Rolemaster

Rolemaster is owned and trademarked by ICE Games. I prefer mine shaken, not stirred.

Look Before you Adrenal Leap

Submitted by Shottglazz

The PC's had snuck into a good temple in the dock section of a busy city where they thought an evil priest had infiltrated the ranks. They subdued the magical guardians; losing 2 characters to the breath weapons of Zephyr Hounds. After climbing the hidden stairway to the top level (approx 120' above the streets), they made their way to the High Priests' chamber. A high-ceilinged room with floor to ceiling windows on two walls. It was a beauty to behold. The high priest, the fire elemental he summoned from the hearth, and the guards were not. It was a viscious battle, with many serious wounds inflicted on both sides. Finally, the PC's won, slaying the evil priest.

Then they heard clapping and laughing from the hallway. The REAL evil priest was there with his elite guards, explaining they just killed his underling under an illusion spell. Badly wounded, low on healing and magic, and facing six elite guards and a very powerful priest, one PC decided to take his chances. He turned, made a fantastic Adrenal Leaping roll to burst through the stained-glass windows and (hopefully) leap far enough to land in the bay. He would have made it too - if he hadn't jumped out on the landward side of the temple. 60 feet out and 120 feet up - he plummeted to the cobblestones and died a very messy death…

David and the Clothier

Submitted by Jason Yarnell

This is story that took place in a long running Rolemaster campaign that I was running. In order to get the proper feel for what happens I think it is necessary to supply a little history.

First, The Land: The players had recently arrived in a country that was populated by very eccentric magicians. These people had very long lifespans and operated completely with magic. Tools, weapons, clothing, everything was based on spells. Suffice it to say that these people were very bored and were constantly trying to keep up with "the latest fashion." The more unusual the better, platform shoes were also mice cages, hats with small birds attached to the brim by strings and enchanted to constantly fly in circles, well you get the idea. The soldiers of this land wore armor made from an enchanted smoke. It was very strong and did not encumber in the slightest.

The Player: Now Dave was one of those players that were always trying to do something to upset the other players or munchkinize his character. Every little thing he did was to get over on either me or one of the other players. It got so bad that my saying "No Dave you can't.." became synonymous with the game.

The Situation: Dave had separated from the party and was cruising through the town when he happened upon a clothier. He went in and immediately started asking about some enchanted clothes (for better defense of course). The proprietor replied and the conversation went something like this:

Dave: Can you make me some clothes that will protect me better?
Clothier: Of course, I can make anything.
Dave: Can you make me a smoke gi?
Clothier: Make you a smoke gi? Well, I've never done that before. It might be interesting.
Dave: You did say you could make anything.
Clothier: Yes I did. So you want me to make you a smoke gi?
Dave: Yes.
Clothier: A smoke gi.
Dave: Yes, I want you to make me a smoke gi.
Clothier: Are you sure you don't want anything else? I could make you into something much more colorful.
Dave: No, I want you to make a smoke gi.
Clothier: OK, that will be one gold piece please.

Dave handed over the one gold and after some chanting and waving of hands the clothier made Dave a smoke gi. To this day he is still hanging in that clothiers shop waiting for someone to buy him.

Katana Take It!

Submitted by Jason Proctor

Joe was one of the regular players I had in my Rolemaster(RM2)/Middle Earth game. Joes characters all tended to be one sided hackemslashers, and Joe tended to have a "survive at all costs" attitude toward them. He also had the bad habit of trying to get what he wanted by whining, and was the most accomplished munchkin I have ever seen.

I was starting a new campaign, and informed all the players that it would be a bad idea for them to use any background options to get weapons or equipment or money, as they would start out as slaves in an Orcish mine in Mordor, and not have any of their precious equipment. Joe wanted a katana (he was a former AD&D player, and thought that he would do more damage with it). I told him that a katana was not something his culture would have been familier with, and that it used the same attack tables as a broadsword, which was familier to his culture. But Joe had to have HIS way, and bought a magic katana with his background options, and specialized with it in combat, to the expense of any other weapons. Because he had so blatantly disregarded these and other suggestions that I had made during the character creation (with the intention of helping him enjoy the game more), I decided not to use the optional simaler weapons skills for this campaign, and to let him learn from his mistakes.

The game began.

The characters had a chance to escape from their Orcish captors when a mine tunnel collapsed, killing the guards. Joe immeadiately started talking about getting a katana from the dead orcs.

Me: The passage collapses around you all, as the dust settles and you dig yourselves out from the loose rubble, you realize that your guards are all dead.
Joe: Do they have any katanas?
Me: No, Orcs would not have any katanas, katanas do not exist in this part of Middle Earth. They have scimitars and spears.
Everyone else: I take a weapon from the dead guards.
Joe (with a pouting look on his face): Well, if I cant find a katana, Ill just fight barehanded.

This went on and on. After every combat, Joe would ask if any of the dead had katanas. I went so far as to waver on my decision to not use simaler weapons skills, and suggested to Joe that a nice broadsword (the orcs had many of these) would be just as useful to him as a katana, but Joe would have nothing but a katana. The other players even got into it and told him to get over the katana. They were all there when Joe originally asked about them, and all knew that he had been told that there was no way his character would have one.

It continued.

