What is the goal of a revision?

As with anything, especially when I am the one considering it, there are usually several reasons for doing it. I sometimes even have reasons that I don’t know about or fully understand until I try to explain my thought processes to somebody else.

For this first musing, I figure that I would try to explain why ICE needs to do a revision at some point within a few years.

Consolidation

Currently, ICE has 2 fantasy roleplaying games, 3 if you count HARP into the mix as well. And quite frankly, that is just too much to support. We need less different systems to support, not more.

Add to this, the fact that the last revision (to RMSS) cost ICE a large chunk of its fan-base, without replacing it with an equal or greater number of new fans/customers, and that gave us a recipe for disaster.

We currently have 2 separate fan-bases for Rolemaster, without any way to really bring them together.

Compatibility

While it is true that both versions of Rolemaster, and even HARP, use the same basic rules, each uses a different implementation of those rules. This makes it more difficult to produce products for several reasons.

• First off, if we do a book only for one system, it makes us feel like we are cheating those who play the other systems.
• And if we do the same book for each system, it makes us feel like we are cheating the customers by foisting the same thing on them multiple times.
• And doing any type of products, other than adventures, in a multiple system forum is enough to drive use insane, especially since there are enough differences in the system to make them somewhat incompatible with one another, so this means little content and lots of repetition.

Renewal

Over the course of time, we also explore new options and rules, things that make the game better. However, they are still nothing more than options. This means that every once in a while, we need to re-evaluate all of the rules and see which ones are working, and which need some updating. What new rules need to be added and/or what options need to become core rules, and so forth.

Goal

My goals for a revision are actually quite simple..

1. Consolidate the fan-bases into a single fan-base.
2. Produce a single game for ICE to support.
3. Make sure that the revision is flexible enough to handle a variety of needs through the adoption of various options.

That is enough for now…. I’ll save my ideas on how to accomplish this for another musing post.