This week I finally got my game off the ground! It's been a long time coming, and I've tried to draft several campaign settings before finally settling on what I wanted to do.
In the end, I just decided to let them make characters, give them a situation to deal with and see where things went from there. I normally do so much better while winging things anyway.
And I think the campaign could be described as "A Gnome and a Goblin went into a bar..."
RMSS, by the way. The PC's are a gnomish Mana Molder, and a Goblin swashbuckler.
(Yes, its a small group, but you work with what you got.)
The game opens with each of the pc's being ambushed, someone waylays them and snaps a black hood over their heads. Later, they are in cages with several other people of different races, as well as a few caged large animals. Two hobgoblins come in, pick out the two pc's, throw some rusty weapons at them, cheap armor, and force them out into an arena. It's a moderate crowd, but an excited one as the two face off against a wolf.
Within the first few rounds, the gnome decides he allocated his weapon skills wrong, gets the wolf's attention and gets ko'd. The goblin, on the other hand is doing his best to deal with the thing on his own. Neither one are scoring a whole lot of damage, but they are consistent. Then he scores a stun result on the wolf, and things begin to turn around.
The gnome regains consciousness, and starts to remember his spells. Due to a mistake in bookkeeping, he manages to cast a spell that toasts the wolf pretty thoroughly, earning him the kill EP's.
Then comes the escape. They fight their way out of the pit, steal a wagon parked outside, and head off into the desert.
This was my first time really GMing rolemaster, and I think things went pretty good. It was also the gnome's first real campaign (he's helped me in the past with mock combats to learn the rules), and the goblins first RM game ever.
So mistakes were made. Like the gnome having Fire Law (I allowed him to switch so he would have something useful at besides his mana warriors), and not realizing he couldn't cast 4th level spells yet. I missed it too. The fire wall was fun, though. He also has the mind attack list (granted as a part of a TP), and made extensive use of the Jolts spell. The goblin player had a great time as well, even though we did need to spend more time looking up spell results than his tricks in the fight.
I think I may have managed to create a couple of converts.
The last time I ran a game it was that 'other' game that everyone talks about so much, so I was surprised at how much tougher a basic wolf was. So we all learned a bit.
Next time we play, they'll be approached by someone with a business proposition. We'll see if they'll be willing to help start a war...
