Author Topic: Arms Law Submissions  (Read 13354 times)

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Offline Thom @ ICE

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Arms Law Submissions
« on: August 06, 2012, 09:57:25 PM »
Our first category is…   Arms Law
We’ve all had some amazing experiences using Rolemaster’s incredible combat system with open ended rolls, lifesaving criticals, and unexpected fumbles. Tell us about one of these memorable experiences and share the thrill. 

First Award to be given on Monday, August 13th...
Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline ubiquitousrat

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2012, 01:13:44 AM »
Back at high school, and wanting to raise money for the Red Cross, some pals and I organised a 24-hour roleplaying session. The GM picked Rolemaster as the system and decided to use the Moria supplement (from Middle-earth). Being largely new to Rolemaster, I was completely in awe of the system's detail.

Enter Goriel Swiftfoot, a halfling thief with skill in Short Bow and Short Sword. Through many of the encounters, most of which have faded from memory (perhaps due to the length of the session), one story has endured for some 30 years.

At the climax of the tale, as the party encountered the Balrog of Moria, the critical system of Rolemaster came into play. Goriel was the hero who, armed with his trusty sword and having climbed to a position where he could strike at the Balrog's head, swung... and scored the E Crit of his life. The GM described the severing of the Balrog's head and the crash of the body back into the foul depths from which it flew.

To be honest, looking back as an adult, we almost certainly played it "wrong" by the rules... but the story has never been forgotten. As a fresh-faced newbie to Rolemaster I remember feeling amazed and elated as my hero saved the party from certain death. With some incredibly unlikely fluke of the dice and a generous GM, I was hooked. This one encounter probably fuelled 30 years of GMing for others. And Rolemaster's Arms Law still makes me shiver with excitement when I grab it off the shelf.

In many ways, the encounter was way less important than what Rolemaster came to mean to me. It's a talisman of the hobby, plain and simple. None other has that honour.

Game on!

Offline Magistrate

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2012, 02:37:37 AM »
I love to remember the situation where a friend created a new character for RM2. After 2 hours of creation he came into our round.
We met his character on our way to the next city. Only 30 mins (RL) later we had the first random encounter: a cold undead hand, crawling through the grass.
The first attack hit him with an acid/vaporisation* critical ... 99 and his chest was vaporized.

We hadn't changed 10 words with him, yet, we even didn't know his name after this short peroid. We looted him  ::) and decided that it is too expensive to resurrect him.
So, our friend started to create a new character ...

[* don't know the english translation excactly]
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Offline Erik Sharma

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2012, 02:48:45 AM »
Well the moment that sprung into my mind was a very comedic and silly moment and didn't happen to long ago but will be forever burned into our minds. It was also one of the first adventures with a group completely new to Rolemaster. And they where looking for something different after that horrible 4th Edition of a certain game had just been released. After this event they where completely sold on Rolemaster. The incident is now days called "The Kamikaze Spider".

Well the adventurers where heading down to explore a cavern system underneath the local lords fortress. The module itself was a converted Forgotten Realms adventure. Either way at the beginning from the cavern system at the end of a path leading down along the wall of a big cavern was giant spider luring in hiding waiting for some easy prey that would come by. The adventurers slowly descended the path expecting trouble but of course neither of them noticed the camouflaged spider. When the adventurers reached the end of the path the spider sprung it's trap and jump towards the adventurers and completely failed it's attack resulting in the spider missing the jump and sailed over the players into the cave wall behind them and completely crushing it's head. The adventures just looked at the spectacle in awe, completely surprised by the ambush. Then they just looked at each other laughed, shrugged their shoulders and continued their journey onwards (little did they know the entire group would meet their end in those caverns). This was just one of those moments that never seem to happen in any other role playing game than Rolemaster.

One of the players also made the joke that he has never played an RPG with such short, entertaining and gritty battles. I would hardly call it a battle though.  :laugh3:

Offline Kristen Mork

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2012, 06:32:42 AM »
We've always interpreted Rolemaster dragons as having incredible senses: If you're invisible, they'll hear you moving about; if you're silent, they'll feel your feet touching the ground; etc.

So, the party was ecstatic when they finally arranged a flawless ambush. The rogue had the Background Option that ensured he had no discernible odor. He was both Invisible and Silent. He was Flying, drifting on a magically summoned breeze. The dragon could not smell, see, hear, or even feel the rogue's presence. The party even arranged a distraction so that the dragon was busy casting counter-spells and could not spend a round casting Presence.

