Topic: Arms Law Submissions

[Keen_Man]

Zam the Evil sorcerer participating in a battle within a war helping defend the stronghold he is in.

Zam "I will cast vacuum into the battle at the enemy. Paying extra and making some rolls to make it larger effect"

GM "you will catch some of your own troops no matter how you do that"

Zam "Thats fine its only B crits I just want to toss some confusion and panic around"

GM "ok successful casting roll crit result for enemy troupes"

Zam "hmm leg wounds cool that should mess up that group"

GM "ok roll crit for the few of your troupes in the area"

Zam "01! sweet nothing on them"

GM "and lastly roll crit result on lester"

Zam "whow Lester is in there?"

Lester "frick I slipped the gm a note 5 mins ago about sneaking in there"

Zam "ok lets see here *roll* double zero?" O.o

GM "Ok Less part of your skull flies through your brain pan. Here's a blank character sheet"

Zam "Damn.... Sure glad I am evil already"

[imagine1]

Hi guys, my first post so hope i'm doing this right. Realise the competition is over but just happy to share some of my memories. The first time I ever played Rolemaster was at Barnsley Sixth Form college in England back in around 1987. I was blown away by the system and was glad someone else was running it at the time. I was invited in to the role-play group there and created my first character. A barbarian type using all of the tools at our  disposal, basic rules plus companion 1, those were the days! I created a barbarian type and everything was going well until the second encounter at which time we came first to face with a giant troll! Yes, a normal troll was not enough for our DM, it had to be giant. ( Damn those Creatures & Treasures extra rules! ). He swung and almost killed 2 of the party in the first couple of turns before I decided I might as well give it a go or die trying. Rolled my attack, a very open-ended roll for the first time. Then came the crit. What do I need to do? Roll D100 and tell me what you get. You need a high roll. Blast! 66. What does that mean? 
The rest is history. Glad to see things going well with the system and looking forward to getting back in to this wonderful game. All the very best guys.
going to Essen this year. Will anyone be there?

[markc]

imagine1,
 Welcome to the ICE Forums and you did it right.
MDC

[Realm Master K]

I have been using Iron Crown Enterprises products since they first came out over 30 years ago. I still have my original Arms Law with the parchment cards. One of the most amazing Arms Law moments, we have ever had happened over 10 years ago, but it is still clear to me today as if it happened yesterday.

I was running an epic Rolemaster campaign in a post apocalyptic fantasy setting. The characters were travelling through a dangerous forest of giant trees, much, much larger than Sequoias. They had already been attacked by Giant Beetles, Giant Spiders, and Giant Poisonous Snakes, who had bitten everyone in the party except for an Elven Magent who nursed the rest back to health while guarding their bodies. The party consisted of a Wood Elven Ranger, a Half Elven Female Bard, a Dwarven Fighter, a Dwarven Cleric, a Grey Elven Rogue, and a Wood Elven Magent. They were noticeably cautious as they had paid the price earlier for being bold.

As they travelled carefully through the forest, I rolled up a random encounter, which came up to be a mundane creature, just a little critter that couldn't hurt anyone. However, I decided to have a little fun with the party since they were so nervous. I told the Ranger that he heard something rustling in a bush just ahead. The party stopped, and the Ranger slowly stalked his way forward to the bush, but nothing was visible, the bush was just too big, and thick to see into. So he took his scimitar and swung it at the bush. When he rolled, he fumbled, and the fumble result was Swallow your tongue in the excitement of the moment, you spend the next 3 rounds choking. So the player playing the Ranger begins to act out his character choking. The rest of the party is torn between laughing at him, and being concerned for his safety. So the Dwarven Cleric steps forward and swings his mace at the bush. He fumbles, and when he rolls for his fumble, he rolls the exact same result, so he starts choking as well. Now two of the players are acting out their characters choking, and the rest of the players were doing their best not to laugh. In the excitement, the cute furry bunny runs away, and none of the characters notice. it. When the Ranger finally stops choking, he backs away from the bush a goodly distance, and when the Cleric stops choking he joins the Ranger, with the rest of the party a little further back, eyeing the bush nervously. The entire gaming group was arguing about why the bush was causing everyone that attacks it to choke. (This was one of the best examples I have ever seen of keeping player knowledge, and character knowledge separate) I thought the encounter was over; then, the player playing the Ranger, pipes up and says.
"What kind of bush is it?"
At first, I was thinking, crap, I have no idea what kind of bush this is, then I had a moment of inspiration, and without missing a beat, I said ...

