Character Creation

You will need:

1. pencil and paper
2. Rolemaster character sheet (optional)
   Page 1 general
   Page 2 skills
   you may need more than one page for skills particularly if you are planning to use secondary skills
3. Rolemaster Character Law
4. Rolemaster Arms Law
5. Rolemaster Spell Law
6. Percentile dice (d100, 2d10, or a dice app)
7. About an hour

Creating your character

I know this is a LOT. Like a lot and then a lot and then 3 more things. It looks worse than it should because the books are not in great order. Ask questions and take your time. and most importantly - CONCEPT trumps rules - I will bend over backwards to make a character concept work.

Name and Concept

Start with a name and character concept. Short thumbnail describing your character.

Arrival at Karibdis

How did you arrive at Karibdis (the town where your adventure will begin)

Motivation

Why did you decide to seek adventure in the world?

Wild rumor

What rumor have you heard about the world that you can hardly believe might be true?

Your character concept, how you arrived, motivation, and wild rumor will help me figure out what kind of world you want to play in - is it dark and gritty? low magic? high magic? is there an assassins guild? etc

Race

Pick a race from the race table or tell me what race you want to be. Rolemaster Character Law page 44. Your race will help determine any starting equipment your character might start with and set primary and secondary skills for development.

Note the Stat modifiers, RR modifiers, and dice type from table 04-01 on page 47. Also note that the stat order on this page is different from virtually every other table in the book.

Culture

Cultures are not in the Rolemaster Classic game instead it uses character background options and special abilities. If you want give a short description of where you grew up - was it a big city? a small town, a farm, a sailing ship?

We can work this into your background options and abilities. Your culture will help determine any starting equipment your character might start with and set primary and secondary skills for development.

Profession

Rolemaster Character Law page 37

There are 6 groups of professions:

1. Realm of Arms - primarily physical characters - non-spell casters.
   (If you pick a non spell caster you still pick a spell casting realm as even non spell casters can learn to cast spells.)
2. Realm of Essence - traditional fantasy magic users. Spells and spell books, etc.
3. Realm of Channeling - traditional fantasy clerics. Channelling power from a higher power.
4. Realm of Mentalism - traditional fantasy psionics. Magic based on mental abilities.
5. Hybrid spell users who combine two realms of magic.
6. Semi spell users who combine skill at arms and a realm of magic.

Each realm has 3-4 professions. I would advise against warrior monk as they are very complicated to play but if you want to play a martial artist we can make it work.

I will veto the use of the Healer class.

There are also many alternate professions in the various Rolemaster Companion books - particularly the Archmage who casts all three realms of magic. If you don't see a class that supports your concept take a look at the companion books.

Note your prime stats/ prime requisites from your profession!

Background Options

Rolemaster Character Law page 63

These options are special abilities that set you apart from everyone else. You can roll for them randomly, pick from the lists, or make up yor own (within reason). You will need to convince me that an item from the magic item list or extraordinary wealth list is appropriate.

I will be extremely generous for these abilities if they match your character concept. You will have a number of background options based on your race. The more bonuses your race has the fewer background options.

Stats

Rolemaster Character Law page 53
There are a few variations on stat generation. The simplest is:

1. Roll d100, re-rolling 19 and lower until you have 10 values.
2. You can take your two lowest rolls and replace them with 90 - if you do these two rolls must be put into your prime stats for your profession.
3. Roll d100, re-rolling 19 and lower and write it next to each previous roll.
4. If you replaced your two lowest rolls, if you roll less than 90 on the second roll mark 92 next to the 90 for your prime stats.
   rolling 00 and 0 is 100 not 0
   This will produce 10 pairs of numbers between 20 and 100, the lower number is your current value for the stat and the upper number is your potential value for the stat.

You can not get a starting start over 100. In the old generation methods you could easily get 99+ with specific races like Great and high men but to get a stating stat of 100 you would need to roll 100 natural for the first roll and 100 natural the second time. if that happens your start is 100 and your potential is 102.

I can not stress enough - you should take the 2 free 90 stats for your prime stats unless you have 96 plus rolls to put into them and even then I'd still recommend it.

