Topic: g20 - My System

[imzakhor]

Rolemaster is very cumbersome for new players, and for anyone without a head for numbers. A case of "OK, with a roll of 87, and your skill of 134, a hits-taken penalty of -20, a DB of your opponent of 46, and you have +15 from the last rounds critical... What the hell just happened?" happens more often that is fun. It's tedious.

So, I developed gbh20 (my initials).... g20 for short.

I thought I might post my online character sheets, as well as some weapon charts I have come up with.

Front: http://www.strayhold.com/g20/Print_Front.php?id=2
Back: http://www.strayhold.com/g20/Print_Back.php?id=2

To alleviate the "monte haul" problem of way too many tiny magic items, without being arbitrary (why CAN'T I wear two rings on one hand?!), we implemented Fate/Corruption as a mechanic to curb that desire. You can see how it implements on the "Back" character sheet. All magic items have corruption.

Our campaign is set in Middle-earth, since I have all the old books. anyway, it's been a long journey, and it's not over, I just thought that people who love Rolemaster like my group does would like to see what we are doing.

[Merkir]

Normally whenever anybody talks about the case for d20 over d100 I move on, because it's "just not Rolemaster".

In this case though, I looked... then looked some more. The character sheet with those nice low numbers is appealing. You've done a good job. How do you handle attack and crit tables?

[Cory Magel]

It looks like you're going for a simpler system overall, not just RM divided by 5, so this criticism is not directed at you (the OP)... but I never quite get why a two digit number seems so much easier than a three digit number to some gamers.

But like I always say, a lot of the issue with what you mention (all the various modifiers), I feel, is largely alleviated by players who are on the ball.  However, merkir's combat tracking program will help the issue even more as a player can just give you their roll, you plug it in for the result (which has all those mods built in) and tell them how many hits they did and if they need to roll (dice) for a crit for you to look up.

[imzakhor]

Normally whenever anybody talks about the case for d20 over d100 I move on, because it's "just not Rolemaster ".

In this case though, I looked... then looked some more. The character sheet with those nice low numbers is appealing. You've done a good job. How do you handle attack and crit tables?

As far as the attack tables: I posted an attachment that shows the charts we use. I lost only about 3% fidelity/precision by going to a g20 based system. You can see that because most hit point intervals on the weapon charts are 1 point differences. Because they have been g20fied, 4 fit per page. Not nearly as eye-glaze inducing.

Crit tables are so awesome, that we could not move them off of d100. So, that's where they stayed.

Thanks for posting!

[imzakhor]

However, merkir's combat tracking program will help the issue even more as a player can just give you their roll, you plug it in for the result (which has all those mods built in) and tell them how many hits they did and if they need to roll (dice) for a crit for you to look up.

Seems to be too much back and forth between the GM and player, where the player could just do it all and report their damage. (I don't mind telling the players the AT and DB of their opponents).

I do keep crit results secret though, unless it's a kill. Then we all enjoy it.

[Cory Magel]

we normally do the same. players have all attack and crit charts in their character folders and pretty much look up their own stuff. However I can see where it would be nice to keep some info from the players.

[imzakhor]

we normally do the same. players have all attack and crit charts in their character folders and pretty much look up their own stuff. However I can see where it would be nice to keep some info from the players.

I don't like the players to know if their opponent is stunned or must-parry until after they choose their action... UNLESS they make a Battle Perception. Therein lies the game.

[Cory Magel]

Yeah, there's a balance between speeding up combat (just letting the players handle certain stuff and therefore giving them more info) and keeping more suspense in the current situation.  I suspect the individual preferences of people here will be all over the board.

With a Combat Tracker program that can look all the damage up for me on the tables (what Combat Minion may do) I'll leave the players guessing, but if I don't have that I'm just going to let them do it themselves for the sake of quicker rounds.

[imzakhor]

I have completed ALL of the weapon charts. Feel free to have a look, analyze, and let me know what you think.

http://www.strayhold.com/RMBooks/g20/Weapons/g20WeaponCharts.pdf