Against the Darkmaster vs Rolemaster

Compare Against the Darkmaster and Rolemaster side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Against the Darkmaster	Rolemaster
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Deadly, High-Fantasy, Journey, Character-Driven, Roll to Cast	Crunchy, Simulation, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Gritty, Deadly, Roll to Cast, Mana Points, Hackable
Core Mechanic	Roll d100 + skill bonus against a difficulty threshold for skill checks, or against an opponent's defensive bonus for attacks. Rolls of 01–05 are automatic failures (fumbles); rolls of 96–00 are open-ended, allowing a second d100 roll added to the first for explosive results. Attack rolls that exceed the target produce hits on weapon-specific attack tables, with high results triggering critical strikes that cause injuries, bleeding, and conditions beyond simple hit point loss.	Most rolls are d100 open-ended: 96–00 is rolled again and added, and a first roll of 01–05 is rolled again and subtracted. A maneuver adds the skill bonus and a difficulty modifier, and a total of 101 or higher succeeds. Some maneuvers allow partial success or partial progress on lower totals. An attack roll opens upward only, adds Offensive Bonus, subtracts the target's Defensive Bonus, and is read on the weapon's attack table in the column for the target's Armor Type. A hit gives damage and sometimes a critical, resolved by a separate d100 roll on a critical table.
Dice	d100	d100
Complexity	High	Very High
Availability	Free quickstart	Paid
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	Proprietary (open00 SRD planned)	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Open Ended Games	Iron Crown Enterprises
Year	2020	2022
Languages	English, Italian	English
Best For	Groups who want an epic good-versus-evil campaign with deep character creation, detailed travel mechanics, and crunchy percentile combat with critical hit tables: especially fans of Rolemaster or MERP looking for a modernized take.	Groups who want a long fantasy campaign with granular character building and combat where weapon, armor, and each wound carry mechanical weight. It suits tables comfortable resolving attacks and injuries through table lookups.
Highlights	Character creation combines Kin, Culture, Vocation, and Background into highly differentiated characters with personal Passions that mechanically drive play. Detailed overland travel system with terrain-specific hazard tables, foraging, camping, and safe haven mechanics. Magic system with 30+ Spell Lores and over 300 spells, available to all Vocations at different costs. The Darkmaster creation system lets the GM build a campaign-defining antagonist with servants, artifacts, and a dark stronghold.	Armor Type selects the column on each attack table, so armor changes both the damage a blow delivers and the total needed to score a critical. Profession sets what each skill rank costs, so a Fighter can still take magical skills at a higher cost. Spell Law organizes magic into 171 lists of 25 spells, and a caster buys ranks in a list to reach its higher-level spells.
Considerations	574-page core book requires significant reading investment before first play. Open-ended d100 rolls and critical hit tables can produce extreme outcomes that swing encounters unpredictably. No published setting: the GM must build or adapt one, though the included introductory campaign provides a starting framework. Character creation involves multiple layered steps (Stats, Kin, Culture, Vocation, Skills, Backgrounds, Passions) that can take an entire session.	Core Law and Spell Law have no bestiary or treasure tables, which Core Law assigns to the separate Creature Law and Treasure Law volumes. Resolving one attack can take an attack-table lookup, a critical roll, and tracking of bleeding, stun, and injury penalties. Without magical healing, injuries can take days or longer to recover, and Core Law advises scheduling significant downtime between combat sessions.