The first Rolemaster product ever released by ICE was Arms Law in 1980. It was a combat system that designed to replace the combat system in other Roleplaying games, particularly Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and would serve as the base for the rest of the Rolemaster products to come. The newest version of Arms Law released in 2003 returns to these roots and provides updated conversion guidelines for 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
This version of Arms Law is an 80 page saddle stitched book instead of a 120 page square bound book like the previous version. Most of this space is gained by not reprinting the Critical Tables )usually two, each half size) that appeared on the backs of the Attack Tables. The reduced page count of the new version keeps the price down to $16.00 instead of being in the $20.00 to $22.00 range.
The Introduction covers what Arms Law is and how it is trying to simulate combat situations as “believable fun, not drab realism.” It also describes what is new in this version of Arms Law.
This is the first version to actually change the attack tables, replacing the single number progression used in previous versions with a smoothed progression, i.e. 67-69, 148-150. This is the same way the Attack Tables for Spells are done in Spell Law, as well as the way Attack Tables are done in Spacemaster, the futuristic version of Rolemaster.
This style of table was also use in The Armory, an Arms Law supplement which was released in 2002. Arms Law also incorporates another change from The Armory, the idea of a weapon having a primary critical such as Slash and for many of the weapons, one or two alternate criticals that the attacker has the option of choosing. The older versions of Arms Law often simple had the criticals alternating between two types on the Attack Tables. The choice of whether to use the primary or secondary critical must be made before the attack roll is made, and there is set penalty ranging from 5 to 30 points that is subtracted from the attack roll if the alternate critical is selected.
Another change is that the weights and lengths of some of the weapons have been adjusted after comparison to historical weapon weight and lengths.
The flavour text of the criticals has also been updated, returning to the more “interesting” style of the earlier versions of Arms Law. The actual game effects of the criticals remains the same to preserve compatibility with previous versions. A couple examples of Criticals and Fumbles are:
From the 'E' Puncture Critical Table: "Pierced through the heart he reels 10 ft. before dying...."
From the Two Handed Arms Fumble Table: "Stumble over an imaginary unseen dead turtle. you lose two rounds off attack, but can still parry."
Section 1.0 is “How to use Arms Law”, which gives descriptions, definitions and tables relating to some of the terms used in the book such as Defensive and Offensive Bonuses, Armor Types, etc. It’s basically the same material that is described in previous editions. It includes three full page charts with Weapon Statistics, Animal Statistics, and Monster Statistics
Section 2.0 is “Making an Attack” and it runs through how to use the Attack Tables and the Critical Tables. Section 2.04 is the new section on the Optional Criticals and is the one section that players familiar with previous editions of Arms Law and Rolemaster should read.
This is followed by the Attack Tables, these cover the same Weapons and Attacks as previous versions, 29 Weapon Attack Tables, 13 Special Attack Tables, 12 Critical Strike Tables, and 2 Fumble Tables. The Special Attack Tables have not changed at all since the previous version of Arms Law. I was a little surprised that the Weapon Attack Tables and the Special Attack Tables still have the results columns in opposite order. I thought that since the Weapon Attack Tables were being redone anyway, they might take the opportunity to switch them from going from the highest number at the top of the page and the lowest number at the bottom, to being lowest at the top and highest at the bottom to be consistent with the Special Attack Tables.
There is an unfortunate error that has made it’s way into the Critical Tables in the first printing of this version of Arms Law. A “1” accidentally got inserted before critical results that indicate a negative modifier. This implies that the penalty would only last for one round, which is not correct.
So when it says “1” preceded by a negative modifier ignore the “1”, the penalty lasts until the wound is healed. For example, the last line for a 66 result in the “A” column on the Brawling Critical Strike Table says “+8H-6*-1(-15)”. This would be read as “8 additional hits, 6 rounds of Stun, -15 penalty for 1 round. It really should be a permanent -15 penalty until healed. ICE has promised to post a pdf file with the corrected charts on their website, http://www.ironcrown.com/ it should be available by the time this article is printed or shortly thereafter
The last section of the book is “Converting to Arms Law from Other Systems”. This is a three page section that covers how to use Arms Law with Dungeons & Dragons Third edition (D20), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (which I suspect would work with Hackmaster as well), GURPS, Legends of the Five Rings, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and other Dice Pool Systems. I haven’t actually tried using it with any of these systems, but the guidelines look like they would work fairly well.
Overall, it’s a well done book, other than the unfortunate typos in the critical charts, which hurt the rating I gave for style. If you already own a previous version of Arms Law, there isn’t really any need to pick up this new version unless you want to use the Optional Critical rules. If you are looking for something to liven up combat in D&D, it might be fun to give Arms Law a try. If you are planning on trying the Rolemaster System, this book is almost essential to have, although there are simplified versions of the tables in the main Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying book as well.
Review Summary