(Back in my proper time zone and recovered from the joys of transatlantic flying.)
In an ideal world, Rolemaster would have the tens of thousands of active customers that D&D and Pathfinder have. Only a fraction of their customers will be involved in the playtesting of their products, so they can easily afford to give away playtest versions for free.
It's not an ideal world and it has not been for more than a decade. It's a matter of public record (from the bankruptcy proceedings when Old ICE died) that RMSS/FRP supplements were selling between two and three thousand copies per title. The days when Rolemaster supplements (looking at Rolemaster Companion I here) sold 40,000 copies are even further back.
So we cannot just go giving away the core rules for Rolemaster.
But what we do want to do is to get the Rolemaster fan base involved in the creative process and have hundreds of eyes looking at the public playtest copies, playing with them, discussing them on the forums, providing feedback, and making them even better. I've already read the new Arms Law and Character Law manuscripts and they are already very good indeed. The current Gamma readers are providing feedback that is making them better yet, and I know the fan base can propel them to a level of excellence that will be unsurpassed. It is an opportunity for the fan base to make their mark on the core Rolemaster rules, a set of rules that we will be supporting for years to come, so it is in the interest of the fan base to get involved in the process.
So yes, we are charging for the public playtest pdf copies, but these will be offered via OneBookShelf, so once all the text changes made, the artwork added, the layout done, etc, you simply redownload the pdf and get the final version. You only pay once for the pdf.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
