Rolemaster

[Foen]

As an intellectual challenge, I thought I'd try to create a roleset for rulemaster ;)

The printed material I have dates back a bit ... quite a bit in fact (try 1985-1987). Have the rules evolved since then so that I need to buy a later edition?

I have Arms Law/Claw Law, Spell Law, Character Law/Campaign Law, and the Rolemaster Companion.

Cheers

Stuart

[Sorontar]

I've been looking at this recently and I'm a little confused as I followed RM from the first edition through the 2nd Edition and then bought the Standard Rules when they came out.

Looking at ICE site (https://www.ironcrown.com/) it appears that they are re-releasing all the original stuff but whether that is purely the original stuff or with some tweaks added I dont know.

Whatever your choice

If you make it , they will play it :D

[GoOrange]

First and second edition Rolemaster rules were essentially the same, with only a few errata fixes and a different layout. These were distributed with core rules in the basic three books Character/Campaign Law, Arms/Claw Law, and Spell Law. RM2 had bright red borders on the books.

Then came Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying and the Rolemaster Standard System which changed the rules quite a bit. These books generally had the maroon colored borders. (Personally I greatly disliked this edition).

Recently, they have re-released RM2 books on PDF and have since put out Rolemaster Classic in both PDF and print versions. RMC is another re-organization of RM2 rules. The rules are the same, just clarified and re-organized with a few optional rules added. So, basically RMC is just a re-packaging of RM2 and is 100% compatible.

The rules you have are most likely RM1 or RM2. They should be completely compatible with the newest RMC stuff, but not with RMFRP or RMSS.

In general RM fans are kind of split between the simpler RM2/RMC and the slightly more complicated RMFRP/RMSS, although I think with the release of RMC, things are starting to swing in that direction a bit.

[heruca]

Man, that's more confusing than choosing which version of Vista you want/need. :D

[tenkar]

Imagine if he threw HARP into the equation? ;)

[acmer]

I've been thinking of doing Rolemaster ruleset too, but I'm more of a table guy than a coder. If you need help, PM me. Got some of the books.

[Thore_Ironrock]

Might as well use this thread for my posting ... ;)

As of yesterday Digital Adventures has reached a licening agreement with ICE for an official conversion of RoleMaster to Fantasy Grounds II. Our development team is being formed as we speak, and once we have materials from ICE we'll be moving forward (as quickly as possible) with development. Digital Adventures will also be working with ICE post-development on a website/fansite for gamers to gather & play ICE online using these tools.

We're very excited about this agreement, and look for feedback from the FG community on this going forward. I'm sure one of the first questions will be what "version" of RM we're going to do (or in this case, do first), and to start we're going to be hitting RoleMaster Classic. After that we'll also be looking at the other versions for conversion as well (Express & HARP) if there is sufficent interest in the marketplace.

Our conversion will be headed by Stuart, who many of you know has been an advocate of RM in these forums for a long time. Anyone who might be interested in contributing to this project can reach him via myself or FG private message.

Let the fun begin!

[Sorontar]

Most excellent news

*wiggles his fingers and chants*

Hero System , Hero SYSTEM , HERO SYSTEM !

*checks to see if Thore was entranced, ready to flee if not*

:D

[Foen]

I am very pleased to see an official RM product is being developed. Best wishes to Stuart in this task.

The Other Stuart
(Foen)

[tenkar]

Wow! It's nice to see that game publishers are recognizing the growth in VTT gaming :)

[Sorontar]

Would the Spacemaster rules be a possibility with this as well further down the line?

[Thore_Ironrock]

Would the Spacemaster rules be a possibility with this as well further down the line?

That would be down the line. Our initial license is only for RoleMaster Classic. If things go well and the interest is there, anything is possible. :)

Thanks for the posting!

[Stuart]

Spacemaster (at least as I remember it) was not as great a seller as I think ICE anticipated ... certainly judging by it's product range. Given there is no licensed SciFi ruleset yet ... if we can get FGII to run Rolemaster and it sells reasonably ... I would certainly push strongly at ICE's door. :)

[geewaagh]

Great news! I am glad that DA is working on this. It is long over due. I am currently working on running RMC via FGII, but running everythin with PDF and excel for combat.

Any idea of timetable for a beta version?

[Thore_Ironrock]

Great news! I am glad that DA is working on this. It is long over due. I am currently working on running RMC via FGII, but running everythin with PDF and excel for combat.

