Your stats determine your innate ability (stat bonus) to accomplish tasks in Rolemaster from casting a spell to swinging a sword with everything in between. A higher stat is generally means a better potential but don't forget that racial bonuses also contribute to this total meaning that while an Altmer and a Breton may both have a quickness stat of 100, the Altmer will always be that much quicker than the Breton (+16 vs. +8).
Your temporary stats indicate your physical and mental capabilities as they presently stand while your potential stats represent your genetic potential. Over the course of play your potential stats will remain generally remain unchanged while your temporary stats can and will increase (and possibly also decrease) during play. Stat bonuses are always determined by your temporary stats!
There are 10 stats in Rolemaster as follows:
Agility, Constitution, Memory, Reasoning, Self-Discipline, Empathy, Intuition, Presence, Quickness, and Strength.
Temporary stats:
You begin by determining your temporary stats by one of two methods, either random or preset. Random will generate 600+10D10 points while preset will give you a fixed 660 points. Whichever method you choose will generate a pool and from this pool you determine your potential stats. Before anything else, you will notice that your profession has a section marked 'Prime stats' with a short list of two (sometimes three) stats. These temporaries must always be given a minimum value of 90. Other stats must have a minimum value of 20 but you will doubtless place them higher.
NOTE: If you decide to roll stats I will only accept rolls from the RPoL dice roller!
Stat buy is linear up to 90 but increases exponentially from there. Refer to the following chart when buying your temporary stats:
Potential stats:
Once you have spent all the points from your pool, you then move to generating potential stats. This is done by referencing your temporary stat and rolling the specified number of dice to determine your potentials from the following table:
Stat bonuses:
After you have finished this, place both temporary stats and potential stats in the appropriate place on your character sheet and be sure to also note the stat bonus from the following sheet and place that on your character sheet:
One final note:
There is one final note, and that is Development Points. This will be discussed in greater detail later but for now, add up the temporary values of your Agility, Constitution, Memory, Reasoning, Self-Discipline stats then divide that total by 5. Round this number (to the nearest whole number) to determine your development points and note this final result for later.