The rogue had maneuvered into a perfect position, floating above the dragon's back, a dwarven axe in hand. His ambush maneuver was flawless, and with forty-plus ranks of ambush, an open-ended critical was not unlikely. Given his OB, positional modifiers, and surprise, he couldn't fail to max the chart.

Until.

He fumbled. Somehow, despite his improbable position, he stumbled over an unseen, imaginary, deceased turtle and (this was probably pure malice on the GM's part) dropped his axe.

The next session was spent plotting a way to recover enough of the poor rogue's body to restore him to life.

Offline gandalf970

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2012, 07:33:02 AM »
My story is a GMs nightmare.  The group was pretty high level (15th) and they were King and knights of their realm.  They were happy to run domestic skills and role play the courts for a few levels.  I kept hinting, implying and out right telling them that they were starting to look weak as they were not flexing any military might.  The people respected this but they didn't care.

So they angered the Ice Queen in the neighboring kingdom so I decided to bring a white dragon down on them.  I foreshadowed all of it so they knew a dragon was coming.  When the battle ensued, they got initiative and the first knight charged in with his lance and hit him with an E writ, 100 on crit table dead.

I was so pissed as a GM they looked at me with all smiles and said, no problem.  I admit I sent the white dragons mate out of spite, but they killed that one as well in round 3 as I fumbled the dragons resistance roll.

Offline DangerMan

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2012, 07:52:39 AM »
Our was somewhat the opposite of Peter's:

A crew of low level adventurers are going fra A to B in Middle Earth, somewhere in Arnor. There's the mage, the Paladin, the Rogue, the Fighter and the drunken, useless, underpowered Bard. The latter is the only non-powerplayer.

Unfortunatly the group stumbles upon a land drake - a wingless dragon. The dragon, however, does no attack on sight, but simply follows the group from out of range position. The group decides combat is the only way out, but we are very scared, as we were at low levels and we have no idea of the beasts power level. However, when pressing the attack, the dragon pulls away and starts taunting us and saying it will wait until we fall asleep. This goes on for hours...

Now we are beginning to get frustrated. We have a rule that says “no sleeping in armor” and thus we are going to need to get this fight going before bedtime. So we start taunting the dragon. “You sorry excuse for an overgrown serpent”. “Ya mama was a snake, raped by a real dragon” etc etc. Finally, the dragon charges! I remember the GM saying something like “Well, you are not CERTAIN to die….” a wicked smile on his face…

Now, the Fighter raises his sword and looks for a good position, the Mage starts to prepare shock bolt (bah…), the Rouge loads his bow and aims, the Paladin throws some defensive spell and the Bard…. The bard decides to fire his composite bow right away. He’s out of range and gets penalties for loading etc etc, all this on top of his missile skill of forty-something. Fat chance he’s gonna save the day… well..

First he rolls an open ended and gets the hit. Players go crazy, shouting the Bards praise. Then the critical. He lands it at 99!! Dragon dies from an arrow through his lungs. We are stunned! Players and GM alike agrees to go over the math and rules several times, to make sure no err was made. Then we celebrate and the Bard is forever known as The Dragon Slayer.

ARMS LAW FTW!!!!
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Offline jsoldati

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2012, 09:11:53 AM »
This one goes back about 18 years.  The act of open ending around our table is called a "schmenke." Rolling a second in a row, however rare, is called a double schmenke.

Gravit, a dwarven ranger, typical drinking problem, but highly manueverable, takes an ill advised bow shot at a passing giant the rest of the party was doing their best to hide from.  Totally breaking role play, screams erupted from around the table in anguish anticipating Total party kill.... Quadruple Schmenke large or superlarge table..... i forget now. 

Giant falls dead.  Dwarf uncorks flask. So whats the big deal??????

Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2012, 10:04:57 AM »
Some of you have heard references to one of my faves before. It dates back to one of my first sessions of RM1, so it had to have been '81 or '82...

The party has been investigating an abandoned mine. They've been down there two days, have found several monsters of various stripes and at least a bit of treasure. Two days of going farther and farther in, they come to a shaft and ladder leading upward, and see daylight at the top. Figuring that it's better than a two day trip back, they decide to check it out.

It turns out they've gone all the way through the mountain, to a spot where the mines had connected to an old cave system. For some reason the Mentalist went up the ladder first, with the Rogue behind him. The shaft is 130' tall.

