Author Topic: Arms Law Submissions  (Read 13356 times)

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Offline rabbitball

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #20 on: August 08, 2012, 06:24:06 PM »
My story happened when I was introduced to Arms Law. We were using it to run through a certain famous module series in That Other Game involving giants. We get to the end fight with two hill giants, and they win initiative. First giant swings and fumbles. Roll for fumble: 100 "Worst move anyone has seen in ages. You are out 2 days with pulled groin. 50% chance foes out 2 rounds laughing." Well, I don't remember if our characters were out laughing, but certainly the players were. And then the next giant attacked, and did the exact same thing. So we ended the encounter looting the caves of two maimed giants, putting them out of their misery at the end just so we could have their heads as proof.
Those who will not follow are doomed to lead.

Offline dob85y

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #21 on: August 09, 2012, 06:37:12 AM »
This is going back over 12 years so the details are a little sketchy, but when the question was asked jumped right into my head.

So there was this group of 3 or 4 of us, me playing the tank as usual, as i was pretty new to RM and the magic system at the time was a little over my head. Our GM had us travelling all over Middle Earth (MERP campaign material using RM rules) and we found our selves in the deep south, Harad lands.

So we were about mid way through the evening, being led by a local guide travelling by Ollyphant across the desert. Recently leveled one of my companions (if that's the right description!) decided to try out a new ability, some of shout or loud explosive noise, just being a bit of a show off really, because he could. There were a few comments of don't be a fool, ect ect, the GM even asked if he was sure he wanted to go though with it.
So this particular player (lets call him Mick), true to form pushes the point and fires off the ability making a large noise.

Well.........

The Olyphant we were on, was on startled by the noise, reared upon two legs,

DM..... Roll agility
Mick.....total 120
DM...you hold on
Me..... 02
Group..... *Laughter*

DM..... you fall off the back, roll an A crush crit,
Me..... 66
Group....... *Loud laughter*
DM...... *Shakes his head with an evil smile spreading to laughter as he begins to read the crit*

"You fall and land on your back, the impact breaking a rib that penetrates your heart, instant death take a bazillion hits stunned for eternity bleed 20 hits per round ".

Im not sure of the exact numbers, they were meaningless next to the instant death effect.

Me... Nice one Mick!
Group..... *LOUD Laughter*

At this point began my desperate search of the character sheet looking for some small item or ability to avoid the inevitable 2 hour character re roll. As it was late, the hopelessness of knowing that by the time i was ready everyone would be ready to crash for the night made my desperate search even more frantic.
Just when I had all but given up hope a two word note at the on the back side of a well worn character sheet jumped off the page "Eog Heart"

Earlier in our adventuring my character had been affected by some strange random magical effect that turned his beating heart to Eog, making him immune to heart criticals.

The Roller coaster of emotions that can be experienced in such a short space of time is indeed amazing.

Me.........AHAH im immune......
Group....What?!?
Me....... Eog Heart, immune to heart crits.
DM.......*frowning* Show me that character sheet
DM...... Ok your fine. You dust yourself off.
Me...... Im attacking Mick.






Offline Vurkanan

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #22 on: August 09, 2012, 04:46:52 PM »
My story is quite simple.
Ages back, when Mythic Greece came out, we played a campaign for greek heroes. I was GM.
One of my characters was king over some island. While he was out adventuring, a usurper had taken his throne. The PC came back to his island, learned about the usurper and went straight to the palace. He ran into the throne room, drew his sword, confronted the would-be-king and – beheaded him with his very first swing. He then took his place on the throne and had the corpse cleaned away. There were no more doubts as to who the rightful king was.
 :)

Offline John @ ICE

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #23 on: August 10, 2012, 04:58:26 AM »
These are GREAT stories.  every one makes me want to pick up dice and start rolling.

I'm probably violating Thom's rules to the contest, by I think the Bard that killed the land drake and the Yellow Ninja are my tops for comedic value ;D

Outright coolness  8) goes to the Cavalier who destroyed the wights!

