DREAMS OF A BETTER DAWN — EPISODE 1

Meet the characters. Begin the story.

"Knife to bump into you" — our new Rolemaster Actual Play campaign.

https://youtu.be/M2-2a_Pz9Zc

Personal honest opînion here: I think you are clutching at straws when making the parallel between Shadow World and Amber.
Did Terry pick ideas from literature ? Almost certainly, like many others. And Amber was probably one of his inspirations, if you read The Court of Ardor (a MERP regional module).
But I wouldn't go further than ideas from many sources that helped (consciously or not) shape his setting.

But hey, you do you. Good luck with your project.

Since the last update above is already live, now..

**With the next update we are modifying Ardems FRP extension slowly to be ready for the Spacemaster Privateers Vehicle manual / Star Strike /Armored Assault:**
Here are some features, you can read about in the last pdf, too but will be elaborated and vastly expanded in the actual  pdf description:
1. **PC spell search:** Find individual spells and spell lists with case-insensitive searching.
2. **NPC search:** Search spells, spell lists and skills directly in the NPC Spell/Skill tab.
3. **NPC skill rolls:** Roll matching skills directly from their search results.
4. **Unified spellcasting:** Use Cast Spell to start the coordinated casting process.
5. **Editable NPC casting:** Adjust spell level, preparation, realm, hands, voice, helmet and casting phase.
6. **GM review:** Player casting requests automatically open the spell and casting window for the GM.
7. **CT targeting:** Import the caster's Combat Tracker targets and adjust them before casting.
8. **Automatic casting:** Skip SCM when automatic casting requirements are satisfied.
9. **Realm-specific fumbles:** Configure separate unmodified spell-fumble limits for each realm.
10. **Equipment modifiers:** Calculate realm-specific casting modifiers from carried equipment, armor, helmets and Transcendent Armor.
11. **Optional equipment exemption:** Let PCs ignore AT/equipment modifiers without disabling other casting requirements.
12. **Power Points:** Deduct approved PP once when the GM accepts the cast.13. **Automatic spell conditions:** Apply supported conditions such as Invisible, Stun, Blinded, Fly and Haste.
14. **Magical sleep protection:** Respect magical sleep locks while allowing ordinary damage to wake natural Sleeping.
15. **Fear automation:** Use the original RR margin to determine Fear/Awe severity and follow-up checks.
16. **Spell triggers:** Arm supported signs and apply their effects when triggered.
17. **RR recovery:** Review a missing original RR and retry unfinished effects without repeating completed applications.
18. **Critical conditions:** Apply supported critical conditions and track supplied durations in the CT.
19. **Equipment damage:** Track broken equipment and provide a GM repair action.
20. **Stat damage:** Apply percentage-based stat losses with bonus recalculation and recovery tracking.
21. **Android hydraulics:** Track location-specific hydraulic failures, restrictions and repair.
22. **Vehicle criticals:** Handle subsystem modifiers, control loss and destruction countdowns.
23. **Infantry criticals:** Handle Pinned, morale checks and withdrawal states.
24. **Critical follow-ups:** Queue ordnance, payload and crew outcomes for the required GM choices.
25. **Conditional criticals:** Evaluate supported predicates and request GM confirmation when evidence is missing.
26. **Next-roll bonuses:** Apply one-use critical bonuses to the attacker's next eligible roll.

Even if you rule more strictly, the target could move in the snap phase, so the attacker would need to attack them in the snap phase to gain that advantage. I'm with MisterK on this though.

In RMU, it's possible for the target to move in phase 1 but the attack couldn't happen until phase 2 at the earliest, so the target would be able to turn before the attack occurs.

Getting back to the**__ Amber -> Rolemaster__** conversion started thread here:  link

Today I can post the first part of this Conversion ( 3 parts are planned together) **The Base Conversion and Chaos side** - in spite of RMSS is mentioned, it will work for RMC or RMU, too, because the conversion is very basic and general- it will not go into details, where the difference between the editions would be important.

