Author Topic: Favorite Companions? (Read 4451 times)

Zedul · « **on:** May 11, 2011, 09:20:48 PM »

For me it goes like this:

#1 RoCo 1 - The Paladin and the Nightblade, the two most popular classes in our campaign. The background picks, the extended stat mods and dev points. It could be argued that this book is just as important as the core rules themselves. Lord Level spells, Maybe the best RM product ever produced.

#2 RoCo 3 - The Magus class is beloved by my players, though we do a variation on it. Also... Nether and Plasma!

#3 RoCo 2 - All the skills, + rounding out the Paladin Base Lists, and the Warrior Mage.

#4 RoCo 5 - Lots of good Arcane Lists, the essence critical table, and other goodies. I still don't get that terrible Lightning Ball chart though!

#5 Alchemy Companion - Love the alternate types of Alchemists, this one is close to RoCo #5

#6 RoCo 6 - NPC quirks, More lord level spells, good stuff.

#7 Spell Users Companion - Some really nice lists, especially useful for an Archmage but there are some things that I've never found particularly useful to the campaign and a lot more lists that seem overpowered/underpowered or out of balance.

#8 - RoCo 4 - I like some of the Enchanter Lists, we made the Houri lists available to bards and that has worked out well.

#9 - RoCo 7 - This one usually sits on the bottom of the pile, least liked and least used book in our campaign. Some of the spell lists are odd or quirky and most of the book is dedicated to Tarot cards. This seems less like a RM product and more like something I'd find on the bookshelf of an old wiccan lady I once knew.

kevinmccollum · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2011, 09:48:33 PM »

Very little of any of the companions were any good.

RMC1 is my most used. I use a couple of races, the smoothed stats and the paladin. Oh, and the initiative system in (except for being able to cast multiple spells per round).

RMC II- I use many of the new skills, base power points, handling fear and the level bonuses listed in the back (with some modifications for the semi- spell users)

After that, I bought RMCIII but found none of it useable. Maybe the handling of undead with the Repel undead spells.

markc · « **Reply #2 on:** May 11, 2011, 09:59:13 PM »

I would say;
1) Essence Comp
2) Channeling Companion (Maybe #1 in usefulness)
3) Ment Companion
4) RM2 Elemental Comp/ RMFRP Fire and Ice
5) Castles and Ruins
6) ...and a 10' Pole

MDC

kevinmccollum · « **Reply #3 on:** May 11, 2011, 11:57:40 PM »

Ooops, yes, I have to include Castles and Ruins and Hands of the Healer so,

1) Hands of the Healer
2)RMC I
3) Castles and Ruins
4) RMCII

Zedul · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2011, 01:05:28 AM »

Some of these I never heard of... Castles and Ruins, Hands of the Healer? Is this RMSS stuff?

Zat · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2011, 01:26:32 AM »

I remember waiting with eager anticipation for each release (there is a strange story of how I managed to get my hands on my first copy of RoCo3) and I know that our group uses each and every RM2 Companion on a very regular basis, but that use does vary depending on the characters, skills and spell lists etc. So, ordering them in a list of favorite Companion is a little difficult, however in order of usefulness is easier, so here goes...

#1 RoCo2 - The skill listing is the core of our games
#2 RoCo1, 3, 4, 5, & 7 - Yes, all of them in equal favor. They all have spell lists and professions in fairly equal order and optional rules that have become part of our RM2 gaming culutre and need little reference any more.
#3 Arms Companion - What can I say, it has optional skills and rules that are sometimes vague and need to be referenced often. It also has attack tables that seem to be used much more often than those in other companions.
#4 Spell Users Companion - Lots of spell lists and nice options rules for magic
#5 Elemental Companion and Alchemy Companion - In equal measure and heavily dependant upon professions in the group.
#6 RoCo6 - Nothing much use in here for my group with the exception of 'What do I need for a C Pick in Strength?' and 'Where's that table for DPs based on bonuses?'

Of course there are the companions I have built up myself over the years that get a lot of use too, the most used would be the 'Critical Companion', a collection of all of the critical hit tables in one handy green folder of death, and my own 'Arms Companion' with a bunch of optional rules and all of the attack tables.

Ecthelion · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2011, 01:56:32 AM »

#1 Channeling Companion
#2 Martial Arts Companion
#3 School of Hard Knocks

markc · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2011, 03:03:53 AM »

Quote from: Zedul on May 12, 2011, 01:05:28 AM

Some of these I never heard of... Castles and Ruins, Hands of the Healer? Is this RMSS stuff?

Hands of the Healer is a MERP book and Castles and Ruins is a RMSS book but it can be easily adapted to RM2/C. It is about construction of Castles and other large projects with some of the RM2 warding spell lists and TP's for RMSS.

Yes I forgot the MAC which I think will have to be tied whit the RMSS CC as the most game changing book there is and IMHO should also go in the #4 spot.

MDC

Grinnen Baeritt · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2011, 03:21:51 AM »

1. Hands of the Healer.
2. Firearms Companion.
3. ...and a 10' Pole.

Moriarty · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2011, 03:57:29 AM »

I like Companions 2, 3, and 7 the most.
This thread should probably have been a vote.

DangerMan · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2011, 05:02:43 AM »

1. Channeling companion (no doubt!)
2. Arcane compaion (Over powered, yes. Good fun, still)
2. Hmm... Character law? Maybe not a companion, but a great book!

