Critical Miss: Issue 2 [Realism in Roleplaying]

Realism in Roleplaying

I once played a hobbit called Durgal. Nothing special, and a little dim, but he was kindof handy with a bow and arrow. So whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would have him scamper to some convenient point, settle himself down, take aim and let his arrows fly.

But something was always missing. It never seemed real enough. The irony was that we were playing what was supposed to be a "realistic" system. The game was Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP) which was based on the Rulemaster, sorry Rolemaster, system.

For those of you who haven't played this system, Rolemaster uses tables... lots of tables, to generate highly detailed results. When you hit someone you don't just do an abstract amount of damage, you get a description of exactly what you have done.

But all this detail didn't seem to produce realism. Apart from one memorable occasion when I shot a wolf in the sword arm (the resulting argument bought the game to a grinding halt for more than ten minutes) all I ever got was: "your arrow scores across his chest."

Just for once I wanted to hear the GM say: "your arrow takes him straight up the shitter!"

But I never did.

Accuracy Vs Precision...