On Reading Blogs & More...

As I was writing my post yesterday, I got off topic. I wanted to write about how certain television shows influence or inspire your gaming, but I got so wrapped up discussing Supernatural I forgot all about that topic, and... well, hopefully it wasn't too boring. I would have kept the hammer...

Porky mentioned in a comment on a previous post about some sort of online gaming in Kinship. Until I get better bandwidth, I can't do anything on Google+.  A PbP game on a blog might work, but last time I put forth the idea, no one really seemed interested, which is okay. It didn't bother me at all. I'm still thinking about this, and need to work on the idea some more. So stay tuned...

I continue discussing Rolemaster Unified on the ICE Forums. At times this has become frustrating, but hopefully something good will come of it. I like the rules, which aren't perfect, but most rule sets aren't, otherwise people wouldn't write their own house rules.

I've really enjoyed getting back to reading all the gaming blogs. To save time, I've become a bit more selective in my reading, but I try to skim almost all of the ones I follow, and a few I don't follow.

Usually, I like to have some kind of graphic element to my blog posts, but I can't seem to upload anything.  I'm not sure what's changed, but even if it took a while, I could still get things uploaded.  Not anymore...

Finally, I leave you with another magic item...

[ Magic Item ] A Delightful Mug

This clay mug appears ordinary, and somewhat used. At first glance, if this mug is found in a dungeon it might be overlooked, but if some sort of detect magic spell is used on it, it's magical nature is revealed.

When a liquid is put in the mug, it is changed into the user's favorite beverage. This beverage will be the best the user has ever tasted! Unfortunately, if the liquid is poured out, and not consumed, then it reverts to the original liquid.

However, the mug is cursed. Whenever a drink is taken, the character must make a saving throw versus magic, or fall victim to the curse. If they fail the saving throw they will become enamored of the mug, and will take it with them everywhere. The character will think that the mug is the best thing ever, and when not doing anything else, will hold the mug, caressing it, and talk to it, as they drink from it. They will display it proudly in their home, and show it off to people. Eventually, it's all the character can think about, and they will even stop eating, and only drink from the mug.

If one person is cursed by the mug, and another person drinks from the mug, and is cursed as well, then they will fight over the ownership of the mug. The fight will continue until the mug is destroyed, the curse removed from one of the characters, or one of the characters is dead.

Only some sort of dispel magic or remove curse spell will get rid of the curse. If the mug is smashed the character will become depressed for 1d10 days, and not want to do anything. They will try to repair the mug, but after the period of depression they will forget about the mug.

An unknown number of these delightful mugs were produced, and it's unknown exactly why they were produced.

Same Flavor, Less Crunch, and Hopefully with the Same Amount of PUNCH!

No, I'm not talking about a breakfast cereal or snack chips.  I'm talking about Rolemaster Unified.

I downloaded the playtest PDFs of Character Law, and Spell Law, and so far I like what I'm reading.  RMU is not nearly as crunchy as RMSS ( Rolemaster Standard System. ), and is looking to be very playable.

I've been participating in the Official ICE Forums, and discussing the new version of Rolemaster in the playtest forums.  It's been interesting, and fun for the most part.

I'm hoping things don't get changed too much.  There's a lot of different ideas being put forth in the playtest forums, and some I don't like at all.  No levels?!?!?  Anyway, it's still early in the process, and I'm looking forward to seeing the final versions.  The Arms Law PDF hasn't been released yet, I guess it's still in beta playtesting.

One cool thing is that I managed to get the spreadsheet to work.  All I had to do was load it into OpenOffice, but now they have versions for both Excel and OpenOffice!  Man, does this make chargen easy in RM!  It's still being designed, but once it's finished it's going to be wonderous.  The trick is formating it, so a print out doesn't look too "junky".  I've been trying to work on that, but I've had very little success.

Anyway, I alway had a great time playing and running Rolemaster.  Hopefully, RMU will be good, if not a great game.

I'm also working on a spreadsheet for GURPS 4E.  My spreadsheet design skills are poor at best, and I've got a long way to go.  I know Steve Jackson Games has a program to do that, but I'm cheap.  Maybe I'll get it in the future, but for now, a spreadsheet will work just fine.

Rolemaster Unified

Once I read that Rolemaster was being "reworked" for publication I had to find out what was going on. So I went to the Iron Crown Enterprises website, and sure enough, a revised version of Rolemaster is coming out. ICE has also undergone a change in ownership.

Now I like the Rolemaster Standard System, but from what I've read so far, this new version looks good.

They're calling it Rolemaster Unified. Two of the core books are in public playtest, and you can download the PDF's. The two PDF's available are, Spell Law, and Character Law. There's also a Excel spreadsheet to help in creating characters, but since I can't use Excel, it doesn't do me any good. Oh well.

I've skimmed both, and plan on an in depth reading later this week. As I mentioned before, I like what I'm reading. Character creation is somewhat different, and gives two options for stats. You can generate the ten stats randomly, or spend points on them. It's been done both ways in past editions, but I like the option of picking which method. In RMSS you generated your stats by assigning points.  In earlier versions I believe it was always random. I plan on creating a character later this week in both RMSS and RMU and comparing the two rule sets.

It really looks like they are streamlining things somewhat, and this could be a good thing. RMU could be more "playable" than RMSS, and this is also a good thing!

One drawback to this "new" Rolemaster is that I'm spending far too much time in the Official ICE forums...

This was kind of a quickly written post, but I will have more on what was always one of my favorite RPG's later this week.