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Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: gandalf970 on May 01, 2012, 08:36:32 AM
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New group of Rolemaster players starting was hysterical! I had one experienced player (magician) and three newbies. They were all excited about the realism. I told them over and over again to avoid combat for a while, but they didn't understand :cry2: :cry2: :cry2:
The group consisted of a magician, fighter, rogue and a ranger. While traveling to a village they came upon a wagon that was ambushed. It was destroyed with goods strewn about. They were two days travel from the village and the magician is like "let's get going this can only lead to death"! They searched for tracks and the ranger critically rolled noticing these were orcs. The Mage is like "run"! The newbs are not concerned as they see it is only two of them.
The Mage asks if they can tell how many people were in the wagon? The ranger again crits the roll, yep there were five. They decide to follow the orcs and the Mage says I will see you in the village.
The party goes into the woods and sneaks up on the two orcs feasting on the dead people. I warn them that orcs have many scars, longbows which are deadly and jagged broadswords which rend flesh easily. The mage pipes in OOC that is flavor text for saying you will die.
They all laugh and say we have the drop on them and you will die sometime. They sneak attack and it goes like this. Fighter fumbles his spear roll and hits the rogue for a 6a, stunning him. The ranger fails his climb and falls out of the tree stunned as well.
Orcs win initiative grab bows and aim. Rogue and ranger try to get up and hide. Fighter draws blade and charges. He is impaled by the arrows, 22e and 20d. He is dead as an arrow pierces his eye.
Rogue decides to face them head on as ranger draws his axe. Orcs advance on the ranger, in 2 rounds the ranger is diced tomatoes. The rogue feels heroic and slashes one of the orcs for 11a. The other Orc maneuvers behind the Orc and bashes the rogues head in spraying his brains all over.
I look at them and say I am sorry for the poor adventure! They all smiled at me and said THAT WAS AWESOME! We rolled more characters and had a wonderful evening. Two more deaths but I have some converts now.
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If not for the initial failures when they sprang the ambush, things may have gone very differently. The Ranger fell from the tree?! lol.
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Long, long ago, back in the day, I threw together a session specifically for the purpose of showing people used to AD&D what "one orc" means in RM.
"One orc" sneaked in over the town wall. He killed the mayor and the town sheriff at about dawn, bow fire from cover.
Throughout the course of the day, various people came across signs of him, but no one ever got a clear enough look to give a description, even as "an orc". Except possibly for the owner of the local magic shop and 3 policemen who got shot and killed during the day, perhaps one of them saw him clearly... for a moment.
There were various ideas for catching him, the best of which was posting people on rooftops, since he was obviously using them as firing platforms. A good idea, but no one was good enough at implementing it, which got a party member badly wounded and 2 of the cops killed.
Someone actually managed to spot him going back over the city wall that evening. They shot and wounded him, but he got away. The party gave chase, and caught him in the mountains 4 days later. I say they caught him... actually he attacked the 5 of them, and killed 3 before they put him down.
"One orc".... a 14th level orc rogue. You see what I neglected to tell them was a little cultural detail about orcs in my world. They consider dying of old age to be a disgrace. This guy was starting to go grey... and as such was starting to go a little crazy, more concerned with the stories and songs that would be sung about him than whether a plan was actually workable.
But even without that cultural detail, "they're a character race" is a stark enough change to take some getting used to.
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Very funny story! ;D
Glad for you that they liked it. It gave me some thoughts about the way I was GMing.
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New players. I can't say I've had the chance to play with newbies for a long time.
But true to character, new players, in my games, invariably are a little suicidal.
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I have a feeling that the reason they thought it was awesome was because of the realism. That is how I felt after I got totally slaughtered in my first RM fight and my opponent was the same level as me.
I have to say, after that I was rather hesitant to fight again unless I had a clear advantage or no other option. Of course our group wasn't doing any kind of dungeon crawling anyway, so it was all good, my mage ended up spending a lot more time doing research than fighting anything, never did make it to Nomikos however...
