Post originally by Dylan Horrocks at 2004-02-24 12:50:42
Converted from Phorums BB System

While I agree that RoS has some very interesting mechanics and thoroughly agreed with your assesment that it's "one edition shy of being professional," I was rather surprised by the high Style rating you gave it.

I too was turned on to RoS by the Quickstart download and so ordered the full book, expecting to be thrilled. Instead, when the book arrived, I was less than impressed. Sure, there's some good mechanics in there, but they're very hard to find, in among the chatty, overblown purple prose, the repetitive polemic, the unnecesary 'fictional narrative' inserts and - well, just very poor layout and design.

I say all this not to diss RoS, but to suggest that the next edition be given a TOTAL overhaul. RPG system books need to be usable, and the way RoS is laid out and written at the moment, key rules, charts and mechanics are difficult to find (often described only once in the middle of a paragraph of confusing prose) and sometimes poorly explained. The weapon stats are made very hard to read due to the overly dark background illustration.

And as for the illustrations, I have no problem with amateurish art (and sometimes even prefer it to the slick Wizards of the Coast style stuff), but I feel very strongly that much of the art in RoS undermines the system due to it's tone. For a system which promotes itself as realistic and carefully researched, designed to promote a more indepth gaming experience, the art evokes nothing so much as Conan comic books and D&D fan art (Dwarves with mohawks, girls in chainmail bikinis, etc etc). I just don't get it.

In short, I think this book badly needs an editor (which is why, using your method, I'd have given it a 0 for editing) - not just someone to check the spelling, but someone who will cut out 50% of the text, rearrange how the rules are presented, and generally make it clearer and both more readable and more usable.

As I said above, I'm impressed by the mechanics and would dearly love to try running RoS. But as it is, I feel it would be too much work extracting the actual game from this sprawling mess of text and ugly layout. I eagerly await a new edition - hopefully one prepared and overseen by a professional or experienced editor who can take Norwood's inspired ideas and present them properly.

My apologies for a screed; it's very unlike me to write something like this. But it's an indication of how frustrating I found RoS; because I feel a very good game is being sold short by its own presentation. If Jacob really wants his game to go far (as I believe it deserves to), I strongly recommend he take the step from self-publishing to finding a professional publisher with a lot of experience. Or at least find himself a good editor.