Official: What's New in RMSS

by I.C.E.

Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 11:28:37 -0400 From: RMGuru@aol.com Reply-To: rolemaster@tower.clark.net To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: What's New in RMSS
By popular demand, here is the "What's New in RMSS" stuff.

ROLE PLAYING WITH ROLEMASTER

This section provides an overview of the some of the key concepts and mechanisms of the Rolemaster Standard System. It also summarizes some of the key differences between this edition of Rolemaster and earlier editions, and it provides an overview of the RMSS and the RM product line. Finally, this section presents some definitions of some commonly used key terms along with the RMSS calculation and dice rolling conventions.

1.1 KEY CONCEPTS AND MECHANISMS

This section is meant to serve as a summary for and introduction to some of the key features of the RMSS. Some of the major factors that separate the RMSS from other FRP systems will be briefly described here. This discussion should be enough to allow many experienced fantasy role players to get the basic ideas behind this system, then each section (or product) dealing with a specific feature can be for details.

The basics of the RMSS are relatively simple to master. It is designed for those acquainted with FRP in general, or for those interested in a flavorful, detailed set of guidelines not rules. The RMSS is intended for GMs who may wish to pick and choose their some of the parameters that define the environment of their game. ICE hopes that GMs will feel free to build upon the foundations provided.

1.1.1 - ROLEMASTER STANDARD RULES

The Rolemaster Standard System is designed to provide both the Gamemaster and his players with tremendous detail and flexibility in character development and the resolution of a wide variety of actions and activities.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS (STATS)

The RMSS also provides a unique approach to the statistics that define a character's physical and mental attributes (i.e., stats). Under these guidelines each stat is quite important, and no one or two stats clearly dominate. Rarely will a character be without flaws or a "chink in his armor." A character must choose his strengths and weaknesses. In the RMSS there are 10 stats, each represented by a number between 1 and 100 (1-100). They provide detail and flavor and remain relatively simple to work with.

The stats include 4 physical characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Quickness, Agility. They also include 4 mental characteristics: Intuition, Empathy, Memory, Reasoning. Finally, there are two stats included that represent characteristics partially mental and partially physical: Presence, Self Discipline. These stats are described in detail in Section 5.0. Each stat may affect the ability of the character to perform specific actions; this is discussed in Section 5.4.

Each stat has two values. The potential ("ultimate") value (genetically) that the character's stat can obtain. The temporary value represents the value of the characteristic's current level. The temporary stats can rise (due to character advancement and other factors) and fall (due to injury, old age, etc.). However, the potentials rarely change. Of course, the temporary stat for a particular characteristic can never be higher than the potential for the same characteristic. For example, a character could have a temporary Strength of 80 and a potential of 92; and the 80 would be his effective Strength for combat purposes (circumstances could raise or lower the 80 but never above 92). This feature is described in detail in Sections 5.1 and 12.0.

SKILLS & SKILL CATEGORIES

As a character advances in levels he develops and trains in certain abilities called skills and skill categories. His capability (i.e., rank) in each skill and skill category affects his chances of accomplishing certain actions and activities (e.g., fighting, maneuvering, spell casting, etc.). The key features of skills in this system are:

1) Each skill is grouped with other similar skills in a skill category. Both the skill and its skill category affect his chances of accomplishing certain actions.

2) Any character may develop any skill and skill category regardless of profession. However, depending upon the specific character's training early in life, certain skills and skill categories require more or less effort relative to other characters. How much effort is required to develop a skill or skill category depends upon the profession chosen by the player.

3) Based upon the values of certain stats (Section 15.0), each character has a total amount of "effort" to devote to skill and skill category development at each level.

4) Each character has complete freedom in how to allocate his "effort" among the various skills and skill categories he decides to develop. Development costs will be the same for characters of the same profession and will tend to reduce the degree of variation. Yet, this "cost effectiveness" will direct development only along vaguely similar lines.

The skills and skill categories are the ones required by normal play, and a Gamemaster can easily add more if his specific game requires others. Skills are discussed in great detail in Section 6.0 and Appendix A-l.

PROFESSIONS

Each character has a profession which reflects his training and inclinations in early life. A profession dictates the ease in which a particular skill or skill category may be developed, but it does not generally act to prohibit development. Thus, a player is allowed to enhance his abilities in certain skill areas which would not be accessible to his profession under other systems. Only the "cost" in time and lost opportunities in "easily developed skills" act to bias the selection process.

Each profession requires different "efforts" to develop each individual skill . For example, in order to gain a certain expertise in using a sword, a Fighter might only expend 20% of the effort that a Magician might: this is because a Fighter is trained in physical activities (fighting in particular), while a Magician has spent much of his early life studying spells. However, the effort required for the same Fighter to learn to cast a spell might be 20 times that required of a Magician, and he would never be very effective with it. Twenty different professions are provided and discussed in detail in Section 4.0 and Appendix A-4.

