Topic: How many people play Rolemaster?

[Mordenkainen]

I wonder if ICE staff have any speculation or research on the size of the fan base.  If they don't, or don't want to make it public, perhaps the rest of us can just speculate in the absence of data  .

Perhaps there could be two categories:

*number of hardcore fans (actively playing or would like to be, or active on the net)
*gamers to whom Rolemaster is one of the major systems on their bookshelf, but aren't "fans" as such

There are also lapsed players who haven't played in years - I suspect that this is the largest category. RM Companion 1 sold 100 000 copies, apparently! But most of these people have moved on and aren't even potential customers these days I imagine.

I

[Dax]

Griffonbait tries to estimate the age of the fan base. Look here

OK, only data of forum members and associates; and out of date ...

...
RM Companion 1 sold 100 000 copies, apparently!
...

Never heard of that number, I thought (hoped) it was higher.

[Warl]

There are also lapsed players who haven't played in years - I suspect that this is the largest category. RM Companion 1 sold 100 000 copies, apparently! But most of these people have moved on and aren't even potential customers these days I imagine.

Or they still have all those books and still play RM2 and have never even THOUGHT to see if a newer version after RMSS/RMFRP was ever put out to know that RMC has been put out for the RM2 fans.

[lev_lafayette]

Griffonbait tries to estimate the age of the fan base. Look here

OK, only data of forum members and associates; and out of date ...

...
RM Companion 1 sold 100 000 copies, apparently!
...

Never heard of that number, I thought (hoped) it was higher.

My recollection (from a royalty summary from Monte many years ago) is that it sold 35,000. I can't find said letter at the moment (it's around somewhere, I'm sure). But basically each Companion sold less than the proceeding one, for fairly obvious reasons. The one I wrote (6) sold over 10,000 copies.

[munchy]

Cool, and I own one of them. Suddenly it has become a collector's item as it now got a limited number of copies.

[Gladius]

Back in college there were only three games we played on a regular basis:
DnD, Rolemaster (RM2), Call of Cthulhu. We played others, sure. But those three games were the ones that had long lasting campaigns (although in CoC a campaign was more a story ark since i don't think any original characters ever made it to the end).  I only recently found the ICE page and I picked up RMC: Not because I dislike RMSS or HARP (which I don't own), but because it looked, initially, that RMC was the game that was getting support. Anyway we have a group of four players, but we won't be starting the campaign until fall. A least two of the people in the group are planning on trying to get any RMC stuff that is published until a new RM/HARP single system comes out. The rest of the group plans on buying CL, AL, and SL.

[Mordenkainen]

The one I wrote (6) sold over 10,000 copies.

Hmmm, so 10,000 copies were produced - quite a lot by 2008 RPG industry print run sizes - and yet they are still rare enough to be quite expensive on ebay. That would indicate a pretty healthy base of RM collectors, if not actual players.

[Warl]

well some of it is loss due to wear and tear. Back 15 to 20 years ago when I was regularly running RM, I went through 3 Box sets and 3 RM comp Is and 2 RM comp IIs.

Today I have 2 RM comp I copies (neither of which is one I had 15 years ago.) Those things were well loved but well used. PDFs today are the salvation of my books.

[Warl]

this was also not counting the fact that every one of My players had their own Box set and AT least RM comp I and II. if not all of the companions. I had roughly 11 Players at one time. each with their own books.

[Emaughan]

I wonder how many of us active players in college have now become "lone outposts" for Rolemaster. I have moved away, have my job, our friends are not the "roleplaying" type, my wife is not remotely interested and the only person that I know who does game is a DnDer.  Having seen the gamer groupies that hang out at the hobbie shops... well they're just not my crowd.  It's not that I'm a snob (well maybe a little) its just that as a dad of four, I don't want to be bringing a bunch of F-dudes into my home.  I'm a RM fan but with no team to play on. 

So, how many of RM roleplayers are out there who don't roleplay?

[Balhirath]

I wonder how many of us active players in college have now become "lone outposts" for Rolemaster. I have moved away, have my job, our friends are not the "roleplaying" type, my wife is not remotely interested and the only person that I know who does game is a DnDer.  Having seen the gamer groupies that hang out at the hobbie shops... well they're just not my crowd.  It's not that I'm a snob (well maybe a little) its just that as a dad of four, I don't want to be bringing a bunch of F-dudes into my home.  I'm a RM fan but with no team to play on. 

So, how many of RM roleplayers are out there who don't roleplay?

Lots
Some of them will come back in the next few years, as their children grow older and they get more free time. I had an 6-8 year break from roleplaying at one point, because I did not have the time to play or people to play with. However at some point the imagination gets quite bored with everyday life and needs to get out and play and before you know it, you're back in the game.
Others will learn their kids to play roleplay, because it's a good tool to teach the kids that actions have an reaction as well as many other things.
I taught my nephews Rolemaster and their mom wondered how their english skills improved a lot, the same with their ability to add two numbers in the head  and one of them grew to love english books so much that he now is in charge of a book store

There are many reasons to play roleplaying games and for most people it doesn't matter if you're 20 or 40: it is still a lot of fun.    

