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The party and myself (a half-elven bard, with a reputation for killing a pitchfork wielding stable boy and an old man, and with a penchant for avoiding damage while the rest of the party was injured) were just returning from a mission to slay an ancient vampire queen. We had faced many dangers, some above our abilities as mere 3rd level adventurers, but we had come away victorious. As you might imagine, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves and were confident in our abilities.
So as we are walking through a rather rough town, known as Bartertown, to dispose of some of our loot and get some much needed rest and relaxation, one of the party makes an incredible Alertness roll (I believe 'twas me, but I am not one to be arrogant, so....) and 'notices' a large group of ruffians hiding around the corner of the next building.
Needless to say, the party stopped to deliberate upon what to do. One member said, "wait here" before going invisible - we assumed to begin the attack. So the rest of the party prepared to pounce on our unsuspecting assaulters when we heard 'the signal'. (Not that anyone had mentioned anything about a 'signal', but we figured we'd know what 'the signal' was once we heard or saw it.)
I had come across some glass orbs while exploring the vampire queen's ancient tomb, but the only time I had used one, nothing happened, so I still did not know what they did. However, I figured they must do something exciting, so I grabbed one from it's sack and prepared to throw it into the group of ruffians once I heard 'the signal'.
It didn't take long before I heard one of the ruffians yelp. The party rushed around the corner and saw at least a dozen thugs, looking rather surprised, with weapons drawn, wondering how in the world we ever knew they were there. Initiative was rolled, and I was lucky enough to have the highest (probably didn't hurt that I was a half-elf), so I went first.
I threw the ball of glass in my hand at the thug I determined to be in the most central location in relation to his fellows and rolled. It wasn't hard to get the orb to break more-or-less where I wanted, and again luck was on my side and I rolled well, so if there was to be some effect upon the hapless brutes, it was going to be good. So the GM describes the scene as a great ball of blue light erupts from where the orb had just shattered and a wave of cold air could be felt.
The ruffians, however, felt much more than just cold air. "Roll your critical", the GM tells me. A '98' showed on the dice, which was quite devastating to our would-be attackers, considering it was on the 'E' column. I believe most of the ruffians fell to the ground, one entire side shattering into many frozen pieces from the effects of the spell embedded with the orb. Any remaining thugs were quickly dispatched by my compatriots as we had gotten the drop on them.
Still, the rest of the players groaned as they realized that I would be getting experience points for each rogue I had killed and I think I gained a level that very moment. A great Rolemaster moment, indeed!
When our party was skirmishing through some woods they encountered the horrible sight of some petrified animals and persons. Some time later they came across a Medusa and had to face it. Knowing that a look at the Medusa would petrify them too, they used skills like blind fighting, hiding, and items like small handheld mirrors to fight it. Our greatest fighter however was not so lucky, because he and his priced two-handed sword had to get close to the monster and lacking Blind Fighting he relied on his Resistance versus magic and…failed badly. He looked at the Medusa and it looked at him and he failed his RR and was turned into stone. I do not know how you handle this, but in our group the item were not changed with the character so that a fully equipped stone figure was standing there in the middle of the clearing where we had encountered the Medusa. The beast was finished off just one round later by our master bowman (you never know when you might need Ki Powers).
Well, we knew that a Medusa's look would turn you into stone, but unfortunately we assumed it would be permanent. So, not being able to return the warrior to his flesh form and not really wanting to carry him the long way to the next town, we stripped him naked and left. (The GM told us afterwards that the warrior was to return to his normal state after a month! I think we were really lucky that he never found us!!!!)
I was playing a 16th level Paladin of Death, which in the campaign world we were playing in was quite acceptable considering the emperor was a necromancer!! I was playing with an equally leveled group of about 6 players, one of whom was playing a dark elf...Unfortunately for him, he was a rebel and had the majority of the dark elf race hunting him down, which eventually saw him die only to be brought back as a vampire by me...
The next leg of the campaign involved enlisting a powerful mage to the newly formed empire who so far had remained neutral in the affair, and as his domain was of strategic value I (and my retinue, as I was a Duke of the realm) set forth and met with the man in an effort to sway him to our cause, but he proclaimed he wished to think on the matter and retired. No sooner had he done this, did he seize control of the vampire I had created and ordered him to kill the party of pc's!
I warned the others that he was coming, and we were well prepared to fight him, although he was very powerful, being a 16th level magent vampire! We still beat him quite thoroughly in the first two combat rounds and he escaped by using mist form. The wall he went through however had an invisible door on it which led to the secret part of the wizards castle, so once we had figured it out, we stepped through only to be separated and placed into individual rooms, each with a tough monster to slay. The vampire however, had stepped into a room with an allied titan, who served the mage, and they quickly formed an alliance.
