While I am tempted to say that my, “Most often played RPG” was Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, or even the Fifth Edition – for I certainly played those game systems for about 5 years apiece – the truly most often played RPG was Rolemaster. Played almost daily from 1987 to 1989, and many times from around 1983 onwards.
My copy of the full boxed set dates from 1987 but I remember Rolemaster Arms Law 1e arriving to supplement our AD&D game just as we tipped over into High School in 1983. It wasn’t long before Rolemaster replaced D&D.
Everything changed when we arrived in Sixth Form, welcomed in two new players and a GM who played Rolemaster 2e exclusively. This was the game that gave me my most memorable character, Goriel, who defeated the “demonic” Balrog of Moria during our 24-hour charity session.
Rolemaster was the game that I remember spending countless hours alone with, rolling up and building characters to populate my own fantasy realm. It was a large part of the inspiration for Mykovnia and my move towards wanting to be GM.
Rolemaster holds a special place in my heart. As much as I want to enjoy the latest “Unified” edition, my mind always drifts back to those old books and the desire to play with them once more.
We never found the combat charts onerous, nor the character sheet too heavy-laden. Our games had high-pace and heroic action aplenty. The criticisms so often made were not my experience at the table. We simply had a great time!
Ah, Rolemaster. You are the game I have played most often in my 45+ years of roleplay.
Game on!
Roleplay Rescue’s Blog 
I really wanted to like RM, or even MERP, but it was just too much – even for my young brain. OTOH, 1e AD&D is easily the game I’ve played the most, 1979 through this past week. Whatever floats your boat!
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I started re-reading it today and I am not sure I would still enjoy RM the way I did in 1989. We played RMSS briefly in 1998 and then moved to AD&D2e until 2000 when D&D3e took over. Nowadays, I prefer GURPS for the balance of flexibility and ease-of-play. If it was D&D, I would probably choose 2e now. We change over time… 😉
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Nerver played Rolemaster or MERP (GIRSA here in Italy), it wasn’t appreciated in my early rpg group.
In the past few years I have discovered Against the Darkmaster, a “love letter” to MERP. I had a blast, deep character creation in term of background and lore that also has a reflection in the rule and a unified sistem that permit a very fluid game experience (if you are well organised since you will roll on a lot of table). Anyway it became one of my favorite game, head to head with Mythras.
That is I would like to read RM, because I’m curious to dig in the origin of VsD. Do you have a suggestion about which version of RM should I check?
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If you want the roots of RM, grab Rolemaster Classic from Iron Crown.
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