GrumpyOldFart · « **Reply #11 on:** May 12, 2011, 06:16:51 AM »

Quote from: Zedul on May 12, 2011, 01:05:28 AM

Some of these I never heard of... Castles and Ruins, Hands of the Healer? Is this RMSS stuff?

Castles and Ruins is definitely the GM's friend. If you've ever seen Treasure Companion, you may have noticed how it starts from the idea of wealth as a concept, and shows you how to build from there to suit the specifics of your campaign.... Castles and Ruins does pretty much the same thing with the concept of static defenses.

Basically if a party in your game ever has a significant encounter indoors, you as a GM need to have Castles and Ruins.

Kristen Mork · « **Reply #12 on:** May 12, 2011, 06:27:58 AM »

Quote from: Ecthelion on May 12, 2011, 01:56:32 AM

#1 Channeling Companion
#2 Martial Arts Companion
#3 School of Hard Knocks

Now Ecthelion is my new best friend.

Ecthelion · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2011, 06:32:38 AM »

yammahoper · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2011, 08:46:35 AM »

Chuckle...this is a question that seems to come up on a cycle of time.

Going back in time for RM1/2:
Creatures and Treasures
RMC I and II

RMSS has the best source books I have ever seen (though V:TM gets a nod).
MAC/Channeling Comp: both books are ground breaking material for RM.
Treasure Companion: the information in this book has become essential to my game world.
Castle and Ruins: like Treasure Companion, the rules in this book help create the very spine of my
game world.
Essence Companion: a must have, the rules on spell book cost/learning spells keeps magc users
cash strapped more often than not. It also created one of my favorite
moments, to wit "HEY, your spell books are costing us 70% of the treasure!"
Mage player responded " I did not know you took basic math as a skill...oh,
you DIDN"T? So shut the hell up and enjoy your magic shield."
Gamemaster Law: simply an excellent source book.

The evolution in my GMing style peaks out through that list. I prefer the companions that provide structure to the world, were as in the past I used them for monsters and magic items. I don't recall the last time I looked up a monster in C and M nor generated a magic item for treasure. Now I just choose what I want within the perameters of game economy and logic. Remember Diablo 2? Fun game, but why did wolves and the like have gold drops?

munchy · « **Reply #15 on:** May 12, 2011, 11:32:40 AM »

Although I like a lot of the stuff from many companion I would have to say, if I was to choose one, Companion II. Definitely the one that was used most in our game, that changed the game the most with its skills, spells lists and fear rules.

Zedul · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2011, 02:53:52 PM »

Quote from: GrumpyOldFart on May 12, 2011, 06:16:51 AM

Quote from: Zedul on May 12, 2011, 01:05:28 AM
Some of these I never heard of... Castles and Ruins, Hands of the Healer? Is this RMSS stuff?

Castles and Ruins is definitely the GM's friend. If you've ever seen Treasure Companion, you may have noticed how it starts from the idea of wealth as a concept, and shows you how to build from there to suit the specifics of your campaign.... Castles and Ruins does pretty much the same thing with the concept of static defenses.

Basically if a party in your game ever has a significant encounter indoors, you as a GM need to have Castles and Ruins.

I'll have to track it down, is it available here?

For stuff like that I have been compiling my own resources for years... some cities and ruins stuff from GURPS and so on. Ugh, I hate GURPS...

Zedul · « **Reply #17 on:** May 12, 2011, 03:45:27 PM »

Quote from: Moriarty on May 12, 2011, 03:57:29 AM

I like Companions 2, 3, and 7 the most.
This thread should probably have been a vote.

Sorry

But then of course I would have left out many of the Companions that you folks seem to like so much... since I didn't know about them.

I haven't been in a gaming book store with Rolemaster Materials in 15 years... most of what I have I've gotten through Ebay and we disliked the RMSS stuff so much I never really bothered to buy other portions of it. We had a major meltdown over RMSS...

That it was a new system was just some of the problem. I had several players in the process of collecting RM2 books and then suddenly they were cut off halfway through and RMSS came out. The game stores in our area dropped or discard the old books and told us that I.C.E. was only supporting RMSS. You have never seen such anger from a gaming group! I had about a dozen players in the campaign at the time and was running a few different parties. It was about the worst timing you could imagine, most of the people who had started their RM collections and were spending lots of cash on books were so flat out ticked off that they left the game and sold off their books to other players and there was a general outcry for me to switch to D&D or GURPS or some other system. It was a heated heated situation and we lost a few players and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Everytime I see those RMSS books I go a little crosseyed and my head aches. =P

I have the Mentalism, Arcane, and Essence companions... will have to look in one of my boxes in the closet to see if I may have purchased some others I don't remember.

Ynglaur · « **Reply #18 on:** May 12, 2011, 09:34:53 PM »

Maybe I should pickup the RM2 stuff...though I've been using RMSS, everyone seems to like the old companions (Fear rules?)

yammahoper · « **Reply #19 on:** May 12, 2011, 09:55:13 PM »

Quote from: Ynglaur on May 12, 2011, 09:34:53 PM

Maybe I should pickup the RM2 stuff...though I've been using RMSS, everyone seems to like the old companions (Fear rules?)

The fear rules in GM Law are better than the old, but the optional soul levels in RMCII were lots of fun (and made the old Necromancer a feared prof).

However, some real good RM2 books include RMC I and II, Sea Law, Arms Companion and SUC (though most of the spell list are far to powerful).

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Author Topic: Favorite Companions? (Read 4451 times)