The Inside Scoop on Gaming

As, perhaps, one of the last products to be released by Iron Crown Enterprises …And A 10-Foot Pole (to be referenced as 10-Foot Pole to avoid precarious typing) tells much of the good and bad of what ICE has evolved into over the last few years. Some time before 10-Foot Pole was published there was a hypothetical supplement dubbed Equipment Law. This is that supplement.

Unlike many supplements 10 Foot Pole is utterly useless without an RPG for it to be attached to. To be honest it is not terribly exciting reading on its own. An analogy would be that it is a dictionary you keep on your night stand to reference while reading a novel. Not something you would really need to reference until you needed it. As well the book is clearly geared towards Rolemaster, it is wholly usable by any other RPG with minimal effort.

10 Foot Pole has equipment split into different ages of technology up to from the stone age to the current era. While most fantasy games might not much of the supplement (likely Bronze, Iron, Middle and Renaissance depending on the region and era) it has much to offer for campaigns that are set in a fantasy setting. With prices and equipment for the Victorian age, that simply screams to be used with Call of Cthulu. Also the electric age, atomic age and information age cover the equipment needs for any campaign set in this century.

There are some flaws and there has been some debate in regards to the time it takes to make. Regardless it gives some arbitrary guideline to how long it will take to provide equipment to a character is workable. The authors did put in verbiage to the affect that the fancier the materials and the means of manufacturing will effect price and time to deliver goods.

For the common player 10-Foot Pole is useless. For the GM this is better than lugging around a sears catalog or just about any other equipment guide I have seen Like much of what ICE has released over the past couple of years 10-Foot pole does not show as much imagination as many of ICE's products used to. Really for anyone vaguely familiar with Rolemaster 10-Foot Pole is really just a very fleshed out version of the equipment list in Character & Campaign Law.

In summary if you are a GM this book is worth the bucks. If you are a player I think 10-Foot Pole is a wash in regards to value.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

...and a 10-Foot Pole
Author: John Curtis, Ed. Category: game Company/Publisher: ICE Line: Any (Rolemaster primarily) Cost: 19.95 Page count: 192 ISBN: 1-55806-370-6 SKU: 5703 Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 11/01/99. Genre tags: Modern_day Historical Generic	As, perhaps, one of the last products to be released by Iron Crown Enterprises …And A 10-Foot Pole (to be referenced as 10-Foot Pole to avoid precarious typing) tells much of the good and bad of what ICE has evolved into over the last few years. Some time before 10-Foot Pole was published there was a hypothetical supplement dubbed Equipment Law. This is that supplement. Unlike many supplements 10 Foot Pole is utterly useless without an RPG for it to be attached to. To be honest it is not terribly exciting reading on its own. An analogy would be that it is a dictionary you keep on your night stand to reference while reading a novel. Not something you would really need to reference until you needed it. As well the book is clearly geared towards Rolemaster, it is wholly usable by any other RPG with minimal effort. 10 Foot Pole has equipment split into different ages of technology up to from the stone age to the current era. While most fantasy games might not much of the supplement (likely Bronze, Iron, Middle and Renaissance depending on the region and era) it has much to offer for campaigns that are set in a fantasy setting. With prices and equipment for the Victorian age, that simply screams to be used with Call of Cthulu. Also the electric age, atomic age and information age cover the equipment needs for any campaign set in this century. There are some flaws and there has been some debate in regards to the time it takes to make. Regardless it gives some arbitrary guideline to how long it will take to provide equipment to a character is workable. The authors did put in verbiage to the affect that the fancier the materials and the means of manufacturing will effect price and time to deliver goods. For the common player 10-Foot Pole is useless. For the GM this is better than lugging around a sears catalog or just about any other equipment guide I have seen Like much of what ICE has released over the past couple of years 10-Foot pole does not show as much imagination as many of ICE's products used to. Really for anyone vaguely familiar with Rolemaster 10-Foot Pole is really just a very fleshed out version of the equipment list in Character & Campaign Law. In summary if you are a GM this book is worth the bucks. If you are a player I think 10-Foot Pole is a wash in regards to value. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

...and a 10-Foot Pole