But everyone is entertaining!
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Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #24 on: August 10, 2012, 06:44:28 AM »
I've been around the periphery of the entertainment industry all my life, and I'm glad to see that the entries are meeting my personal standard of competitions in entertainment:

Want to win? Then show me a performance I'd be proud to lose to.  ;)

It's not as if I have any say in who wins and who loses, but I still love the quality of the competition.
You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out... Traditional Somatic Components
Oo Ee Oo Aa Aa, Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang... Traditional Verbal Components
Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Wool of Bat and Tongue of Dog... Traditional Potion Formula

Offline pastaav

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #25 on: August 10, 2012, 06:56:50 AM »
This tale takes place far on eastern sea where paladin Zadur arrives to a small island in search of a demon he has have tracked all the way over the ocean.

The natives of the island don't recall any demon, but they speak about a rumour about some kind of evil creature that haunts a village on the other part of the island. Zadur decide to investigate and form a landing party as the ship crew is busy restocking he ship.

At the village the group learns it is false trail not connected to the demon, but the villagers seems to be in real trouble since they live in mortal fear for the creature of the red thread. Zadur can not ignores there pleas for help and goes to the nearby temple to investigate.

Inside the temple they are challenged by a voice that demand sacrifice, when the heroes refuse the curse of the red thread are cast on Zadur. Moments later a wooden golem arrives with a red thread tied to it...it is just that it is one foot tall. The player around the gaming table break laughing and then slaughters the little bugger.

Returning to the village they learn the monster will return each night and be stronger each time. The warning turns true and at the following night the heroes face the returning wooden golem that by now is human sized large. After some trouble they dispatch it, but the spell users of the group can verify the curse is still active.

Inquires to the villagers the next day reveal that the monster has previously tracked victims to other islands and the group realize escaping by ship is no solution.

The next night the wooden golem returns and it is by now is four meters high and leaves a bloody trail behind it before the group finally are able to dispatch it by a combination of magic and weapon.

The group manage to heal the wounded but the next day Zadur assemble the group and point out that he doubt the heroes can continue to prevail if the monster keep growing more powerful. Calling the soldiers from the ship is an option, but they are of lower level and will probably be slaughtered in high numbers if they must fight the golem.

The group decide to dismantle the temple where they suffered the curse to try to find a way to break the curse. The more fight inclined group members build barricades to buy the magic users more time while the magic users work hard at understanding the magics of the temple.

As dusk sets there is still no solution finished but the spell users think they found the source of curse in some kind seal below the altar. Unfortunately they have not been able to undo the seal when the wooden golem arrive, by now the wooden golem is six meters tall.

The golem start to pull down the barricades as the heroes tremble inside. Suddenly there is cry of success from the spell users. They have finally manage to break the seal and put it at fire. The golem start to burn at the same time.

As gamemaster I in this moment expected some fun gaming as the golem put the barricades flaming and the group desperately must escape the death trap they just created.

Zadur's players think otherwise and ask "So the golem will be dead with within a few rounds, right?"

"Correct, it is burning like crazy," I answer.

"Okay I charge," Zadur's player says. I think...why not..there are plenty of healing power in group so they can fix him afterwards...probably.

Zadur jumps down from the barricade and the burning wooden golem comes charging to smash him. Fortunately for Zadur he somehow manage to win initiative despite his plate mail.

He swings his holy two handed sword and barely manage to get a D critical. I ask him to roll an attack on the Super Large table. He rolls 99 on the dice and there is great cheering around the gaming table. I feel like a criminal when I remind them that super large attacks are open-ended. He rolls again and get 01...thus the final result 100. Strike through the heart, enemy dies instantly with +20 in damage. 

