Misfirings from my Neurons

Now commonplace in my game (in equal proportion to players and NPCs using Conveying Ways' Flying Disks and Diskcraft), my players introduced the use of bound Wind Steeds (Elemental Companion) as mounts.

The basis is the Rolemaster Companion II Elemental Summons list. Wind Steeds are considered a Weak Elemental for purposes of Summons (10th level) and Mastery (12th level). The combined summoning ritual (per Companion III) is thus 12+5 (10/2) or 17th. I usually add 2 levels to that to bind the Steed to someone other than the caster.

Positives (for the players); High speed travel, easy to ride and don't each much

Negatives: They are big, noisy and dumb as rocks. Steeds can't attack. People remember then (20' wingspans and buzzing like the wind on steroids).

But my players swear by them. The only problem is that their carry capacity is HP * 2.5 lbs so their summoner sometimes has to go through several summons to get a Steed with enough HP for a large character (Steeds start w 90 hp hence 225 lb carry).

Labels: magic ritual, Rolemaster, wind steeds

When a character is wounded, I keep track of the CP damage in three categories: 1) Bulk damage (usually the CP dealt before the critical type on the Arms Law chart), 2) Critical damage (any CP done by the critical description) and 3) Blood/Burn loss (any CP does by X per round results from critical resuts).

Bulk damage - healed by Heal X to Y spells or herbs. Heals at normal per hour rate (I use CON bonus/5 + 2 per hour rest)

Critical damage - only healed by repair of the critical itself by spell, (such as Muscle repair, Mend bone, etc.) herb or skill (Second Aid or Surgery plus time) or duration (per Character Law)

Blood Loss/Burn Damage (Fluid/Flesh loss) - heals at the same rate as Bulk damage -but- per day not per hour.

Labels: healing, Rolemaster, variant rules

A frequent question to me was how long does it take, in game, to learn enough about a spell list, from a tome or teacher, so that a caster can then spend DP on the list next level? This is what we call "Opening a List." The character needs to spend an hour per DP cost of the spell list (example: a 2/* list takes 2 hours, a 10 list takes 10 hours) with a teacher or appropriate subject matter (tome, library etc.), Once done, the character can spend DP to try to learn the list the next level.

All my players found this agreeable and slot said time into their activities during a level. Some poke through the Arcane Guild while others study with each other.

Labels: Opening, Rolemaster, Spell Law, Spell Lists

Winding down another Friday here at GE Aviation Systems. Looking forward to the weekend. Sunday will be consumed by a soccer tournament for Kathryn but Saturday, hopefully, will be pretty relaxing.

Will continue both games and hope to blog the weekly updates on both. Eventually some thoughts on how player interaction can add a layer of unexpected complexity to an initially (to the GM) simple scenario. In this - a medieval version of Somali pirates.

Labels: Ardamaster, Rolemaster, RPGs, weekend