The GM rolled randomly to see where we would end up, and I ended up in the room with the vampire and the titan! Great!! Luckily, We had all prepared with various defensive packages, including bladeturns etc, so I quite happily hoisted my shield and bastard sword and got stuck in. To my luck and surprise, the chap playing the vampire was relatively new to Rolemaster, so for the two first combat rounds he was firing off absolutions at me, but I had increased my channeling RR by 50 with a spell so was unaffected, which gave me time to fight the titan. Unfortunately, it was like a fly hitting an elephant, and I barely did anything, while in two combat rounds I was reduced to under 80 hits, and then the vampire attacked as well...
I went on immediate full parry, whilst casting more defensive magics, but the vampire was attacking 4 times a round due to adrenal speed, and the titan was hitting with triple concussion-- I knew I was in big trouble.
However, the god of death smiled on her champion that day, and the next round the titan fumbled and spent the next two rounds trying to regain control of his weapon. On the next attack by the vampire, he did exactly the same thing with one of his swords, which only left him one attack which missed due to my bladeturns now being active and I attacked the titan with two attacks due to adrenal speed. The first attack did nothing. The second attack killed him with a sword strike that went through his armpit and skewered his brain, I then turned to the vampire who still only had one sword and prepared for the next round.
The next round, I had put retaliation as part of my defensive package, and the vampire was the only one to get a crit on me so far (the titans blows knocked me due to concussion) so he got equal severity holy crits, so with shield bash, sword and adrenal speed he got eight crits and once again had to flee for his life, leaving me victorious against two considerably more powerful characters.
My hands were shaking from the ten minute fight so much that I could barely pick up my dice! Only in Rolemaster could you have a moment like that!
Here's my RM moment, from 2nd edition (I think) RM, with my first Rolemaster character ever.
We're troll hunting and we've tracked and sighted mountain trolls in the vicinity of this cave. We position ourselves around the cave entrance. I am a warrior monk with my kata in 2 handed sword (GM lemme do it). The rogue and I hid quite well.
I had "borrowed" another character's +20 2 handed sword — a trollslaying weapon for this ambush.
We hear a troll coming, so I attempt adrenal move: speed for 2 surprise swings on him, and I make it.
Next round, GM: Spell....Missile (someone is opportunity missile)...Movement "You hear heavy footsteps, lots of them, approaching from within the darkness of the cave..."
1st troll comes out, <MELEE> I swing! I roll 99, I've maxed I know, but I'm new to this game, so I want to see how high I can get. I follow the 99 with a 98, and then a 100, by the time I stop rolling, my total attack roll is a 525.
GM says roll your slaying crit, I roll a 12. Hmmm... Ok, my 2nd swing: 87! I max on him again!. My 2nd slaying crit: 8. SHIT!
My party does about average attacking a 2nd troll that followed mine, no one goes at mine since it was assumed I would kill the bastard with 2 slaying crits.
My troll's turn, I'm in AT1 (stupid me, had to play a monk), he swings at me with his giant mattock, maxes, GM rolls 98 crushes my skull on an E crush.
I get to watch the rest of the battle in silence. I was saved because we had a true healer who was allowed to buy life mastery. Lucky for me.
Towards the end of the combat, I felt a little better when I our mage's spine was severed for the 3rd time in that particular campaign (we were about 10th).
Sadly, I have about 25 stories like this, as I am the un-luckiest player in our group. Someone once calculated my rolls over a combat, on 1-100 dice, I rolled 17% in a 12 round combat. I traded dice often, and my luck still hasn't changed. When I run rolemaster however, I roll enough to work out those bad ones and get some beautiful lucky kills on my players.
That's my 1st "rolemaster moment" ever. Hope someone gets a laugh,
most of my fellow players at the time did. =)
Boy do I have an experience for you. I won't describe it as my 'favorite', but I think you'll agree that it's sufficiently memorable to qualify as legendary.
We were playing SpaceMaster in a Star Wars Universe, approximately 20 years pre movie #1 (The Original Star Wars). Our group had been set the task of performing bodyguard duty for a visiting dignitary on Hyperion. You may remember from some of the SpaceMaster supplements that Hyperion is a criminal world where all manner of lawlessness goes on.
To add amusement value to the tale, our group of characters/players was in the last stages of a meltdown. The character who's party role was that of ship captain had systematically antagonized everyone else in the group to the point where his wife's character was conspiring with the rest of the group to turn him into reactor shielding.
