Author Topic: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?  (Read 4261 times)

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Offline Jengada

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #20 on: September 21, 2017, 12:19:04 PM »
I'm astonished by all the replies

In all honesty, I had no idea that so many people in their 40s and up still played the game. I think this is fantastic and well ... it tells me that I'm not that weird after all to still enjoy playing RPG games like this. In fact, it seems I'm more in the "noob" group than in the "gramps" one  ;D (I'm 37)

Thanks to all  ::)

I'm not entirely surprised, as one of the "gramps" - I prefer "veterans" in the group. The answers here, while not a scientific sample, should be of interest to ICE, too. Their current demographic is aging, and unless they plan to set up a geriatric gaming network, they may need to figure out how to appeal to younger players.

I know that getting my son and his friend to play took some convincing. They see the complex rules as too rigid, compared to other games they play. They've encouraged me to scale back on the skills used, redo the character generation and advancement process, and pull more of the mechanics behind the DM screen. Now that they're playing, they like some things like the detailed crits and the fact that, with all of the spells, weapons, etc., there's almost always a precedent or template for something new you want to make or add. But getting them in the door was the challenge.
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Offline adanost

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #21 on: September 21, 2017, 01:41:42 PM »
I'm 42 and playing (usually GMing) ICE games since I was 14. Started with MERP and scalated to RM in early 90s. After 10 years without playing i started a new group two years ago. Actually we are three veterans to RM in our 40s, my wife, a "noob" to RPGs in her 50s, and two more players who where new to RM in their 30s.

I can see that ICE demographics are a quite resilient group of dedicated players, but the long lack of a physical incarnation of our loved game can be accountable for the aging of the RM gaming community. ICE, in my humble opinion, needs to become visible again, by publishing and being present in more conventions like last GenCon, so it can reach a new public.
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Offline Dragonking11

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #22 on: September 21, 2017, 02:44:11 PM »
I'm not entirely surprised, as one of the "gramps" - I prefer "veterans" in the group. The answers here, while not a scientific sample, should be of interest to ICE, too. Their current demographic is aging, and unless they plan to set up a geriatric gaming network, they may need to figure out how to appeal to younger players.

I think you are absolutely right ... ICE need to come up with some incredible marketing prior to the launch of RMU. In fact, this will probably make or break ICE as they have invested so much in RMU, even turning away players asking stuff for older editions.

I keep my hopes up though as RM is my personal favorite game system.

Offline Old Man

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #23 on: September 21, 2017, 04:15:19 PM »
I started in college in 82-83 when we grafted Arms Law (and later Spell Law) into AD&D at Cooper Union. Now, 54, and still playing by email.
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Offline cyberfranck

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #24 on: September 21, 2017, 05:49:15 PM »
Played RM2 back in 2004 when i was 21 with others of my age.

By curiosity, how did you hear about RM at the time ?

For my part, I wasn't satisfied with AD&D at the time and wanted to try something new. In a store, I saw the MERP book and bought it. Not long after, I bought the full RM books suite and never looked back since  :)

first heard from co-workers that where playing middle earth setting

Offline Bruce

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #25 on: September 21, 2017, 09:28:28 PM »
I just turned 50 in July. I haven't play RM since the inception of HARP back in the early 2000's. Rolemaster is still, and always will be, my all time favorite RPG. But it is so hard to get new players interested in Rolemaster. Once HARP came out I started pushing that on people with hopes of bringing them into Rolemaster. I have run a few campaigns over the years in HARP and have come to really enjoy the system, albeit with a few tweaks. I may try and push RMU out there once it come out, hopefully in the next few months.
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Offline juza

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #26 on: September 22, 2017, 02:27:44 AM »
I started playing role games in the late 80's and never stop. Five years ago I moved from a big city to a small country village where I introduced three "virgin" players to RMSS. I'll be 41 in a month and my players are 40; 33; 25 of age.

Offline Spectre771

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #27 on: September 22, 2017, 07:49:02 AM »
I started when I hit college.  It was the first gaming system I ever played.  My friends were playing and they were having an "uproarious time."  Seriously, I was almost peeing my pants they were so into it and having such a blast playing.  I asked if I could join.  That was 89, I was 18.

My kids play now.  20, 18, 15.  The ex-wife played too.  The 18 yo not so much now because he just started college out of state.  My youngest will be part of the weekend campaign coming up and she's really excited.  This will be her first big gaming session.

My 20yo is getting her bf and their gaming group into it now at their college, so another generation playing.

This is all RM2.  Even as recent as this past weekend, RM2 brought in new players. :D
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Offline ob1knorrb

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #28 on: September 22, 2017, 01:18:07 PM »
I'm 52 and most of my friends are around the same, but it's been a few years since we've played.
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Offline Jengada

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #29 on: September 22, 2017, 04:40:11 PM »
The thread seems to now include "how did you start playing." So I'll pitch in, we saw the ICE booth at GenCon in Kenosha, WI when I was a junior in high school. We were going to incorporate Arms Law into our AD&D game, but ended up dropping the AD&D part. That, and the hangover from cheap lambrusco, are the main memories I have of that GenCon. (It comes in half liters!)
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Offline Grinnen Baeritt

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #30 on: September 22, 2017, 05:48:30 PM »
I'm 52 and most of my friends are around the same, but it's been a few years since we've played.
I'm snapping at your heels at 51. To date I've only played RM once (lasting about 4 sessions) and Merp (twice, once for 6 sessions and once as a Convention scenario). None of these games since the Millennium. :(

In fact, I've only run two campaigns, both in the mid-90's... and only run few Play by Forum games (each taking over a year) since that. I've run a couple of convention scenarios and played one game of Harp (which aborted after 2 sessions) since then :(

I'm guessing the next time I'll play will probably be either a rare scenario run at a convention, or perhaps, if I've not retired by then... RMU when it's finalised and released.

