, Sleep and the whole Spirit Mastery list? I’ve commented on this before, but if you look through the Essence lists there are few, if any, other lists that work on the “spirit”, “conscious” or “mind” of a target. Does this list even belong in Essence? Of course the answer is that D&D established the principle that Magic-Users were to have Charm and Sleep spell, and so too Rolemaster.

How about Lofty Bridge? Does Leave/Jump/Teleport work on the same principles as Flying, Landing or Leaping? Again, half the spells work as “gating/teleporting”, while the other through telekinetic or motive energy. While they are arguably both types of “transportation” spells,  it seems illogical to have a spell list comprised of spells using very different mechanics.

What about spells that give bonuses to skills or actions? How does this work mechanically? Combat is a compound action–a confluence of skill (ranks), natural ability (stats) and other modifiers. What is this spell affecting? Does the spell guide the hand that holds the sword? Does it make the sword sharper? The swordsmen’s strength higher? Their agility improves? Any one of these could be a good mechanic, but aren’t explained. Why make spells that require so much hand-waving when Rolemaster is a system that rewards realism?

A few other ideas to improve Spell Law:

  1. Consolidate Spell Reins and Spell Enhancement. Spell Reins has 11 open slots, Enhancement only has 12 spells. Both deal with manipulating spell effects.
  2. Combine Physical Enhancement with Living Change but dump the “Merge” Spells.

Peter has blogged about his own spell system–basically it allows players to organically “grow” a list from 1st level using spell research. I’m assuming Peter requires some internal consistency when players develop a list, otherwise why wouldn’t they just build one dream list of: 1. Sleep 2. Shock Bolt 3. Fly 4. Charm. 5. Fireball 6 etc….

 

So interestingly, while I like how Peter approaches spell development, I think it would be difficult to encapsulate into a rules system–it’s too loose. However, Peter’s system is basically how I write new spell lists!

Once you start deconstructing and re-examining Spell Law, areas of improvement are both numerous and fairly obvious. But in the end, few people have the time or energy to fiddle around and make large revisions to Spell Law.

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Sunday IS Funday! Rolemaster Spell Lists, Shadow World Adventures and Random Thoughts.

First off, let’s discuss the picture above. If you follow archaeology you might recognize this artwork: it’s actually an etching, a detailed picture carved on a 1.6″ agate gemstone found in a Minoan tomb. Here is an enlarged drawing showing details, some of them only 1/2 a millimeter:

Pretty incredible and is right up there with the Antikytherea device and the Lycergus Cup.

What else do we have for Sunday..how about some spell lists and a revised version of The Seers of Strok. I posted these over at RM Forums, but again, that site requires a user account to not only download but to even SEE a file that could be downloaded. I’ve had a few people tell me they had no idea how many SW files were on the THREAD until they created an account. So I also put them up here on the blog which doesn’t require a user account.

First, we have 4 new spell lists.

“Simple Embedding”. This utility list is meant to create 1 use magic items like candles, powders, salves, unguents, charms, potions etc. These are items that are activated by consuming, breaking or applying and are destroyed. We use a set of alchemy rules for actually making the underlying object, liquid, powder (we call them substrates), but isn’t necessary to use this spell list. It’s a great list to punch up the party’s abilities w/o permanent magic items and the cost of creating the substrates keeps it from being abused.

Simple Embedding

“Talisman”. I always liked the idea of casters having a personal magic item that they “invest” and it grows in power as they do. RM introduced this with the Druid Staff and I think there is a Mage Staff list floating around as well. This was an example of a need to consolidate the idea–just make one list that can be used by casters. The flavor and type of powers invested into the object would naturally differentiate the mage from the druid or warlock. I require the caster invests Co. points into the object, but some people have told me that seems to harsh. If you don’t like it, change it!