At the top, they find that they've connected to a cave system. Moreover, there are half a dozen small giants asleep in the cave. The Mentalist creeps away from the top of the ladder, trying to get by without waking the giants, and the Rogue follows.

I honestly don't remember who fumbled a maneuver enough to wake the giants, but it happened before the next person (a Fighter) got to the top of the ladder. So suddenly it's a Mentalist and a Rogue against six giants, and they have to hold them long enough for the two Fighters, the Magician and the Healer to get off the ladder.

Anyway, the Rogue takes a swing at the first giant up and moving, does a bit of damage but nothing major. The giant gets in his return shot and not only does damage but knocks the Rogue down and stuns him.

The GM lets the Rogue make a maneuver to stay upright and, since he's just "had his bell rung", to stay aware enough not to step in the shaft down to the mines. Roll a Stunned Maneuver....

-101 / -150 in the Stunned column: "Fall. +10 hits. You break your leg. You are at -75%. You are out 6 rounds."

Well the GM was "nice" and didn't demand that he fall to his death down the mineshaft. Instead, he spent the battle hanging at the top of the ladder, upside down by a broken leg, while the two Fighters, the Magician and the Healer all scrambled over him. At one point he had a stunned giant fall down the hole and nearly take him with him. The only thing that kept him up was his broken leg, hooked upside down into the ladder.

This is #1 of the sessions that made new players believe me when I said, "This is not like D&D."
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Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2012, 10:19:50 AM »
The #2 session that made players believe "This is not D&D" was thought up specifically for that purpose. I had a few new players, long time D&D players, who wanted to "kill some orcs". I told them that these are not D&D orcs, but apparently they didn't realize just how much difference there was.

So a party of 5 went out "orc hunting". Levels ranged from about 5 to 9 (I think, this was another session from decades ago). Off they go into the wild lands, hoping to find some orcs. They found one.

But since the one they found was a 13th level orc Rogue, they hardly needed any more.

The first to die was shot off the back of his horse while they were riding through 5'-6' high scrub oak in a mountain valley. The second to die was shot in the face from out of the darkness that night while they were camping. Luckily they had decided to set a double watch, otherwise none of them would have lived until morning.

They finally managed to drive the orc into a corner, where he couldn't ambush them from cover and their still superior numbers could be brought to bear, and thus managed to kill him.

The final tally was 1 remaining party member still alive, conscious and "walking wounded". 1 other party member critically injured, but stable and would probably live if he could be gotten back to town.

3 dead, 1 critically but not mortally wounded, taking down one orc.



Note: I dunno from advertising, copyright issues, etc. Feel free to insert "typical RPG orc" for "D&D orc" anywhere you like.
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Offline LonePaladin

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2012, 10:35:42 AM »
My tale goes back nearly 30 years to my high-school days. My friends and I have primarily played a different fantasy RPG (it had "basic" and "advanced" types at the time), with a smattering of other systems and genres. At our local game store, we encountered Keith.

Keith had a milk crate filled with rulebooks we've never seen before, accompanied by some spiral notebooks, a cardboard box crammed with unpainted miniatures, and a pair of ten-sided dice. He was wandering the store, looking for a group of open-minded players to introduce to a unique RPG system.

You guessed it: Rolemaster.

Keith played things fast and loose. He didn't bother dragging us through three hours of character-creation; rather, he just handed out pre-generated characters, explained the important bits, and turned us loose. Before the sun has set, we've had a tavern brawl, a run-in with an angry boar, and a knock-down drag-out with about a dozen orcs.

You can bet we showed up next week for more.

Keith kept things moving. We never worried much about encumbrance, or counting ammunition. The only thing we really counted carefully were our coins. When we gained a level, he would take up our character sheets, and the next week he'd hand them back with updated stats. We took this in stride, and didn't give the rules much of a critical eye.

Memory fades after a couple decades, so I can't tell you what the other players had for characters. All I remember was my own: a cleric. I came into this with the preconceptions of the unnamed RPG above, so I had to learn a lot of new things with this character.

The good news? I could wield a sword. My skill with it didn't compare to the fighter and the rogue, but I was competent at it.

The bad news? No heavy armor. I accepted this as the Cost of Doing Business and focused on smiting the bad guy and keeping my friends intact.

