Arms Law is a supplement published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1980 for the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster .
Arms Law is a supplement published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1980 for the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster .
Arms Law is a combat system initially designed for melee combat in fantasy role-playing games, utilizing only percentile dice. [1]
In summary, each character has an Offensive Bonus (OB), which takes into account one's natural physical adeptness, weapon skill, and other factors, and a Defensive Bonus (DB), which takes into account natural agility, the use of shields and "Adrenal Defense", the ability of martial artists to avoid blows seemingly without effort. In addition various modifiers for position, wounds, and other factors are present. An attacking combatant rolls percentile dice, adds his or her OB to the total, adds modifiers, and subtracts the defender's DB. The total is then applied to a table for the attacker's weapon. The attack total is cross-indexed with the type of armor (if any) worn by the defender and the result will be a number of concussion hits dealt, which are then subtracted from the defender's running total. If sufficient hits are dealt, the defender may go unconscious, but death seldom results purely from concussion hit damage.
In addition to concussion hits, however, a critical hit can be dealt by the result on the weapon table. These are described by type (slash, crush, puncture, etc.) and by severity (generally A through E, with E being the most severe). Critical Hits (or simply "crits"), can inflict additional concussion hits, bleeding (subtracted from concussion hits at the start of each new round), broken bones, loss of limbs or extremities, internal organ damage and outright death. If a crit is inflicted, a second roll is made on the appropriate critical table.
In the November 1980 edition of The Space Gamer (Issue No. 33), Jerry Epperson liked Arms Law, saying, "I recommend this book to anyone who likes to tinker with game systems." [1]
Eric Goldberg reviewed Arms Law in Ares Magazine #11 and commented that "Arms Law claims to be a step forward in the field of realistic medieval combat. It documents the differences of specific weapons versus specific types of armor, but there are enough minor errors to keep it well shy of perfection." [2]
In the August 1984 edition of Dragon (Issue #88), Arlen Walker had quibbles about Arms Law — combat was very fast and lethal due to the high amount of damage inflicted by a single blow, and he believed that new players used to other role-playing systems should be made aware of this. Walker also questioned why a character could not parry with a two-handed weapon, although he realized it was probably "a concession to speed of play." [3]
Eleven years later, in the September 1995 edition of Dragon (Issue 221), Rick Swan reviewed the updated 144-page Arms Law book that had been released in conjunction with the revised Rolemaster Standard System edition. Swan found the complexity of the Rolemaster system astounding, saying, "With its tidal wave of numbers, formulas, and tables, the Rolemaster game always struck me as the kind of fantasy RPG that calculus professors play on their day off." Swan found Arms Law to be "mainly a book of tables — more than 100 pages worth." He gave the book an average rating of 4 out of 6, and recommended it only for the mathematically inclined: "If you read computer manuals for fun, if you get misty-eyed thinking about your high school algebra class, if you wonder why your friends complain about something as trivial as filling out tax forms, then Rolemaster ought to be right up your alley. Arms Law is as good a place as any to begin your investigation." [4]
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting. It was created by Steve Jackson Games and first published in 1986 at a time when most such systems were story- or genre-specific.
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
Tunnels & Trolls is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessible alternative to Dungeons & Dragons and is suitable for solitaire, group, and play-by-mail gameplay.
Rolemaster is an extremely complex fantasy tabletop role-playing game published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1980. The game system has undergone several revisions and editions since then.
Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) is a 1984 tabletop role-playing game based on J. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit under license from Tolkien Enterprises. Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E.) published the game until they lost the license on 22 September 1999.
DragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that emphasized skills, allowing more individual customization and a wider range of options.
Top Secret is an espionage-themed tabletop role-playing game written by Merle M. Rasmussen and first published in 1980 by TSR, Inc.
Ares was an American science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a small science-fiction-themed board wargame.
The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a fantasy role-playing game published by Palladium Books in 1983.
Melee is a board wargame designed by Steve Jackson, and released in 1977 by Metagaming Concepts. In 2019, Melee was revived and re-released by Steve Jackson Games.
Player's Option: Combat & Tactics is a supplemental sourcebook to the core rules of the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. This 192-page book was published by TSR, Inc. in 1995. The book was designed by L. Richard Baker III and Skip Williams. Cover art is by Jeff Easley and interior art is by Doug Chaffee, Les Dorscheid, Larry Elmore, Ken and Charles Frank, Roger Loveless, Erik Olson, and Alan Pollack.
Hong Kong Action Theatre! is a martial arts role-playing game published by Event Horizon Productions in 1996. A revised edition was published by Guardians of Order in 2001.
Element Masters is a role-playing game published by Escape Ventures in 1983 that mixes elements of fantasy and science fiction.
Aliens Adventure Game is a combat-oriented role-playing game published by Leading Edge Games in 1991.
Claw Law is a supplement published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 1982 for the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster.
Spell Law is a role-playing game supplement first published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) in 1981 and written by Peter C. Fenlon, Jr., S. Coleman Charlton, and Terry K. Amthor, with Steven E. Moffat. It was originally published as a separate boxed set of four books, but was included in the initial 1984 release of the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster, and a separate third edition Spell Law book for Rolemaster was published in 1986 and a fourth edition book in 1989. Spell Law contains over 2,000 spells for role-playing game characters. It received mixed reviews in game periodicals including Ares, Different Worlds, The Space Gamer, and Dragon.
Arcane Companion is a fantasy role-playing game supplement published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) in 1995 for the Rolemaster system.
Character Law is a supplement published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) in 1982 for the fantasy role-playing game Rolemaster.
GateWar, a fantasy role-playing game published by Escape Ventures in 1994, is the retitled third edition of the role-playing game Element Masters.
Infinite Domains is a generic role-playing game system published by Infinite Concepts in 1996.