Author Topic: Rolemaster 2nd Edition - Companion II skills and ekstra development points  (Read 2612 times)

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Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Hey all,

I seem to have read something about an optional rule give extra development points, if you are using the RoCo II skills. Where is this rule?

Thanks in advance and my the dices be ever in your favor!!!
Valar Morghulis
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline MrApollinax

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There were some options given in RoCo1 (4.3, p.47) for this sort of thing. They suggested, among other things, 20-30% extra DPs /level, for secondary skills only. Of course, this came before the RoCoII skill boom, so depending on how much influence you want secondary skills to have this might be enough.

I'm not sure, but I don't think this cropped up anywhere else in the Companions. In our games we used the above rule for a while, then ended up going with 50 + Stat-based DPs (including) using Luck from RoCoIII as a development stat (so 6 DP-generating stats, and we used the 'DPs based on stat bonuses' rule from RoCoVI). It worked well. Everyone seems to have different solutions to this, and you'll find mentions scattered across various threads here.
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Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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Thanks - I'll check it out. 41 dev.pts/lvl doesn't seem like much when you have 92 skills on the sheet.

I'd love to hear other options too, official rules, errata and houserules :)
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline Majyk

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We ended up talking about using the usual 5 stats for DP gen for all things combat oriented, and tallied up the 5 non-RM2 DP stats for use for flippant expensive characterful secondary skills.

The thought experiment/rule further went that one had to ALSO spend full DPs to develop any skill chosen for as many ranks as one could per level:
So a 4/10 skill HAD to be purchased at both it's Primary and Secondary costs for a total hit to these free DPs of 14.
3/6 meant spending the full 9, etc.

This was to suggest that one was super keen on their background development re:Hobby Ranks @ each level and such.

This helped to still limit these freebies to a select few(er) skills.
Hope this helps the campaign out!

Offline Majyk

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PS:
This was after playing "regular" RM2 un-houseruled until we had a great grasp of the essentials of play; there is nothing like dumping the last 2-3 DP into a Secondary Skill after already spending the rest on the usual suspects fo Weapons/Spell List %s/Body Dev!

Offline MrApollinax

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The Arms Companion had a rather neat option for Hobby Skills to address the difficulty in gaining secondary skills. They suggested selecting 2 or 3 sets of Hobby Ranks (i.e. 3 sets of 6, each divided between two skills). In our game we selected 3 sets, one drawing on skills related to the character's race/culture, one related to the character's profession and one set which was the player's free choice. It worked well and gave a solid fillip to 1st-level characters.
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Tales of the New Kingdoms (blog)

Offline JUNKdeLUXE

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how much dev.pts. do your RM2 (with RoCo II skills) chars usually have?
Why procrastinate today when you can do it tomorrow?

Offline Athelstaine

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In my first RM2 game I played in, the GM let us have an extra 50% just usable for secondary skills. (Example my Teutonic Knight had 44/22). The game I am currently playing in is only using and extra 25%. For my homebrew modified, I am using all ten stats for DP. The reason why is, I am using the "No Profession" profession to simulate a classless environment. Their skill cost's are pretty high compared to the pure professions.

I could not find any thing stating any extra DP's, besides page 47 of RC I which suggests 20 to 30% extra. I do not have the "red" version if character law for RM2, Mine is the brown book from a blue box set I bought years ago.
May i serve in Valhalla, better than i did in life.

Offline Malim

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I like the idea og more secondary skills that are non combat related, it makes a PC more unique!
In our setting most focus on combat skills and almost nothing else. Well the racial background ranks in singing is ofc used! ;)
Sir Elor Blacke knight of Helyssa, Kytari Fighter lvl 25 (RM2)
Malim Naruum, Yinka Lord Bashkor lvl 27  (RM2)

Offline Peter R

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Two things you could consider. First read and evaluate which of all the skills you actually want in your game. Is 'sense reality warp' a skills you want people buying, you need 'build trap' AND 'set trap'? Once you know how many skills you are going to allow in your game then you can decide how many DPs or bonus DPs to aim for.

Secondly, both RMU and HARP both use a fixed 50DP regardless of the stats. This can improve roleplay AND game balance. If all your DPs are comng from the top 5 stats then min/max players will top load their characters to get the most DPs. If you bonus DPs are a bonus 25% or 30% then you are then giving them even more DPs and rewarding the min/maxing. Players are also penalised if they want to play a character who has a weakness in one or more of the DP giving stats, not just once but with every level. If you look at the books probably would not have a very high CO stat. I played in a game where one character got 44DPs at first level and that went up to 48 eventually and another had 27 and went up to 33DPs. The character with more DPs ended up miles ahead in skills and even levels because they could buy more skills and then earn experience in more spheres and that success became self fueling; all becaue of some lucky dice rolls during character creation (even before the game began).

Fixed DPs free up the players to put their rolls in the stats that best reflect their character concept.
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Offline Jengada

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Re: Rolemaster 2nd Edition - Companion II skills and ekstra development points
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2017, 02:24:36 PM »
I've always used a pared-down set of secondary skills. I give players one full set of DPs to spend on secondaries only, after Apprenticeship. After that, they have to buy them with their regular DPs.
We ask the hard questions here, because they keep us too busy to worry about the hard questions in the real world, and we can go with the answers we like the best.

Offline Nightblade42

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Re: Rolemaster 2nd Edition - Companion II skills and ekstra development points
« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2017, 03:12:22 PM »
One of the later Companions (forget which one) addresses this issue.  The optional rule presented is that you take the regular 5 DP stats & divide their values by 5 to get the DP value.  Fractions are rounded down.  Example: if your Temporary Agility is 75, then you get 15 DPs; if your Co is 69 you get 13 DPs (13.8 rounded down).  It has worked well for me over the years.  I'll have to find the RAW reference & post it.

Nightblade ->--