Rolemaster

Rolemaster is a role-playing game created by ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) in 1980. It was one of the first generic game systems, meaning it was not based on in no particular universe but simply provided a coherent set of rules adaptable to whatever kind of fantasy universe players might create. In addition, the game included a game system based on dice rolls of one hundred. Rolemaster was conceived by its designers with the idea of being a modular system, so that users could use only the part they wanted.

History

Initially, three basic rulebooks were published: Character & Campaign Law, Combat Manual > (Combat Law), and Spell Manual (Spell Law). Rolemaster is also known as chartmaster for the number of charts it includes^{[citation needed]}. It can be said that it tries to be a more simulationist and realistic system than others, exhaustive in its rules to reflect the real world, and that it gives the characters freedom to learn multiple skills, something that can be criticized in many other games, full of arbitrariness and unfair impositions..^{[citation required]}

After several years on the market, ICE published an abridged version of this system designed specifically for playing in Tolkien's Middle Earth, MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing), known in Spain as The Lord of the Rings, the role-playing game of Middle-earth, as well as various additions that, while maintaining the basic structure of Rolemaster, allowed players to play in different settings (cyberpunk, space opera and others).

Already in the 90s ICE published a revision of the system called Rolemaster Standard System (RMSS), with many changes in character creation, but keeping the base of 1D100+skill bonus. This system was slightly revised in order to produce a book that included the entire game, fleeing from the modularity that had characterized them until then.^{[citation needed]} The result is called Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying Game (RMF, published as Rolemaster Fantasy in Spain). It contained fewer attack tables, grouped by weapon type, and the magic lists only went up to level 10.

The Rolemaster system of the 90s, had a more exhaustive character creation system, not based on attributes of adolescence. Each player chose his own abilities regarding his own personal history. For Rolemaster, an own fictional universe was also prepared, the campaign setting known as Shadow World (whose fourth edition was translated into Spanish in 2003 as Mundo de las Sombras), with a whole series of campaigns and supplements (the so-called companions) detailing its geography, history, cultures, languages, etc. Other fictional universes have been created later for Rolemaster, such as Aredia, an amateur campaign setting.

Over time companions appeared that added more rules and many more professions to achieve better effect and realism in their adventures. Beginning with Rolemaster Companion I, it went up to number VII. However, the number of tables and books that all these companions involved made absolute control over all of them very difficult, leaving the game master and the players the decision on the rules used in each game.

As time progressed, the existing offer of accessories around Rolemaster continued to be completed, of which we can mainly mention the three books of the Creatures and treasures, which brought many more adversaries (monsters, fantastic beasts, elementals and so on) for the players, as well as different enchanted artifacts (treasures and items). In Spanish only the first of these three books was published.

In 2007, ICE published a simplified version of the RoleMaster rules called Rolemaster Express. Aware of the steep learning curve that RoleMaster implies for many players and with the aim of lowering costs, Rolemaster Express aims to provide a gaming experience equivalent to RoleMaster into a simpler and more compact rules package.

Supplements

Supplements supporting the Basic Weapons and Combat Manual were also published, including:

• 10 Million Ways to Die
• Arms Companion
• Martial Arts Companion
• Sea Law: Large-scale naval battles
• War Law: Large-scale ground battles
• Shadow World Fantasy Weapons
• Weapon Law - Firearms: Tables and regulations to enjoy in the game of any firearm, from the Renaissance to the Modern Age.
• Gamemaster Law: Recommendations and assistance to the Game Director
• Rolemaster Annual I " II: Two Books with Rule Updates for RMSS
• Character Records: Personalized generation of characters by professions

Similarly, there were also magic supplements to support the manual of spells:

• Elemental Companion: magic of the elements, natural magic
• Fire & Ice: expansion to the elemental companion
• Channeling Companion: channeling, divine magic from the gods
• Essence Companion: magic from the essence of all things
• Mentalism Companion: mental magic, coming from the mind of oneself
• Spell Users Companion: magic for all types of spell makers
• Companion Arcano: ancient magic of the times when the three types of magic were one
• Alchemy companion: alchemical magic to be able to implant it in objects, as well as spell research tables and object creation

As for the books of settings in specific times or historical periods, the following can be cited, each of them quite self-explanatory. They introduced some new professions and historical data corresponding to the environment in which they are set:

• The Musketeers
• Arabian Nights
• Oriental Companion
• Vikings
• Shades of Darkness
• Nightmares of Mine: Gérero de Horror at any time
• Out Law: Adventures in the American West
• Robin Hood
• Black Ops: Covered operations today
• Pulp Adventures: To solve dramatic scenes of persecution
• ...and 10-Foot Pole: Equipment book for any time
• Mythic Greece

Finally, there were several other books on various topics:

• Races & Cultures
• Underground Races
• Castles & Ruins: Medieval life around the feudal system and the castle of the noble lord
• Heroes & Rogues: manual with characters created and ready to play, with various levels
• School of Hard Knocks: more material on martial arts and combat

Finally, it is necessary to quote the space version of Rolemaster: Spacemaster. Compatible with all published books, and also the new futuristic setting could also be combined with previous publications. The only different feature they brought (apart from new futuristic weaponry and vehicles) was a new type of magic, psionic magic, a force that stems from self-discipline. Some of its companions were: Star Strike, Cyber Space, Vessel Compendium I and Vessel Compendium II , Aliens & Artifacts, Armored Assault, Spacemaster Companion I, War on a Distant Moon, Tech Law and Future Law.

Similarly, there were various books set in the aforementioned "Shadow World" (such as Kulthea, Emer...).

Editions in Spanish

The Barcelona publishing house Joc Internacional held the publishing rights for Rolemaster in Spain during the 1990s and translated and published its three rule manuals in 1993, as well as some supplements. La Factoría publishing house de Ideas obtained them after Joc Internacional signed its closing balance sheet in 1998 and published the game in 1999. However, they did not reissue the same version as Joc Internacional, but instead published Rolemaster Fantasy ( Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying). Rolemaster Standard System was not published in Spanish.