For all that my cleric was competent with a blade, the dice didn't care. He only hit about one time in six. I remember one of my friends remarking that he couldn't hit the right side of a fat cow. This bad luck stayed consistent over several months of play. I was pretty quiet about it -- I was having fun, after all -- but frustration was gradually building.

About the time we were 6th, maybe 7th level, we ended up having to fight off a young dragon of some sort. (The type isn't important.) We had the front-line types in its face, keeping it busy; the rogue was looking for spots that were amenable to a knifing; the mage was pelting it with blasts of fire and lightning and such. My hapless cleric was off to one side, futilely swinging his sword at its flank and doing no good whatsoever.

My frustration finally gave me an idea: perhaps it was my dice? I had the usual dice superstitions that all gamers naturally develop. So I ran to the front of the store and bought a brand new pair of ten-siders. I get back to the table just in time for my turn.

The new dice rolled, in order, a 96, a 98, and a 90.

Keith tapped these into his calculator, along with the dragon's Defensive Bonus. He asked me, "What's your OB?"

I stood up, slammed my hands on the table, and cried, "Does it matter?! I HIT HIM!"

It turned out to be a middling strike -- I think, maybe, a 'C' critical. The dragon managed to paralyze my character with a tail-slap to the neck, so that was the only real contribution I made to that fight. That didn't stop it from etching itself into my memory, and I always think about it when I crack open a copy of Arms Law.

Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2012, 12:04:24 PM »
My example comes after I'd been playing RM2 for about 12 years. Since I'd come to RM through games other than D&D (Top Secret, original Recon, and Boot Hill), the deadliness of the combat system didn't phase me much, so I don't have any good AL experiences from that time. Mine came as a GM.

The party in question had been together for some time (starting as 1st level and were about 10th level average when they had this encounter) It was, as my group tended to be, a non- and semi-spell user heavy collection. We had a Bard (the NPC...a drunken Fartrekker who had been with the group since the start and was practically a PC), a Nightblade from one of the larger Mystallian cities, a Dwarven fighter, a Steppelander rogue, and a Rystallian rogue. The guy who played the Rystallian rogue made a living out of picking off other people's kills. He'd hold back in a fight and then try to run in and deliver the killing blow. Effective from an XP standpoint, but annoying to the other players.

Over time the party had evolved from a ragtag band of caravan guards into a mercenary company that was fairly respected and in decent demand in their base region. They had also attracted the attention of some less-than noble folks who would be happy to see them shuffle off this mortal coil. Their foes, tired of being foiled by the group time and again, laid a trap for them in the shape of rumors of a rich and abandoned temple in the wilderness a few days' journey north of their base town. Excepting to be opposed by a scattering of bandits or possibly Orc raiders, the group loaded up and set out.

Once at the temple, they were ambushed by a group of chaos warriors led by a single chaos commander. If you have RoCo I, you understand that this is a pretty stiff challenge, especially the commander. In the ensuing melee our "XP vulture" held back until the moment the party's main fighter (the Dwarf) managed to disarm the chaos commander with a lucky blow. But the commander's return strike left the Dwarf staggered for a round. Sensing a quick kill, our guy ran into the fight and attacked, missing the fact that the commander had just stunned the party's best fighter with a single blow. For those of you who haven't seen the RMC I chaos commander, that NPC has a nasty OB in martial arts. So the chaos commander turns to the vulture rogue, smiles, and grabs him! I did a random roll to determine which unarmed attack the commander would use, and ended up with MA Sweeps&Throws. His OB of around 100 delivered a C critical, and a crit roll of 98 resulted in a throw that cracked the rogue's skull. He was wearing a helmet, so he ended up in a coma! When the player complained, I pointed out that the commander could have used his MA Strikes skill, which would have resulted in a D crit that would have killed him with the same roll. So much for the best-laid plans...

After that, poor plans tended to be mocked by comments like "Yeah...let's just disarm that chaos commander. It'll be SOOOOO much easier." That's my AL moment because it points out with great clarity that simply disarming someone doesn't guarantee that they'll be an easy target and that you can kill or be killed with anything that comes to hand (including just hands).
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Offline architorturevictim

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2012, 03:27:48 PM »
My story is a GMs nightmare.  The group was pretty high level (15th) and they were King and knights of their realm.  They were happy to run domestic skills and role play the courts for a few levels.  I kept hinting, implying and out right telling them that they were starting to look weak as they were not flexing any military might.  The people respected this but they didn't care.