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I have a feeling that the reason they thought it was awesome was because of the realism. That is how I felt after I got totally slaughtered in my first RM fight and my opponent was the same level as me.
It was Spell Law for me. I couldn't believe my eyes. THAT many spells? Insta-hooked.
But Rolemaster's deadliness can take even seasoned players off-guard at times. I remember when a group of such players decided to roll new level one charactarers. We decided everything, Archmages included, was available. We were all slaughtered within half an hour. Sure we could grow to be powerful, but we were just level one wimps. It was a lot of fun though.
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A ranger falling out of a tree!..that tickled my ribs ;D
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After not trying for literally ages, I'm going to try to get a few friends into trying out roleplaying, of course Rolemaster, this weekend. We'll see how that goes. ::)
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Next outing, might even be funnier. They decide that now they need to listen to previous mage and not engage in combat at every drop of the hat. After taking the books home (RMSS) they come back with some fantastic new ideas. New group now is a previous Mage, Cleric, Bard and Monk. I say what no fighter types, but they ensure me all of these classes can fight, but they won't need to.
They bypass the (Dead Woods) as they call them now and proceed to the small village of Post. Thus named for the ignorant soldiers who are stationed here. The cleric states he is going to preach to the masses to garner favor with his deity. He goes off alone after all nothing bad can happen in town and all of these guys have their own agenda; after one session they understand it is easy to die.
The cleric proceeds to gather a group of soldiers out back of the stables and starts a preaching. They are initially neutral, but after failing a religion roll a Public Speaking roll and not even trying propaganda, they become surly. He asks them to wait while he goes and gets more beer. Then he casts Intuitions I to find out what will happen next, the vision makes him run for the nearest bar.
The Bard is playing in said bar and doing quite well. He has his Spotlight spell going and he is dimming lights. He has made several play instrument and singing rolls. Crowd loves him!!
Monk is listening and decides to bust out his repotoire of spells, Leaping I, Swing I and Balance. Balance works, Leap is successful, he fumbles Swing and flies into the much loved waitress in town. No one notices it until the Bard get's pissed and stops playing.
At that time the Cleric runs into said bar with five pissed off soldiers and mayham ensues. They start failing rolls, falling down and at one point the Cleric fumbles a spell and gets an A critical bruising ribs and out of action for an hour. The solders pummel him mercilessly. The monk tries leaping all over and lands on a table of drunk dwarves who use him as a tomato can. The Bard plays on but the crowd turns on him and smashes hit lute on his head knocking him out.
All the ruckass draws the Mage from his room and he just looks down the stairwell and shakes his head. He casts Fog and Slumber Mist and calms the place down. Despite not having a weapon drawn they proceeded to get beat up with bruises and broken ribs to be at -45, -50 and -75.
They all look at me with that wonderful smile of "We love this"! I proceed to give them a 3000xp roleplaying bonus and they just grin from ear to ear. The Mage is now 2nd level after some spells and they don't even know what a dungeon is!!
This just keeps getting interesting and they keep loving it. One of the guys texted his DnD group and told them he isn't coming back, but now they want to join in and three more want a piece of Rolemaster pie. I will work on their characters on Sunday.
I forgot to mention that the Cleric tried to jump on a jackass and got kicked for in the side of the head, his sight and hearing is at -50 for three weeks!!!
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Keep going with those recap!! ;D It's refresing stories!
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So the three newbies show up to make characters. These are the guys from the DnD group whose GM quit on them after playing Rolemaster. A little background on myself, I am 45 yrs old and have been gaming for 30 years about 28 of those as a GM. I have seen a lot of things and we all know some players want to think they are the be all know all. Plus I did 6 years in the Army and recognize new recruits. On to the story.