Any idea of timetable for a beta version?

It is often very difficult to put a release date on projects, since these are not our full time jobs and things seldom go as planned. In 99% of the cases it is done when it is done. However, we've set a goal for the end of the year to get the majority of the work done, and we'll try to keep the community updated. FYI, we don't release "beta" versions of products, but do update them after release if needed.

Sorry I cannot be more specific.

[Culdraug]

Whooo hooo!!! Rolemaster!!

Too excited? :D

[Toadwart]

Good to see there are more RM fans out there :D

[Sorontar]

Whooo hooo!!! Rolemaster!!

Too excited? :D

You can NEVER be too excited about shooting yourself in the foot when you fumble your bow or puncturing you enemies heart with a well placed crossbow bolt :)

[Toadwart]

The "Ram, Butt, Bash, Knowckdown, Slug" attack table is now just "Ram, Butt, Bash, Knockdown".
I guess Slugs now have their own attack table (yay) but I can't find it anywhere!
:eek:






;)

[Ebonfyre]

Wow, this pretty much just made up my mind to buy FGII. I've been on the fence as I'm primarily a Mac user and my group is only mildly interested in trying it out. We've been throwing around the idea of making a virtual table RPG program for a while and when I found FGII I was impressed but disappointed at the D20 push. Then I found the Savage Worlds mod existed and got more excited because we are a few months away from starting a Rippers campaign. Now seeing this post I am ecstatic - MERP was my first RPG experience and then we upgrated to the red border RoleMaster books and literally played that game till the books fell apart. ICE released the new version, we bought it but never really got into it the same way. Seriously this announcement and the fact ICE reverted to the old system and that is what you are using is about the best thing I could have heard today!!

Any update on its progress? I'd imagine this is a massive project as RoleMaster is a fantastic system but not the simplest to run.

[Thore_Ironrock]

Any update on its progress? I'd imagine this is a massive project as RoleMaster is a fantastic system but not the simplest to run.

It is indeed massive. There will be four books (SL, CL, AL, and the new Creature book), and right now the boys are working on the coding mechanics for things like dice, table rolls, etc. I really can't say much more just yet, but once we get more than 1/2 way through the project we'll start posting more specifics.

At the moment we're looking at sometime in the first quarter of 2008; that is about as specific as I want to get right now. Of course, we're not going to release any project until we know it works and properly represents the publisher's property.

Thanks for interest!

[Malovech]

It is indeed massive. There will be four books (SL, CL, AL, and the new Creature book), and right now the boys are working on the coding mechanics for things like dice, table rolls, etc. I really can't say much more just yet, but once we get more than 1/2 way through the project we'll start posting more specifics.

At the moment we're looking at sometime in the first quarter of 2008; that is about as specific as I want to get right now. Of course, we're not going to release any project until we know it works and properly represents the publisher's property.

Thanks for interest!

Thore all I have to say is you guys rock and I wait with baited breath for this release. Keep up the great work!

[Kalan]

Thanks for the support everyone :) We try our best to keep the goods coming as quickly as we can :) And I can say - we have some of the best minds working on RoleMaster right now - and I have the utmost confidence it will be what we all hope for :)

And just wanted to echo another comment I seen earlier - MERP was also one of my first experiences in gaming - and ICE/RoleMaster will always hold a special place in my heart :)

[Lujan]

Any updates on this? I loved RM and would very much look forward to playing it on FG2

[Stuart]

An ICE licensed ruleset is under development at Digital and it will comprehensively cover the 4 core "Rolemaster Classic" books.

[Malovech]

Oh man I cannot wait to see what they come up with.

[Stuart]

Those of you who know Rolemaster will probably understand why this ruleset is taking a little longer than the others that we have done (count the number of tables in the Character Law book ... I dare ya!) but I think new and old RMCers will be pleased with a much more detailed combat tracker and a clever way of handling all those die roll/table-look-up events.

[Sorontar]

Those of you who know Rolemaster will probably understand why this ruleset is taking a little longer than the others that we have done (count the number of tables in the Character Law book ... I dare ya!) but I think new and old RMCers will be pleased with a much more detailed combat tracker and a clever way of handling all those die roll/table-look-up events.

