Arms Law is the earliest ICE product, while Claw Law came around a bit later to do the same for beasts as Arms Law did for weapons. Eventually, the two rulesets were combined, because why put those things in separate books, really? The two sets were originally intended as a replacement for D&D’s “simple” combat system but as it developed into a fully fledged skill-based percentile system it seems to owe quite a bit to RuneQuest as well.

There’s also the open-ended dice rolling mechanic which…I honestly do not understand the point of it (feel free to illuminate me). Essentially, it functions like “exploding” dice (and might be the first example of such?), but also serves some mathematical/mechanical function that escapes me. There are also the famous (and grisly) critical hits and fumble. Also, charts full of very fine print for every individual weapon, which is no doubt how the game earned the nickname Chartmaster.

One of the main things that has attracted me to Iron Crown books over the years is the cover art. Rolemaster books have some mighty fine art. This one is from Angus McBride, whose MERP covers I so adore, and I love this one. Strong Harryhausen Minoton vibes. Interior art is a bit scanty (literally 60% or more of this book is charts).

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