Our group has been playing Rolemaster as our main game for over 20 years, and i completely agree with the OP!

We have played very short campaigns, one which spanned nearly 8 years, by webcam, by email and now by fantasy grounds.  I think it is fair to say that if i could only ever play 1 game, RM would be it.

My dreams have now come true, and i am about to have a RM book published!

Long live RM!

I think Rolemaster is the King of Rules for games.  There may have never been more for any system.  To me, making those rules mandatory for the GM means the game is near unplayable for most everyone.  And the rules are not necessarily playable either as nonuniform as they are.  (not the dice rolls, but the result rules)

That and probably the worst GM book in the history of the game make it a nonstarter for me.

I remember using Spell Law with Basic D&D back at college. I vaguely recall spending ages rolling up a character for an introductory 1 on 1 with my housemate. I died in the first encounter with a giant spider or two. That was enough for me.

To be fair my housemate ran a group that would spend the whole of Sunday at it for months on end, so fair play there.

Quote from: Joshua Ford;351070I remember using Spell Law with Basic D&D back at college. I vaguely recall spending ages rolling up a character for an introductory 1 on 1 with my housemate. I died in the first encounter with a giant spider or two. That was enough for me.

I think that this is more of a GM-style issue than an RM-specific problem.  I have had characters die in the first encounter of an AD&D game as well as RM games.  

RM is more difficult for a new group to just pick up and play for new players than some games, but it is not a complex game.  If that first session you triad had been with me as GM, it would have gone completely differently!

(Not that i am adverse to characters dying.  If they persist in doing stupid things or are very unlucky, they will die.  But that is life)

The thread title seems to me so self-evident as to preclude further meaningful discussion.

Still, to be helpful I will say that I played RM for years back in the day, and had a great time with it.  Huge fun, got a bit bloated with all the supplements I recall.  Once you learned the rules, it was pretty fast to play, of course getting to that point did require a bit of time...

Quote from: bottg;351072I think that this is more of a GM-style issue than an RM-specific problem.  I have had characters die in the first encounter of an AD&D game as well as RM games.  

RM is more difficult for a new group to just pick up and play for new players than some games, but it is not a complex game.  If that first session you triad had been with me as GM, it would have gone completely differently!

(Not that i am adverse to characters dying.  If they persist in doing stupid things or are very unlucky, they will die.  But that is life)

Oh I know - I think it was the amount of time I'd spent creating the character and despite that he was still finished off in short order.

I still have Spell Law and Arms Law upstairs, if only because I like reading the critical tables and they've given my ideas.

Nice to know you'd be gentle with me on the first time though

MERP, with various bits of Rolemaster taped on (e.g. Arms Law), was my game of choice from 1985-1988 (high school years).  We played a lot of it, almost every week, for three years straight.

Good times.  Although I made some questionable decisions as GM.  (Mind-flayers and characters from other novels should not have been introduced in Fourth Age Eriador.  *sigh*)

I tried to play RMSS in autumn 1999, but hated it.  Should have stuck with MERP.  

I would like to give RMX a spin sometime, to see if it shares the spirit of MERP.  I would use a homebrew setting this time, though, as I'm not presently interested in running games in Middle-earth.

Quote from: Joshua Ford;351081Oh I know - I think it was the amount of time I'd spent creating the character and despite that he was still finished off in short order.

I still have Spell Law and Arms Law upstairs, if only because I like reading the critical tables and they've given my ideas.

Nice to know you'd be gentle with me on the first time though

I think that RM is a special case with new players.  If they play in a game where every combat takes 4 hours, there are hundreds of tables to look up, character creation takes 3 hours and their new character dies in the first fight, they get a bad impression of the game and this colours their view thereafter.

This of course does happen sometimes in RM, but is not representative of the vast majority of games.  RM run by a good, experienced GM is an awesome experience.

EDIT: I might even think about running some con games next year for newbies just to show them how much fun RM can be!

Quote from: bottg;351057My dreams have now come true, and i am about to have a RM book published!

Lucky man! What is it?

Quote from: One Horse Town;351087Lucky man! What is it?

Some information is already out there, and i don't think it is a secret any longer!

It is a Rome campaign setting for RM Classic (and obviously RM2).  There are races, training packages, weapons, armour, new magic and combat styles and new monsters.  There is also a fairly thorough description of the setting itself, as well as advice on types of campaign etc.  As written it is Rome + some magic (although the magic is commensurate with the setting) although it would be easy to do pure historical or all out Gonzo Rome-stylie!

Quote from: bottg;351091Some information is already out there, and i don't think it is a secret any longer!

It is a Rome campaign setting for RM Classic (and obviously RM2).  There are races, training packages, weapons, armour, new magic and combat styles and new monsters.  There is also a fairly thorough description of the setting itself, as well as advice on types of campaign etc.  As written it is Rome + some magic (although the magic is commensurate with the setting) although it would be easy to do pure historical or all out Gonzo Rome-stylie!

This sounds great!  Consider yourself having sold one copy already.  

I don't know if Rolemaster is the king of games, maybe that's saying too much, but what I'm sure of, is that Rolemaster is the king of RPGs with damage charts. I like the damage charts of Warhammer, Hârnmaster, The Riddle of Steel, but the crit charts of Rolemaster are my favorite. No doubt.

Quote from: bottg;351091Some information is already out there, and i don't think it is a secret any longer!

It is a Rome campaign setting for RM Classic (and obviously RM2).  There are races, training packages, weapons, armour, new magic and combat styles and new monsters.  There is also a fairly thorough description of the setting itself, as well as advice on types of campaign etc.  As written it is Rome + some magic (although the magic is commensurate with the setting) although it would be easy to do pure historical or all out Gonzo Rome-stylie!

Let me know when it is out, I'd love to grab it!

Quote from: tellius;351128Let me know when it is out, I'd love to grab it!

Excellent

There are a few last bits to finalise (i understand that the east coast snowstorms in the US arn't helping!) and then it should be released.  It could be any day now.

When he said 'Rolemaster is the King of Games', I read it in the same vein as Budweiser: The King of Beers, The King of Queens sitcom, or maybe Michael Jackson the King of Pop. Not really a complement in my book.

IMO, Rolemaster is the Emerson, Lake & Palmer of Games. Big, bombastic prog fantasy with an emphasis on virtuoso chops over three-chord riffage. Good for ambience but you just can't dance to it. The best you can hope for is some interpretive flailing about that's not very entertaining if you're not high.

P.S. T&T would have to be the Jerry Lee Lewis of Gaming. Old-school drunken rocker ruined over a naive 15 year old.