You dirty tease you :D

[Stuart]

Doing my best to guarantee a game as a player or GM ;-)

[Sigurd]

Some sort of computerized table system has been the devout wish of Rolemaster fans as long as I can remember. If they get the ruleset done in any reasonable time I will be most grateful.

For those interested Monte Cook did a lot of writing for Rolemaster. If you like his stuff in D20 there is lots of it in Rolemaster.


sigurd

[Stuart]

Sigurd, if you search the ICE forums you may find links to the computerized tables and combat manager you want.

[Vroomfogle]

In the ICE "vault" (on the website) there are a few combat tracking programs (I'm certain there's one Excel one) but nothing that currently has the actual tables embedded in it. I do recall one combat program that used an approximation formula to the attack tables, but not sure what it did for critical tables.

There are a few programs out there that do this, but they are currently not distributable. However there are a few things in the works that may allow this in the near future.

[Stuart]

Hehe ... I knew that post would lure Vroomfogle out of "hiding" ... Stalk/Hide +35 and I still got him.;)

[Culdraug]

Any chance for an update on how this is going?

Thanks!

[Stuart]

The Rolemaster Classic line has four books that we are working on:

Character Law CL
Arms Law AL
Spell Law SL
Creatures and Treasures C&T


Each of these is to be "modularised" with the C&T being split into two modules. The bigger issue is of a technical coding nature; I'm sure you'll appreciate the issues with combat/skill die rolls and the charactersheet/combat tracker.

I'd hate to be a hostage to fortune and give a release but I think "Thore's thralls" are quietly happy with where the ruleset is heading. We still have quite a bit to do but I think some serious play testing is about a month or so away. Gives us a few months on top of that to act on what falls out of play testing ... I'll tentatively offer Autumn/Fall as a release and face Thore's wrath :p

More seriously, I'd like to get this out asap and the guys who are doing the real work have got a huge amount done and produced some really nice mechanics for table/die roll resolution and a whole heck-of-a-lot of other stuff.

[Malovech]

More seriously, I'd like to get this out asap and the guys who are doing the real work have got a huge amount done and produced some really nice mechanics for table/die roll resolution and a whole heck-of-a-lot of other stuff.

This is the part I can't wait to see, I have to wait the whole summer though! Patience...

[Sorontar]

but I think "Thore's thralls" are quietly happy with where the ruleset is heading.

Anything like Charlie's Angels? :D

[Stuart]

Anything like Charlie's Angels? :D

Heck yes ! I've seen the pictures ... wow .... Mind you, that Toadwart fella ... you think his FG avatar is a 'toon ? :p

[Sigurd]

https://www.imparfaitdusubjectif.fr/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/WindowsLiveWriter/ForzaItalia_12C82/pizza_beer%5B2%5D.jpg


Ok, So here's my cyber Pizza and Beer to help you guys finish off your good works. Good Luck to Throre's Thralls! May you be brilliant, fast, and pleased with your work!


Sigurd

[Toadwart]

Heck yes ! I've seen the pictures ... wow .... Mind you, that Toadwart fella ... you think his FG avatar is a 'toon ? :p

LOL.

You just wait, one day ugly will be the new beautiful and Toadwart will be a supermodel!

[Thore_Ironrock]

Thore's Thralls???

Hmmmm ... I was thinking more along the lines of Stuart's Stooges. :)

[Sorontar]

LOL.

You just wait, one day ugly will be the new beautiful and Toadwart will be a supermodel!

I suppose it's possible, fat is becoming the new thin in modelling .... I'm just waiting for the consultancy work to flood in from the models wanting to pack on those pounds, as I can gain weight in my sleep :D

[Fade]

I've been trawling the net for a half decent Rolemaster Character Generator, so I can see how the RM system works and I can play around with different Character setups (in readiness for the DA FGII release of the ruleset)

Anyway, theres not much out there to be honest for RM, but I did stumble upon this little gem

CSC (https://rpgrm.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=21&Itemid=38)

It seems the company is not around, and one of the main developers has passed away, but it seems a very competant and full fledged RM Character Generator.

The only other product that has come close is the

Role Playing Assistant (https://www.rpgweb.com/index.html)

Which supports RoleMaster 2. But its support seems quite patchy and incomplete (to an RM novice).

Anyway I thought I'd share these findings, with other potential RM enthusiasts. I blame MERP (https://www.merp.com/) & Stuart for piquing my interest.