In truth the critical result also include that you get stuck below the body of the enemy...but in the general cheering around the gaming table I decide you can't top the evening entertainment and let the players celebrate their great victory.
/Pa Staav

Offline John @ ICE

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #26 on: August 10, 2012, 08:14:01 AM »
This tale takes place far on eastern sea where paladin Zadur arrives to a small island in search of a demon he has have tracked all the way over the ocean.

The natives of the island don't recall any demon, but they speak about a rumour about some kind of evil creature that haunts a village on the other part of the island. Zadur decide to investigate and form a landing party as the ship crew is busy restocking he ship.

...

In truth the critical result also include that you get stuck below the body of the enemy...but in the general cheering around the gaming table I decide you can't top the evening entertainment and let the players celebrate their great victory.

Another great story! And a very kind GM...
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Offline Langthorne

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #27 on: August 10, 2012, 09:52:10 AM »

Roleplaying Pays


We were playing a motley band of orcs rampaging through civilised lands. My brother's character was a Greater Orc with the 'Tusked' talent. We were in combat with some righteous paladin types. My brother's character ("Maw") was using his broadsword and scored a good crit on his opponent - stunned and unable to parry for a few rounds. The next round he declares his action: "Deliberate full Bite....Any chance an orc gets to bite someone....".He picks up the bones and rolls...03....not a fumble on the Bite table (but it would have been on the broadsword table, which was his higher OB), and with his Bite OB plus the bonus for a stunned opponent, he manages a crit to end the guy's evil fighting career.


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Offline Langthorne

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #28 on: August 10, 2012, 10:01:23 AM »
Unexpected Response

Back in the days when I could convince my wife to play Rolemaster, she was playing a 'noble' (and someone psychotic) half-elf called Sir Mel. She was new to the game, so each crit result was new and interesting to her (and sometimes elicited an interesting response). In one memorable battle with some evil humaoid or other, she scored a 95 D puncture "...spills his guts on the floor...". Having finished this ooponent off, she declares that she feeds the intestines to her horse.



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Offline Langthorne

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #29 on: August 10, 2012, 10:18:03 AM »
Know your tables

Our band of hapless Dwarves was cruising the Underdark/Depths of the Earth when we spotted a bridge. I jokingly asked the GM if there were any Trolls under it. His response was "Yes _ three!". Having survived the shower of thrown boulders we closed with them. One of the party ("Gnolste") had been carrying around a Dagger of Troll-Slaying for ages. He remembered this fact and in a flash (quickdraw) it was in his hand. The GM added plenty of flavour saying "You feel the dagger hum with power, and the blade turns a lustrous blue as it senses a Troll". With that Gnolste dived into the fray, spurning his +15 morningstar with 140 or so OB in favour of his 70 or so OB in dagger (but not any dagger - this was a dagger of troll slaying! whaaahahahahahah!). Gnolste was a little injured from the barrage of stones, so he managed a total attack of 121 - YES! Unfortunately no. A Stone Troll has AT 11 and two levels of crit reduction....so in order to hit and score a roll on the Slaying Critical table Gnolste needed to roll somewhat higher. That combat ended in a victory for us, but with much pain.
What kind of lunatic constructs a Troll slaying dagger!!!!!!




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Offline pndrev

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #30 on: August 11, 2012, 03:58:53 PM »
A story from a brand new session last month.

The group of heroes was visiting a foreign city, where a grand tournament was being held in celebration of the local ruler. Naturally, all of them decided to take part and try their luck in several categories ranging from martial arts, bow and arrow proficiency and free style weapon combat.

First round was pretty uneventful - all but one of the characters won their 'qualification' fight. Semi-finals came and went, with close-fought but well earned victories. Then, the final battles.

First up was bow and arrow, which was a very close call, with both contestants engaging difficult to hit targets at long range. The hero won, thanks to some last minute addition of a metal bowstring (from Arms Companion).

Then, martial arts, fought on a wooden contraption, with ladders, bridges, slopes and a narrow walkway. The hero fought valiantly, managing multiple times to use the momentum of her opponent to manoeuvre into an advantageous position. In the end, it was a ring-out that decided the match.

