Arms Law (Rolemaster Companion) [Paperback]

First of all, anyone purchasing the Role Master Standard Rules should make this a concurrent purchase, or at least the next purchase. The standard rule book has almost no information on the stastistics and use of weapons in game. It has no critical tables either. All that is in this book. That makes it the quentissential book to accompany the Rolemaster standard rules.
I was looking for this book to be the Rolemaster equivent of the old AD&D Player's Option: Combat and Tactics book. It is not. It is a book full of tables. If you thought the standard rule book had tables in it, nearly every page of this book is a table. This book details something like 29 weapons commonly found in typical fantasy middle ages role playing adventures. There is no colorful weapon descriptions etc., just raw stats for the Rolemaster game.
For each weapon, you get this: the weapon name, how long it is, how much it weighs, how likely it is to "fumble" the weapon in combat, how likely the weapon is to break in combat, how durable the weapon is, the range of the weapon (if it is a missle weapon) and a small picture of the weapon. Then an attack table filling an entire page follows. Yes, each weapon has it own seperate and different attack table. These tables cross reference a percentile role (modified by skill, and all the other common situation modifiers) and the "armour type" of the foe. This gives you a combat result ranging from no damage, to "hits" worth of damage, to hits of damage and a critical damage of various degrees of severity.
The combat works under the theory that heavily armoured foes are easier to deal "concussion points" of damage to, because they are slower, but that it is unlikely that they will suffer great critical damage. Lightly armoured foes are the opposite. They are fast enough to dodge many attacks, but when contact is made, chances are it will be with some form of critical damage. Interesting, different.
On the opposite page is the one or two critcal damage tables the weapon uses. They can get moderately graphic as far as describing the injuries inflicted upon the unfortunant victim. If that is for good or ill, everybody will have to decide for themselves.
The print is small, but it is down right tiny when two critical tables are squeezed onto one page. In these situations, seriously, use a magnifying glass to keep from going too hard on the eyes.
From there, a table of more exotic weapons is listed, their stats and the basic table to use to resolve their damage. Tables for martial arts manuevers are given, fumble tables to roll on when a player botches an attack roll for each category of weapon (1-Handed Edged, 2-Handed, Pole-arm, etc), attack tables for animals, and a few more pages on expanding the combat system, but not near enough in my opinion.
If you want to play Rolemaster, buy the book. You need it. Here is what to do with it. Take it to the nearest copy shop and copy all the weapon tables with their coresponding critical tables photocopied. Copy the common weapons several times (ie. the weapons the PCs are most likely to use). Put them all in the clear sheet protectors, attack tables on one side, and crit table in the other. Put them in a 3 ring binder in alphabetical order with clearly maked tabs sticking out. This way a GM does not have to flip through the book and slow down game play. Every player should get a copy of the attack and crit table for the weapon he/she uses to keep with his/her character sheet. That way there is no flipping for the PCs. That way the book is only referened for the weird stuff and the game flows more.
Bottom line, buy the book. Just don't expect more than basic but necessary rules information, in Rolemaster's standard format of tables, tables, tables.
As always, the best in gaming experiences to all!!

Rolemaster is gaming grown up. Far more intricate and subtle than D&D. The system uses d100, and makes use of all the possibilities that entails. You'll need substantial intellect to make use of it, but the reallism compared to other systems is worth the effort to master it. As an example similar severity strikes in D&D and RM would yield, respectively, 14 hp damage compared to 14 concussion hits and a c slash yielding "slash muscles and tendons in foes shield arm, +9 hits, foe bleeds at 4 hits per round, stunned for 6 rounds, arm is useless". Once mastered, the game flows well. It's nickname of "chartmaster" is well earned, but the charts provide depth, not needless encumberance. Each component, such as "arms law & claw law" is designed to be used as part of an entire system, or as an adjunct to other game systems to add to their reallism. I believe you will get out of rolemaster what you put into it, modified by your memory and reason stat bonuses.

It's essential to play Rolemaster, for it contains details and tables for the combat sequance. If you wish to play Rolemaster it is a must buy.