I have long been telling my friends (and anyone else I could corner) that of all of the versions of RM that ICE has put out, RMSS/FRP were my favorite. Up until today, I refused to participate in any real discussion about RM2/C.
A couple of years ago, as a birthday present, a friend bought me the RMC pdf's. He knew I liked RM, and thought it would be a good gift, after all, it was the latest version of the game, and neither of us were too fond of HARP. I thanked him, of course, but only kind of flipped through it, reluctant to give up my RMSS games.
He has since moved away, and I've invested a lot of time in tweaking RMSS to my liking. But in light of recent conversations, I decided to step back, and take a good hard look at the way I play, and see if I was too harsh on RMC, dismissing it without any real chance for it to make an impression on me.
Now keeping in mind that I have yet to read all of the RMC material I have, here is my list of things to dislike between the two versions:
In RMSS, I dislike how long it takes to build a character. I love the detail I get from it, but seesaw on whether or not to allow talents and flaws (it's cool if I'm a player, not so cool as a GM). RMC is much faster.
In RMSS I dislike the initiative system. I haven't yet digested the RMC version, but maybe it's a better fit.
In RMSS I like the stat generation roll method, but always end up trying to get re-rolls and more points so I can have a decent set of scores in addition to meeting the prime requisites. It got so bad that I stole the RMC version of the rules and make my players use that system.
I also dislike the RMSS experience system. It's just too many things to keep track of.
That's a lot of dislikes for a system that claims to be my favorite.
As I mentioned above, I already use the RMC stat generation system.
I prefer being able to buy 3 ranks in some skills. In RMC, it's usually 2, max. (Per level, that is.) But then again, there are skills that aren't limited at all, and they seem to be generally the same kinds of skills that get 3 ranks in RMSS. So maybe that's a wash.
I dislike the spell gain roll in RMC. But then, skimming over Spell Law for RMC, I see that there are a few RMSS-like options to try.
I like categories, but agree that RMSS has too many for practical uses. I'm not convinced yet that the RMC method is better, but I bet it is much faster.
In the end, the bottom line for me has two parts:
1) I need to give it a try, play a few games, make a few characters, and give it a chance to grow on me. I'll be better able to make decisions once I've gotten some experience under my belt.
2) As it stands now, should a major revision occur, and the new version resemble RMC more than RMSS, I will not automatically throw it on the useless pile. I think now, I might just be open to giving it a whirl (up to now, I was secretly thinking that if it did go RM2 style, I wouldn't pick any of the new books up).
Having newer books to show everyone will make it easier for me to sell my group on the idea. Taking less than an hour to build a character will certainly make a big difference in that regard as well. The only thing that would make this better is if I had hard copies of the books (have you seen the prices for used copies of RMC? Insane!).
I do have a question for those in the know, though: How similar is RMC to RM2? By which I mean, how much of the older RoCo's would be compatible, and how much work would it take?