Now, all fight up to then were a long, drawn out affair, with neither fighter wanting to give way to a lucky hit, carefully preserving their defense and parrying each blow, waiting for a fumble from the opponent.

Still, the last match was the grandest final of them all, on the same stage as the martial artists, one-handed weapons. The hero, who had secured himself a boon from a lady of the court, outfitted in foppish clothes and brandishing two falchions - against a battle-scarred war veteran, himself champion of many battles. The veteran charged before the announcer had even finished his speech, rushing towards the hero. The hero, keeping in tune with his appearances, somersaulted on the walkway, and met the veteran head-on with a blow from one of his falchions. It was a critical hit. The veteran wore no helmet. He was out cold, sliding down the wooden slope and would awake from his coma several weeks later.

The fight was supposed to be the culmination of a (in-game) three day tournament that had taken us the better part of a whole day to play out. It was over with two rolls of the dice. It was also one of the most memorable moments in my 15 years of GM'ing Rolemaster.

Offline grolin

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #31 on: August 12, 2012, 03:27:20 PM »
This is a story that now, some 20 years later, we still talk about in our gaming group.

Background:
THE WATCHTOWER

Our heroes were on a scouting mission in Angmar during winter time.

The Heroes (lvl 10-15):

Balin, dwarf warrior.

Carwelan, Noldor fighter.

Janevik, human thief.

The group had been ploughing through snow and cold for over two months and Balin had been craving for some action to "warm up his limbs".
One evening they stumbled upon an orc watchtower and somehow Balin managed to convince the others that it was a great idea "to check it out more closely"...

Our heroes cautiously approached the tower. Balin made some amazing stalk & hide skill rolls and they managed to silently take care of the two guards outside the entrance, but needless to say their good fortune wasn´t going to last very long.

They entered the tower and almost immediately the heroes spotted a throng of around 15-20 orcs in the tower´s lower main area. To his companions dismay Balin roared his battle-cry and charged the orcs.
This caused a heated debate in the gaming group as it was a reckless move, to say the least.

A long and brutal fight ensued and when the smoke cleared our heroes were victorious. Everyone but the dwarf was in bad shape.

Just as they thought everything was over Carwelan spotted a lone orc hiding on top of the staircase leading to the second level of the tower. Without hesitation he brandished his bow to take care of him. "NO!" Balin Roared, "He´s mine!".

Balin slowly went up the stairs with a bloodthirsty look on his face. He then gets the brilliant idea to make this a more interesting fight and decides to first, throw down his shield and then his axe... Armed With only a dagger and lots of confidence he closes in on the orc.
Balin acts first, saving none of his AB for DB and... Fumbles (he stumbled over an unseen, imaginary, deceased turtle)!
Then the orc attacks and gets an open ended roll and lands an E-critical on Balin with the result that his shield arm is now useless and he bleeds like a pig.
Janevik hides his face in his hands, shaking his head in disbelief.  Meanwhile Carwelan sighs and casually aims his bow, gets an open ended roll and shoots the orc in the throat! 

We had to quit the gaming session after this event as none of us were able to stop laughing!
« Last Edit: August 12, 2012, 03:42:33 PM by grolin »

Offline roblowry

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #32 on: August 12, 2012, 07:37:44 PM »
This is not a story so much about how humorous the critical tables are, as how humor of the tables can appear in unexpected locations.
We were playing a low level party, all 3rd level or less. It was your standard group, a fighter, a mage, and a cleric.  We entered town looking for trouble. Er adventure. We learned that a handmaiden to the queen had recently gone missing. Adventurers assemble.

After some investigation we determined that the handmaiden was kidnapped by a vampire and his henchman. We tracked them to an abandoned farmhouse just outside the city. It was getting late in the day, so we knew we had to move fast.

