Topic: RoCo III Printing Variations

[Elrich Maltah]

I recently discovered that there are two printed versions (but not "editions" or "printings") of Rolemaster Companion III. The easiest way to tell them apart is to look at the Level Bonuses for the Duelist profession on page 6.

The first version has the following:
Arms Law Combat +3
Athletic Skills +2
Body Development +3
Gymnastic Skills +2

The second version has the following:
Arms Law Combat +3
Athletic Skills +2
Body Development +3
Concentration Skills +2

I was tipped off to this discovery by reading the Coleman's Corner section of Iron Crown Quarterly #7. Coleman mentioned that the Gymnastic bonus is a mistake and he prefers the Concentration bonus that the writer mentioned.

Both versions are printed as a First U.S. Edition, Dec. 1988. IQ #7 was printed March 15, 1990, which makes me think the second version would have come out roughly around that time. I've never seen any mention of this in any online archives of ICE products.

I just got the second of the two versions today and so haven't yet done a thorough comparison. Does anyone here know what other differences there are between them?

[EltonJ]

Hmm, I think I have the second of the two printings.  But my copy is in storage, so I can't confirm.

[Spectre771]

I have 3 copies.  I need to see which ones I have now.  I like either of the bonuses for the profession.  I can see both making sense, but the duelist prefers only honorable, fair combat so I can see arguments can be mad against either of the bonuses as well.  Quite the conundrum. 

I wonder, armed with this knowledge, will GMs inform the player of this?  Offer them to choose one or the other bonus, or deny one or the other bonus.  Personally, I think I would allow the players to pick the bonus that better fits the archetype they have envisioned for their PC.  RM is nothing if not about having options!

[Elrich Maltah]

The issue with the original version is that, as the letter writer pointed out, Gymnastic skills are a subset of Athletic skills, and giving them both bonuses makes one wonder if Gymnastic skills should actually be at +4. It's a bit redundant otherwise.

The greater question to me is are there any other changes between the two versions, or was that just slipped in as a rolling change midway through the print run? There's no official indication of revisions on the title page.

[jdale]

Generally speaking a change would happen because someone thought the original is wrong. The overlap is a good candidate for why; it sounded sensible but the implementation doesn't work. Could also just have gotten wrong in the original layout and then fixed in the second printing. Can't really say without talking to those involved (or seeing their conversations), but presumably the intention of changing it is that the later version was preferred by ICE for some reason.