Topic: Haven't played in years... Where to start?

[Ginger McMurray]

We played RM2 waaaay back. I've still got a ton of the books, but I'd rather have multiple copies to pass out to players. That makes RM2 really hard to get back into, unless someone knows a good place to buy them. ebay has some stuff cheapish.

Alternatively, what's the status of the beta test? Is it a good idea to dive in there? And will I be able to convert my older Lord of the Rings campaign settings and adventures to RMU fairly easily? It doesn't have to be super easy, but if bonuses haven't changed much it's all good. And orc with +35 OB and +10 DB is an orc is an orc.

It doesn't look like the beta files have been updated since 2015. Is the system dead?

[Siltoneous]

Glad to see you back and welcome.  RMC is the replacement for your RM2. However many of us have found that while RMC is great (cleaned up, organized better, looks nicer), RMC isn't an absolute necessity.  That said, Combat Companion is pretty sweet.

RMU is still a work in progress, and as of the last Directors Briefing (http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=19481.0) it's in the editorial queue.  Slower than we all want, but we want it done right, rather than fast.

As far as settings go, Mr. Amthor has been tearing it up lately, and has just released a new Shadow World Sourcebook Haalkitaine (available on RPG now as PDF, soon as hard copy (or I've seen posted)).  He's also recently released a new SW module as PWYW (again on DriveThruRPG).

Rolemaster certainly isn't dead, just laying low.  Fair bit of activity if you know where to look for it, and I was pleasantly surprised to have recently seen Fantasy Grounds VTT activity.  There are a couple of  YouTube channels where RM groups post their VTT activity.  A few other resources:  the Rolemaster Blog; it has some very good RM / d100 discussions there and also the Facebook group.  RM Reddit group was banned for some reason (still trying to figure that one out), but I think it's being worked on.

[Hurin]

Yes, just to pick up on what Siltoneous said, the developers had hoped to get RMU out this year, but just announced that they won't. We are close to publication though, as he noted.

There have been some changes to the 2015 beta rules. This thread (first few posts) have some of the new tables:
http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=17164.0

The races have been tweaked as well. If you can't find the table for that, let me know and I can send it to you.

I am hoping that the Shadow World books will get updated with RMU stats once RMU comes out; not entirely sure about that though.

[Ginger McMurray]

Are the changes massive enough to need them? If I can get my group playing before the final rules come out, having an actual book in hand and catching up to changes in it is better than trying to get new players to look at an 885 page spell book and then say "oh ,yeah... You'll also need to reference a thread on a forum you've never heard of."

[Hurin]

Spell Law is only 475 pages, but I hear what you're saying 

There are some substantial changes (the initiative system is simpler, the size rules are easier, various assorted tweaks), but I don't think there is anything stopping you from playing the beta rules for now and then switching to the final rules when they come out. So long as you are aware that you will have to make some changes when that happens.

[Fingolfin80]

Are the changes massive enough to need them? If I can get my group playing before the final rules come out, having an actual book in hand and catching up to changes in it is better than trying to get new players to look at an 885 page spell book and then say "oh ,yeah... You'll also need to reference a thread on a forum you've never heard of."

In addition to what Hurin said, the tables at the start of the quoted topics are images, so you can print them and paste them on the corrisponding ones on the original manual if you want. I did it, it doesn't take more than ten minutes, just mind the dimensions because you may need to resize them a bit bifore printing, if I remember well.

[Ginger McMurray]

Thanks! Now I just need them to decide between Rolemaster and Exalted.