Exploring the cellar, we discovered a coffin. We opened it. (Drum roll) It was the handmaiden, freshly bitten, but not yet a vampire. We decided to lock her in and drag the coffin back to the city.  However, we were not getting out of there that easily. The vampire sent a pack of rats against us.

Rats, ok not that bad of a fight. First round, the party kills a couple of rats. The cleric gets bitten. Not too badly just an A Tiny. Roll the critical on the cleric. 100! Foe loses one of his eyes. An easy fight just got a lot tougher. Several rounds later, there were lots of dead rats, a fighter and mage with a few nicks and cuts. But the cleric was a mess. His face was covered in blood, bleeding from a pair of bites. His eye was torn from its socket, barely attached with a few strands of flesh.

The party staggered from the farm house, dragging the coffin up the stairs. It was mere minutes from sunset. So they quickly set fire to the buildings to keep the vampire busy. We then started back to the city, dragging the coffin with the handmaiden inside. About halfway back the mage asked is we should keep an eye out for the henchman. So the cleric picks up his eye and asks, "How about this one?"

Offline da_pic

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #33 on: August 12, 2012, 10:50:14 PM »
Back in the early '90s, I was playing a campaign with my buddies. One thing you can depend on... physics grad school students are NOT cowed by RM tables and modifiers!

Yag was a Nightblade (5th level or so? Definitely not double-digits yet), and doing a little scouting for the party. Down the ladder in an old well, out along the passageway (with a spell to see in the dark, IIRC). TOTALLY misses his Perception roll (I can't remember if it was open-ended DOWN, but was certainly a failure), and so comes face-to-face with a group of orcs (no specific number... which part of "You Failed your Perception roll" are you having trouble with?  :D).

I run back down the passageway. They run after me, of course.

I try to outrun them. Don't make the roll completely successfully, but at least I don't fumble... I gain a little ground, but they're still on my tail.

Get to the bottom of the old well, realizing there is no way that I'll be able to climb the ladder ahead of them. I quick turn, and decide that, if I'm going to go out, I'll do it with style... Martial Arts style.

As the first one comes out, I take a Martial Arts Sweeps and Throws... and get a crit! I no longer have the books, and so can't quote it exactly, but the result was basically, "Kill your opponent and throw him 10' in any direction."

The referee looks at me expectantly, and I quickly say, "Right back up the corridor!"

Ref smiles, makes a roll or two, says I threw the dead Orc right into the face of the next couple of orcs, who decided suddenly that perhaps discretion was the better part of valor, and followed the immortal words of King Arthur: "Run Away!"

Offline Erik Sharma

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #34 on: August 13, 2012, 03:39:52 AM »
After been reading through what they where looking for in this weeks submission I realized that the Kamikaze Spider was more appropiate as a submission for week 2 & 3. The a typical famous comedic fumble we see now and again in Rolemaster.

This is more of a straightforward event taken from running the adventure The Stone of Seven Souls. Well after struggling and fighting their way through the caverns below the Church of Skull Hill they came up into the actual Church. The adventurers where very worn out from all the fighting and where really not up for another fight. But of course they couldn't resist a little more exploring before they made camp and recovered before continuing their quest. When they opened a door in the temple a Ghoul leaped out attacking them. All the players made a run for it and was not in the mood to fight a ghoul. But they forgot about one of the players who was so injured he could only limp after the other runners. One of the other players noticed the player left behind and started to run back and hopefully distract the ghoul long enough for the other one to make his escape. But before he managed to get there the ghoul caught up with the injured player and he turned to face the ghoul and make his last stand expecting to perish. But he swung his sword and I remember he had a penalty of -90 or something because of all his injuries. But despite this he managed to roll one of those desired opened ended rolls followed by another high roll after that and managed to land a a very nice C critical.
Quote
Chop the top of foe's thigh. Sever foe's leg. Foe drops immediately and dies in 6 rounds due to shock and blood loss.
You can imagine the awe of the other adventurers when they later see the injured player supported by his friend came slowly limping out of the church. They had all expected them to perish against the ghoul. These are just the moments you love when playing Rolemaster!

