If a crit is inflicted, a second roll is made on the appropriate critical table. 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. These are described by type (slash, crush, puncture, etc.) and by severity (generally A through E, with E being the most severe). In addition to concussion hits, however, a critical hit can be dealt by the result on the weapon table. If sufficient hits are dealt, the defender may go unconscious, but death seldom results purely from concussion hit damage. 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. The total is then applied to a table for the attacker's weapon. In addition various modifiers for position, wounds, and other factors are present.Īn attacking combatant rolls percentile dice, adds his or her OB to the total, adds modifiers, and subtracts the defender's DB. 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. There are various charts available to increase the realism of the results, but most of these are optional, and many rolls can be made on a relatively small number of tables unless the group desires otherwise.Ĭombat is similarly intuitive. Task resolution is straightforward: the player rolls percentile dice, applies relevant modifiers, and looks the result up on the appropriate chart to determine the results of character actions. Rolemaster uses a percentile dice system and employs both classes (called "Professions" in Rolemaster) and levels to describe character capabilities and advancement. 2.1 Rolemaster first and second editions.