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RMSS House Rules

Martial_Arts  Religions_and_Channeling  Initiative  Combat  Spell_Lists  Ranged_Weapons 

The following "House Rules" are used by me when running any Rolemaster game (regardless of weather or not it is an e-mail game or an in-person game). Feel free to look them over and make any comments that you would like concerning them to me at the email link provided above.

Martial Arts

Martial Arts in my world are handled slightly different than the standard rules, the following changes are the “House Rules” for martial arts within my world (notice: MA Degrees 1-4 in my world equate to MA Rank 1-4 using the standard Rolemaster system) :

The character must possess ranks in a particular Degree for one level (two levels for any Arms or Semi-Arms users who are not either of the Monk or Warrior Monk Professions, and three levels for Hybrid or Pure Spell Users) before you can develop the next higher Degree of attack.  Example: A typical third level Monk will have MA Strikes and MA Sweeps at 6 ranks for Degree I, 4 ranks each for Degree II, and 2 ranks each for Degree III.  This is to simulate the fact that you have to learn the simple techniques before learning the more advanced techniques.

The character must possess a General Lore skill for the particular style of Martial Art being learned, and the characters rank bonuses within a particular style can never exceed his General Lore skill with that style.  The character must have a teacher available for training purposes at each level advancement (this teacher must possess at least one rank higher than the student) until attaining Degree IV ranks, at which time it is assumed that he has learned the basic techniques for the particular style and now just needs to perfect them.

Only true Martial Artists (Monks and Warrior Monks) can attain Degree IV within a martial arts style (and must have a trainer of one level higher, and must possess the appropriate General Lore skill).  A full Arms User (or Semi-Arms User with GM permission) can attain up to and including Degree III within a martial arts style (and must have a trainer of at least one level higher, and must possess the appropriate General Lore skill).  Other Semi- and Non- Arms users can only attain Degree II within a martial arts style (and must have a trainer of at least one level higher, and must possess the appropriate General Lore skill).

Martial arts now have a Fumble range of UM 04. But each Degree that is below the highest rank known has its fumble range reduced by 1 until a minimum of UM 01 is reached.  Example:
A character that has Degree I and II:
Degree I Fumbles on UM 03
Degree II Fumbles on UM 04

A character that has Degrees I - IV:
Degree I Fumbles on UM 01
Degree II Fumbles on UM 02
Degree III Fumbles on UM 03
Degree IV Fumbles on UM 04

A character has the option of “pulling a punch” and thereby reduce the rolled critical value by an amount equal to or less than the number of ranks within that attack type (Strikes or Sweeps). This can be used as a way to subdue their victim.  This option is available if and only if they are of at least Degree II in that attack type.  Any Monk or Warrior Monk with Degree IV (below degree IV is as above), due to their training, can use the “pulling a punch” option but the adjustment to the critical roll can be up to two times their total number of ranks with that attack type.  The “total number of ranks refers to the number of ranks within the “Degree” of the attack being used of the type of attack being used.

Religion (and Channeling)
I try to simulate a real-world imitation of religions, to the point of allowing a wide variety of religions.  This tends to create certain problems as far as how Channeling works within my world. The following is an explanation of how it works within my game world:

The Channeling realm of magic draws its power from the large-scale belief in a deity. Thus, the larger the number of followers in a particular religion, as well as the “force” or strength of their belief determines how powerful a deity is (or the deities within that religion are). These deities exist because of the belief of their followers. There is a list (and explanation) of the dominant religions within the world available elsewhere on this web site.

Initiative
In my games I use a “second by second” initiative system. I have an Excel spreadsheet (thanks to Tim Dugger’s hard work), in which I can enter the Quickness bonus of the characters or NPC’s. This spreadsheet will then calculate the average amount of time that a particular action, attack, etc. will take to perform by that character or NPC. It is based on a system developed by a couple of people who’s names I can not remember at the present time, which is a modification of the Total Action Point system that was presented in the Rolemaster Companion 4 (if I remember correctly).  In this way, each characters action will take place at the end of the time that it takes to perform the action (this can be modified through the use of spells, high or low skill rolls, and a few other factors. Then I keep track of how many seconds (actually it is broken down into half second intervals) have elapsed, and when the actions are performed.

