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Although I am sure I am in the minority, but has any other groups out there attempted to use the Rolemaster system (by Iron Crown Enterprises) with Pathfinder? For the last couple of months, our group has been experimenting with a Rolemaster campaign using Second Darkness, with the system heavily modified for both our play style and the setting, which we have started to call "Pathmaster". One of the players has even gotten inspired enough to create custom attack tables for the Pathfinder specific weapons which rival most of the published ones.
If there are other Rolemaster fans hiding out there, I would love the opportunity to share and trade idea and concepts.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the setting of Pathfinder, though I have never cared for either D&D 3.0, 3.5, or 4. The setting however is nearly identical to my vision of a fantasy world however, so I have been a faithful subscriber since before day 1. Rolemaster just ended up being a near perfect fit, after we briefly attempted to play D&D 4th edition.
Although I am sure I am in the minority, but has any other groups out there attempted to use the Rolemaster system (by Iron Crown Enterprises) with Pathfinder? For the last couple of months, our group has been experimenting with a Rolemaster campaign using Second Darkness, with the system heavily modified for both our play style and the setting, which we have started to call "Pathmaster". One of the players has even gotten inspired enough to create custom attack tables for the Pathfinder specific weapons which rival most of the published ones.
If there are other Rolemaster fans hiding out there, I would love the opportunity to share and trade idea and concepts.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the setting of Pathfinder, though I have never cared for either D&D 3.0, 3.5, or 4. The setting however is nearly identical to my vision of a fantasy world however, so I have been a faithful subscriber since before day 1. Rolemaster just ended up being a near perfect fit, after we briefly attempted to play D&D 4th edition.
I'm thinking about using pathfinder for our new RM campaign, but I fear that Midnight - or more likely MERP will be the "new" background. Are you planning on posting your conversions?
Interesting idea. Having run both D&D and Rolemaster I find the idea intriguing, but I'm not sure that it would work that well. The feel of the two systems is somewhat different and that will be difficult to work with. It isn't as bad as some crossover ideas, but definately tricky. Good luck with it and if you plan to keep a GM journal or your conversion rules I'd be interested to see them.
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The tricky part is designing the Traits in Rolemaster 2 to work as Feats do in D&D/Pathfinder and how many they get to start with and how often they get the bonus feats or other feats based on class.
Not to mention which classes to use; I have done some converting and when I get some free time I will post the very little I have maybe over time we can get a reasonable basic system to use.
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class conversions
Fighter = Fighter
Rogue = Thief (maybe Burglar from Companion 1)
Barbarian = Barbarian from Companion 1
Monk = Monk Semi spell user in Arcane
Cleric = Cleric with the extra base spell lists by faith
Druid = Druid from Companion 1
Ranger = Ranger Semi Spell
Paladin = Paladin from Companion 1
Bard = Bard semi Spell user Arcane
Sorcerer = Sorcerer
Wizard = Mystic seems to fit best
here is the issue though, if you leave it at this then you loose all but 1 Mentallist class which is the hybrid Mystic which honestly is fine for me and you limit the amount of healing that is done or able to be done which in a deadly game such as Rolemaster can cause quick end to an adventurers career
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PHB Race RM Race
Humans ........................................................... Common Men
Dwarves Dwarves
Elves.................................................................. High Elves
Gnomes Tall-fellow Halflings Companion 1
Half-Elves........................................................... Half-Elves
Half-Orcs Half-Orcs Companion 1
Halflings.............................................................. Halflings
Interesting idea. Having run both D&D and Rolemaster I find the idea intriguing, but I'm not sure that it would work that well. The feel of the two systems is somewhat different and that will be difficult to work with. It isn't as bad as some crossover ideas, but definately tricky. Good luck with it and if you plan to keep a GM journal or your conversion rules I'd be interested to see them.
I am currently playing in a RotRL game that the GM is using classic rolemaster and your right it doesn't feel the same at all. I'm run a lot of Paizo/Pathfinder material and rolemaster makes it play nothing like D&D does. Depending how you convert it it can make some of the already deadly AP ecounters much more deadly or much easier (Orik never hit us and was killed with a single critical).
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Admittedly I am a bit late on following up, but I figured it was such a fringe game that there was no interest. Happily, it appears I might have been wrong :)
My local group has actually been very successful with Rolemaster and Pathfinder, to the extent that we have been running thru the Second Darkness campaign path quite successfully. The group is just about to wrap up Children of the Void, and thus far, everyone is enjoying the campaign a great deal.
For us, a pseudo-Rolemaster ended up being the perfect solution. I have been diligently modifying a lot of the core mechanics and rules, and adjusting for both our group style and the Pathfinder setting, and we came up with what we affectionately refer to as "PathMaster" now.
The site is a bit of a mess right now, as I am adjusting things to fall in line with the Community Use policy, but if you are interested in one take on a Rolemaster/Pathfinder conversion, feel free to check it out at my PathMaster wiki site.
Comments or suggestions are certainly welcome, the overall project has been an exercise in group design anyway.
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feel free to check it out at my PathMaster wiki site.
Comments or suggestions are certainly welcome, the overall project has been an exercise in group design anyway.
I hate being away so long I miss stuff like this.
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Honestly a lot, not sure all off the top of my head. But several necro adventures and a few others but not sure off hand which ones. This was a few years back. It takes a bit of work, it is more or a art than science getting a feel for the conversion. Since RM is a D100 system and D20 is well a D20 the math is fairly simple for things like bonuses to hit etc. Armor you need to make a educated guess with and HP is fairly close to the same often.
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I use notebooks, so while yes somewhere I have conversion notes. Where I have no clue since I have moved since then. They are in a box somewhere but honestly not sure where. But I didn't take a ton of notes. Mostly I did things like.
Orc Str 16, +3 to hit, +2 dmg, AC 15, Long sword, Hp 9
and make it
Orc Str 80, + 25 to hit(since dmg and to hit is one roll in RM I combined them), AT 7 +25 def, long sword hp 9
it was rough but after doing it a few game sessions it got pretty easy to guess. Both games use a level system and the 5 times rule of thumb was often pretty close.
For less humaniod monsters it was a bit more work and magic aka spells was the hardest thing to convert.
I play in a bi-weekly RM2/C game. My GM uses stuff from D&D/D20 & even Pathfinder in his game. I like it alot. I'll check out your pathmaster wiki asap. I was working on a Eberron conversion but got sidetracked & may end up using a conversion from a member of the ICE boards instead.