So they angered the Ice Queen in the neighboring kingdom so I decided to bring a white dragon down on them.  I foreshadowed all of it so they knew a dragon was coming.  When the battle ensued, they got initiative and the first knight charged in with his lance and hit him with an E writ, 100 on crit table dead.

I was so pissed as a GM they looked at me with all smiles and said, no problem.  I admit I sent the white dragons mate out of spite, but they killed that one as well in round 3 as I fumbled the dragons resistance roll.

Guess you didn't use the Large/Super Large crit tables eh?

Less likely for such a big creature to die instantly on a natural 100.


Offline talsharien

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #13 on: August 07, 2012, 03:48:14 PM »
My favourite Arms Law moment has to be from a session I ran back in the early nineties. I was a 17 year old GM running my second campaign using the rolemaster rules. We were running an oriental setting and one of the player characters was a Samurai by the name of Yasamoto Yamoto.
The campaign had ran for about 5 sessions and the players were involved in an intense running battle under a Citadel of Necromancers. A group of soldiers attacked the party from a side corridor and our brave Yasamoto moved to engage the enemy.

Yasamoto stepped up to the enemy and having won the initiative attacked the lead soldier. He fumbled his katana and rolled 82 on the one-handed fumble table. The fumble reads "you lose your "wind" and realise that you should not swing for 2 round".

Being relatively new to the tables I read this as the character lost control of his bowel and soiled himself. The player in charge of Yasamoto gave me a strange look and the round moved on. We come to the following round and get to Yasamoto's action so what does he do? Drives his sword through his stomach for the shame that he has caused his house and family...

Oops (but great roleplaying from Yasamotos player). Unfortunately another player called him the the Yellow Ninja as he died and the brave (well played) Yasamoto was forever remembered as the Yellow Ninja, the warrior who stained his pants in combat.


Offline JimiSue

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2012, 05:33:15 PM »
My own moment isn't strictly Arms Law, as it was in a Space master game, but it does involve critical tables which is why I'm putting it in :)

I was playing an Anarchist, and another player a Con Artist in a game of sub-legality. We were level 7 or 8 or so. My character was a schemer for sure, an explosives expert, yes, but also pretty darn good with a stun pistol - although in that entire game I had always rolled really poorly with it, so no one believed she was any good.

My character had something (I forget what) that the con artist wanted, and decided that to pass the time on the long hyperspace journey that he would try and steal it from her cabin while she was asleep. He managed to get the cabin door open, but as a paranoid schemer I had previously stipulated to the GM that I would get the computer set up to sound an alarm if the door was opened, and that she always slept with a stun pistol under her pillow.

So my character woke up, the GM gave me penalties for being groggy, and also because I said I didn't bother really opening mty eyes, i'd just shoot towards that bright glare, but I rolled open ended high, and with my OB it was enough to max out even after penalties. Only a mk 2 weapon so it maxes at 110, did a few hits and an A stun critical. Other player doesn't look too worried. A stun results are not too bad on the grand scale of critical results.

Then I roll a 97, and his character got knocked back out of the room, and was down and stunned for a significant number of rounds. My character just muttered "I *said* I didn't want to be disturbed!", ordered the computer to relock the door and went back to sleep.

She wasn't bothered again :)

That incident is what sparked the realisation that stunners were awesome weapons for that game - not only are they much more legal than other weapons, they do critical results early, and stun criticals are, shockingly, really good for delivering stun results. In a game where even a big combat rarely lasts more than 3 (very bloody) rounds, first stun usually means the side that lands it, wins.

Offline davorious

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2012, 10:15:54 PM »
After spending years wading through D&D and only dabbling with other game systems, a new guy to the group suggested we try Rolemaster due to its realist combat system.  As we were currently between campaigns, we decided to give it a try.  After struggling for the better part of a week to create a character, I finally finished my human mage and we started our first excursion into Middle Earth.  The game started slow but, as we were all experience gamers, the combat rules seemed to make sense and the tempo of the story increased.  This is when the fun began.  We had just walked into an ambush by giant spiders and were fighting our way to safety; all of us badly wounded as we were greatly outclassed.  While defending myself, I fumbled and fell to the ground.  The spider seeing an opening, leaped from a nearby tree where it was perched intending to crush me beneath its weight.  In a last ditch effort, I thrust my sword upward and cowered beneath it hoping for a miracle.  When the spider landed, it also fumbled and the GM ruled that I should roll a counter-attack.  I rolled an open-ended critical and followed it with a 66 on the table; killing the spider instantly.  The bad news is that the sheer mass of the spider falling on me crushed my body and killed me.  Fortunately the rest of my party escaped and momentarily mourned my death while I began the process of making a new character.