Assign your stats to the 10 stats
Development stats (give bonus development points)
Constitution, Agility, Self Discipline, Memory, and Reasoning
Primary Stats
Strength, Quickness, Presence, Intuition, and Empathy

Development points

Rolemaster Character Law page 75
HOUSE RULE
Rather than have all development points from stats I want a flat rate plus bonuses. Start with 40 development points and then use table 07-02 to add bonus development points. subtract 5 from the number in the table - minimum of zero. This might lead to more min-maxing on stats but its simpler, the way the new versions of Rolemaster work and allows for someone to role play a character with truly horrific stats.

Skills

This is the heart of Rolemaster. These two charts will list the costs for buying a rank of a skill. The costs come in 4 types
X - Spend X development points and gain 1 rank. You can buy 1 rank each time you level up.
X/Y - Spend X development points and gain 1 rank. Spend Y development points and gain a second rank. You can buy 2 ranks each time you level up.
X/Y/Z - Spend X development points and gain 1 rank. Spend Y development points and gain a second rank. Spend Y development points and gain a third rank. You can buy 3 ranks each time you level up.
X/* - Spend X development points and gain 1 rank. Spend X development points and gain a second rank. You can buy unlimited ranks each time you level up.

Primary Skills
Rolemaster Character Law page 77
Weapon skills:
You have 6 weapon skills. 1HC (1 handed slash), 1HC (1 handed Crush or concussion), 2H (2 Handed), (M) Missile, T (Thrown), and (PA) Pole Arms and 6 weapon skill costs. You can assign them as you see fit. I will allow any swapping of these assignments until you hve spent points in the category. If you ever learn a 7th weapon skill it is set to the most most expensive cost.

Some skills like Riding and Directed Spells are marked with ** this indicates you can take the skill multiple times. For riding you tajke the skill Riding (horse) separate from Riding (camel) for Directed Spells you take the skill Directed Spell(Ice Bolt) and Directed Spell(Strike I).

Secondary Skills
Rolemaster Character Law page 96
Secondary skills are other skills that your character can also develop. You can spend up to 20 points on secondary skills when you level up. You can spend your primary skill development points on secondary skills but you can not spend secondary skill point on primary skills.

These next steps will form your character so take you time and ask questions if you have them.

Adolecent Skill developmnet

This represents your characters development up to about the age 12-14. There are some very loose rules. on how you can spend your development points and some advice as well.

1. Put at least 1 rank into perception! This is hte skill I roll against to see if you are surprised by the bad guys.
2. Put some ranks into Body Development - this is what raises your hit points!
3. If you plan to cast spells put points into Power Point Development - this raises the number of power points (1 power point = 1 level of spell cast)
4. Unless your background indicates otherwise you can only put ranks into 1 weapon skill, plus missile, plus thrown.
5. Unless your background says otherwise you can not put points into a spell list.

You should spend all your development points during adolescent Skill development. And While I will be generous about refunding and re-spending points you may lose some development points in process after the adolescent skill development phase due to stat modification rolls.

Spend your secondary skill points

Stat Gain Rolls

After you have your development points on primary skills and spend your secondary skill points you make your first stat gain rolls. This is kind of like raising your character from level 0 to level 1. The process will be repeated every time you go up a level and will have to be undone if you were to ever lose a level (it's an ugly process please don't ever lose a level )

Make a stat gain roll for each stat based on table 05-02. This reporesents how you have grown over time and it is possible for a stat to go down.
Rolemaster Character Law page 56

Once you have completed the stat gain rolls, recalculate your development points

Rolemaster Character Law page 75
HOUSE RULE
Rather than have all development points from stats I want a flat rate plus bonuses. Start with 40 development points and then use table 07-02 to add bonus development points. subtract 5 from the number in the table - minimum of zero.

Final Skill Development

And spend all your development points again this is the last few years before you start adventuring. This is where you can go wild - spend on all the weapons, development spell lists, etc etc. Again its a good idea to put points into Body Development, Power Point Development, and Perception. The limits from Adolescent Skill Development are removed.

Rolemaster is not a simple system
I will be extremely generous about refunding and re-spending development points for the first while as this is complex and new. You can also hold back some development points and spend them between sessions.