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Rolemaster Moments for Sept 2003- page 1
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My ‘Rolemaster Moment’ comes from a campaign I was playing in several years ago, there were four of us in the party: I played an Archmage (Arkan Drahl); there was a Monk (Dom Schpider); a channelling semi-spell user (Breslin – I think); and another Fighter/Rogue type (Llan Tarthak). We were all a few levels under double figures and short on both cash and decent equipment – for reasons that I won't go into here.
We were crossing a desert and ended up being chased by a Sphinx-like creature, we were pretty confident that if it caught us we would be its dinner, unless we could come up with a clever plan. Well, before we could decide on anything substantial it was upon us.
The Monk, Dom, quickly pulled out his only magic item: a chisel. We had no idea what it was capable of, only that it glowed when we tried to detect magic. He had kept it from very early on in the campaign because he was sure it would come in handy one day, as it turned out - it did...
Well Dom proceeded to try and convince this creature that this chisel was a powerful artifact of some sort, I realised that he was trying to pull a major scam on this creature so, without prompting from Dom, I cast ‘Ventriloquism’ and we were suddenly in the possession of a ‘talking chisel’.
I had the chisel itself put in a few words to support the Monk’s efforts. The net effect was that the Sphinx was glad to take this wondrous item off our hands in exchange for free passage through its territory. And the Monks favourite item was worth something after all – our lives!
This was one of the most memorable moments in my roleplaying career (including many great rolemaster campaigns) because we essentially defeated a much superior opponent with some impromptu roleplaying and without rolling a single die.
I am not really sure if this is what you are looking for but I might as well give it a shot.
We are quite big into Rolemaster
for the simple reason that there is nothing that you can't
do. We have done just about every time
setting imaginable, and were running out of ideas. We came
up with a simple thought. Start at the beginning. I am quite
sure
that it has been done before, but using your system and building
a world around it from scratch, ( Gods, Races, Spells and a
variety of Weapons ), was one of the best times ever so far.
Being where
I am and doing what I do as a member of the Canadian Armed
Forces, I don't have a lot of time to waste. We used old and
new books
alike and everything intertwined so well, it was almost that
it was meant to be.
This turned out more of a big thank you actually for making
such a good product, but it had to be said.
Well, I am GMing a campaign in which some strange things happened... The group consists of two Fighters (both of which are battle hardened Knights), a Mentalist, a Ranger and a Rogue. The Rogue Kivari is a strong fighter himself having killed lots of orcs, ogres and even a troll. Well in this adventure they were hunting a vampire through a mountain village when it happened, you have to know that Kivari has a flaw: Animal Bane which means that a particular type of animal hates him, the player chose cats thinking that they shouldn't make to much problems.
The first night in this village Kivari and one of the knights Bulwei left the inn to scout the village when they stumbled upon a cat. The cat hissed at Kivari signaling that she owned that street. Kivari went on and the cat attacked. Cats aren't really big-time opponents for a character with an OB of nearly 100 but this cat became legendary.
First round Kivari made a full parry and tried to move past the cat. This didn't work so in the second round he decided to attack. Cat won the initiative and made an open ended attack resulting in a B Slash Crit. I was already laughing when Ii rolled the crit result - 92 no deadly effect but quite nasty. And what does our Rogue do? he retreats past the laughing knight towards the inn pulling out his sling to kill the cat by distance. Well he didn't shoot her and accepted his defeat and went back to the inn.
When the others asked him what happened and why he didn't kill the small cat he just replied:" Have you ever fought a cat!? they are tough and mean... man, she would have slaughtered me!"
We didn't stop making jokes about it for the rest of the night ^^
Perhaps the most inspired piece of ineffectual roleplaying idiocy
I have had the pleasure to experience came from a hilarious encounter
involving two unforgettable characters from our home Rolemaster
campaign. It involved the antics of two of the less serious characters
in the game - Mikkail Mazzopardi, a scoundrel of a gypsy (aren't
they all?), and Montague Dale, a halfling montebanc. Both, needless
to say, were ne'er-do-wells and the players' names shall remain
withheld for the sake of what reputations they may have.
The characters were involved - with other characters of undoubtedly
greater wisdom - in the scouting and investigation of a remote
castle inhabited by a somewhat insane wizard with a penchant for
animated constructs. Somewhat clichéd, to be sure, but with
fantastic roleplaying opportunities nonetheless. Having encountered
some rather frightful giant metal spiders it should have been apparent
that the wizard was not the welcoming sort.
What do our two heroes decide? A reclusive mad wizard living some
forty to fifty miles from the nearest remote settlement; should
they give him some privacy and a modicum of respect? If they had
there would be no story, of course. No, it would appear that in
the minds of this imaginative pair the best tactic was to march
up to the castle, knock on the door, and get those fake smiles
ready for some on the spot fast talking.
What the heck, I think, I'm amused and keen to see what they come
up with; I decide the wizard is actually intrigued enough to answer
the door. Along comes the story - greetings, kind master wizard,
we are poor travelling minstrels lost in the wilderness, seeking
the hospitality of a welcoming host; may we come in? The wizard
queries, travelling minstrels? Yes indeed, they reply, from the
Whiz Bang Theatre Company. And then they let loose with their little
ditty, complete with accompanying pitiful dance moves - "Join
the fun, join the gang, we're number one, we're Whiz Bang!"
A brief moment of stunned silence and then the wizard smiles the
way that a crocodile might, were it amused and hungry at the same
time. Do come in, he says. Our heroes share smug smiles and follow
the wizard - did we mention his insanity and nastiness had been
made perfectly clear? - into his castle. Follow me, continues their
host, and leads them straight to his magical prison. As they stare
through the doors that conveniently open for them they are whisked
into the air by the wizard's enchantments and flown up to the shackles
fixed high upon the walls. When our cheeky chums are in place the
irons clang shut about their wrists and they are left dangling
and helpless at the wizard's mercy. With a well practised evil
chuckle the wizard locks the doors and wanders off to ponder what
he can do with his new houseguests - chuckling evilly, of course.
Did our heroes escape? Of course. Did they do it in a conventional
manner? Of course not. But how they got out wasn't nearly as memorable
as how they got in. And I can assure you that their little ditty
still comes up in play - it's unlikely to be forgotten.
About a year ago, a fellow gamer learned the hard way to listen to the other players' advice. As the GM I gave the PCs a rod made out of a troll bone. The group's magician grabbed it and tried on the spot an attunement roll. Rolling a near success I decided that he sensed the basic nature of the rod: some fire based spells were embebed in the "troll rod".
The group's empty-headed first level warrior, without any second tought, decided he wanted to give it a try too even tough he had a measly -8 attunement skill total due to lousy stats.
Of course, he defied common sense. Of course we tried to convince him not to try. And of course he rolled critical failure. The first spell on the troll rod's list was a firebolt I, and looking at his fumble's result he managed to set it off on himself.
I let him roll the firebolt's attack thinking he would learn a lesson. His next roll was, of course enough to blow his own head off.
Oddly enough, the player's next character paid more attention to the macician afterwards !
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