Rolemaster RPG (working title)

Rolemaster RPG: a die-roll based RPG system on a cooperation focused map

I haven't come up with a good title yet, as I'm still very early in development.

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First a little background for those who have never played a real RPG: The basic concept is that you roll a dice, add a number based on your characters skill at performing the chosen task and then get a result that determines if the action was successful. Of course there is a lot more to a RPG than that, but that is the basics of how you resolve actions in the traditional way.

I've started working on a WC3 adaptation of my preferred RPG system, Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing (or RMFRP) by Iron Crown Enterprises. Around this system I (and anyone who lends me a hand) will build a decently sized map, aiming for about 2 hours total playtime.

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The idea is to have two tiers, the first one being possible to play single player or as a team while the second tier being focused on player versus player combat where two asymmetric teams face off in a large clash between the two major factions.

There will be the Dark Angels, 4-5 players who are able to choose between unique (as in only one exists and can be picked of each) heroes with special advantages that make them stronger than an individual hero from the opposing force. Shapeshifting, regeneration, etc. They will work for decidedly evil goals.

The other force remains unnamed for now, simply because I haven't written any back story for them yet. They will outnumber the Dark Angels, 6-8 players, and they will choose among "generic" heroes that can be picked multiple times. They work for good or neutral goals, but they have to defeat the Dark Angels in order to survive.

There might also be a lone player, playing as a bounty hunter or mercenary of sorts, although I haven't planned much for that role (it will be a role filled by one of the players on the good/neutral force).

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The melee system is what I've mainly focused on developing. Your hero will have an Offensive Bonus and an Defensive Bonus, as well as an Armor Type and of course a weapon. The OB is his strength stat, along with a bonus he can increase as he levels and of course bonuses from equipment and spells. Other factors can also add OB bonuses: attacking from the rear, attacking a stunned opponent, etc.

DB is the direct opposite of OB. It is based on agility but receives no bonus as you level (except more agility of course), instead you can choose to transfer OB to DB as a parry bonus against one attacker. Other bonuses to DB includes: shields, spells, superior armor, etc. Armor type is a simple reference number to tell you which column to read attack results from.

The melee attack is resolved by taking the attackers OB, subtracting the DB and then checking the total sum of the attack against the column of the AT on the weapon table of the specific weapon used.

Heavier armor is easier to hit for a few hits worth of damage so wearing a heavy armor is not recommended if you don't have a high hits total, but it's much harder to get a high crit result against heavy armor. It's harder to hit someone wearing something light, but if you do hit it will hurt a lot more and cause bigger crits so you really want to have a high DB if you're going with light armor.

Crits are not simply a damage modifier that happens a certain % of times, crits have their own tables and cause not just extra hits but can also have added effects such as bleeding wounds, stun rounds (not stun like WC3, think a slowing effect but you can't attack during it) and other penalizing effects. Here are two examples of crits:

A critical hit with a krush weapon.


A critical hit with a slashing weapon.


Ranged combat system will work the same way with some few minor adjustments (this includes certain types of spells as well).

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So far, it's still on the drawing board as I just started coding on this project a week or so ago. There's no fancy pictures or screenshots to show off yet but that will of course change as the project progresses. I'm open to ideas and if anyone would like to contribute you can post here, PM me or email me at the gmail.com address trikken.