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Converting between MERP/RM and Palladium?

Started by Bloody Stupid Johnson, August 19, 2012, 11:17:44 PM

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Bloody Stupid Johnson

(Split off from the 'Invasion' thread)

Has anyone ever used anything from Rolemaster/MERP with Palladium, or have any ideas for doing so? Either conversions, or using rules directly e.g. stealing crits from Arms Law to Palladium Fantasy and such..
Good idea or heresy?

David Johansen

Naw, Palladium's just about a perfect fit, multiply the bonuses by 25.
Fantasy Adventure Comic, games, and more http://www.uncouthsavage.com

Bradford C. Walker

The various forms of spell-caster professions would be worth considering, as is the use of Rolemaster's division of Essence, Channeling and Mentalism as power bases for magic-users (as well as the Pure/Hybrid/Semi division).

Bloody Stupid Johnson

Quote from: David Johansen;573898Naw, Palladium's just about a perfect fit, multiply the bonuses by 25.

You mean by 5??? (i.e. to convert e.g. strike/parry bonus in Palladium to a skill bonus % in RM ?)
I'd have thought the % based skills would convert over as is, although RM is a bit more open-ended.


Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;573899The various forms of spell-caster professions would be worth considering, as is the use of Rolemaster's division of Essence, Channeling and Mentalism as power bases for magic-users (as well as the Pure/Hybrid/Semi division).

I guess porting RM to Palladium this wouldn't be too hard, although going the other way is harder. Guidelines in the Rifts Conversion Book might even work for some of this if you're allowing RM spellcasters as an alternative type of wizard.

Another option might be to use RM spells/magic directly to expand  Palladium spell lists? e.g. if Mentalism = Psionics, a character might be able to trade a couple of Palladium psionic powers for a Mentalism list?
(although Palladium's lists go to 10 instead of 20 ?)

David Johansen

#4
Even in RM2 a L1 fighter's gonna be pushing +50 with their main weapon.  In RMSS they could be around +120.  In Palladium, even allowing for a +1 from an 18 PP (16 in 1e) you're topping out at +3.  So at the least x 10 and probably more like x 25. In Palladium +1 / 3 levels is about as good as the WP skills get so at 15th level you'd be looking at +5 or 6 if it started at +2 which some things do.  Which in RM at x 25 is still only + 125.  You could use your skill percentages directly though.

I think I'd just use Spell Law equilancies.  Warlocks get Mage lists Wizards are Wizards (woo hooo Arcane) Diabolists and Summoners might work well as ritual magic rules which RM is pretty short on outside the Essence Companion for RMSS.

Really though, you might want to wait and see the new edition before you go looking at Palladium as a quicker and easier character creation option.  I worked on it and I think it does a good job of addressing many of the long standing off putting issues RM character creation had.
Fantasy Adventure Comic, games, and more http://www.uncouthsavage.com

Bloody Stupid Johnson

OK that makes sense (on the % conversions). It may be that for moving characters between systems, its best to just use the character levels to determine the combat skills.
 
I have a solo online Palladium game that I'm in currently - as a player so its hard to directly subvert to RM, but you never know...