Topic: Who looks things up?

[Ginger McMurray]

I've seen several people mention the GM telling you your damage. We always used our own charts and looked up our own attacks and crits.

How do you  do it?

Why?

[Ginger McMurray]

My answers:

How do you  do it?

I've never had a GM look things up. We always had our OBs on the front of our character sheet and separate sheets for each weapon. These were double-sided copies. The front is the chart. The back is the critical chart. If a weapon can deal multiple types, you can either have an extra page or shrink the charts and put them side-by-side. The choice depends on your eyesight.

Why?

The GM has enough to track. Don't put more on her plate.

Also, players (at least me) enjoy looking at the crit chart and reading off the uberness of their swings.

[Peter R]

For us the GM always does the combat, critical and spell results lookups.

We do this because letting the player do it reveals the AT, DB and for spells the level of the foes they are facing. If someone is just wearing robes but you tell the player that they are AT13 you can be damn sure that those robes won't be left on the body!

[Ecthelion]

We split up the work, so that one player looks up thing in Arms Law, another keeps track of damage etc. Makes it easier for the GM to focus on the important tasks and also makes combat smoother.

[Hurin]

I (the GM) used to do everything, looking up all attacks and criticals, on the assumption that otherwise there would be too much metagaming.

The last few campaigns, however, I have allowed the characters to do the attack chart look-ups, and overall I think it has worked well. Yes, I have to let them know the opponent's AT(DB), but that has been a relatively small price to pay for saving the GM a lot of time.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to let players look up their criticals, primarily because then they would know the exact duration of stuns, severity of injuries, etc. That is a little too metagamey for me.

[Ginger McMurray]

You never know for sure if the enemy has stunned maneuver or other stun relief options. That can turn a "he's stunned for two turns, full attack" plan into "holy crap, I'm screwed!"   

[Hurin]

You never know for sure if the enemy has stunned maneuver or other stun relief options. That can turn a "he's stunned for two turns, full attack" plan into "holy crap, I'm screwed!"   

There isn't any stunned maneuver anymore in RMU, and it's not just about stuns; knowing whether your opponent's cracked rib is mostly inconsequential (-5) or crippling (-30) is pretty important too.

But I might try it one day just to see how it goes.

[Spectre771]

I (and the GMs I game with) do all the looking up.  I've considered having the players look up the attacks on their own copies, but I would have to reveal the DB and AT to the players as well.  As PeterR stated, it may not be 'just robes' the NPC is wearing.  There could be a magical ring, a spell in effect, actual armour under those robes, or some other thing the PC wouldn't have knowledge of just yet.  To help speed things along, I do have the copies of the weapon attack tables so I don't have to constantly flip pages and I can pull out the crit tables that are most likely to be used so things do move along faster.  It's not that I think it would make meta-gaming easier, I have really good players who do their best not to, I would just have to reveal too much of what's behind the curtain.

Even the Movement/Maneuver table would reveal too much to players if I set a particular difficulty and the player wants to know why it's at the difficulty that it is.   I definitely do not want to reveal the specifics of the crits to the players.  I'll say "You hear a sickening crunch as your hammer connects with his ribs.  He is visibly dazed and having a heck of a time trying to breathe"  But I won't reveal that the NPC has broken ribs, is at -75, stunned for 8 rounds, unable to parry.

[Thot]

in my past RoleMaster games, it was usually distributed among the group, but I am planning to do the "GM only" method in my next campaign.

[Ginger McMurray]

I hadn't thought about knowing penalties. I don't really mind either way. I think I'll ask the group how they want to do it. We'll have access to ERA so lookups are nonexistent unless someone wants to do them themselves.

[jdale]

GM only here, but using software for lookups and tracking damage. The players know their own status but only get a general description of the enemy's status. Our group is not very rules-focused so it's easier that way. My next campaign (which will start when our D&D campaign ends) will be with a much more rule-focused tactics-focused group so I am looking forward to seeing how that goes.

[Thot]

GM only here, but using software for lookups and tracking damage.[...]

ERA?

[Cory Magel]

Our character binders include every spell list, attack and critical table the character knows and uses regularly. Having players look most that stuff up speeds the game up a decent amount, especially along side some of the other changes we've made over the years.

[Peter R]

GM only here, but using software for lookups and tracking damage.[...]

ERA?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=ERA+rolemaster&x=20&y=15&affiliate_id=730903&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=

or for more information and even a video...

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137825/ERA-for-Rolemaster?affiliate_id=730903

[Thot]

GM only here, but using software for lookups and tracking damage.[...]

ERA?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=ERA+rolemaster&x=20&y=15&affiliate_id=730903&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=

or for more information and even a video...

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137825/ERA-for-Rolemaster?affiliate_id=730903

My question was if ERA is the software he uses.

[Grinnen Baeritt]

I find it useful for the players to have a couple of weapons tables each, this way this stops me, as the GM, looking for tables myself.

I however, let the players roll for their characters actions, including critical (and fumble) rolls, but I'm the one that reads the critical/fumble tables (and interprets) the results. This allows for certain amount of "poetic license" in some cases... to add the story. It also allows for a certain amount of "fog of war" relating to the hidden strengths/weaknesses of their opponents, that the players may not necessarily be aware of..

 

[jdale]

Homebrew. I've been meaning to try ERA and have not had a chance yet.

[Fingolfin80]

GM only, I don't let players know any detail of the opponents. They can look at the tables, if they want to figure out something on their own, but i don't reveal them DB nor AT, nor critical effects.
To make my life easier as GM I use a single chart for melee attacks (with modifiers based on the weapon), so I think my point of view is slightly altered in respect to people who use standard charts.

[Peter R]

Similarly, I use the condensed combat system from the Combat Companion for most fights, it is only the big, end of level boss, where I break out arms law tables.

[MisterK]

GM only when I am the GM - partly because I prefer it that way, partly because the players prefer it that way