Several months later, after escaping the orc mines, the characters found poor quality items which would break on the first use of them, but were covered with an illusion that they were high quality. The enchantment was such that each character saw what he wanted most, and found it. Of course, Joe got his katana. The look on his face when he charged the War Troll and smacked it with the newfound katana which shattered into a bunch of little pieces was priceless. Turns out that his new katana was carved out of balsa wood.

Another month or two later the group went to Minas Ithil. Joe stopped at the local blacksmith and special ordered a katana. In order to afford this exotic weapon that he wanted the party was forced to get jobs in town, as Joe wasn't going anywhere until he got the katana.

A couple weeks later (and the party did not yet have the money needed to buy Joes katana) Gen Con rolled around. On the way to the con, one of my other players (Mike) said, "Im tired of Joe and his $#@@%$ katana, you should give him a cursed one." I took that to heart. On his way to pick up the katana he had made for him, he saw one in the window of a pawn shop. He asked about it, found out it was much cheaper than the one he had special ordered, as well as radiated magic when investigated by the party mage. Naturally, Joe bought it, and stiffed the blacksmith, and skipped town.

What Joe didn't know about the katana was that it was made to be the downfall of a Second Age Elven hero. The hero in question had been a real thorn in the side of the bad guys, and had fought with a katana. The bad guys had built this katana to be a copy of the heros weapon, and had cursed it so that every time the hero (or whoever used the sword) fought against a minion of evil he had to make a progressively higher resistance roll vs fear. The first couple times Joe fought minions of evil, he made his RRs. Eventually he would have been having to make 20th lvl RRs, but they went to an area of the world where Orcs, Trolls, and Dragons were not very common, so he didn't have to make many RRs, but he did fail one eventually, although not by much. His phobia of Orcs began manifesting itself by Joe not sleeping well, thinking that he saw Orcs in town, etc. Joe never caught on.

After Joe had been particularly obnoxious one night, a thought sprung into my mind. During the week, I called all my players (except Joe) and warned them that some very nasty things would happen to their characters next wednesday, but that it was all a nightmare that Joe would have, and would they please react realistically, but not violently when I butchered them all. They all agreed, with much laughing and giggling.

The next wednesday the party woke up back in the Orc mines, coughing and choking from the spores that they inhaled when the trap went off. They all said "What the....." and I said well, the spores must have been hallucinogenic and you all dreamed the last couple months of game time. The next 2 hours was an exercise in carnage. Steves female Elf character with the 100 appearance was captured by the high priest, and sacrificed to Sauron, in a slow bloody manner. She ended up gutted from neck to navel. A troll picked up the halfling and tossed him into its mouth like a piece of popcorn. The mage got hacked into quivering pieces of flesh. About this time Joe said "I guess your're kinda tired of GMing, huh J? What are we going to play next week guys?" It continued. The half elven thief fell screaming into a lava pit. The healer gave willingly of himself and transferred many lethal wounds to his own body to keep the rest of the party going. Eventually it was down to Joe and the Dwarf. They opened a door, and realized that they were looking into the dining chamber when about 200 hungry Orcish faces turned to see them standing in the doorway. The Orcs rushed the door. The dwarf screamed a battle cry and stood his ground. Joe bolted and intentionally tripped the earlier trap that they had circumvented, sealing the dwarf in with the hungry Orcs. As the 4 foot thick stone walls slowly closed between the Dwarf (who now looked like a football player who just recovered a fumble) with all the Orcs piled on top of him, and Joes "fearless" warrior, the player who was the dwarf pulled his way out of the pile on, and mouthed one simple word to Joe before the doors closed, sealing the area.

He said "Coward"

At that point Joes character woke up the entire inn when he sat up in bed screaming and crying. After Joe realized he had been cursed, he never asked for anything again.

Killer Bunnies

Submitted by Necromancer13c

Many years ago a friend of mine asked me to join his Rolemaster game since he had plenty of room and liked my "gaming style." I asked him if I could run a knight or paladin type and he said yes, of course. I mentioned that I had no clue as to how Rolemaster worked, having never played or even seen the game. "No problem." he said with a grin. "I have a couple of newbies already. I run again this Saturday night. Show up a couple of hours early and I'll walk you through it."

I showed up quite early and we sat down to work up my character. The dice were hot and my character's stats were truly awesome. I spent background points equipping the knight with all the stuff I thought he would need and the GM asked if I wanted to go through a mini-combat just to see how it would work. I was overjoyed and said sure.

The next thing I know my knight is riding through the forest on his trusty steed. He is far from town and his food sack is empty. He is riding along with his crossbow locked and loaded in his right hand, his helmet off since it was a hot day (and it messed up my vision anyhow). I spot a nice juicy rabbit and stop the horse. Raising the crossbow I fire at the rabbit...and miss. Just to show me how the damage tables worked the GM had the rabbit attack me.

The next few seconds were among the most terrible of my gaming life. The rabbit leaped up, rolled four open-ended criticals to hit and another two for damage, breaking my neck and sending me tumbling from my saddle. My character lay there and died six round later...watching the rabbit hop away to his karate class. The GM assured me that it was all the luck of the dice and that such a thing could never happen again. I assured the GM that any system that made it even remotely possible for an animal less then five pounds to kill a grown man with a kick needs some serious work.

I did not play, ask about, or even say the word Rolemaster for five years. Since then I have played a total of three times, each one several years apart. There are only so many times you can look at the "You gasp as your kidney bursts from your navel" kind of damage charts before you just have to say no.