EXPERIENCE LEVELS

Each character while adventuring will reach stages of development called experience levels (or just "levels") . At each new level the character becomes more powerful and skillful in his chosen areas of expertise. Ideally, for realism, the character would develop after each activity or experience. However, this is extremely difficult to handle in practice. It necessitates stopping action in the game, performing bookkeeping, calculating the value of the experience, and determining what the character learned. Thus, we limit these factors by allowing a character to develop only at discrete intervals called levels (this factor is common to many FRP systems). Levels are discussed in detail in Section 7.0.

INDIVIDUALIZING CHARACTERS

It is often desirable to provide each character with certain factors that make him (or her) unique. This system already does this to a certain extent: 20 professions and complete freedom in skill development. We also provide a variety of other suggestions, including: 16 detailed cultures/races, role traits, equipment, detailed personal backgrounds, background options, training packages, talents, special items, hobbies, etc.

1.1.2 - ARMS LAW

Arms Law applies the RMSS's unique system for handing attacks to melee and missile combat. Its key features include:

* A fantasy medieval melee and missile combat system with individual attack tables for twenty-nine weapons and statistics for dozens more.

* Thirteen attack tables that integrate the size, instincts, and fighting patterns of a wide variety of animals, monsters, and practitioners of the martial arts.

* Twelve critical strike tables that give specific, detailed damage descriptions for a variety of different types of attack results: slashing, puncturing, crushing, grappling, unbalancing, etc.

* Two fumble tables that gives specific, detailed descriptions of the results of various types of weapon fumbles and attack failures.

1.1.3 - SPELL LAW

One of the basic aspects of the RMSS is the use of spell lists and experience levels (or just levels). The ability to cast and learn spells is closely tied to a character's level.

Spells are grouped into lists. A spell list is an ordering of spells based upon their level, intricacy, and potency. All spells in a list have common characteristics and attributes, although each may have vastly different effects and applications. Spell lists are grouped into categories based upon professions and realms of power (Channeling, Essence, and Mentalism). There are over 2,000 spell descriptions organized into 186 spell lists divided into:

* 1 set of "open" spell lists for each realm of power (i.e., spell lists that are learnable by characters in any profession of the realm and even by some professions outside the realm)

* 1 set of "closed" spell lists for each realm of power (i.e., spell lists are learnable by most characters who cast spells from the realm)

* 15 sets of professional "base" spell lists (i.e., a set of base spell lists are usually learnable only by characters of a specific profession)

* 1 set of "evil" spell lists for each realm of power (i.e., spell lists usually learnable only by "evil" characters)

* 3 sets of "other" professional "base" lists (i.e., spell lists associated with non-standard professions).

In addition, Spell Law uses the RMSS's unique system for handing attacks using: critical strike tables (for heat, cold, electricity, etc.), a spell failure table, a resistance roll table, and a variety of spell attack tables.

1.1.4 - GAMEMASTER LAW

Gamemaster Law is an aid for those who wish to create and employ an alternate world setting for their fantasy role playing game. It is designed to give Gamemasters an idea of the essential elements of a fantasy realm, and provides ways to develop a rich, consistent foundation upon which to build as their campaign progresses. It also provides a wealth of material that can help a GM handle difficult and unusual situations that can arise in a FRP game. Some key features include guidelines for:

* Determining what type of game to run based upon the types of players available and the GM's personality and skills.

* Designing exciting and intriguing stories, NPCs, and backgrounds; and, letting them evolve to create an everchanging world for adventuring.

* Enhancing the enjoyment of gaming sessions.

* Tournament gaming and on-line gaming.

* Using RMSS mechanisms for very specific situations: commerce & trading, healing, diseases, poisons, equipment, etc.

1.2 WHAT'S NEW IN THE RMSS

This section summarizes some of the key differences between this edition of Rolemaster and earlier editions. This material assumes that the reader is familiar with the earlier editions of RM.

Races & Cultures -- Mixed Men and Half-orcs have been added. High Elves have been renamed to Grey Elves, Fair Elves to High Elves, Normal (Lesser) Orcs to Common Orcs, and Orcs (Greater) to Greater Orcs. Trolls are no longer included as potential characters in the RMSS. In addition, each Common Man and Mixed Man character belongs to one of six Cultures.

An extensive, one-page description of each race and culture is provided in Appendix A-3. Many of the system parameters for the races differ from the old values (e.g., SD stat mods for Elves are lower, there are new, race-specific skill rank progressions for Body Development and Power Point Development, etc.).

Professions -- New: Layman (the old No Profession), Dabbler (an Essence Semi spell user), Magent (a Mentalism Semi spell user), and Paladin (a Channeling Semi spell user). The Healer is now a Channeling-Mentalism Hybrid spell user), and the Alchemist, Seer, and Astrologer are not included in the RMSS.