Combat (breaking 150)

When an adjusted combat roll has a total greater than 150, I take the result of a 150 roll and then subtract 150 from the adjusted roll and re-apply it to the table (yes it is possible to score more than one critical result on a very high adjusted roll). Some combat tables have Max. Result marks for certain size or types of attacks (example: Small/Medium/Large/Huge Claw Attacks), for these the max result for the appropriate type/size is used then 150 is subtracted and then re-applied as above. Thus for this type of attack, a small creature attacking with it’s claws against soft leather armor can never score a critical result higher than a B, but it is possible to score multiple B criticals on a single attack with an adjusted roll of 217 or higher.

Example: Gunther is attacking an Ogre with his battle-axe. Gunther rolls a 98 (open ended) and then a 76. His OB for his battle-axe is +132. The ogre has a DB of 10 and is AT 4. Gunther’s adjusted roll is 296. This results in a total of 74 hits of concussion damage, and 2 E Slash Criticals.

Spell Lists

I allow each spell casting character to have access to 10 Base Spell Lists, the 6 base lists for the profession, then 4 more lists to be chosen by the player from the Open and Closed lists for their Realm(s) of power for Pure or Hybrid Spell users, or from the Open lists only for Semi Spell Users. Non-Spell users are limited as specified in the Rolemaster rules, which results in them being limited to learning only Open spell lists to no higher than 10 level anyway, thus there is no need for base list restrictions for them.

Missile / Thrown Weapons
I use a different system for ranged weapons. The way this works is each weapon is assigned a penalty based on the distance to the target. See the following table then read the example that follows to understand how this system works. This allows for a longer range for someone who is highly skilled with a particular weapon (which should be expected to some extent), but they will have an increasing penalty the further they are from the intended target (rather than a set penalty within a certain distance range, as with the standard rules).

Weapon
Range Penalty
Bola -1 /2 feet to target
Sling -1 / 4 feet to target
Short Bow -1 / 4 feet to target
Composite Bow -1 / 5 feet to target
Long Bow -1 / 7 feet to target
Hand Crossbow -1 / 3 feet to target
Light Crossbow -1 / 4 feet to target
Heavy Crossbow -1 / 6 feet to target
Javelin -1 / 3 feet to target
Spear -1 / 2 feet to target
Dagger -1 / 1 foot to target
Hand Axe -2 / 1 foot to target
Other light melee weapon -3 / 1 foot to target
medium melee weapon -6 / 1 foot to target
heavy melee weapon -10 / 1 foot to target
Magic Ball Attack -1 / 4 feet to target
Magic Bolt Attack -1 / 6 feet to target
Shuriken -1 / 2 feet to target
Boomerang -1 / 4 feet to target
Blow Gun (dart) -1 / 3 feet to target

Basically the way this works it that when an attack is made, the distance to the target is determined, then the attack roll is made and the characters OB is added, then the range to the target is divided by the distance factor (the number of feet that the penalty is modified from), then this result is multiplied by the penalty. This total range penalty is then subtracted from the attack roll (as well as any DB bonuses the target receives). The result is the total attack which is then applied to the appropriate attack table.

Example: Gunther sees a Gryphon preparing to swoop down and have a little snack (namely his prized horse). He immediately grabs his composite bow which is setting against the tree that he is also setting against. He knocks an arrow, then takes aim (the Gryphon is about 320 ' away , but is preparing to dive. He lets loose the arrow (with a roll of 63 (+ OB of 112). The range of 320' is divided by 5 resulting in a range penalty of - 64, which is applied to his attack. By the time the Gryphon dodges (DB of 30) the result is an 81, which against AT 7 results in 6 hits and an "A" Puncture critical. Since this is but a scratch for a creature like a Gryphon, it continues barreling down toward the horse at a rate of about 50 feet per second. It takes Gunther 7 seconds to reload and fire his weapon again (if he hurries, and takes the appropriate penalty for a "Snap" action (this is using the second by second initiative system), when he fires the bow, he rolls an 02 (and thus fumbled), he would then receive a penalty of -20 for his "Snap" action as well as a -5 to his shot for range (the gryphon can not climb as fast, especially carrying a big strong, and juicy horse into the air). The result of the fumble, is that Gunther's bow string breaks, thus the Gryphon will have a nice dinner, and Gunther will have very sore feet by the time he gets to the next town three days from now (and two days late to meet with the king). Poor Gunther.