"It's a chokecherry bush!"

Needless to say, we couldn't play for the next 5 to 10 minutes as every one of the players and myself were laughing uncontrollably. Some of us fell out of our chairs, and everytime we stopped laughing, somebody would say something to start us up again.

To this day, this was one of the greatest moments of our Rolemaster gaming, and it had me hooked on Rolemaster with no chance of a Resistance Roll.

I hope you enjoyed this Rolemaster moment, I know we did.

Get Real, Get Rolemaster

Realm Master K

[markc]

SpaceMaster Privateer’s Arms Law:
  I hope this is nottoo late to enter as my back was killing me yesterday do to gaming Saturdaynight and I took some medication for my bad back. It put me to sleep for mostof the day. Good for my back bad for Arms Law submission.
  I was GM’ing a SM:Pgame in which it was fairly low weapon technology outside of the main coresystems. The PC’s could carry modern weapons (lasers, blasters, plasma weapons)but it was very likely that they would be confiscated if (and when) they werefound by the star port inspection teams. So it was a basically firearm andstunner game with the PC’s having older design looking advanced stunners. Sothey looked like Mk III stunners by all accounts but could be upped in power toMk V with some simple actions. I also ruled that stunners from advancedtechnological societies could be tuned to defeat lower technology anti-stunnerear devices, and the technology level the PC’s stunners were from the earpieces of the local military and police would provide no protection.     
  The PC’s were on thetrail of Imperial Diamonds, which are diamonds formed under special conditionsin space. The Imperial Diamonds appear as black diamonds until worn by andImperial Noble or come into contact with an Imperial Nobles blood. After whichthey lose their black color, become clear and shine with a remarkable innerlight. The degree to which the gems black opacity fades and the magnitude ofthe sine is related to the station and pedigree of the person or blood it comesinto contact with. Imperial Diamonds are also psioniclly active or psionic in theirown nature and their power is related to their size and composition and clarityduring the diamonds growth. The Imperial Diamond the PC’s were chasing down wasbelieved to be fairly good sized and had some powers of domination. Which iswhy the Imperial Authorities wanted the gem for themselves and out of the FrontierWorlds where whoever had it could cause a lot of trouble.
  The party was in anunderground military/government complex and had used their stunners to greateffect on a number of guards. They had some good advantages as the psionic PCcould use clairvoyance, clairaudience and a scanner to help determine where theguards were and come in with stunners blaring. One PC said “Boy I love stunners!No killing. And we can tie the stunned up so they cannot worn anyone, even ifthey do wake up after I administer the sleeping drugs.” One of the players said“Well just to be careful and to help one of use look like a guard I will dressup as one and take his AK-47 type weapon”
  Then the partyenters a large fairly empty hanger section and see a group dressed in robes (ofcourse right? They are cultists) listening to a man speak. The party notices thatthere is no way to really sneak up upon the group so they just walk casuallytowards them. The speaker notices them about 100 yards away and is notexpecting anyone for several hours (He has used the domination powers of theImperial Diamond to influence the minds of the guards). The speaker tells theenslaved nobles to “Defend me, by taking down that group at all costs” The 20or so cultist charge the group. Now the PC’s know that their stunners do nothave a great range so they decide to use suppression fire from the AK to slowthe cultists down and then maneuver and use the stunners to stun people as theygo. The suppressing fire PC’s skill is not great only in the 50’s so he doesnot really think he will do a lot of damage and there are only 20 rounds in theclip. He rolled an average number with a decent critical, and the cultists wereall in the suppressed area. I looked at the rules and it said make an attack oneach person in the suppressed area. Well there were 25 in the area and only 20rounds in the AK with some rounds lost to the area covered. But the rules saideveryone. I made a quick decision and said ok, today this is how I am going torule but in the future it may change. Since the cultists are in a tight areayou will affect every one of them with your suppression fire but I may change therule after consulting the ICE Forums at a later date.
   He rolled a 100 for the critical and thecultist all died. Every one of the group just sat there stunned. They hadworked so hard to no kill anyone for 6 hours and now one firearm had ruined allof that. After a short time it sunk in just how powerful firearms and suppressionfire is in the game and could be in real life. They also realized that it isvery wise to wear kinetic armor to nullify critical’s from firearms and paidgenerous amounts to have custom tailor made kinetic armor garments.
MDC     