Talisman

“Weapon Runes”. Weapon Runes was a great concept in RoCo 1 but some of the functionality was poor and the list needed some work (in my opinion anyway).  Weapon Runes are one-time magical inscriptions that can be put on a weapon or object that activate when a certain condition is met–like a hit or critical result. Like the “Simple Embed” items above, it’s a good way to add offensive ability to the group without getting overpowered. The Runes can be seen if you look closely–they manifest as a faint glimmer–and can be deciphered using Rune skill. I’ve played around with various durations they can stay latent, and right now I use 24 hours. I originally had them last until they were used, but found players layering Weapon Runes on items between adventures when PP’s didn’t matter. I use a “Item Roll” to see if the object/weapon will accept the Rune. Basically, it’s the object item strength vs the combined levels of Runes–both the one being cast and any Runes already on the object. If it fails by more than 50 all the existing Runes are lost as well. Objects with high strengths: laen, eog, etc can accept and hold a ton of Weapon Runes, while fragile or inferior items aren’t going to accept them well.

Weapon Runes

“Protection Runes”. Like Weapon Runes but for armor, shields or any appropriate object. In fact could be tied into a simple object like a necklace that will activate when a trigger is encountered.

Protection Runes

Lastly, we have the newest version of the Seers of Strok, the 1st Chapter of 5 in my 50th level adventure.

50 chapter 1 – The Seers of Strok

And..the pre-gen stats for an all Cleric group to run through Legends

Chapter 1 NPCs – Priests

Go Patriots!!

 

 

 

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Spell Law Deconstruction: Too Many Spells. Too Many Powers. Too Generic?

[[Updated. While I was writing this Peter posted his Friday blog on the same general topic!]]

I’m fairly close to publishing a complete version of my BASiL spell system. At this point, I’m making it generic for use with any d100 system and will make it available on RPGNow.com. The project was always meant to be flexible and used with any system (much like the original RM!). I had already discarded the specific attributes of ‘Realms’, and replaced it by classification by casting mechanics.

Everytime I review or revise BASiL, I’m struck by the very same conclusions–and now after writing 50th level adventures I feel my instincts are dead on.

  1. Rolemaster Spell Casters have access to too many spells. Sure, at low level it doesn’t feel that way, but the number of spells scales up quickly. Part of this is the spell acquisition system in RM, but as a character progresses and gains A picks, they automatically gain spells without further effort. Individual spell acquisition addresses that issue/problem, but on the whole, higher level characters just have too many spells. By 10th level, most spellcasters will have 100 spells and by 20th they’ll have 300!!! What do you think happens at 50th level? Here is an example from the Atlas on a 34th lvl Navigator: Sulfean knows all Base Mentalist lists to 30th, Navigator lists to 50th, Open and Closed Mentalist to 20th. I think that’s over 400 spells!
  2. Rolemaster Professions are too similar. The causality of having too many spells is that as characters progress they become more similar and generic, and thus, Professions within a certain realm become less important. hmm. Personally, the idea that a high level pure spellcaster of any realm basically has access to EVERY relevant spell list is both boring and
  3. Basic Rolemaster Spell powers are too similar. I’ve discussed the need to better differentiate the realms powers and scope. Right now each realm gets the obligatory spell defense list, light list, movement list plus many of the same spells are imbedded in various lists in all the realms. Obviously I believe that creating a clear delineation between realms makes casters more unique and a more interesting choice when choosing professions or realms.

In my own campaign, “pure spell casters” (no matter what the realm) are resource limited to a core group of specific powers and perhaps a handful of open or closed spells using individual spell acquisition. On average, they are able to buy 3-4 spells/lvl which costs them about 1/2 their available DPs! Depending on the ‘realm’, they’ll still need to acquire magical language, prayer, mental focus, runes or similar complementary skill to properly cast spells. On top of that they need to develop PP’s as well!

  1. As Peter discussed in his last post, our pure casters are also very much defined by their core spell casting ability and are not the generalists they are in RAW RM. An Elemental Mage might have 1 or 2 elements but not ALL of them. Or a Mage may focus on defensive spells. Priests are defined by their core list that is dictated by their choice of diety. Mentalism is divided into 7-8 disciplines, with most casters developing a handful of them.
  2. My latest iteration of BASiL goes further in creating distinct abilities, limits and parameters between the realms.
  3. I like Peter’s focus on spell research and horizontal development of spells, but my players need a bit more structure and many GM’s just want to pick up play with existing rules. That said, both spell research and magic ritual provide a great opportunity for ‘free form’ or creative paths of magic.
  4. Scaling. I’ve always liked the optional spell scaling rules. In my game I allow scaling (via PPs) for range, AoE and damage multipliers but not duration.