They show up ready to hear about this Rolemaster business. None of them googled it or anything! I give them the basic line, realistic combat and spell system with dedicated classes that you must stay in the whole time. They nod approvingly asking where the Feats are and such. Finally after an hour of explanation they get to it. Party comes out as a Dwarven Fighter who likes to throw his ax, a human fighter who likes to be a tank and a half-elven Ranger. Crazy the Ranger puts hobby skills in Climbing as word on the street is you can die from falling out of trees!!
We have some time to spare so I tell them that the local militia is conscripting them into action as it is mating season for the local Kobold tribe. When this happens all the Kobold warriors raid the village and they will need all the help they can get. It seems gold was struck about 100 miles to the North so all the adventurers who normally kept the Kobolds in check didn't spend a season killing Kobolds. There Sgt explained that since they seemed like a tough group he wanted them to do some guerilla surveillance and ops on the pathes the Kobolds use.
Once again a Ranger pipes up saying Eaaassssyyy! No problem boss we got this. They provision up and head out. The Dwarf says we should wait for morning, but he is overruled. I tell them it is dangerous at night, but they wave me off. The Ranger fails his Direction Sense and they head southwest instead of west, straight into the Dead Woods (named after the previous party). They miss all survivals and they lay out their bedrolls in some yellow gazer moss. This is a moss used by flying gazers (my creation-think blood wasps) to feed their young. They are insects about a foot and a half long. I figure this will be fun and being 1st level creatures may make for an interesting time.
Then the group kind of whispers together and says to me "Listen we don't like any punches pulled, we have played DnD for 3 years and can't get out of anything. Our old DM (now one of my new players) would roll all dice in front of us, no cheating. I said that isn't how I like to play, but if it makes you feel better get ready.
I use a random encounter deck ala Savage Worlds with my own chart. Any face card is an encounter then it goes to the type etc. I pulled a card for a random encounter. I decided to keep it low and it was those two orcs from before. So they put up the fire, start eating their rations and bsing. I ask them for a sit awareness guard duty (they wouldn't take it even after telling them). The dwarf miraculously open end's it and I give him a rank in it. He hears the orcs and tells the ranger. Once again I tell them solo 1st level RM characters die easily, the ranger puts his hand up and says, "I got this". He fails his stalk and hide, the orcs know he is there but play dumb. I say he steps on a stick and it snaps loud, the ranger looks at the orcs not moving, but they are fumbling with some long sticks (bows and arrows).
Well the Ranger who bought climbing goes for the tree. The dwarf and other fighter seek to flank the orcs to get them in a cross fire. I then have the orcs start acting out the death's of the previous party. The dwarf seems to understand this and gets pissed. He throws an axe and charges, but fumbles his Move and Maneuver roll hits a log and falls flat, stunned 2 rnds. The other fighter rushes in while the Ranger takes aim at an orc.
The two orcs turn to the fighter and unload arrows, one pierces his left leg the other his right wrist, he goes down in pain and stunndom. the ranger nails one orc in the left arm. The Ranger climbs higher in the tree and almost fails. The fighters lay there unable to move, so the orcs pounce on the human fighter and kill him. Then the dwarf gets up and runs. The ranger is so pissed he starts calling him names and such. Then the orcs start a fire, the ranger looses a couple of arrows but misses. He says they cannot burn a live tree down. I said I know that, they keep getting the fire bigger, the dead warrior pipes in " it is a signal you dummy" and I admonish him from the table, taking 2000xp from his next character.
The dwarf actually makes it to the road then remembers that the kobolds live in hills not a forest, flips the ranger off and runs. He says under his breath, this is brutal and I love it. The ranger decides he is going to throw his rope around another tree and swing down. Wait for it, he fails, falls from the tree and breaks his hip. The orcs pounce on him and bust him up mercilously. I give the rangers next character 1500 xp for good roleplaing and inventiveness.
He says he isn't ever playing again, motions for the others to leave with him for DnD. The dead warrior and dwarf just smile at me and say "No effing way, this is what we always wanted, consequences".....