**Note, that AMBER is a RPG, that give PCs or NPCs godlike Powers- I use the "memory loss" trick as in the novels for new players or starting in low levels. If you allow all the options and powers immediatly, you have to start a very high level campaign (lvl 20+).**

Note that as most of my free works, I will use AI for art, so I have uploaded a text based version for people, too, who never want to see beautiful art other then from humans.
- at the same time a new Amber double pack of music and Video is published on Youtube here (next to lots of Shadow music you can use, if one of your players enter a parallel world of the 80s): Amber Youtubechannel

Note that you need the Original Amber material (Shadow Knight Book)  link to wiki to use the Conversion material Part I

Have fun!
Micael

I would say that positional advantage is not given by an absolute positioning but by a relative one - a character doesn't get positional advantage (flank or rear) because of a grid or hex map, they get it because their target has not detected them and their attention is focused in a different direction.
If a target is faced with two opponents, after the surprise round, the target's default positioning would minimise the positional advantage - this would be flanking, unless specific conditions (obstacles allowing the target to reduce exposure) or target choice (focusing on one opponent and letting the other have rear positional advantage) dictate otherwise.

In short, no, I would not allow a rear positional advantage to carry on to the second round unless there is a reason why the target could not react at all. In normal conditions, the second attack, even with winning the initiative, would be in "normal" one-on-one conditions, and thus face to face.

I would say that this is dependent on the way the critical is defined. Take the following examples :
- "Blow to foe's armpit. Crush ribs and destroy organs. Foe dies in 3 rounds." I would assume that the target cannot act normally during those three rounds because they have the crushed ribs and destroyed organs to cope with, and the simple nerve shock would prevent them from doing much.
- "Blow to foe's face. If visored, the visor is driven into his face and foe dies in 10 rounds. Without a visor, he dies instantly. You have half the round left." I would likewise assume that, even if the target has a visored helm, he cannot act much during those 10 rounds because the visor is driven into his face and that must be both incredibly painful and quite debilitating for vision.

On the other hand
"Strike through foe's side spills his guts on the floor. Foe fights on normally for 6 rounds, then dies." goes quite explicitly the other way : target can still act.

And
"Your weapon passes through the arm and sticks out the other side. Foe dies in 12 rounds." specifies only that the arm is basically useless during that time but nothing else (actually, the critical also states that the target is stunned for 12 rounds, so there is that). But I would allow action for 12 rounds in the conditions expressed by the critical (arm useless, stunned).

Another idea, if the critical does not specify anything significant, is to take the remaining hits of the target (not hits until zero, hits until death) and divide by the duration before death : the target takes that many hits each round. For example, if the target has 46 hits left and dies at -67 hits (total 113) and the critical states that the target "dies in 6 rounds", the target takes 19 hits per round. It's not blood loss but general shock damage (if there is any blood loss, it adds to this). The character will drop in three rounds and dies 3 rounds later.

Note that, in this case, I would not allow concussion hits healing to save the target: they are dying from system shock and (depending on the critical) fatal organ damage, so you would need spells that can heal that (in six rounds) to save the target - any spell that has a recovery time of 1 day or even 1 hour would be insufficient.

That said, cinematically and narratively speaking, I would allow a character one last significant act in those cases, with the caveat that not only would the character die immediately after the act, but they could not be raised afterwards (if you *choose* death, that's a permanent choice).

Thanks. I was thinking about some heroic last action, like taking an enemy down with him from a cliff....
If death is unavoidable, I would like to go causing as much impact on enemy forces as possible.

RMU gives detailed rules for specific lighting and light sources. See Core Law, 15.7, 'Visibility', pp. 271-2. It specifies what light torches and lanterns spread, and defines the various grades of light with appropriate Perception penalties.

Personally I would treat all fire/torch/candle light as heavy shadows on T-4.2 and T-4.4 within the range listed in Appendix A-8 accessory chart or equivalent unless there were many overlapping light sources.