[Realm Master K]

When Week 4's topic of something completely different was announced, I immediately thought of a wonderful encounter my players had with a Wight. Let me explain...

The party consisted of
1) Wood Elven Ranger
2) Grey Elven Rogue (Horse Master)
3) Half Elven Mentalist
4) Dwarven Fighter
5) Dwarven Cleric
6) Arachnin Shao Lin Monk (Ninja)
7) Idiyva Magent
Wood Elven Archer (Weapons Master)
9) High Elven Paladin

While searching for a lost temple in a jungle/swamp, they came upon some obviously cut stones covered in vegetation. The Ranger stalked his way forward and took a closer look at the stones, noting that they looked about the same size and shape as tombstones might. He began to clear away the vines and that was when the Wight came up from the grave and struck him directly in the center of his chest. He missed his resistance roll, and was paralyzed. I told the party that the Ranger gave out a little cry and slumped to the ground unconscious or dead. The party instantly sprang into action, with the Monk acting first.
     The Monk's primary weapon is a Kusari-gama, a chain weapon with an attached sickle, so he made the decision to use the chain end to grapple the Ranger's body, and pull him from danger. Unfortunately, he fumbled which resulted in this description
You begin juggling your weapon because of a bad grip. Your lack of control stuns you for 3 rounds.
I decided that this meant he had lost his grip on the chain. I had him make a roll to see if he could recover, and he failed which resulted in the chain wrapping around him, completely binding his arms to his side. According to his fumble result he is now stunned for 3 rounds, which I determined represented the time it would take to free himself. Now the Paladin casts an Aura spell.
     At this point the Wight used his natural Fear aura, and all but the Dwarven Fighter, Dwarven Cleric, Grey Elven Rogue (Mounted on his horse), High Elven Paladin, the Magent, and the now thoroughly entangled Monk/Ninja failed their resistance rolls. They all fled to the minimum distance that the fear aura extended, and stood watching in utter horror at the comedy of errors being played out before them. The Magent rushes forward and drags the Monk away from the Wight.
    The Mounted Rogue was next to act, and he stabbed at the Wight with his spear, but the spear went right through the Wight. Oops, you need magic weapons to hit a Wight and your Boar Spear isn't magical. The only character that has a magical weapon that hasn't run away is the Paladin who has a magical Falchion. He attacks and does a few hits of damage.
     Now the Cleric is prepared and begins to cast Repuslions V. Watch out Wight, your'e going down. He fumbles the spell, creating a power backlash and stunning himself for 8 rounds. So much for Repulsions.
     The Dwarven fighter, and the Rogue both try to think of something to help since they have no magic weapons. The Paladin casts Holy Attack and does a few more points of damage. The Magent helps to free the Monk, getting him about 48% detangled.
     Now things are looking pretty bad for the party, when the Dwarven fighter calls out to the Rogue. "Have your horse attack the Wight, his horseshoes are magical!"
     Now let me explain, his horse is wearing magical horseshoes, but they are a Daily Magical Item, that casts the spell Run. It was such an inspired idea, that I let it ride in the interest of making a wonderful Rolemaster Moment.
     The Paladin backs away to make room for the Rogue and his horse. The Monk once again fails to free himself. The Magent gets the Monks legs free of the chain, now only his arms and upper body are entangled. The Rogue charges his horse into the Wight distracting it and preventing it from using its Fear spell. The archer uses Quickdraw and fires a magic arrow, which does a few hits of damage. The Dwarven Fighter misses his agility maneuver and is knocked down by the Rogue's horse. He decides to stay down and crawls to the Ranger to check for a pulse.
     The Rogue has his horse kick backwards at the Wight, (he is a horse master after all) but misses. The Wight casts another Fear spell. Now the Magent and the Monk run away in fear. The Archer draws a magic bow that can cast Well Aimed Attack. The Dwarven Fighter drags the still breathing Ranger back to the "safety?" of the group.
     The Rogue again has his horse kick backwards, but misses again. the Archer activates the magic of his bow. The Wight casts another Fear spell. The Dwarven fighter tries to rouse the Ranger, but to no avail. The Monk stops fleeing and attempts to free himself, and rolls another failure, causing him to fall to the ground giving himself a few hits, and stunning himself.
     The Rogue spins his horse around and has it rear up at the Wight, although it misses the Wight it distracts it enough that it turns its back to the Archer who fires and get a Critical. The roll for the Critical is open ended on the Large Creature Critical Table under the Magic column. The result is
Strike foe in the side of his head. Foe stumbles back a few feet before he falls to the ground. He is out for 3 hours.
     As the Wight slumps to the ground the Paladin advances and gives it the Coup de Grace with his magic Falchion, beheading the fiend. The Wight dissolves into nothingness as it sinks back into the ground.
     The Monk finally frees himself, and walks away mumbling something about not being very monkly, or Ninja-like. And many rounds later the Cleric begins to come around with a very bad headache.
   
