Rolemaster

First Edition
Product: Arms Law (1st Edition)
Stock #: AL 1100
Producer: Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE)
Designers: Coleman Charlton, Pete Fenlon,
Kurt Fischer and Bruce Shelley.
Release date: 1980
Category: Rolemaster System
Format: Set in a plastic bag which contains
the Arms Law rules (Saddle-stapled softcover
booklet ANSI A, 26 pages), Charts for 30
weapons (30 heavy individual sheets of bluegrey paper ANSI A, print on one side only),
Maneuver Chart and Critical Stike Tables
(Five heavy individual sheets on yellow
paper ANSI A, double sided).
Comments: This first edition of ICEs Arms Law came in five different prints (three of them
confusingly being referred to as editions) between 1980-82, as the first the Rolemaster
Systems. The first printing (referred to as the First Edition) had 24 pages of text and
contained a blue and white cover, with a diagonally cut orange half sheet covering. It grew out
originally from being a set of house rules created by Coleman Charlton and Pete Fenlon when
they were playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) at collage, but eventually
developed into a unique and much more advanced game system. The lineage back to AD&D
are clearly traceable though. However, the influence from RuneQuest (D&Ds greatest
competitor) is also seen in the use of a percentile dice system, i.e. the use of two D10 dice to
generate results between 01-100. One of the innovations of Arms Law, and which later
became canon in Rolemaster (RM) and MERP, is the use of open-eded rolls, i.e. that results
higher than 95 gives the opportonity to make a series of repreated rolls wich pushes the result
above 100. The converse is also true, that particularly bad results generates a second roll to
create negative results. When resolving action, such as combat or maneuvers, a bonus is
added to the roll which represents the skill of the Player Character (PC). Each weapon (30 in
total) has its own resolution chart and the open-ended roll is indexed against the armor type
worn. The result is referenced on the chart which describes the damage done to the victim (or
the success of the maneuver). Certain high results generates critical hits, which requires a
second roll against a critical strike table which presents quite vivid and violent (and
sometimes amusing) effects which is described by the Gamemaster (GM).

The real genius of the combat system is that each weapon chart is divided into 20 columns,
one for each armor type ranging from bare skin to a full plate armor suit, classed into four
category bases, i.e. Soft Leather, Rigid Leather, Chain Mail and Plate. The design and realistic
game logics of these tables makes it easier to hit a heavy armored opponent while making it
more difficult to damage him. (See sample Weapons Chart for Broadsword and Critical
Strikes Table below; click for lager resolution.) This seemingly simple design betrays the fact
that the game system is quite comprehensive and requires a lot of time to handle in game play;
simple skirmishes can take hours to resolve if there are many characters involved when Arms
Law are handled by an inexperienced GM. Thus, the Arms Law is definitely not for beginners.