Topic: MERP 2e/Rolemaster question

[daddystabz]

You masters out there...I have most of my characters wearing greaves and I was wondering what determines how many crits greaves of various types can absorb before breakage?

I see no explanation in my MERP 2e book and I own Rolemaster Express but not sure if it is explained there either.

[Kristen Mork]

When we played Not-RM, we ruled that leather greaves could absorb one crit and metal greaves could absorb any number of hits.  Not realistic, but easy!

[smug]

Yeah, I though that not-RM actually had that rule in it. Rolemaster isn't very clear on the difference between metal and leather other than I guess you could apply the breakage rules. I always found the negating of crits as per RM2/C to be too powerful, though.

[Ecthelion]

IIRC ME RP did not have breakage rules for greaves. Since we did not want to bother with breakage anyway, we never checker whether RM had such rules for greaves. My guessing it that neither ME RP not RMX do contain such rules - for many groups this is just too much details to track, I assume.

[daddystabz]

My point is this....if there are no breakage rules for greaves of any type in MERP 2e then why wear metal over leather greaves? The metal ones hit some of your skills for penalties...so why not just wear leather instead if metal offers no real advantage or leather?

[Kristen Mork]

That's why we ruled that leather greaves were broken upon absorbing a crit.

[yammahoper]

there is an old equipment table somewhere that has in the notes column, leather greaves are good for one crit, metal for two.

however, why not assign a break factor to the greaves?  use the hits delivered as a penalty plus -10 per severity of crit.

I would guess leather greaves to have a bf of 65, metal 85.  Superior and magical gear should be adjusted accordingly.

[daddystabz]

Another thing I just thought of for my MERP 2e game: What if a players wants to perform a called shot to target a specific body part or object? Are there any rules in Rolemaster to cover this situation? I see none in MERP 2e so far.

[ironmaul]

I think there are rules in HARP Sci-fi for this but not sure if that will help you.

[Witchking20k]

I just read that section last night.  It basically explains that the PCs are assumed to fix their equipment in between battles; but that leather is destroyed not damaged by crits.

I would recommend giving them simple usages like SL 1, RL 2, Chain 3, Plate 4 and making it a medium maneuver to repair 1 pt of damage in between battles or a Hard manuever to re-furbish a broken item.  Simple.

[markc]

Another thing I just thought of for my MERP 2e game: What if a players wants to perform a called shot to target a specific body part or object? Are there any rules in Rolemaster to cover this situation? I see none in MERP 2e so far.

 Can I ask where you picked up your copy of MERP 2e? It is a hard book to find.
MDC

[daddystabz]

Try http://www.nobleknight.com

Another thing I just thought of for my MERP 2e game: What if a players wants to perform a called shot to target a specific body part or object? Are there any rules in Rolemaster to cover this situation? I see none in MERP 2e so far.

 Can I ask where you picked up your copy of MERP 2e? It is a hard book to find.
MDC

[markc]

Wow my MERP collection is worth more than I thought.
MDC

[Old Man]

Wow my MERP collection is worth more than I thought.
MDC

Marc - did you have them quote trade-in for credit or sale? Could you tell how much of their retail price they offered? (10% 25%?)

[smug]

I have a full collection of ICE's RM and MERP Middle-Earth stuff now (although I didn't get all editions; I'm probably missing some Angmar, say, because I have the 1e edition only, although I did buy Arnor and The Shire even though there's some duplicated content in them). I am not sure I could even bear to sell them.

[markc]

Wow my MERP collection is worth more than I thought.
MDC

Marc - did you have them quote trade-in for credit or sale? Could you tell how much of their retail price they offered? (10% 25%?)

 No I did not I just looked at the prices of the stuff. Most of my books are in excellent condition and I am bummed that I sold  some of my best stuff 10 years ago when I needed some space.
MDC

[daddystabz]

One more question, in terms of MERP 2e and Rolemaster: I've noticed in looking through the MERP 2e material that many of the important NPC writeups for the setting have attributes that are really high. I understand that many are very, very high level, like Legolas at the end of RotK is like lvl 28. However, there are also stats for him at the begging of TFotR and he is lvl 8 there and still have VERY impressive attribute ratings. Though for PCs, I see no real way to increase your attributes at all. Even when you level up, it give you no option for increasing your traits. Now I know that acquiring magic items can buff your attributes somewhat but does anyone have a system from Rolemaster or a homebrew system for increasing PC attributes as you level up?

I'm also looking for an XP table for character advancement past lvl 10, which is the ceiling you can go to in core MERP 2e.

[Marc R]

I'd grab RM2 or RMC, the exp tables continue on.

[markc]

I just had a huge post die on me so here is the short version.
 
 Lords of Middle Earth have rules for high level PC's and NPC's, in my copy of LoME Vol 1 there is no Exp table but they reference RM2 a lot so I would use that info for levels past 10, in the book they provide notes for Legolas at LvL 8 but in the box text they have info for LvL 8 and LvL 28 (I do not see any stat info for LvL 28 in my book) and I do not remember any stat increase rules in MERP as I think they wanted a system that was like the books in that you started at your max potential.
 Since you stated at you max potential then it would require things like magic potions, items and magic experiences to increase your stats. The main one that springs to mind is Ent Brew and I think rules are provided for that in the Ent product.


 The next short answer is MERP was inteded mainly as a max Lvl 10 product and it was assumed that higher level PC's would die by then or be taken out by the enemy by then. See note at end of LoME Vol I. But having said that IMHO if you want to get beyond lvL 10 you should use the RM2 or RMC rules or adapt them to the MERP rules you want to use.


MDC
 

[daddystabz]

Another question: In MERP 2e when you level it up, the book says it costs 3 DPs to increase a skill by 2 ranks. One thing you can do also is transfer leftover DPs from various skill categories into Perception, and I think it is on a 1-1 basis. Does that mean it doesn't cost 3 DPs to increase PER 2 ranks in this fashion then?