Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: Tywyll on March 12, 2022, 04:41:43 PM
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What's the deal with the special results on a '66'? Like, I feel like it has to have been some inside joke at one point? Does anyone know?
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We always thought it was related to '666', the number of the beast -- and note that Rolemaster was created during the days of the 'Satanic Panic'. So we took it as Rolemaster's cryptic raised finger to the ridiculousness of the 'Moral Majority' (yet another reason we loved Rolemaster).
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In the beginning, Rolemaster was played with a d1000 , and, well... :)
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Originally, the 66 results were special only on the critical charts and served the function of a good crit relatively low on the chart, making the Ambush skill more effective. Later, unmodified 66 was made a special result on static maneuvers, as far as I can tell, just to have another possible result when you fling the dice.
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Having special (and often quite lethal) results at 66 in the critical tables makes ambush especially dangerous.
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Having special (and often quite lethal) results at 66 in the critical tables makes ambush especially dangerous.
I mean...sure. Okay. But why 66? Why not 50 or 75? It's such a specific and weird choice. Unless it is some 666 nod or something?
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Breakage is on doubles too. But whether that's generally because doubles are memorable, or just following the precedent of 66 already being weird, I don't know.
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We always thought it was related to '666', the number of the beast -- and note that Rolemaster was created during the days of the 'Satanic Panic'. So we took it as Rolemaster's cryptic raised finger to the ridiculousness of the 'Moral Majority' (yet another reason we loved Rolemaster).
On a different note, I was one of the Christians at the time defending the system (along with the system who shall not be named) and fighting against the "more moral than thou" side. I did a paper in college about the benefits of these table-top gatherings in relation to those that often struggled in mixed social situations, the inevitable understanding of percentages, mathematics and increased aptitude with spelling, and the use of imagination and creativity. It was an awesome time to be defending the very thing that evoked wonderful excitement about reading and understanding of rules "systems"!!!