I wasn’t going post but… I have been thinking about Rolemaster again and, well, I’m not really sure why. The last time I seriously gave the game a go I found myself bouncing off the latest edition in a way that I didn’t expect… but I feel like I should give it a second look.

I began playing Rolemaster back in the early and mid 1980s when my friends switched over from D&D, Traveller, and Star Frontiers. I’ve played every edition of the game and I was drawn to take part in the Rolemaster Unified playtest back when it started.

To be honest, I enjoyed Rolemaster Unified in playtest and we ran the game for many months until the playtest ended. After a multi-year wait, the final product is pretty cool… but I could not get myself back into it in March.

Perhaps my tastes have changed but I am not sure that is accurate: I still love a deep set of rules for fantasy, I am a simulationist, and I still love the spell lists and critical tables. I suspect that part of the problem has been the sheer scale of the Core Rules tome.

It also doesn’t help that the full Rolemaster rules are not yet published: Spell Law is out but there’s no Treasure Law or Monster Law (yet). Perhaps it’s going to be easier when you have all the tools to build even the most basic scenario.

But I am intrigued. I want to read it and play around with it. Which is typical… I never seem to be able to settle down in my hobby.

Game on!