Offline dungeonri

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #35 on: August 13, 2012, 09:13:37 AM »
These are two stories about fumbles that took place in our Space Master campaign nearly 20 years ago. Both take place in a shabby neighbourhood where the adventurers got into trouble with the local gang. (Which, btw, had nothing to do with the main plot line) After being chased off by the gang the adventurers plotted their revenge.

In the first story the armsman of the group wanted to drive round the area until he spotted the bad guys and take them out with his assault rifle. He hid in the back of an SUV and was driven around by the entertainer of the group. After some cruising they found three of their enemies standing in front of a wall, clearly carrying guns, but not suspecting anything. Seeing the weapons the entertainer tried to talk the armsman out of this attack, as anything could go wrong. But the armsman wanted to press on, because with his good OB, point blank range and extended magazines what could happen? So, still in the car, they silently approached the wall expecting to mow down the guys and full throttle out of there.
And then of course it went wrong, the armsman pointed his assault rifle out of the car, rolled the dice and broke his finger when the recoil of the gun crushed his hand against the door. Needless to say he missed completely and they again had to flee under a hail of bullets.

The second story is about one of the criminologists of the group. He had spent a background option getting an MLA pistol, with insane range and stopping power. However in all his time he only ever succeeded once in hitting someone with it. In this case two of his friends were stuck in a house besieged by gangmembers. His job was to make sure no one was coming to the aid of the besiegers. He positioned himself so that he could take out anyone approaching the house with his MLA pistol. He was standing a good distance away behind his car. Then he saw one of the enemy running to the scene with wat clearly looked like grenades, so he had to stop him. The criminologist aimed his MLA-pistol, pulled the trigger and rolled a fumble. His MLA pistol was out of power! And there was no second chance to shoot as he did not bring an extra power pack. With his friends in danger the player desperately looked for options until someone pointed out his car. He reluctantly jumped in and ran down the guy using his combat driving skill and the vehicular attack chart. That was also the day he almost threw away his MLA pistol as it always failed him.

Offline JimiSue

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #36 on: August 13, 2012, 06:11:24 PM »
That actually reminds me about a fumble story, also from Spacemaster. This was the same party as the stun pistol one earlier, but a bit earlier in their career, before we had joined up with the con artist. It was my character, the anarchist, along with the other player - I forget which class he was playing, but he had developed a reputation already as a cop killer (not nice people).

Anyway, we had just pulled off a terroist attack and were on the run, needing a vehicle to get away. We spotted a police car in which a regular beat cop was sitting, eating his donut and minding his own business. Max (the other player) pulled open the passenger door and fired a burst from his machine pistol... and scored a minor hit, nothing special on the critical. Fire phase B came round, the cop was about to floor it and get away, when Max fired again... and fumbled. I forget the exact result but the gun jammed on full auto, the result being that the entire clip was emptied. Which normally would have been bad, but he was using high explosive rounds.

The GM ruled that there was nowhere really else for the bullets to go, and that mincemeat had been made of the cop, as well as the seat he was sitting in and damage to the structure of the car. We were going to look for another vehicle, but then our main pursuers can screaming round the corner and we had no choice but to use that vehicle to escape in, even though the interior was essentially painted with policeman and to drive it you'd have to sit... right in the middle of the mess.

My character made Max do the driving even though she was better at driving and had a higher combat pilot skill...

Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: Arms Law Submissions - Fumbles
« Reply #37 on: August 14, 2012, 09:46:02 AM »
Our best fumble was actually a series of fumbles that happened to the same character in non-combat situations during the same game session.