Offline yammahoper

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2012, 02:15:12 AM »
The Intrepid party I shall draw this telling from was small for an adventuring group; a Druid, a Mage and a Cavalier, all with materials drawn heavily from RMCI and II. 

Characters in RM are already uniquely memorable.  Our adventures had already become more story and character driven than combat, but Arms Law guarantees no GM will ever want to fully remove combat.  Arms Law is for players and Gm's who enjoy tension.  Massive combat bonuses are not required to cause tension or excitement.  Arms Law critical tables insure just picking up the dice will cause instant tension.  This simple fact makes combat in RM always enjoyable and not a tedious exercise.

I have been a GM a long time.  A PC must be or do something extraordinary for me to recall their Name.  This episode did that in spades.  A combination of roleplaying and that magic Arms Law can bring.

After a successful information gathering expedition, the group was heading home.  A striken elven NPC begged aid from the party, requesting they cross the border into the cursed elven city to complete the task he had failed at.   Now I expected the players to say no.  The Cursed city of Elven Undead was a place to avoid, as ordered by their commanded, and as was very clear to a group of experienced gammers with 4th to 7th level PC's.  The 4th lvl Cavalier would have none of it.  He swore aid, to seek this dark vessel placed on this ancient high kings alter and shatter it, "...though it be my death me of."   Burton Hubbard, the player, through mutual laughter informed us that since ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase was wrong, the Cavalier redused to do it.

So to certain death the Cavalier went, alone, because the druid and mage believed the definition of party did not include commitment to certain death.  After two battles with lesser wights that were quite tense and spetacular in their own right, the fallen Elven Paladins ring brought our lone hero through trap and twisting streets to the kings tomb.  Within was the Major Guardian Wight cursed to haunt the kings rest, protect the perversion of the tomb and guard it against intruding Cavaliers.  So the wight advances, easily winning initiative, and strikes at this 4th level albeit Platemail clad mortal with his +30 eog sword of cold, a foe already stunned by the intense cold radiating from its undead bulk...and fumbles, resulting in dropping the blade, including requiring two rounds to recover.

Our hero weilded a mighty blade: a +10 two hand sword of superior design, which he tossed aside without a thought and almost screamed, "I'm going for its blade!"  As picking up an object from the floor is a most routine mnv, yet being in combat is anything but routine, also considering the wight HAD already had its action, I demanded an easy manuever to grab it, which our hero did even with stuns stiff penalty to mnv.

Next round, I anounce that the wight will either blast with magic, physical attack, or try to dominate the Cavalier through the power of ITS sword.  The d10 roll demanded everyones attention and resulted in mental domination.  After a brief discussion if the wight should have 1/2 its will because the sword is tied to it but it is not holding the blade.  we compromised with a -30 to its will, enough to swing the contest it turned out, as both the high mental stats and solid die roll of Burton prove out by winning the contest by 30+ points, well over the 25 needed to allow him to attack freely.

Breaking the shadow filled lock of the wights cold gaze, an "over head crush" was declared, a house rull of mine were all Qu DB is sacrificed to gain a set +25 to OB and x1 1/2 hits.  Burton scored a D crit, so a critical was rolled, and one of the rarest events in Arms Law combat occred right there.  Burton, rolling under the Mythrel column on the SL critical table, rolled a 96, followed by an 01.  The Cavaliers mighty blow crashed down on the wight, splitting its skull, causeing it to instantly fall, shrieking, dieing a wights death in one round, which meant flashy pyrotechnics as its bulky form was sucked into darkfire, and was gone.

The hero did it.  Several Co points lower, maybe lucky he escaped the last rounds cold crit, definitely LUCKY:  Right there Arms Law shined.  Many systems do not have the built in mechanic to display luck at work.  Foes do not fall until beaten down.  RM's Arms Law manages to not just allow lucky strikes, but in no small part because of them, keeps every battle full of tension.  Just pick up your dice GMs and ask "What's your DB?" to see for yourself.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.

Offline gandalf970

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #17 on: August 08, 2012, 08:13:30 AM »


Guess you didn't use the Large/Super Large crit tables eh?

