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Arms Law Submissions
Thom @ ICE:
Our first category is… Arms Law
We’ve all had some amazing experiences using Rolemaster’s incredible combat system with open ended rolls, lifesaving criticals, and unexpected fumbles. Tell us about one of these memorable experiences and share the thrill.
First Award to be given on Monday, August 13th...
ubiquitousrat:
Back at high school, and wanting to raise money for the Red Cross, some pals and I organised a 24-hour roleplaying session. The GM picked Rolemaster as the system and decided to use the Moria supplement (from Middle-earth). Being largely new to Rolemaster, I was completely in awe of the system's detail.
Enter Goriel Swiftfoot, a halfling thief with skill in Short Bow and Short Sword. Through many of the encounters, most of which have faded from memory (perhaps due to the length of the session), one story has endured for some 30 years.
At the climax of the tale, as the party encountered the Balrog of Moria, the critical system of Rolemaster came into play. Goriel was the hero who, armed with his trusty sword and having climbed to a position where he could strike at the Balrog's head, swung... and scored the E Crit of his life. The GM described the severing of the Balrog's head and the crash of the body back into the foul depths from which it flew.
To be honest, looking back as an adult, we almost certainly played it "wrong" by the rules... but the story has never been forgotten. As a fresh-faced newbie to Rolemaster I remember feeling amazed and elated as my hero saved the party from certain death. With some incredibly unlikely fluke of the dice and a generous GM, I was hooked. This one encounter probably fuelled 30 years of GMing for others. And Rolemaster's Arms Law still makes me shiver with excitement when I grab it off the shelf.
In many ways, the encounter was way less important than what Rolemaster came to mean to me. It's a talisman of the hobby, plain and simple. None other has that honour.
Game on!
Magistrate:
I love to remember the situation where a friend created a new character for RM2. After 2 hours of creation he came into our round.
We met his character on our way to the next city. Only 30 mins (RL) later we had the first random encounter: a cold undead hand, crawling through the grass.
The first attack hit him with an acid/vaporisation* critical ... 99 and his chest was vaporized.
We hadn't changed 10 words with him, yet, we even didn't know his name after this short peroid. We looted him ::) and decided that it is too expensive to resurrect him.
So, our friend started to create a new character ...
[* don't know the english translation excactly]
Erik Sharma:
Well the moment that sprung into my mind was a very comedic and silly moment and didn't happen to long ago but will be forever burned into our minds. It was also one of the first adventures with a group completely new to Rolemaster. And they where looking for something different after that horrible 4th Edition of a certain game had just been released. After this event they where completely sold on Rolemaster. The incident is now days called "The Kamikaze Spider".
Well the adventurers where heading down to explore a cavern system underneath the local lords fortress. The module itself was a converted Forgotten Realms adventure. Either way at the beginning from the cavern system at the end of a path leading down along the wall of a big cavern was giant spider luring in hiding waiting for some easy prey that would come by. The adventurers slowly descended the path expecting trouble but of course neither of them noticed the camouflaged spider. When the adventurers reached the end of the path the spider sprung it's trap and jump towards the adventurers and completely failed it's attack resulting in the spider missing the jump and sailed over the players into the cave wall behind them and completely crushing it's head. The adventures just looked at the spectacle in awe, completely surprised by the ambush. Then they just looked at each other laughed, shrugged their shoulders and continued their journey onwards (little did they know the entire group would meet their end in those caverns). This was just one of those moments that never seem to happen in any other role playing game than Rolemaster.
One of the players also made the joke that he has never played an RPG with such short, entertaining and gritty battles. I would hardly call it a battle though. :laugh3:
Kristen Mork:
We've always interpreted Rolemaster dragons as having incredible senses: If you're invisible, they'll hear you moving about; if you're silent, they'll feel your feet touching the ground; etc.
So, the party was ecstatic when they finally arranged a flawless ambush. The rogue had the Background Option that ensured he had no discernible odor. He was both Invisible and Silent. He was Flying, drifting on a magically summoned breeze. The dragon could not smell, see, hear, or even feel the rogue's presence. The party even arranged a distraction so that the dragon was busy casting counter-spells and could not spend a round casting Presence.
The rogue had maneuvered into a perfect position, floating above the dragon's back, a dwarven axe in hand. His ambush maneuver was flawless, and with forty-plus ranks of ambush, an open-ended critical was not unlikely. Given his OB, positional modifiers, and surprise, he couldn't fail to max the chart.
Until.
He fumbled. Somehow, despite his improbable position, he stumbled over an unseen, imaginary, deceased turtle and (this was probably pure malice on the GM's part) dropped his axe.
The next session was spent plotting a way to recover enough of the poor rogue's body to restore him to life.
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