Rolemaster was my introduction to the world of TTRPGs and I played and GM'd it for years. I bought this PDF with the hope that I'd be able to show my players (who are accustomed to newer TTRPGs like D&D 5e, Lancer, Blades in the Dark to name a few) a new and updated version of the system and perhaps entice them to give it a try, but looking at the art I cannot imagine any one of them not being immediately turned off from the idea of playing a Rolemaster one-shot, let alone a full-on campaign.
I should perhaps have taken the cover art as a warning and stayed clear, which I imagine is what many potential buyers - especially those with no previous experience with Rolemaster - are doing. With so many TTRPGs out there, a system cannot sustain itself on nostalgia for long.
The system update itself seems fine enough. The book contains three of the Law books in one. Character Law, with plenty of options for creating interesting characters but in some cases downright terrible art. Arms Law, which looks like they wanted to keep the number of pages down and decided that the best way of achieving this was making the tables very small. I am glad to have the PDF, which allows zooming in, but am imagining that this will be a challenge to read properly if you get the printed book. Perhaps it would've been better to only have the Medium tables and give a formula for translating the result into a Small or Big attack. The critical tables should have been printed across two pages each, considering the amount of information in each cell. Lastly, Gamemaster Law includes helpful tips for homebrewing races and cultures, and provides what you need to handle extreme environments, injuries and death in-game.
All in all, I had hoped for something better, something which would do the system justice and help entice in new players.
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