I'm going to have to look over my character a lot. I feel pretty weak sauce in the game. I do not have the highest DB or OB in the group with my favored weapons, I am always stumbling around in my chain armor, etc. Heck, I can't even do the things I'm supposed to do as a Ranger best it seems. I really don't seem to have a clear cut purpose in the party. I'm a Ranger that doesn't do much Ranger-like things because our Elven Scout does them instead. I feel like a second rate Warrior.

My attitude toward my character improved somewhat after my performance in the battle, lol.

A lot of things in MERP depend on the roll of the dice and how the party works together (planning,position in combat, what weapons you use etc). Since combat is very deadly, it helps to be prepared or the like.

Remember the following when leveling your characters, guys:

Under Advancing a Level on page 41, it specifically states that spending DPs when going up a level are identical to spending them for Apprenticeship Development (page 90).

On page 90, it says 3 specific things regarding spending DPs on skills
1 Development Point equals 1 rank in a single skill
3 development points equals 2 ranks in a single skill
No more than 2 ranks allowed per skill each level

Page 91 gives the rules for shifting DPs from one category to another (of course, there are exceptions to this, such as for Perception, for which the shift is always 1 to 1).
If shifting DPs to a category that normally has 0 ranks, it takes 4 DPs shifted (from any category or combination of categories), to give 1 DP in the category that they are shifted to.
If shifting DPs to a category that receives 1 or more DPs each level, then it only takes 2 DPs shifted into that category to give 1 DP for spending.


So you can only increase a skill by 2 ranks in any category no matter how you do it, either by dumping 3 DPs directly into it or 2 DPs into directly and then one more DP into by transferring DPs as well.

All is correct save for the ranking limit. That is only for the build at the character creation.

A skill rank can only be increased 2 ranks during Aprenticeship.

Though the other rules still remain such as dp cost, dp transfer, and the likes.

That is what I said....in effect you can only increase any skill rank by 2. When you level up it is essentially EXACTLY the same as Apprenticeship allocation so you are limited by how much you can increase a skill rank by just like you are at Apprenticeship. You may only increase a skill by 2 ranks max. I am not sure if Perception is also subject to this 2 rank limit. I'm assuming MM skills are.

A couple of rules suggestions I wanted to make for us to apply to our game:

Attribute increases: I've noticed in looking through the MERP 2e material that many of the important NPC writeups for the setting have attributes that are really high. I understand that many are very, very high level, like Legolas at the end of RotK is like lvl 28. However, there are also stats for him at the begging of TFotR and he is lvl 8 there and still have VERY impressive attribute ratings. Though for PCs, I see no real way to increase your attributes at all. Even when you level up, it gives you no option for increasing your traits. I know magic items can buff your stats somewhat, but usually to a very small degree and gaining these items is rare. I'd like to propose we implement the Stat Gains Rolls system that Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplay employs, listed under Character Advancement, on pg 37. In this system you roll everytime you level to see if your stats increase or decrease at all. I'd vote we ignore results that have you getting a decrease in an attribute and just say no change if you get that kind of a result.

What do you all think?

In addition, I was thinking about how much I love the game and the depths at which it covers the source material but the one thing I feel is somewhat lacking is a sense of cinematic action. Imagine some of the spectacular feats Legolas pulled off in the movies occasionally and you can see what I'm getting at. Being able to pull these stunts off though should have its limits. This is a houserule that was suggested to me on a forum and I have added my own take onto it a tad. It borrows a bit from the FATE system.

Every PC starts a game session with 3 Fate Points.

A Fate Point may be spent to:
- Add a +50 bonus to a Maneuver or Attack roll if declared before the dice are rolled
- Add a +25 bonus to a Maneuver or Attack roll if declared after the dice are rolled
- Add +25 to DB against one attack
- Save you from an instant death crit table result, instead placing you in a coma for 1d10 hours

Fate Points may not be spent on Resistance Rolls.
No more than 2 FP may be spent on any one roll.
(Note that this heavily favors action and offense over defense. This is intentional as I want to encourage heroic action and attempting wild stunts rather than turtling.)

You gain 1 FP by performing heroic deeds and acting with valor. You can keep doing this until you're up to your full allotment of 3 FP. You may never hold more than 3 Fate Points at a time and they do not carry over from session to session. Each session you begin anew with your allotted 3 Fate Points. When spending Fate Points on a wild maneuver or attack you should describe the cinematic action you perform vividly and with flare. Villain NPCs do NOT have Fate Points, except for important main villain NPCs, at the GM's discretion. So an average orc would never have Fate Points but the Witch King of Angmar likely would.



What do you all think of these 2 rules proposals?

yeah, you bring up fate points now after the fact. Save from a crit death....thank you there Stabs lol.

On a more serious note, I like the idea of the fate points. With the &*$) rolls we get, we need something. Can't run for bad rolls, can't really take on a warg either.

I am up in the air on stat gains. Whatever everybody else would want, I would agree to.

Attribute increases are part of Rolemaster so I propose we use them too.

For the game I intend to GM for my local players I decided I wanted them to be on an epic quest of grave importance and to feel like they were their own fellowship in a way. I am thinking of running the Palantir Quest campaign of adventures for them, described here: http://www.icewebring.com/ICE_Products/M2/M2_2009_Palantir_Quest.php.

What do you all think?


In addition, I went out and created an internet radio station I will use when we play where you can simply go to the URL and listen to Middle Earth inspired music that will serve as a soundtrack of sorts for our adventures in Middle Earth. The URL to listen when it is up is http://listen2myradio.com/. Once there you can simply click on the gray play button to begin listening. If there is ever a bit of silence it might be because I'm temporarily afk and need to load a new track, but this should not happen often. If it goes silent for an extended period of time during a game just let me know please in OOC chat. I will try to play appropriate music to the situation at hand in-game. The music is a few minutes behind what is actually playing on my main computer due to the streaming nature of it but it should work well overall. I hope you will all enjoy it.