Rolemaster Fanzine 36
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Welcome to issue 36 of the RolemasterBlog Fanzine.
It is April 2020¸ and the fanzine is 3 years old.
On my desk¸ well not really on my desk but you know what I mean¸ I have three adventures written by three different authors that all want RMC/RM2 and RMFRP/RMSS stats and conversions.
This is not about a growing interest in Rolemaster¸ I wish that it was¸ it is the result of me running around like a devil and offering to do the conversions for no upfront costs. I take a royalty on each copy sold¸ knowing full well that we are only talking about a handful of copies.
It is not about the money¸ it is about having a constant stream of new adventures for people who do want to play Rolemaster.
This issue is of course being written in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. I am witnessing a massive shift towards VTT¸ virtual table tops¸ to allow groups to grow. I am not a VTT fan¸ but I do enjoy solo play. I am obviously not alone in this as my Rolemaster compatible solo rules HASP¸ High Adventure Solo Play¸ has seen a boost in sales through March. Just do what you need to do to get your Rolemaster fix as long as you stay safe.
By the time you read this Navigator RPG 1st Edition will be at the printers. Why you should care about this is because Navigator RPG puts nearly all the core Rolemaster mechanics under the Open Gaming License. Anyone can take anything I have created and make their own adventures¸ supplements and games from it. Navigator RPG essentially guarantees Rolemaster's core mechanics will be around forever.
In 2020 I will be taking Navigator RPG and making a Fantasy version. What Navigator RPG is to SpaceMaster¸ this new game will be to Rolemaster. The roadmap does not stop there either. I cannot put dates on them but a WWII game is lined up as is a Cthulhu mythos version. Ultimately I would like to see a GammaWorld style game and even a contemporary Vampire version. I cannot put timelines on these¸ it is going too far out into the future.
If the games are successful¸ which is a rather arbitrary concept in RPGs¸ I would like to put a team together to build and support the systems. I want to put the Rolemaster way into genres where we have never been before.
At the time of writing the ICE Forums are down again. This time they have been offline for 10 days. This is not good. In fact¸ I think it is worrying. Forum hosting is not brain surgery. If you cannot do it yourself there are a myriad of companies that will host a secure forum for you. All you have to do is pay.
But this seems beyond ICE.
I am slightly worried about the forums¸ as having no online presence in the build up to a major release is not good marketing. It is also rather disjointed in that ICE's twitter feed is still going on¸ retweeting loads of other people's stuff but not a mention of their own website being down.
I am starting to feel slightly let down by ICE. It feels like I care more about their survival than they do. I would not be in the slightest bit surprised if all of the regular forum contributors don't feel the same.
Well¸ that seemed a bit negative. I am not one to roll over and cry woe is me! The rolemasterblog is going to keep on carrying on. We have more contributors than ever and what is more I am trying to catch up with getting this fanzine in print on Amazon¸ a task I fell well behind with. Rolemaster will always have a home¸ even if ICE shuts its doors yet again!
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