So in the matter of a week I have a totally new group, consisting of a dwarven fighter, bard, monk, cleric, magician and a yet to be made character. They all want in and promise to abide by the game!! Pretty fun stuff. I will keep you up to date on the next adventure, which they want to do on Sunday already!!!!! Only one has any Rolemaster experience, but they have took all six of my RMSS main books home to study up.
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Thanks for the new story! They seems a little bit masochist, aren't they? Or their ex-DM was too easy going? ;D Is the Ranger (who wanted to stop playing) that ex-DM?
I know some players who couldn't stand having their character incapacited, not even talking about dead, in the first session! Good thing that your players still want to go on after that. I wonder what will happen when they will understand that it is in their best interest to listen to the GM...
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There's someone around here (can't remember who, but I know I've seen it somewhere) whose sig line needs to be taught to your players:
When the GM asks, "Are you sure?", the proper answer is, "Not now." ;D
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Thanks for the new story! They seems a little bit masochist, aren't they? Or their ex-DM was too easy going? ;D Is the Ranger (who wanted to stop playing) that ex-DM?
Yes he is the ex GM. I already have three stories from the group on their background. It is worth up to 1000xp a page (5 page max). For a story to be worth the max it needs to be truly epic.
Tomorrow should be fun. In the dwarfs story he mentions a fondness for wagon wheels and something about his grandmother rolling down a hill into the garden! Can't wait!
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After they've been through the grinder a few times, learned how to muddle through, been back to town to patch up, drown their sorrows, cash in, etc. a few times....
...then let them hear a local storyteller telling a story about _____ group of epic heroes... and slowly come to realize that what they're hearing is an idealized version of themselves, where some of their most boneheaded mistakes that they just happened to live through are presented as the way it was planned all along by these masterful tacticians...
;)
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I already have three stories from the group on their background. It is worth up to 1000xp a page (5 page max). For a story to be worth the max it needs to be truly epic.
I love doing character histories - the length of which tends to vary depending on how into the character I have got. most of them run to 7-10 pages or so, but my longest ever was close on 25,000 words. The irony there being that character never actually made it into play because the GM moved away. I've tried to convert her for another game but she is too quirky. I still like reading up her history from time to time though :)
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After they've been through the grinder a few times, learned how to muddle through, been back to town to patch up, drown their sorrows, cash in, etc. a few times....
...then let them hear a local storyteller telling a story about _____ group of epic heroes... and slowly come to realize that what they're hearing is an idealized version of themselves, where some of their most boneheaded mistakes that they just happened to live through are presented as the way it was planned all along by these masterful tacticians...
;)
Yep Grumpy that is my plan. After they make 2nd level and receive some training they will get learned, by their appropriate mentors. Good stuff, the whole team arrives today at noon, I hope they are ready for the evil and vile ...........KOBOLD!!
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Going to give some background on the group as they turned in their stories to me, good stuff.
The Dwarven Fighter is named Dirge Grinder the III, (actually the 14th, but he can't count). He loves to tell stories about his family, especially his Grandma in the garden and the wagon wheels she rolls the kids down the hill with!! His family name is well known amongst the Dwarves as screw ups, but they think they are nobility thus all the attention they get. A typical example being that his clan's keep fell over after three seasons as they didn't mix the mortar right. They blamed it on their enemies sabotage!
The thief is named Porvald Kern, a foppish carouser who loves Dirge! They get into all kinds of trouble as neither has any wits and kind of stumble through life. Porvald carries three extra pair of boots as his are always getting stolen, burnt or lost (mainly because he had to run from an adultrous affair at someone's house).
Rombius is a Cleric of Hadron (God of Seduction). He considers himself a pimp and dress very good in all he can afford. He wears elaborate jewelry and loves rings. Quite a staunch hater of undead though!!