[Stuart]

Watch this space Fade ;-) The module we started in FG1.0 will be used as a test adventure with the RMC ruleset once testing gets underway ... still a way off but the combat tracker and other bits-and-bobs look really cool.

[Casamordius]

I blame Stuart, too :-) still watching out to continue the tales of the proud Hobbit Milo Lightfoot and his beautifull Elven companion...

[Vroomfogle]

Fade,

Check out "The Vault (https://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=0)" on the ICE website.

Specifically you should take a look at RMC Character Spreadsheet here (https://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item564).

It's an Open Office spreadsheet we released with the RMC line. If you have any RM related questions feel free to ask away, I was part of the group that worked on RMC, am one of the authors of the upcoming RMC Campaign Law and must say that the RMC ruleset looks fantastic so far.

You might also want to stop by the ICE forums which is a very active and helpful community.

[Fade]

/em waves to Milo

*fond memories of Fadewyn's loyal hobbit companion, roll and splash against the rocks of her mind*

Thanks for the RM info Vroom, I'll definitely take a look at that.. might be time to sign up to the ICE forums too...

[Ebonfyre]

Any word on the progress of this now that you've released all sorts of new Savage Worlds stuff?

[Stuart]

Things are still progressing nicely and a couple of groups are testing a very rudimentary "beta" to look at some of the automation that Foen and Toadwart have put together. There are four pdfs that needed converting and 80% of the work here has been done, assuming that all goes well with other projects (the DA team is not *that* big) and GenCon ... I think I'll be able to give you a release date next month.

I hate being cagey about this sort of thing but graphics, final coding issues, proper testing and one pdf still need to be attended too.

[Sorontar]

I hate being cagey about this sort of thing but graphics, final coding issues, proper testing and one pdf still need to be attended too.

You could say you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot but lets keep those critical tables out of it hmm :)

[Ebonfyre]

Sorry for the bump, just a bit excited about the prospect. I found a site that has all the old out of print MERP modules in pdf and have been itching to use them with this. Mine are getting so old I'm loathe to open them too much.

[Stuart]

If you have found a site with MERP pdf's ...:( When ICE lost their Tolkien license part of the contractual obligation on their part (as I understood things from a Tolkien Estate lawyer ... :confused: ) was to both stop selling any Tolkien-related merchandise *and* destroy all their MERP stock. I would imagine that any agent that is currently selling MERP related material is running the risk of having ICE and the Tolkien Estate people threatening all sorts of unpleasantness ... with an E critical as a distinct possibility.

However ... good to know that there are more Rolemaster and MERP fans out there ... I am hoping to get a campaign going as soon as the ruleset is done.

[Ebonfyre]

Painfully aware of that Stuart, considering those books are some of the best RPG source material ever created. The titles I have found are simple scans at varying resolution and quality, free for download. Hardly a substitute for a properly created game pdf, but considering the inability to acquire this precious material in any other form I have no personal moral problem with this method of distribution. I consider it a historical archive worth preserving, not a malicious attempt to circumvent copyright. Plus I do own many of the titles and truly do want to preserve my collection - some of these books go for over $100 each now.

[Stuart]

Sorry if I sounded brusque ... :o

I have painfully haunted eBay trying to get those MERP materials I do not have; to my mind (diminishing on a daily basis) they are some of the best role playing modules for any system around. The artwork, cartography (Fenlon takes some beating) and stories ... the care and attention to the Tolkien legacy ... awesome.

Delighted to bump (metaphorically) into another fan ... maybe we'll hook up for a MERP campaign. I want to run the Pirates of Pelargir stuff when we get RMC out, I ran a couple of sessions using FG1 with a modified charactersheet and combat tracker but it was kinda clunky even with the stripped down MERP rules.

The RMC ruleset will be really good and I hope it gets more people trying the system as FG will do a lot of the maths and table manipulation.

[Ebonfyre]

No offense taken, DRM is a many shaded topic and I am firmly in the gray camp as opposed to the black and white camp. If Tolkein would allow ICE to release this material again in PDF form I'd be all over it, but as they won't I'll support any method to keep it available to the gaming community - it's simply too good not to.

And what you guys are creating is the Holy Grail for every Rolemaster fan who has ever GM'd the game. I actually created a pretty darn good combat automator in excel many years ago because RMC is great but simply too chart heavy to not have some assistance. If your plugin does what I'm hoping it will then I'm going to be one very happy panda! If it will help I'd happily assist with a little beta testing and in any case I'm pleased to be invited to join in a campaign with you when it is released. Keep me informed when the time approaches and we can talk about coordinating schedules.