[vroomfogle]

I wonder how many of us active players in college have now become "lone outposts" for Rolemaster. I have moved away, have my job, our friends are not the "roleplaying" type, my wife is not remotely interested and the only person that I know who does game is a DnDer.  Having seen the gamer groupies that hang out at the hobbie shops... well they're just not my crowd.  It's not that I'm a snob (well maybe a little) its just that as a dad of four, I don't want to be bringing a bunch of F-dudes into my home.  I'm a RM fan but with no team to play on. 

So, how many of RM roleplayers are out there who don't roleplay?

Emaughan, have you heard of Fantasy Grounds? Or considered using another virtual table-top software?   Get together all those old friends of yours online and get an RM campaign going again!  A company called Digital Adventures is currently working on a Rolemaster Classic ruleset for FG.    I'm on the team of 4-5 folks producing the ruleset (though my role is pretty small, the others have done most of the work) and while we aren't ready to give a release date hopefully we'll release it by the end of the year.

I used to be in the same situation as you.   I have not played much in the last several years other then a campaign with all old friends (scattered about New England we play a few times a year).   I'm now starting to use Fantasy Grounds to play more.  While it's not the same as being all together it is a great program that really captures the feel of being face to face.

[Warl]

I used to use Fantasy grounds, but Now I use a free Online Program called Maptools found at
www.rptools.net it's a Free and VERY useful program. it doesn't have a option for character sheets, But it does have 100 hotkey options for setting up Dice macros or anything else. Chat window works well and the Map Tool with it's fog of war ability is very Nice.

You can use the 1.2 version or the !.3 beta version.

The beta version has Video tutorials.

The program can be set up with line of site topography that Blocks the view of the PCs based on their position on the map and Light source.

been using Map tools for almost a year now.


Along with it I use a Ventrilo Voice chat server, makes communication during game easier. the chat window is msotly used for dice rolls and declaration of character actions.

Anyone Interested in using ventrilo for their Online game can contact me, My server has a capacity of 30 and most of the week it is hardly used. I can set up a Passworded private chat room for anyone interested. Donations are not required but not turned down either. :-P

I have my own groups that play using the Ventrilo server mabey 3 to 4 times a month plus 3 other groups that currently use the server on various days.

Don't be shy just contact me and I can set it up for ya.

[heruca]

I wonder how many of us active players in college have now become "lone outposts" for Rolemaster. I have moved away, have my job, our friends are not the "roleplaying" type, my wife is not remotely interested and the only person that I know who does game is a DnDer.

Another virtual tabletop option for the geographically-dispersed gaming group is Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (see my sig for the link). It not only supports Rolemaster's dice mechanics without any scripting required, it also lets you easily input all your Rolemaster tables so that all your Crit Charts, etc. can be automatically referenced by a dice macro. So you can get all the flavor of Rolemaster's crit tables without the time-consuming aspect of stopping the game to look up the results of each roll.

Here's an example of the look-up tables in use:

[Mungo]

Another virtual tabletop option for the geographically-dispersed gaming group is Battlegrounds: RPG Edition (see my sig for the link). It not only supports Rolemaster's dice mechanics without any scripting required, it also lets you easily input all your Rolemaster tables so that all your Crit Charts, etc. can be automatically referenced by a dice macro. So you can get all the flavor of Rolemaster's crit tables without the time-consuming aspect of stopping the game to look up the results of each roll.

But you have to enter all these tables by yourself or are they already in and supported by Battlegrounds?

BR
Juergen

[heruca]

Unfortunately, you have to enter them yourself, since that's ICE's IP, and I can't include it with the software. The "data entry" is quite simple to do (tables are just tab-delimited files), it's just tedious because RM has so many tables.

[Emaughan]

Thanks for the tips, but I don't think gaming on the computer would be my thing.  If I want to do RPG on a computer, I'll stick to Morrowind or Oblivion.  If I'm doing good 'ol fashion roleplaying, I want to have a session at a table with other people as we eat junk food into the wee hours of the morning.

Now the good news is that right under my nose is a potentially huge pool of gamers that I had ignored until now.  I decided to start "coming out of the closet" and talking to the techs I work with to see if they would be interested - and a couple of them do want to try it out.  Here I am a pharmacist, surrounded by people who choose to work in a somewhat geeky profession, and did I not realize the potential until now?  Since I know many techs from various stores (lots of extra OT shifts) I can pick and choose from a whole pool of nice, smart, hard working, pharm geeks.  Things are looking up, I just needed to be a bit more evangelical about my interests and let my inner nerd out  . 

[bottg]

I have played HARP via a webcam (in fact i chose HARP because of the one-roll combat determination).  It would obviously be easier to get HARP into Battlegrounds than RM because of the fewer/simpler tables.

[Scorba]

I have been playing ICE products since around 85' or 86' ....well somewhere in there.....a lot of water under the bridge. Since I am new....I do notice something....or lack of something...and it starts with "M". Are those products also open for discussion?

I have been an exclusive MERP player for 20+ years and I love that game, though we did incorporate a lot of regular RM stuff to spice it up.

The world is unrivaled in history and though I will play in other worlds I truly only prefer one.

I signed on here, because after nearly 10 years...we have assembled a new group of younger players and will have our first session this coming weekend.

Wish us luck, but once the first "E" crit KIA happens these guys will get hooked.

Anyone from Florida?

Scorba, The Crimson Terror of Rhudaur

[Cormac Doyle]

MERP is not normally discussed on thses forums, as ICE do not have the license to publish that title, and the TE are very quick to follow up people possibly (ab)using their intellectual property