    I chose this encounter for my submission as it was so unusual. It had fumbles, criticals, failed resistance rolls, spell failure, and the most unique improvised weapon I have ever had my players use, a set of magical horsehoes (Not weaponized) to attack a Wight. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed running that session for my players.

Realm Master K
     

[yammahoper]

Going way back, to RM1 when only RMCI and C&T were out with a bunch of MERP modules.  We had switched from MERP to RM when the PC's finally got around to hitting level 10 in MERP.  There was Alashieve, a Noldo fighter; Fee, a Sindarin mage; Solon, a Rohirrim fighter; Thorid Zad II, NPC fighter; and our first successful RMCI profession, a nightblade whose name I have forgoten (so I shall refer to as NB).  The NB was around level 9-12, everyone else was in the mid teens, with only Fee over level 20 (23 or 24th if I recall).

As a final piece of info, the NB was Jesses PC and replaced his beloved hobbit scout that had been killed by a wight when he climbed a tree to hide in a battle after robbing a noble human tomb.  Jesse had horrible luck with the dice and went through quite a few characters.  He tended to streak on good rolls, then flame out with horrible results.  It would prove true that afternoon and begin a long line of nightblade characters for Jesse.

Alashieve was the defacto leader of the group, with Fee proving the limited moral compass such a party possesses.  Al despised the waning of the elves to what he saw as truely inferior beings, with far to few Adain left to offer salvation.  Fee understood the fate of the eldar was already sung in the song and did his best to keep Al on the straight and narrow, channeling the dispair and frustration of his good friend to more positive results (Al raided human tombs, Fee saw some of the gear went the fight against the Great Enemy).  Solon was a minor noble who joined Al to recover a legendary sword of his ancestors.  Thorid Zad II was a clone of the first Thorid Zad that died 10 minutes after being created with a Hillmans arrow through the heart, reeling to a suitable spot for dieing.  NB was one of a long list of sad case PC's that would die under the torture of Jesses horrible die rolls.  As a group that played RQ before switching to MERP/RM, we prefered grit and pain over fluff and romance, and Jesse was use to rolling low.

Back then I rolled encounter checks every 4 hours of travel with a base 15% chance of encounter modified by population density.  Much of our gaming stemmed from these encounters, and we enjoyed a very organic adventure style.  Traveling over the Misty Mountains, I rolled Mountain Giants.  d100 determined the size of the group (moderate result, a small hunting outpost then...), d10 determined the number (6, with four adults and two youths).  I decided they had a cave, the giants were two husband/wife teams with their young adult children.