[Stuart]

We hope that the RMC ruleset will not only allow RM GM's to continue to "pick 'n mix" the way RMC deals with combat/skill/maneuver rules but also automates enough that RMC newbs are not left gasping for air. I dimly remember my first attempts to GM using Rolemaster ... if it were not for the detail in the MERP modules I think I'd have given up.:p

[Culdraug]

Last we played, you seemed like you had everything well under control! :)

[Thore_Ironrock]

It has been MANY years since I played Rolemaster, but the one thing I do remember is all of the paging through manuals and books for rules, charts, and the like. Even if you don't use FG and our RMC ruleset to play online, I think it would greatly enhance any tabletop game where the GM had the software running.

However, if I do play I'll make sure to get in Stuart's game. :)

[Sorontar]

It has been MANY years since I played Rolemaster, but the one thing I do remember is all of the paging through manuals and books for rules, charts, and the like. Even if you don't use FG and our RMC ruleset to play online, I think it would greatly enhance any tabletop game where the GM had the software running.

However, if I do play I'll make sure to get in Stuart's game. :)

I still think the best moment I have EVER had in PnP was with Rolemaster and it wasn't something I did, just witnessed. My friend had created his "ultimate" fighter who was hard as nails and he started to throw his weight around in a tavern that had a reputation (well it was called Bucket of Blood).

We had created 12th level characters he his fighter and me a more subtle Trader.

So he picks a fight with a 2nd level barbarian but as things get heated he draws his sword. I had mine loaded under a table and waited to see what happened. Well the barbarians friend didn't like the showing of steel and put a bolt through the fighters heart. Fighter falls over, trader casually walks out a side door having seen enough :D There's always that edge to RM games.

Oh good times.

[Stuart]

I picked up a couple of 2nd Ed D&D-ers midway through a Rolemaster game (Mines of Moria) I had run for a few years at University. The party were faced with a barricade inside one of the deeper halls and estimated that there were 4 Uruk's with bows and about the same number with swords.

In those days D&D had no levelling/class concept for critters ... an orc was level 1, end of story. The party were mid level and so the two noobs decided (based on their D&D experience) that charging the barricade to quickly get past was best. After all ... in D&D ... orcs are lvl 1 ... unlikely to hit a lvl 6 character and even if they do, an arrow only did 1d6 damage and a decent fighter-type could look like a porcupine and still be standing on 25% hp's.

I think both dropped with 30 feet to go; a couple of criticals, a broken arm, pierced lungs ... the usual Rolemaster stuff :D

I like SW (now that I've had a proper chance to play), I've enjoyed D&D but Rolemaster will be SWEET :D

[Sorontar]

Hmm Eberron run with Rolemaster, now there's a thought for a gritty conversion .....truly scared of going into the Sharn streets at night :)

[Oberoten]

Damn don't TEMPT me like that... Too late. Now envisioning the same thing. Possibly with a few attributes of Warhammer thrown in to make it even grittier.

[Monkey Rogue]

Let the fun begin!


I just registered and have decided to actually purchase a full set of the Fantasy Grounds software for myself and my group who have recently been scattered about...because of this post.

Thanks!

And since the last you guys said was around mid-June...how far along are you on that?

[Stuart]

I'm not going to annoce a release date as my limited experience is that these are seldom met :( So ... an honest appraisal instead; I'm 99.9% confident that this will be out later this year and I hope that once GenCon and a few other rulesets are polished off (none have major things pending, touch wood) ... I'd really hope to have something for the late Fall/Autumn or early Winter.

Most of the mechanics are pretty much done (thanks to Foen and Toadwart), but the options, table-referencing is significant so ... expect bug-hunting akin to Starship Troopers. The crunching of pdf to xml and the creation of modules (mostly Vroomfogle and myself but helped by Foen and Toadwart when they have time) is 85% done, I think.

The graphics are yet to be discussed and if any of you Rolemaster-ers out there have any ideas for "themes" etc, please give me a holla and I'll forward ideas to our graphics guru (Sandeman). Obviously, ICE will want to ensure that the ruleset has an appropriate and identifiable "look".