This was the same party that faced the chaos commander in my previous tale. The rogue, much quieter than before, had recovered from his concussion by this time and rejoined the group. They were exploring a mountain range to the north of their base town, following up on reports of ruins in the area. They'd been moving through thick pine forest for three days, and were attacked twice by wolves and once by an Orc scouting party. So they were a bit nervous...

In the van was the dwarf. Since they were moving into mountains he was in all his glory, playing the character to the hilt and making much of how his background would save them. Even though he was a fighter, he'd managed to spot one group of wolves before the Steppelander rogue and the Orcs (which allowed the party to actually ambush them), so he was really confident about his perception skills.

It was an overcast day, and the party moved out in their now-standard formation (the dwarf up front with his crossbow ready, followed by the Steppelander with her composite bow and the rest ranged behind with the hungover bard NPC bringing up the rear). The dwarf moves out in high spirits, making Perception checks every so often (when the faint trail they were following made a switchback, or if there was a particularly large outcropping to the front...things like that). So far, so good...except for the roll he made when checking a particularly large pile of deadfall. He rolls..."crap"...the dreaded 01. Rolls again...94. Absolute Failure. Peering into the darkness at the center of the pile of dead trees (the result of a wind storm decades gone), he sees two glittering eyes....it's... "A bear!" The dwarf shouts, fires his crossbow blindly into the dead trees, turns, and runs. "It's a big 'un! Get clear!"

The party freaks out, gets bows ready, and the hungover bard falls from his horse. The dwarf streaks past the Steppelander, who brings her bow to full draw and shouts for the other rogue to come up. The dead wood shifts, branches fall, and a very bewildered possum staggers out and peers around. The dwarf, back by the now-standing bard, continues to insist that there was a bear back there, and his shot must have scared it away.

Once the possum ambled away, the party composed itself and moved on, with the somewhat subdued dwarf continuing in the lead. Soon the trees began to fall away as they moved higher into the mountains. The landscape changes worried the party for some reason (possibly because they'd been attacked before in similar terrain), so they asked the dwarf to check the composition of the nearby rocks. They'd also heard rumors of "gold in them thar hills," and wanted to see if there was any chance of such. The dwarf swaggered up to an outcropping, dropped to one knee, and...02! The second roll...92. The dwarf looks closely at the rock, rubs it with a hand, sniffs some of the bits, and turns back to the party. "Obsidian," he announces with total confidence. "Pure obsidian."

After that, the dwarf was constantly getting obsidian shards in his bedroll, or drawings of bears tucked into his gear. Any perception roll was met with cries of "It's an obsidian bear!" or "Have the dwarf check." We also had some spectacular combat and spell fumbles over the years, but no sequence of fumbles had the same impact on the group as those two failed perception rolls.
Darn that salt pork!

Offline markc

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #38 on: August 15, 2012, 01:47:33 PM »
I have found out that since I have no financial dealingswith ICE that I can enter the contest.
 