The group saw the giants gathered on a cliff face 90 feet or so above them at about 1/4 mile out (350m or so).  Mike, who played Solon, was very happy.  He had recovered his family sword and it was giant slaying, delivering additional electric crits versus giants too (so a weapon slaying crit AND a spell slaying crit).  Note: back then we rolled each critical seperately, and Alashieves cold sword dominated many a battle.  NOW it was Solons turn.

They charged on their horses to the cliff base while the giants had two melees to hurl bolders.  Round three had Fee casting fly, Al starting to climb, the NB teleporting halfway up the cliff face and starting to climb and Solon getting hit and critted by a rock.  Thorid failed his riding mnv and couldn't get his war pony to move faster than 1/2 normal walking pace and lagged far behind.  The rock blow did little damage but fell Solon from his horse at the base of the cliff and the fall broke his leg, badly, leaving him at a serious penalty to activity (-70 I believe, indicating a compound fracture says I the GM).

Fee starts attacking, using his 1xday chains of binding to wrap the biggest giant up (the giant would eventually slay itself trying to escape them), Al finishes his climb, NB teleports again, ending up behind a giant with a puff of smoke and attacks, not doing much more than hits.  Solon screams in rage and declares he WILL climb the cliff, going hand over hand if his leg injury should slow him down.  Mike rolls almost 300 on his climb check, inspiring all his allies and covering over 70 feet in one round.  The giants retaliate; Al is unscathed while Fee gets hit by a rock, knocked out of the sky and stunned several rounds, the NB avoids damage and the rock thrown at Solon contacts for some hits, but Solon easily makes his St mnv to hold on (Solon placed ALL bg options into St, thus he had a 108).

What followed was several melee rounds of pure chaos.  Al and the NB were fending off four giants while a mother giant hurled rock after rock.  Solon reached the top and with huge penalties to melee, waded in, slaying the first giant on his third round of combat and getting beat half to death in the process.  Fee recovered and rushed with healing herb in hand to aid Solon, having seen to his own wounds while stunned and invisible (arcane spell trigger for the invisibility spell).  Thorid Zad II showed up but couldn't climb the cliff face in his armor (total climb skill was around 6).  That was when NB UM fumbled a spell, allowing a giant to then open end on the NB and crushed his hip into powder, in addition to knocking him out from hit loss. I will always recall how quietly yet emphatically Jesse tossed his dice over his sholder.  The look on his face said all.  Solon slew ANOTHER giant and Al managed to drop one on hits.  The round ended though with Fee being stomped so hard he was stun no parry for 3rnds.

This left two giants, a youth and his angry as hell mother, who I happily anounced had just exploded into frenzy.  Solon and Al were alone to face it as Fee was still stunned and NB was in the hands of the youth now fleeing back to the giants cave for protection, were he would arrive and roll the bolder door shut in six rounds, so said the d10+2 roll made in the open for all to see.

Solon and Al were hard pressed against a bezerk Mountain Giant with an OB now over 200 and a throw weight bonus that canceled out most of their parry with NO magical support from Fee, which they were quite accustomed to I might add.  Eventually Fee got up and adding Haste with Bladeturn, Solon was able to drop the beast after 12-14 rounds of combat and a string of awful crit rolls against the giant.  Several rounds of healing followed, with about 3 minutes passing before all herbs had full effect.

The group raced up the mountain trail to the blocked cave entrance were Fee crumbled a large portion of the bolder away so they could enter.  In the fire light of the cave they heard horrible screams turn to worse gargles of pain and blood, then silence as they witnessed the last giant thrusting NB on a spit and placing him on a craddle to slowly roast.  Outraged, the three lept forward and slew the young giant, but to late to save their friend, who over the blazing fire was already medium rare on one side.