Carrick is the Magician (only experienced Rolemaster player) who is very studious, but quick to temper. He has a soft spot for the others as they are very poor, downtrodden and plain stupid as he puts it. He is the leader of the group, even though Dirge thinks he is.
The Monks name is Sling (a real min/max player) he wants to WIN! He stays back, very hesitant and only gets involved in combat when he can steal a kill! Not a good roleplayer, but everyone laughs at him.
Then there is Bash the Bard, likes to play the lute, loud and hard. He has a poor voice, but is quite the ladies man. He want's to be up front fighting and singing all the time. In his words "Since I don't sing well, my enemies should hear it".
They are now well stocked and the town they failed to help with the kobolds is ready to get rid of them. They offer 5 sp each and a copper piece per ear to rid the hills (and their apple orchard) of the pesky kobolds. They travel out to the orchard and Porvald and Dirge get in a brawl. The Magician gained a minor disease(diaherra) from the poor cooking of Dirge. Bash is trying to track the kobolds, Sling won't stand watch and Rombius is revelling in the mirror he bought!! I will update later.
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The thief... ...carries three extra pair of boots as his are always getting stolen...
Oh that's priceless... ;D
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Sounds like a group that is a joy to GM for.
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Hiking out to the orchard was fun. They met a trader on the road who had a beautiful daughter. The two romeo's started smiling and playing instruments. The monk, who doesn't role play disappeared looking for herbs. Dirge started parlaying the trader with tales of the Grinder clan. That's when it got funny, the trader had indeed heard of them. He started saying how great they were and all this. The party was in shock! The Magician tried to see if they were being taken, but to no avail. The young beauty made Porvald dance with Rombius, it was hysterical. They made some trades to their benefit and even bartered for some sweet cream rolls and dark beer.
The next day they make the orchard and now it gets serious! All this time they had their hearts set on apple pies, apple cider, apple crisp etc. well half the orchard was picked clean. Over stolen apples and livlihood of the local village they were drawn together. The monk asked why would kobolds pick apples? They all stared blankly and said, the little bastards have a recipe! Right then and there I broke out laughing. We had to stop the game for 15 minutes so we all could compose ourselves. Everyone received 2000 xp for that! More to follow.
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The monk asked why would kobolds pick apples? They all stared blankly and said, the little bastards have a recipe!
Seems like there's a whole lot of human history folklore concerning nastiness involving apples. "The little bastards have a recipe" could be the beginning of something very big and very ugly.
;)
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To continue, they searched the orchard and found not kobold tracks, but booted feet amd wagon wheels. They tracked it north away from the kobold hills. Then they made a near fatal mistake, they split up. The Mage, cleric and bard all went back to town while Dirge, Porvald and Sling decided to stay with the tracks.
As the trackers come over a rise they see wifts of smoke so they investigate. The thief sneaks up and sees three surly looking sorts drinking and gambling. So he walks in and says hidee-ho! They laugh and invite him in. The banter was great as he is telling them about the apples and beer they have as well as showing them his new boots. They hold him down and start beating him up. Once they went for his boots things got serious!
Dirge and Sling finally hear Porvald scream like a girl and come running. Porvald knifes one and is then knocked out. As the others arrive Dirge drops one with his axe and Sling jumps on the downed one to get the kill pts. Dirge is shouting "for the honor of the Grinders"! The monk proceeds to take out one of the bandits while Dirge the dwarf I pales another with his drawn out stories. Sling the monk does indeed take this one down also.
Two of the bandits die, but the last one wishes he would have perished as well. They tie him up, Porvald wakes up to see one of his boots was removed and tossed in the fire. He tells the others to look around for the other bandits who ran. Dirge and Sling head out. Porvald sticks his sword point in the fire and takes off the bandits boots. They don't fit him and now a malicious evil side comes out. He uses the hot sword point to burn the bandits feets until he passes out. When the others return they see ol Porvald getting his new boots on and the bandits fee all blistered and bloodied! What crazy looks they gave him!