[Monkey Rogue]

*squee's*
Wish I were more artistic, I'd lend a hand. Sadly, I never used the "canon" material. Instead my friend and I (he's got a masters in history you see) used them for a "real" world fantasy game set in...16th Century Europe. Sadly as soon as we found Rolemaster and set about to make it a game, I had to leave the area. (Federalis and such dontcha know)

But with FG we can finally get together and play again. Even though I am in hiding...on my volcanic island...with death rays and such.

Thanks Stuart, for all the work. At least I don't have to get it tomorrow or anything, but by mid-August I will DEFINITELY have my copy of FG setup and ready to roll. I miss RPing.

[Wargamer777]

I'd love to be able to finally play a game of Rolemaster. I had the rule books ages ago.. read through them, but never actually got to play. Count me in as a player for someone's RM campaign when the ruleset gets released.

[Stuart]

Good to hear :D

[Winterknight]

I currently design/build the persistent world Altharian Adventures for NWN. That is a conversion of my Rolemaster setting, unfortunately square-pegged into the round hole of the D&D ruleset. I would love to be able to run my gang through some online "real" Altharia games, and I've been anxiously awaiting this for some time. Kudos, and keep up the good work.

[Malovech]

Song of Ice and Fire or custom campaign is my plan once Rolemaster is complete for FG.

[libertad]

Good idea... what would it take to get A Song of Ice and Fire campaign going? whether off of the quickstart that was recently released or the core rulebook coming out in OCtober?

[longarms]

"The graphics are yet to be discussed and if any of you Rolemaster-ers out there have any ideas for "themes""

Can grevious injuries be the theme? Just kidding :) But seriously, I love those injury tables from rolemaster.

I'm pretty intimidated by the idea of trying to manage combat in an online rolemaster game from the DM side, but at the same time, I'm interested in seeing what tricks you came up with to make it easy.

mike

[Oberoten]

Filter-able tables? Type in the number and it shows the relevant entries.
SHOULD be doable easy enough?

[Foen]

Hi Obe, some good questions...

Doable easy enough

Toadwart has pulled rabbits out of hats:

- roll d100, add/subtract if you fall into the open ended bits. Repeat until it stops.
- compare the target with the weapon (what other rulesets take the target condition into account beyond its armor class?)
- is the weapon parryable by the defender (polearms, two-handed, one-handed)
- how are the attack bonus and defence bonus split by attacker/defender?
- what about the degree of woundedness, of both the attacker and the defender?
- Some weapons don't follow the table: there is an adjustment vs armor type

Phew! Sounds tough, but what about...

- The roll lands on a critical, how does that turn into effects on the combat tracker?
- The Referee wants to intervene, how do you make that visible/invisible to players?
- What about "immune to criticals" and other adjustments?
- Ignoring optional rules, how do you deal with optional play styles - does the Referee resolve table-lookups, or the players?

Of course, I wouldn't ask these questions if there weren't answers, but this probably represents one of the bigger FG projects. All the more fun for the developers.

*grins broadly*

Actually loads of fun, but quite tough too, and I've no idea what "A Song of Ice and Fire" entails, being a luddite in these matters!

Be good, or be careful.

Stuart

With apologies to anyone I offended

[Oberoten]

Absolutely no offence taken from my side at the least. I am kinda thick-skinned/skulled so I tend to miss even intended slights. ;)

I was actually mostly pondering how I would do this myself if it was my project... :) I mean if you have a fully automized table lockup you basically have a GM option tgo just run the world and IGNORE the system. Sounds great to me really. Would get us more GMs. :)

I am ALL for everything that lets me get more game time whenever I finally get some free-time.

- Obe

[Stuart]

"The graphics are yet to be discussed and if any of you Rolemaster-ers out there have any ideas for "themes""

Can grevious injuries be the theme? Just kidding :) But seriously, I love those injury tables from rolemaster.

I'm pretty intimidated by the idea of trying to manage combat in an online rolemaster game from the DM side, but at the same time, I'm interested in seeing what tricks you came up with to make it easy.

mike

Foen neatly summarised some of the "tricks" he and Toadwart have come up with - I think beta testing is going well with a couple of groups. The bestiary and treasures part of the final pdf (ChL, AL, SL and C&T complete the basic "set") are to be done and I think we have someone to start work on the graphics side.