The loot rolls were average to poor, more copper than they could carry (all dwarven), but I did include a naked prisoner in the very rear of the cave, an apprentice Nightblade captured by the giants and hiding under a daily unseen spell.  After a short rest in the cave, the remains of the NB were consumed in the fire, and Alashieve swore revenge for the death of his elven brother.  Solon wouldn't shut up how niether Al nor Fee killed more than he did and Jesse...well, he erased his character sheet and reused it because it was still fairly new.

The party went back to the cliff face were they found a weezing (and, err, forgotton) Thorid Zad II cresting the cliff, only to have Fee cast landing spells on everone else and jump off, leaving Thorid to climb back down on his own (with more than a few $&^% that NPC cpmments from the peanut gallery).
 

[JimiSue]

I've just been mentally reminiscing and thought of two Space master stories which I'm not sure are really Arms Law, but at the time entertained me

Story one is about the demise of an overly-cocky opponent (not that the PCs are EVER cocky of course). The background is that these were quite high level characters, level 25 or so. They (two of us) were ... well, I want to say infiltrating, but that implies some stealth... invading an enemy military base. My character was an armsman, and had been involved in some weapon research and modification, and had a custom gun - a fully-automatic grenade rifle. We had been at it for quite a while and had made it through to the commander guy. He had obviously seen us coming, and was already dressed up in his AT 20 and a shield up - boasting that the shield was enhanced with all sorts of Sianetic Harbinger technology and was the best in the galaxy.

He fired on my character, but she had a pretty decent DB and he missed. She used the maneuver phase to do an Adrenal Leap (I think the only time I ever used that skill) to get right next to him - there had been a lot of soldiers and she was low on ammunition so had been using martial arts which he must have seen. Clearly the GM had 'seen' me doing this and shock horror, the guy was a skilled martial artist as well, and did not move away. However... that was not my tactic this time. And it proved to be the moment of glory for a cheap piece of utility equipment, often forgotten about - a disipator.

These little devices are fitted to your gun muzzles and prevent your energy shield from closing over the end, so you don't have to shoot through your own shield. I rammed the muzzle of my gun through his super shield, and in fire phase B, let rip with a fully automatic clip of grenades. I had the clips already designated for the load and it was a mixture of plasma, shrapnel, phosphorus... all the nice ones.

Cue a pretty lights show and a swearing GM - since the blasts had to get through this super shield and my own enhanced barrier shield, and my own enhanced AT20 powered armour, I took no damage even at ground zero range, but the commander was ... inconvenienced.

I'm sure the GM was being vindictive when he said that the shield generator was delicate technology and had been destroyed by the grenades.



The second story involves the same characters, not that long after that incident. Essentially, they were in it for revenge, and in the words of Inigo Mantoya (The Princess Bride), revenge doesn't pay the bills. So we figured what we could do would be set up a production company, and put together an action movie. We acquired (bought or had designed, I forget which) some micro-cameras that flew around us on gravitics while we were in combat, capturing the action. Then we used some image capturing and substitution software (like in the film of The Running Man where they pretend some poor schmuck is Arnie to get beaten for the cameras) to amend the images so we were doing it in the proper action movie clothing (bandana, dirty and torn white T-shirt, etc) and definitely *not* the powered armour previously mentioned. We hired a writer to string together the footage into some kind of story, shot some filler scenes (having spent two or three levels skilling up Acting specially for that) and put it out on release.

The GM had rolled in secret to see how good a job the writer had done (open ended high, he told us later) and also in the open for how well-received it was (not OE but it did hit 93)...  instant fame and fortune. And chat show appearances and a whole bunch of unwelcome attention from the groups we had portrayed as the enemy (House Colos, we were Devonian citizens). So it moved the plot along and also helped us immerse ourselves more in the characters. (edit - I just remembered that we also got an Oscar-type award for "the most awesomely realistic special effects" - <snicker > )

The best part was that in all my SM character histories after that there were oblique references to the movie (and it's increasingly inferior yet still popular sequels of course) - JimiSue (after whom this account is named) had a brother with a fixation on my previous character, at one point he performs some "self harm" to a production poster of the third film in which the bikini-wearing warrior is emerging from the sea, guns blazing; I had another character who went to a posh public school, and it was the same school that my previous character had sent her daughter to in secret; and so on. Even the GM got in on it by throwing in the occasional billboard advertising the latest release, or having a TV on in the background of the scene where one or other of the PCs were being interviewed. All in all, it made a nice addition to the gaming universe and personalised it for all of us in that group.

