ICEWEBRING

RM2/Space Master to RMSS Skill Conversions

Last Updated June 25, 1999

This article is intended to assist in the conversion of RoleMaster edition 2 (RM2) characters and Space Master (SPAC) characters to RoleMaster Standard System characters (RMSS). Most of the RM2 skills have equivalent RMSS skills already, so converting RM2 characters, at least from a skill point of view, should not be too difficult. Space Master characters will be more challenging as many of the skills do not have equivalent RMSS skills yet. The reason for including these in this article is primarily for the conversion of modern day or near future characters that were created under Space Master. For any missing skills, I suggest looking for similar skills that do have conversions and use the same RMSS categories. Of course the other option is to wait until the Space Master source book for RMSS is available.

One thing to watch for when converting characters to RoleMaster Standard System from RoleMaster edition 2 is how many skills end up in the same category. If you have a lot of skills in the same category, it may be advantageous to spend more development points on the categories than on individual skills. By the same token, if you only have one skill in a particular category it could best to only buy one or two ranks in the category and more ranks in the skill, especially if you want to end up with an accurate conversion. Buying too many category ranks could give your converted character more skills that he or she had under RM2.

I opted to use Rolemaster Companion II (RMC2) and Space Master Companion I (SMC1) as the source of information on the old skills. These two books were considered standard by most people whereas the later Companions were not used as consistently. Both have descriptions of skills and Master Development Point Cost Tables listing the costs by profession for the skills described.

In the process of building the Conversion Table, I came across some interesting tidbits on some of the skills. There are several skills that appear on the Space Master Companion I Master Development Point Cost Table that do not have descriptions in the book. At one point there seems to be an entire section that got lost for skills between "Stone Crafts" and "Symbol Lore". (I would be interested in finding out if anyone has a printing of this companion that contains these descriptions) The skills with missing descriptions are listed below. The skills with a "*" have descriptions in Rolemaster Companion II. For those skills that a description does not exist in either book the RM2 /SPAC action type and stats column will not have values in the conversion table.

There are also several skills in Space Master Companion I that have descriptions that are not listed on the Master Development Point Cost Table. These skills will not have a RM2 category assigned to them in the Conversion Table unless they appeared in Rolemaster Companion II. The skills with a "*" appeared in RMC2, but ,of course, did not have Development Point Costs for the Space Master Professions. There is one skill in Rolemaster Companion II that has a description but is not on Master Development Point Cost Table There are very few skills that are in Rolemaster Companion II that are not in Space Master Companion I. There are some skills that have slightly different names, these variations are listed individually on the conversion table to make them easy to locate..

The skills in Rolemaster Companion II that do not appear in Space Master Companion I are:

The skills with differing names are listed below. The RMC2 skill name is listed first, then the SMC1 skill:   There are only a few RM2 Skills with no RMSS counterparts: There are too many Space Master skills that don't have RMSS counterparts to list separately

There are entries in the table for RMSS and it's supplements that need some additional explanation. There are some skills that do not have the optional third stat listed in the Conversion table. There are a couple of reasons for this. In the main RMSS book there are several skills that are listed under the Science/Analytic - Specialized category but don't have complete descriptions.. The new skills in the Essence Companion did not have the optional stat listed. Black Ops mentions several skills that are but never described. The skill description for Combat Pilot in Black Ops has a note at the end that states:

Note: The Combat Pilot skill rank cannot exceed the pilot's Atmospheric, Orbital, N-Space Piloting, or AFV Driver (whichever is appropriate) skill rank Unfortunately, these skills are not described anywhere in the book. Atmospheric Pilot is listed under the Pilot Training package, from which we can figure out that these skills belong to the Technical/Trade Vocational skill category. There are also skills mentioned in some other Training Packages. The skills from Black Ops without descriptions are: The conversion table itself is listed alphabetically by the RMC2/SPC1 skill names, this is followed by the category group the skill belonged to in RM2/SPAC, then which supplement the skill is found in, the type of action the skill is and the stats used in RM2/SPAC. Next is the RMSS information. The RMSS book(s) that the skill is found in is listed, then the stats, followed by the optional third stat for the skill, the name of the skill in RMSS, and finally the category that the skill belongs to in RMSS.

The abbreviations used in the table are as follows:

Conversion Table
All games, books, CD's, movies and other materials cited are the property of their respective copyright holders.

Frequently referenced material:

Iron Crown Enterprises, I.C.E., ICE, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Cyberspace, Shadow World, HARP, High Adventure Role Playing and Bladelands and all products related thereto are all trademark and copyright © properties Aurigas Aldbaron LLC... All rights reserved. No reproductions without permission. Produced and distributed by Mjolnir LLC, dba Iron Crown Enterprises 112 Goodman Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

Middle-Earth®, Middle-Earth Role-Playing®, and related supplements are copyright TOLKIEN ENTERPRISES.

Star Trek® and all related trademarks are property of Paramount Pictures.

Star Wars® and all related trademarks are property of Lucas Films.

Dungeons and Dragrons® and all related trademarks are property of Wizards of the Coast.

All other material is Copyright © 1998 - 2007 Brent Knorr, All Rights Reserved The contents of this site may not be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the express permission of the respective author(s).

The material on this site is for personal use only.