Of the three issues I discussed above, I have addressed them thusly:

  1. Too many spells. My casters have fewer but more defined spell powers.
  2. Professions become more generic as they gain higher levels. I don’t use professions (though the process creates character archetypes that could easily be labeled).
  3. Realm spell powers are similar or redundant. I created more differentiation between the realms.
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Mid-Week Musings on Rolemaster, Self Publishing and RMU.

I have a number of more comprehensive blogs I’m working on, but Halloween, work and other items put those off. On the plus side, I have a number of smaller items I thought I would collate into a mid-week blog post.

  1. Too Harsh? While it was generally ignored, was I too harsh on Hurin’s post on “shield use” in RMU? Of course, if you don’t have a RM Forum membership this might seem obscure since you CAN’T SEE THE FORUM W/O A FORUM LOGIN. If you have one, a whole new world of RMU discussion is available–it’s like a secret forum, but yet available to anyone that can hurdle the insurmountable barrier of yet another USERNAME/PASSWORD.  Anyway, my response was less substantive than emotional: I balk from complicated rules and more so as the RMU process unfolds. Bringing in new users is not about complexity (verisimilitude) but the NEAR APPEARANCE of reality and EASE OF USE. Later rule adds can complexity and options but despite my harshness (Hurin, sorry just having fun) I still get a laugh at my rules for shields: Here is my idea.“After the proposed attack, defender are able to expend variable AP’s to engage and counter, subject to a pro rate percentage of action based on the residual action available subject to situational awareness modified by the skills and offset by combat expertise. From this result consult the “Random Awareness Chart” for a “compliance factor” to be offset by the perceived  success roll on the perception static action awareness table.”                                                                                                               If those rules sound good, I literally made them up as I WROTE THEM. It’s crap. Worse than crap–its meaningless bureaucratic speak. the problem with the rule discussions is that it’s closer to my above “Word Salad” than rules bringing RM into the new market realities.
  2. New Rule: Wield Strength. While I haven’t posted up my own RM optional rule set–SWARM–I have posted up many sections of the rule set on the RM Forums. One item I left out, because it was so simple, was the MIN wield strength. Each weapon is given a min strength for use: any St under that applies a -1/1% to use AND the same penalty applies to fatigue checks. For example, a short sword has a wield of 75 so a user with a 60str would be at -15.
  3. 50 in 50. So we’ve started publishing our 50 adventure hooks. Most of these are meant to be hooks–but have also evolved into much more comprehensive adventures. I started with small “hooks” that were meant to be available via here at the RM blogs. IP issues, formatting and publishing expertise required a more complex process. The first, Spire’s Reach, is available now on RPGNow. Later submissions got more complex.
  4. I’ve put up almost 200 pages of RM/Shadow World material for free download on the RM Forums that I will start porting over to this site so it doesnt require a forum account to access.  If you haven’t checked it out, look at my Rolemaster 50th level adventure series: Legends of Shadow World, the products Peter writes and Azukial Games.
  5. Members. Peter doesn’t require a username to access this site–we believe is free access and information to better reach the RPG community. At the same time, we don’t and can’t really track users, users online or even downloads (unless they are set up as such). We have much less user info than a Forum system. With that, we appreciate every member or new member that takes the time to comment or add to this blog site. Thanks!
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Happy Halloween from BriH at the RolemasterBlog.

Is there anything more connected to fantasy RPG’s than Halloween? Ghosts, undead, creepy tombs, dungeons etc?  For me the fall season is a great reminder of youthful pursuits, D&D and a new school season. Now, we get to enjoy the second season of “Stranger Things”–I blogged about this last year knowing that the show spoke to me, but didn’t realize how big the phenomena would end up.

In that spirit, I wanted to post several Halloween themed spell lists I put up over at the RM Forums.

Haunting Ways

Undead Hunter

Demon Hunter

The first(Haunting Ways)  is a bit whimsical, but could be  great lesser list for an Illusionist . Undead Hunter and Demon Hunter are great lists for specialized groups.

Anyway I hope you have a great Halloween..and…if you, like me, see the “fiscal year” of gaming around October, than all the best! I know  all of us at Rolemasterblog have a lot of work in store for the coming year.