  Instead of justlisting some of my most memorable moments with Arms Law in a random fashion Idecided to relate an example from each system that I have played in using ArmsLaw. But first I will say how difficult it was. As a GM I tend to roll veryhigh or very low on my rolls, so there were numerous times that a player fumbledand then the creature/opponent also then decided to; throw away his weapon,damage himself, damage his comrades or something worse.
  Before I jump in tostory mode though I want to tell you why I love Arms Law. I was watching UFC150 Prelim’s, if I remember the number correctly, last weekend and during afight between a local Colorado man and a Dutch something sort of brutalhappened. The Dutch fighter using his right foot brought it up and sharply hithis opponent in the left leg just above or below the knee. The shock of theblow could be immediately seen as the Colorado man’s left leg buckled, knockedhim back, but he regained his balance. The round ended shortly after that kick.But you could see the kicks effect on the fighter as he went to put his weighton his leg to go back to his corner and he just about collapsed. Spike TV brokeaway to a commercial so you could not see any more after that, but uponreturning the commentator said that he thought the Dutch fighters kick did someserious muscle damage to the Colorado fighter. He was right as the Coloradofighter put up a spirited defense the next round but you could see that seriousdamage had been done. After he had lost you could see the pain on his face andthe fact that he did not want to put any weight on his left leg at all. That devastatingkick is what Arms Law criticals represent to me. The ability in my game torepresent a verity of types of wounds besides simple “hits” or “pips”. Themuscle wounds, the broken bones and severity of the breaks, organ damage aswell as nerve damage after healing the wounds. That in my humble opinion iswhere Arms Law truly shines.
House Rules Game Arms Law:
     In a house rules game we used Arms Law for itscritical and fumble tables. The funniest thing I remember was related to meafter a game I missed.  Another player inthe group had rolled a fumble and dropped his most prized and powerful magicitem in the game, a magic sword. But it was no big deal all he had to do wasroll under his Luck score of 17 on a D20 and he could pick it up. The firstround after dropping the magic sword my friend rolled a 19 and kicked it in arandom direction 1d6 feet. Unfortunately he rolled 6 feet and then he rolledthe direction. The sword went toward the edge of the rock ledge they werefighting on. Not just toward the edge but right to the edge according to themap. And just to make matters worse over the edge was a river of lava. Buteveryone laughed and sighed and said how lucky he was as he had a luck score of17 and he would pick it up next round no problem. As I was told the round wenton with the tension slowly building as it got to the next round and the playersturn to retrieve his pride and joy, and some said his characters reason forliving, from the edge. He rolled a 19 for his luck roll. Everyone at the tableheld their breath. Which direction would it go? How far would it go? What wouldhappen if he did not retrieve his magic sword? He rolled d6 for feet again andthen rolled direction. The die gave the direction as over the edge. Everyonewas shocked, wide eyed and holding their breath. The GM broke the tension and beginningsof lots of loud laughter as he said “I will let you reduce you Luck Stat permanentlyby 1 to roll again and retrieve your sword.” The player shook his head and saidok. He rolled a 17. Which would have been good enough the first time but sincehis Luck Stat had be reduced by 1 to 16 it was not good enough. The sword waskicked into the river of lava never to be seen again. Except by the othermembers of the party as they watched the sword sink. The laughter was loud andlong by the other players. But it was such a big event in the story that the GMdecided to end the game there for the week. The next week when we all showed upthe player had a new character as he could not get over the loss of his sword.We all were a little shocked … but then the laughter grew until the rest of uswere laughing so hard we were crying. Of course the player who lost his sworddid not think it was that funny and left the room. And that set off anotherround of crying laughter. 
 I will relate theothers in separate posts as I am trying to hold back laughing just rememberingwhat happened.
MDC     
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline markc

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #39 on: August 17, 2012, 01:55:43 PM »
RoleMaster 2:
  I was lucky to be introduced to RM2 in the late 1990’s, in a game world that had been in development since the 80’s. The detail was amazing and the fact that the GM aided you in creating your PC was the best in my humble opinion as he explained why this or that skill would be better because your character was from this region or was that race. It really opened my eyes to just what character generation should be.
  Another player and I decided during the game session that our characters were going to spar. And the GM had a table for critical’s for that. My character a mentalist ranger decided that he should spar just like he would fight for real. So no helmet, being a mentalism caster. First up we always learned from our combat practice before the game began to put most of your OB into DB to get a feel about how good your opponent was. I did that and roll d100. I rolled a 01 followed by a large number for the fumble critical, and dropped my weapon. My fellow player did the opposite and rolled open ended high to get an E crit. Then rolled somewhere in the range of 96-100 for the E crit. The critical gave two results. One result was if you were wearing a helmet and the other was if you did not have a helm.As stated above I did not wear a helm and so I was in a coma for 2 months. Which was reduced to 1 month and a penalty after some herbs and good doctoring.
  After that of course everyone kept on asking me if I wanted to spar ... and if I had my herbs and a bed ready.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.