Each Hybrid spell user has three prime requisites (stats) -- its two realm stats and Self Discipline (Healer: In/Pr/SD, Mystic: Em/Pr/SD, and Sorcerer: Em/In/SD).

A profession no longer has level bonuses associated with it, instead, it has fixed profession bonuses. An extensive, one-page description of each profession is provided in Appendix A-5.

Stats -- Temporary stats are now generated by assigning 600 + 10d10 points. This is a one-to-one assignment for stats under 91, with a increased cost for stats above 90. Each potential stat is determined by rolling a number of dice related to the difference between the temporary and the potential. Stat gain rolls are also handled in a slightly different manner.

Stat bonuses are approximately one third of what they previously were. However, instead of averaging the stat bonuses applicable to a skill, you now just add the stat bonuses and three stat bonuses instead of two apply to most skills. This makes calculating the stat bonus for each skill much easier. Taking this new mechanism into account, stat bonuses are higher than before (e.g., +15 for a 90 stat and +30 for a 100 stat).

Skills -- Most of the Companion skills have been incorporated and they have been totally reorganized into new groupings called skill categories. The total bonus for a skill is based upon its skill ranks and upon the rank of its skill category. Ranks in skills and skill categories must be developed separately, but a skill category rank affects all of the skills in that category (i.e., it is a "similar skill" mechanism).

The standard progression for a skill rank bonus is now: -15 if no ranks, +3 for ranks 1- 10, +2 for ranks 11-20, +1 for ranks 21-30, and +0.5 for ranks over 30 -- the notation for this is "-15 * 3 * 2 * 1 * 0.5." The standard progression for a skill category rank bonus is now: "-15 * 2 * 1 * 0.5 * 0." So, if you develop one rank in a skill and one rank in its category each time you develop a skill, the combines progression is: "-30 * 5 * 3 * 1.5 * 0.5." This is a bit more generous than the old progression of "-25 * 5 * 2 * 0.5 * 0.5" for skill ranks alone.

Some skill categories use a non-standard progression (e.g., Body Development, Power Point Development, Spell Lists, etc.). Skill categories with non-similar skills use a "Combined" progression of: "-30 * 5 * 3 * 1.5 * 0.5" for the skills and zero for all ranks of the skill category (i.e., development of the skill category gives no skill bonus). Certain skills can also be given lower (or higher) than normal DP costs by placing them in Occupation, Everyman, and Restricted skill categories usually due to culture/ race, profession, or a factor of the individual GM's world system.

Skill Development -- With the new standard progression outlined above, you must develop two ranks (skill and skill category) to get the approximate skill rank bonus of the old system. To account for this, a character gets approximately twice the Development Points each level. In addition, since a skill category's bonus applies to all skills in the category, developing multiple skills in the same category will effectively have a reduced DP cost.

There is no longer a DP cost of "#/*" -- at most three ranks (#/#/#) can be developed in a skill (or skill category) each level. The ranks developed during adolescence skill development are now based upon the character' s culture/race (i.e., DPs are not used).

DPs can now be used to develop Training Packages. A Training Package is a group of related ranks for skills and skill categories that can be developed at a reduced DP cost.

Spell List Development -- Skill ranks are developed for each spell list -- a spell is "learned" each time a rank is developed in its list. The DP cost for this varies based on the type of list (e.g., base, open, etc.), the number of the rank being developed, and how many different lists are developed in a given level advancement.

Background Options -- A much wider variety of Background Options have been provided, including a balanced set of Talents and Flaws (see Appendix A-5).

Recovery & Exhaustion -- Recovery and exhaustion for Power Points, Hits, and Exhaustion Points are formalized and handled in a new way.

Role Traits -- An system of "role traits" is provided to help you develop your character's motivation, personality, alignment, and physical appearance.

Performing Actions -- The entire turn sequence has been redone to provide for a more fluid resolution of actions and activities. Each character may take up to three "actions" a round. A general decision on how fast to attempt to accomplish an action must be made: as a snap action (very fast, with a -20 modification), as a normal action, or as a deliberate action (slow, but with a +10 modification). Within each of these types, actions are resolved based upon each character's Initiative Roll (2d10+Qu bonus+mods).

In addition, the resolution of attacks has been generalized, combining all of the old attack resolution rules from Arms Law, Spell Law, and Character Law. The static maneuver tables have been expanded and standardized. The movement and encumbrance rules have been finetuned.

Finally, the old Extraordinary Spell Failure rules have been redone and incorporated into a spell casting static maneuver that is required for all spell casting that does not meet the "automatic spell casting" requirements.


John W. Curtis III
Rolemaster Series Editor
Electronic Media Director
Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc.

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