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Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: Dragonking11 on September 19, 2017, 07:08:43 AM

Title: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 on September 19, 2017, 07:08:43 AM
Rolemaster has been around for a pretty long time (since 1980 if i'm not mistaken).

For my part, I began playing with RMSS in 1996, when I was 16-17. I'm 37 for still at least 3 weeks ... My usual players have about the same age as we played together back then.

I've always wondered if the new younger generations were able to hear about and of course play Rolemaster (any editions).

What about your gaming groups ?

Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Peter R on September 19, 2017, 08:43:49 AM
We started playing RM in the 80s. I am the youngest in our group and I am 49. The oldest member us 52.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Jengada on September 19, 2017, 10:37:13 AM
I raised a crop of RM players back in the '80s, another in the '90s, and another in the 2000s. But to my knowledge, none of those people still play. I've started a new group and my players are 24, 24, 28, 28, 46, and 70s. I'm early 52 - for exactly two more weeks. Crap, my birthday is coming up!
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 on September 19, 2017, 10:44:26 AM
I've started a new group and my players are 24, 24, 28, 28, 46, and 70s. I'm early 52 - for exactly two more weeks. Crap, my birthday is coming up!

Wow it is quite the accomplishment to have a gaming group containing 3 or 4 generations of players  :D

How did you manage to bring them to play together in the first place ?
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Grinnen Baeritt on September 19, 2017, 10:45:59 AM
If I'm any judge... I'd put the average at about 45.  (And this is increasing each year.. ;) )

I'm hoping to see RMU published before I retire..... *hint hint*

Though I haven't actually played a face-to-face game now for 3+ years!

Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Grinnen Baeritt on September 19, 2017, 10:48:37 AM
I've started a new group and my players are 24, 24, 28, 28, 46, and 70s. I'm early 52 - for exactly two more weeks. Crap, my birthday is coming up!

Wow it is quite the accomplishment to have a gaming group containing 3 or 4 generations of players  :D

How did you manage to bring them to play together in the first place ?

LOL... Well, Grampa can't get out of his chair, his wife (46) has told their children they can't leave the table till they've finished the campaign! :)
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Druss_the_Legend on September 19, 2017, 11:20:45 AM
my playgroup are all in their 40s. youngest is turning 40 next month. oldest is 48.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: JohnK on September 19, 2017, 11:31:48 AM
I am 35, but one of my players (18 years old) started his own group with equal his age friends. They are playing MERP but will probably turn to Rolemaster in a couple of years.... (I suppose!!!)
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: cyberfranck on September 19, 2017, 12:09:39 PM
Played RM2 back in 2004 when i was 21 with others of my age. Was quite complicated at the time. Left it on the side for a while to go on D&D 3.5/4/5. Came back to it when RMU went out, looked at it and left it aside until 2-3 months ago. Found that they overcomplicated things and went back to RMFRP that i picked up couple years ago and i am about to start a new campaign and play seriously. Players are in the range of 32-37.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 on September 19, 2017, 12:30:50 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  :)
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Malim on September 19, 2017, 03:42:15 PM
Our group is also all in our 40s
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Voriig Kye on September 19, 2017, 05:59:42 PM
I've always played (since high school) with people around my age (current group is between around 27 and 34, I think).
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Jengada on September 19, 2017, 06:31:15 PM
I've started a new group and my players are 24, 24, 28, 28, 46, and 70s. I'm early 52 - for exactly two more weeks. Crap, my birthday is coming up!

Wow it is quite the accomplishment to have a gaming group containing 3 or 4 generations of players  :D

How did you manage to bring them to play together in the first place ?
The two 24-year olds are my son and his friend. The 70- and 46-year olds were in the Pathfinder group I joined some time back, at a local game shop. When that campaign ended, I offered Rolemaster. The 28-year old and the 70-year-old are granddaughter and grandmother.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Cory Magel on September 19, 2017, 07:00:43 PM
For the most part, our groups of players have been gaming together in various mixtures of the larger group overall for many years.  Members joining anywhere from the early 80's to late 90's.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: damage on September 20, 2017, 02:52:25 AM
46 for me, been playing since the mid-90's. My group are all 40's-50's.

 - David.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Wolfhound on September 20, 2017, 10:43:18 AM
Saw the black and white Rolemaster ads in Dragon Magazine, which intrigued me, so I bought it in '82 and have been a major fan and GM of it ever since.  With 95%  of my GMing and 50% of my playing  experience being with Rolemaster.  Have GMed for ages ranging from 6 to 60's (with the 6 year old being my brother, who is now in his late 30's and is still a fan), while I will be turning 50 in a few months. 
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: dkenady on September 20, 2017, 11:23:19 AM
I've been gaming since 1980, and for over 30 years have been playing Rolemaster with the same group of friends.  I'm 55.  Also I have a group that are playing RM, they are in their 20's.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Cory Magel on September 20, 2017, 07:00:21 PM
For the most part, our groups of players have been gaming together in various mixtures of the larger group overall for many years.  Members joining anywhere from the early 80's to late 90's.
Sorry... should have clarified that means we're mostly in our late 30's to mid 50's or so.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: arcadayn on September 21, 2017, 10:32:24 AM
I'm 48, but not currently running a RM game. Groups I've run in the past few years range from mid thirties to early fifties.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 on September 21, 2017, 12:05:08 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  ::)
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Jengada 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: adanost 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Old Man 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: cyberfranck 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
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Bruce 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: juza 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Spectre771 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
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: ob1knorrb 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Jengada 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!)
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Grinnen Baeritt 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: daveho 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 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 !
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Peter R 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Dragonking11 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
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Cory Magel 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: terefang 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: egdcltd 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: intothatdarkness 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Peter R 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.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Cory Magel on October 14, 2017, 10:12:02 PM
One of the first things we did when moving to MERP and RM was build character and run a mock combat.  No real GM running things, just everyone learning the process before we started a full campaign.
Title: Re: What is the average age of Rolemaster players ?
Post by: Spectre771 on October 16, 2017, 06:17:54 AM


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.

This is the exact issue I'm running into now.  I keep trying to tell the new players that I have everything streamlined for PC creation.  They don't need all of the books.  They need to stick to RM2, not to reference  the other versions.    The Companions are all optional rules, classes, spells, etc.

I use pregen PCs all the time to get the players used to the game system first.  This lets them see what skills they'd like to have, which stats they may want to have as really high stats.  Once they've gotten a decent grasp, I'll have them roll up their own non-spell user PCs.  Once they are familiar to those portions of the game, I'll let them create spell-users.  Some of the "I know how to play roleplaying games" people are still floored by the fact that their spell caster (level 1, even level 5) is terribly suited for adventuring because they didn't understand PC creation or Dev Point spending.