I'll see if we can get some of the gruesome detail of the critical tables into the graphics somehow ;)

[thiha]

Wow, all posts here sound great/interesting for RM fans like me. I'll definitely get the ruleset when it becomes available at the store.

Any chance to include the Condensed Combat tables from Combat Companion, BTW?

[Stuart]

The license we have with ICE covers the Character Law, Arms Law, Spell Law and Creatures Treasures books/pdfs. Perhaps in the future, the various supplementals that ICE have produced, may get converted.

[thiha]

Thanks for your reply, Stuart. I guess even just the 4 core rulebooks will be tremendously great for RM fans, thinking of those massive tables & charts. Looking forward to seeing them on the store.

[thiha]

-Edit-

Rolemaster! Rolemaster!
Let's Be Grittier!
Rolemaster! Rolemaster! Rolemaster!

[Malovech]

Rolemaster! Rolemaster! Rolemaster!

Sorry just wanted to keep this thread alive. Any news DA?

[Culdraug]

MUST

PLAY

ROLEMASTER!!

:ogre::ogre:

[Culdraug]

Wake up!!! Anyone?

[Foen]

Rest assured, Culdraug, we have our top men working on this. Rolemaster will be the next game system DA publishes after Call of Cthulhu (which has already been released to manufacturing). RM is a complex system and has already been through a first round of play-testing, but there is more work required before it is suitable for release.

I'm not expecting it to hit the streets for a few months yet.

Stuart

[Sigurd]

Call of Cthulhu (which has already been released to manufacturing)

I have visions of a gigantic Digital Adventures factory with hundreds of life sized Elder Gods on Ginormous Scaffolding just waiting for the Christmas rush.

I'm eagerly awaiting both titles.


Sigurd

[Culdraug]

Thanks for the update!

[Foen]

As an aside, the current version of the RM ruleset has support for plug-in components (AKA extensions) to replace selected bits of the rules. While it would be quite a complex undertaking, it isn't impossible to narrow down the armour types and weapon tables to create a kind of Beginners Edition Role Playing (BERP) using this feature.

I just thought it was an intriguing possibility, and potentially increases the compatibility with some discontinued materials based on a well-known fantasy setting.

:D

Foen

[Winterknight]

Does this mean that (theoretically), one could use the reduced armor and simplifed tables from the RMC Combat Companion?

What exactly would be involved with such an adjustment? I.e., for a non-XML guy, how complicated is complicated? How are you dealing with rules options like level bonuses, and such?

Need playtesters? My 20-year veterans of RM would love to play a few games thru FG, considering our geographic separation. You can reach me on the Iron Crown website forums, with the same user name.

[Foen]

There are two parts to this challenge: the basic ruleset needs to be tweaked to expect plug-in components; and those components need to be written.

The first part is actually the hardest, as the list of possible plugins is enormous and it isn't feasible to anticipate or implement that many. As a result, a call has to be made regarding which ones would be most useful. The ones that make the list become 'hooks' for future changes.

Once the call has been made, writing the plug-in bits isn't too hard. You'd need to understand or learn how XML works and have a grasp of programming languages (Fantasy Grounds uses Lua, but it is quite close to Basic or other scripting languages).

The ruleset won't come with a load of options out of the box, but if I can hit a good balance, hopefully the right hooks will be there for community plug-ins.

Cheers

Foen

[Foen]

PS. We have Vroomfogle on the team, not just code monkeys :bandit:, and he'd be a good point of contact for community discussions.

[araziel]

This is absolutely riveting news. I'm not at all that into the whole D20 jazz and I was debating if I should bother buying FG II or not. Having something like RoleMaster incorporated into FG II would be absolutely awesome. It's imho the epitome of a D100 system, and even though it's a bit bogged down with all the tables, for me that's part of the fun.
Also having a true D100 system like RoleMaster would probably make playing other simplified systems such as RuneQuest a bit easier, using some of the tables and systems from RoleMaster in RuneQuest is afterall a breeze and something I often did years ago.
Can't wait :)

[Foen]

Welcome to the FG forums Araziel, hope you find us friendly and helpful!

I'm running a thread on the state of the RM ruleset here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9324).

Cheers

Foen

[Quasar]

but I think new and old RMCers will be pleased with a much more detailed combat tracker and a clever way of handling all those die roll/table-look-up events.

Certainly. There's quite a bit of detail needed to keep track of injuries (bleeds, temporary penalties, permanent penalties and the like).