It has been over a year since the last time I have done any sort of Revision Musings. The last time, I did them on the ICE forums, and even with disclaimers, many folks thought that I was talking about doing something right then and there. So, on the advice of Nick Caldwell, I archived those discussions.
However, I still want to talk and hash things out, at least in my own mind. So, I am going to take my last set of Musings, from last year, and update them with any new thoughts that I have had and post them as a series of individual entries. We will start with an overview…
Overview
I will start off with an overview of some of the things that I feel are directing certain aspects of this future revision, at least for me.
As I said in my last Musing, ICE needs to take a toolkit approach to the revision. Have the core books be a Toolkit, and Also producing a House Rules style product which gives the rules that ICE is using in all products. ICE is already taking steps in this direction with the RM Classic books (toolkit), Rolemaster Express (House Rules), and RM Cyradon (House Rules + Setting). It isn’t perfect because RMFRP hasn’t been folded into the mix yet, but it is a start.
Anyways….
Every sub-system/section of the game would have to have its own set of creation rules and guidelines, even if they were never released to the public. And there would be an internal consistency between all of the various sub-systems (profession creation, spell creation, talent creation, etc..) so that extending your game through customization of one of the sub-systems would not cause serious imbalances so long as the guidelines are followed. These sub-systems would appear in later supplements (or perhaps all gathered in a single supplement – a GM’s Guide of sorts), not in the core rulebook(s).
A couple of things that really drive me in the creation of any rules is the following:
- Balance – I strongly believe that the system should be well balanced overall. If a GM wants to adjust things, as long as he stays within the guidelines provided then he should not have to worry about whether or not the results are balanced against the core material. If the GM wants to take things out of the balanced zone, that is entirely up to him, and having a balanced set of core rules aids him in that he has a well defined starting point.It is much easier to purposely unbalance something that starts off balanced, than it is to take unbalanced rules and try to balance them. The RMC Team has discovered this time and again as they worked on the various RMC projects.
- Flexibility – I am a strong believer in flaxibility, both for the player and the GM. For the player, this means having the opportunity to make selections that customize the character to the concepts that they want to play, within reason. By “within reason”, I mean that a player cannot create an uber-character while the other players create normal ones. It goes back to that “balance” thing I was talking about before. For the GM, flexibility means being able to easily adjust the system to whatever campaign setting he is using, without having to worry about play balance being thrown out of whack.It also means being able to arbitrate the rules in an easy manner. No need for rules-by-exception, because the rules are flexible enough that there are not any real exceptions. This also incldes being able to adjudicate situations that are not covered specifically by the rules, because the rules themselves are flexible enough and robust enough to handle resolving unsual situations without problem.
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