[yammahoper]

The specifics of this tale escape me.  The morale of the tale will ring true none the less.

The mission was right out of a SM module, I recall that much.  The party had to intercept a message at a tachon relay station and insert a fake message.  Simple enough.

Scott, Pat and Brett were the players, the characters are forgotton.  When they arrived on the station, they tried the direct assualt approach, but the inhabitants fell back to the communications room and had plasmatic repeaters to defend with.  The plasma crits were so nasty, they group fled after one round of melee.  Unwilling to try and rush the room, they placed explosives around it and came up with another plan.

Much less dangerous, they decided to hack the life support and evac all the air in the station.  I recall I made the mnv absurd, but they got it done and, to my horror, killed everyone on the station by sucking all the air out.  They then entered the room, waited for the message and replaced it with their own.

Of course, they had no way of knowing a distress signal had been sent, and after intercepting their ship, the local govt forces blew them and their ship straight to hell.  When the party send an offer to surrender, I said all they heard was a play back of the 23 souls on the outpost station screaming and begging to be spared. 

We started another SM game a while later, and everyone wanted a plasmatic repeater.

[Thom @ ICE]

Here's your chance.... the last week of Arms Law Submissions and we're adding one more post to the list of winners!

But in addition to calling for more posts from you all, I'd like to hear if there are posts that haven't won yet but have struck you as special and worthy of recognition.  Feel free to highlight your favorites for me so they don't get left behind.

[dungeonri]

Ah, yes, I remember that SM module, we played the same one and I just have to share the tale, although we did not roll an actual attack in the whole adventure.

We were on our way with three players using 1st level characters, an armsman, an electrotech and an electrotech/telepath and we accompanied another electrotech who would take over the relay station and insert the message. We had canisters with sleeping gas and a thermo-nuclear device with us as a last resort.

We touched down and made our way to the station that for the most part was underground if I remember well. First with a open-ended low roll the electrotech managed to completely destroy the lock of the main entry tunnel, jamming the door shut. We were frightend that we were noticed, but all remained quiet. Next we pried open a maintenance hatch, completely forgetting to use the gas in the airconditioning system. The armsman, who was carrying the bomb slowly climb down the ladder and was zapped by a trap taking ten electricity criticals and falling six meters to the ground taking more damage. Amazingly he was only unconscious and severly injured, but not dead.  He would be if we moved him. The electrotech disabled the trap and the whole group climbed down. Then we thought of the bomb and the DM rolled and decided that the bomb had been triggered by the trap and the fall. It took about five seconds to make decision to flip the armsman, killing him, and reach for the bomb. Disarming the bomb was a medium electrotech maneuver. With a reasonable skill the electrotech was convinced it would work, but he failed. Next was the NPC electrotech, she rolled the same miserable low number and failed as well. Final hope was the electrotech/telepath and he nearly made it, but his total remained below 100 so it was time to flee. The electrotech threw the bomb down a corridor and the surviving characters climbed up the ladder trying to outrun the blast.

At the same time the two guards on the station were approaching carefully after the trap had gone off. They entered the hallway just at the time the nuclear bomb was thrown in their direction. Both were electrotechs and had fair skill totals, but our DM continued the row of dismal throws and neither of them succeeded in disarming the device. They ran to their vehicle and speeded along the tunnel to the main entrance. They crashed into it with high speed and were instantly killed as the door was jammed shut.

Amazingly both the electrotechs survived the ensuing nuclear blast. As they were both androids, it turned out that, after some hefty calculations that they themselves could do in milliseconds they could jog just long enough to stay clear of the blast, diving in the sand at the same time seconds before the blast. The human electrotech/telepath was not so lucky and was incinerated in the blast.