Offline daveho

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #31 on: October 12, 2017, 06:59:33 PM »
My group that plays off and on are me, at 49 (the youngest ), up to 54.  In all, about 7 of us.  I didn't start playing until 1993.  Before that, I only played DandD from about 1982.  When we've gone through patches were everyone wants to play my old Waterdeep DandD campaign, they make me use all my RoleMaster stuff to make it better (the campaign is 2nd edition DandD to this day -- with HEAVY mods from role master).    btw, as soon as I played RM and used 'Perception' for the first time, I was like "DandD needs this bad!".. and now, of course, they have it in 5e..(though they may have had it back in 4 -- IDK)

Oh, and might I add, I think that RM has a very heady approach to its rules and always seemed to require a lot more mental investment in order to learn how to run.  As for players, however, if you could just get them going and know the rules for them, they could enjoy the game quickly.  So, maybe the veterans among us really need to reach out to younger crowds, get them playing, and train up the best ones for GM'ing.

Offline Dragonking11

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #32 on: October 13, 2017, 06:58:44 AM »
Oh, and might I add, I think that RM has a very heady approach to its rules and always seemed to require a lot more mental investment in order to learn how to run.  As for players, however, if you could just get them going and know the rules for them, they could enjoy the game quickly.  So, maybe the veterans among us really need to reach out to younger crowds, get them playing, and train up the best ones for GM'ing.

It is true that RM has quite a big overhead in the learning curve for new players. It really helps to have an experienced GM to smooth things out. Despite this, I think RM rules are very "logical" in the sense that after players get a bit of experience with the system, they will learn it quickly.

It is always a good idea to start things smoothly by running a simple campaign, using for example only the core rules (instead of all the supplemental books) so that everyone get up to speed quickly !

Offline Peter R

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #33 on: October 13, 2017, 07:52:47 AM »
... and train up the best ones for GM'ing.

I love the idea of an entrance exam to become a Rolemaster GM.
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Offline Dragonking11

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #34 on: October 13, 2017, 09:01:11 AM »
... and train up the best ones for GM'ing.

I love the idea of an entrance exam to become a Rolemaster GM.

That's not gonna help to get new players having to know they need training to GM  :P

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #35 on: October 13, 2017, 05:37:53 PM »
It is true that RM has quite a big overhead in the learning curve for new players.
I actually don't believe this when trying to compare it to other systems. I believe it would be just as hard for me to learn, say, D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder than it would be to learn RM new.

For people who already use a given system they often mistakenly think what they already know was easier to learn.  I would argue in most cases it was not and saying it's hard to learn RM by comparison is a misrepresentation of the system.
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Offline terefang

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #36 on: October 13, 2017, 07:16:54 PM »
i was born 1974 and started playing at the age of 14-15 with MERS (German MERP).

you can do the rest of the math.
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Offline egdcltd

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #37 on: October 14, 2017, 10:33:24 AM »
It is true that RM has quite a big overhead in the learning curve for new players.
I actually don't believe this when trying to compare it to other systems. I believe it would be just as hard for me to learn, say, D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder than it would be to learn RM new.

For people who already use a given system they often mistakenly think what they already know was easier to learn.  I would argue in most cases it was not and saying it's hard to learn RM by comparison is a misrepresentation of the system.

Pathfinder/D&D 3.x is, in my opinion, easily as complicated as Rolemaster, if not more. Coming to Pathfinder from AD&D 2nd Edition (admittedly with a decade plus gap) I found it almost incomprehensible.
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Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #38 on: October 14, 2017, 02:19:31 PM »
... and train up the best ones for GM'ing.

I love the idea of an entrance exam to become a Rolemaster GM.

That's not gonna help to get new players having to know they need training to GM  :P

I think part of this idea comes from the number of companions and supplements out there for both RM2 and RMSS. Too many people seem to think the companions are core rules as opposed to optional, and it takes an experienced GM to wade through it all and make it work for her game. That combined with the lack of a setting or starting adventures for most RM products can make the older editions a slog for new GMs. The system itself is pretty easy to sort out once you get the hang of it, but ICE never made it easy for people just coming in. There were just too many parts and pieces with no real examples for people to follow or template from. And while RM2 had a fairly involved GM section concerned with world building, the nuts and bolts of what an adventure could look like was always missing.

I'm hopeful this will change for RMU, and the stuff I'm working on will come with introductory adventures so new GMs have something to work with as soon as they form their groups. I think that's an easily overlooked key, but something that was common with most games (RM excepted) in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Offline Peter R

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Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
« Reply #39 on: October 14, 2017, 04:51:14 PM »
I am also a big fan of providing a starting adventure and just as important pregen characters. On one hand they can get you up and playing in super quick time and on the other they sjow what a character should look like and point to important skills. In most games, in my experience, you don't need a skill to use a shield for example. That is sort of seen as a given basic of playing a fantady character. Pregens with these sorts of skills highlight these needs.
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