Rolemaster™

Middle-Earth Role Playing Game™

We would like to pay tribute to this wonderful Roleplaying Game that is MERP (acronym for Middle-Earth RolePlaying game) which codified in rules one of the most famous heroic-fantasy trilogy of the world : The Lord of the Ring. With the production of Peter Jackson's films, Hexagonal Company; holder of the  copyright, lost it and went bankrupt. We lost also the 100-sided dices system connected to this RPG which was very interesting. The main goal for adventurers is to evolve in the Middle-Earth. Accessible classes were Warrior, Wizard, Ranger, Scout, Priest and Thief.  Rolemaster generalized the system and introduced the  Clerk, the Monk, the Sorcerer ans many others. The rules system was based upon a 100-sided dice and the Player had to add the bonus of it's Character in the requested skill. Magic was divided in Spell Lists according to the level of the Character. During a fight, if the result of a player exceeded a defined limit, the Player had a Critical Hit which may kill or invalidate the opponent. Experience allow the Character to progress by levels, each level providing the Character to distribute points in specified Character's Skills.

Our Opinion

Advantages :

The Character classes were relatively flexible, allowing a Warrior to conceal or a Wizard to use a sword even if they weren't very efficient at it.  The rich and well defined world allows the Character to dive completely into the world. The experience system let the Player feel clearly the progression of it's Character but, with the Critical Hit System, two different levelled Characters can fight and the end of the fight wasn't inevitably obvious.

Defects :

We can also criticize the Level System because it's illogical. This system means that suddenly, a Character becomes more powerful. Increasing characteristics was impossible and it can involve a great difference of skills at the end, favouring the slaughter of weak Characters to allow the player to roll a better one. The fixed world of  J.R.R. Tolkien neutralized the true epic adventures like Lord of the Ring and the common error of the Game Masters was to avoïd the story connected to the books. As a consequence, Player Characters were relegated to the rank of drudges.  Rolemaster was so complete that the Game Master may define a malus due to sweat in metal gloves (may be too precise!). Let's conclude with the level of the novel's heroes which was absurd since Frodo, as he was leaving Bag-End, was more powerful than a fifteen-years experienced Character while he had never done anything !