With that set as the stage, we now turn to the situation as it prevailed just prior to the events I'm about to relate. We had obtained two convertibles and what amounted to an armored limousine, with which to convey the dignitary from the spaceport to his hotel, and had proceeded to the spaceport without incident. The dignitary entered the limo, and the lead convertible and the limo pulled out.
We now focus on actions taking place in the trailing convertible. I was running two armsmen. One of them was in the drivers seat, and the other was in the back. Our imperious leader, whom I described previously, was in the front passenger seat. As you may remember, in SpaceMaster, it's not necessary to have an appropriate skill if your stats are good enough. Since the group only had two people who'd taken the driving skill, those two were in the first two cars. That left me and the captain in the rear convertible. We had +4% and +5% driving modifiers respectively. Normally, since simple driving is easy, there are additional bonuses, and even fairly lousy rolls have no real consequences as long as the circumstances aren't particularly dire.
So I go to start the car up to follow the limo, and I blow the driving roll with a small negative open-end. At this point the captain demands that I let him drive. As I have no real objection, we switch seats. He then starts off down the road. At that point we were no more than a couple of miles from the hotel, and it was pretty much a straight shot down the road. The GM was only going to have him make a couple more driving rolls to get to the hotel, but he blows the next one with a somewhat larger negative open-end than I'd rolled previously. The GM rules that the accelerator has stuck. At this point I make a small tactical error. My character in the back seat decides enough is enough, and bails out with his jetpack. Unfortunately, it also reminds the captain that he also has one on. He bails out as well.
At this point it takes me a couple of seconds to realize just how hosed I am, and it only goes downhill from here. I hop over to the drivers seat, and try the brakes. Big negative open-end... The brake pedal goes to the floor; no effect. For my next trick, I try the parking brake. Another big negative open-end. Are you following the theme here? This time the GM, after observing the roll dumbfounded, rules that I didn't find the proper lever for the parking brake, and I've just reclined the drivers seat... OK; Deep breath, and try again. This time the roll's below negative 110. After retrieving my dice from across the room, the GM rules that this time I pulled the right lever, but neglected to push the button on top. The lever itself doesn't move, but my character instantly acquires a hernia. Third time's the charm, right? I make yet another try at the offending brake lever, and manage, somehow, to roll even lower than before. I yank the lever from the floorboards, and do damage to myself in the process.
Mind you, all this time the car's still been accelerating. I had, to start with, a two mile straight-away in front of me, and then the street hairpins to the left, and behind the hairpin is the hotel. Behind the hotel is a cliff and the ocean... At this point I have about a half mile to the hairpin remaining, and the car is up to 80 mph. The evil gods of chance aren't done with me either. I can't make a positive roll to save my characters life. On subsequent attempts I break off the ignition key, and then drop the transmission out in the street when I attempt to put the car in park. At least I'm no longer accelerating, but the car is up to 90 mph, and the engine has thrown rods up through the hood. I couldn't see where I was going even if I'd been able to sit up with my hernia, because engine oil has coated the windshield. OK, it can't get any worse than this, right? I've blown so many rolls, so spectacularly, that I'm due to make a fabulous save, right?
Wrong.
I make one final try. My character, having pretty much nothing else left to lose, figures that, just maybe, if he twists the wheel really fast, in just the right direction, that maybe the car will spin out, and the ambulance will only have to make one trip for the body. I, as the player, figure that if I can only roll 96 or better on the FIRST roll, the rest will take care of themselves. So I make the attempt. I'm then faced with my worst set of rolls of the entire night. I actually went all the way off the bottom of the charts. And that's BEFORE all the negative modifiers for the ridiculous/impossible feat I was attempting. The convertible actually stands on end, and then does cartwheels down the last hundred yards or so of street before smashing through the hotel wall, and landing upside down in the lobby. My character flies from the center of the last couple of cartwheels, and lands draped over the 4th floor balcony of one of the hotel's rooms. The GM rules that I take one crit of each severity on the crush/impact table.
Here's where we add insult to injury. As I'm lying there, my life dripping away, every bone in my body broken, the room's occupant comes out to the balcony. This is Hyperion, remember? Planet of lawless what-have-yous? He takes one look ay my broken body, utters the word "Yuck!", and flips me over the railing. I then plummet 35 feet to land on a concrete surface with a wet splatting sound.
Then our team's medic runs over from the lobby and administers a metabolic freezing injection. This, amazingly enough, actually prevents me from shuffling off this mortal coil, and an ambulance crew is summoned. They blot me up and wring me out into a bottle at the local hospital, and a month later I'm good as new, physically anyway.
How's that for a near death experience? It's actually my best SpaceMaster story, though the captains demise probably rates honorable mention.
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