Less likely for such a big creature to die instantly on a natural 100.
[/quote]

Yes we used the Super Large/Large and he rolled open ended again.  I just didn't add that.

Offline Jacinto Pat

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2012, 09:38:07 AM »
I was introduced to Rolemaster while on exchange in college in England (possibly Cornwall if you were unlucky enough to get cornered by a Cornish Nationalist who still didn't recognize the outcome of the English Civil War, but I digress).  Joking around with national stereotypes I decided to play a self-righteous, overly muscled paladin who
1.  Didn't realize that much of the rest of the party were basically amoral highway men.
2.  Expected everyone to live up to his standards of "morality" and would thump them if they didn't.

The thief in the party (who was a really nasty, greedy coward) figured the way to get rid of the paladin was to put a few arrows in his back towards the end of a battle in hopes of making it look like an accident.  So, on four occassions the paladin went roaring into battle, got beat up pretty good while righteously slaughtering people who happened to be in his way and then was shot at by the thief.  Every time the thief, who had several ranks in archery managed to fail to harm the paladin (rolls on the table for all to see).
 
First time he misses and hits the enemy who had been stunned in the initial collision and was now back up and trying to stab the paladin in the back. 

The second time his bow breaks, the arrow goes up in the air and bounces off the paladin's helm (no harm done).

Third time the arrow hits, but fails to penetrate the plate mail the paladin is wearing.  The paladin then proceeds to really annoy the thief by giving him a long lecture about being careful about selecting his targets, and then "forgiving" him in a self-righteous manner.

Soon afterwards the rest of the party was tired of the thief getting chased out of towns (everyone but my boneheaded paladin had realized that the "misunderstandings" weren't really misunderstandings), having treasure going missing when the thief was around and so on. When another combat developed the thief tried murder again and again he fumbled -- this time hitting and disabling a fighter who was his main ally.  As the paladin, who was half dead and bleeding heavily launched into another longwinded lecture, the thief decides to knife him -- acheiving a critical fumble and dropping his knife.  The paladin swings, rolls a natural 100 and then a 98 on the uproll -- and cuts off the thief's head before passing out -- much to the delight of the rest of the party.

Offline Khorah

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Re: Arms Law Submissions
« Reply #19 on: August 08, 2012, 12:09:18 PM »
Our intrepid ~ 6th level party of a bounty hunter, magus, warrior mage, and nightblade (me) had decided to ...explore.. the castle that was supposed to be the home of an evil mage. We found small groups of orcs and goblins, and then found a foursome of hobgoblins.
Knowing that these guys were tougher looking than anything else we had seen, so having some distance, we ran.
We got a good lead, then commenced to prepare our ambush.
Initiatives are rolled, and I go 2nd after the bounty hunter. I had been preparing Adrenal Move Speed for some haste. The hobgoblins come thundering through door straight into our impromptu ambush as we were waiting on either side of the doorway, and the battle begins.
The bounty hunter rolls his attack! A solid hit with a good crit.. good roll on the crit.. 1 hobgoblin down..
OK.. great start to our fight!!
My turn comes around, and I succeed in AM Speed, barely... (We simply allowed you to go twice during your action if you were hasted/Speed/etc, so I had 2 attacks).
First attack, poor roll.. a few hits, an "A" crit, which was also a bad roll, and the hobgoblin resisted my poison.
Ok.. so I shake off the bad rolls, and commence my 2nd attack.. Much better roll.. Some decent damage and an "E" Krush crit.. ok sweet..
I roll the crit... I roll... 99!!! I crush his skull, get +20 to my next attack, AND have a half round left to act.
GM decides since the hobgoblins were running through the doorway, I was still within melee range of the 3rd hobgoblin and I could make an attack at 1/2 my OB... another good roll.. some decent damage and another "E" Krush.. nice..
I roll the crit... 96!!! The exact same crit!! I crush his skull, get +20 to my next attack, AND have a half round left to act.
At this point, the GM is hesitant to let me keep going, but given the odds of rolling the exact same crit, he says you can attack the 4th hobgoblin, but you have half of a half round, so you get 1/4 OB..
I roll another good hit.. some decent hits, and a third "E Krush...
I roll the dice, and see the first number is a 6.. well.. no big hits, but still respectable.. then I see the other die.. which is.. also on a 6..
66!!!! Instant Death crit!!!
So in one round, the nightblade takes out 3 hobgoblins solo... It was an awesome ending to the fight!!