[RPG]: The Riddle of Steel , reviewed by Chris Safruik (3/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9273.phtml

Chris Safruik's Summary:

Innovative character advancement tied to character motaivation, unique, hyper-realistic combat, priority on who a character is, rhather than what he is, and free-form \"create on the fly\" magic system create a player driven experience unlike any other.

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2003-04-28 07:40:01
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You pretty much hit every point I would have made on the game.

Post originally by access.denied at 2003-04-28 08:36:33
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Can anybody explain to me how well TRoS handles social interaction?
I'm considering getting the game and retooling sorcery (perhaps more Pendragon-style sleep-weariness rather than aging--the idea of all wizards dying young just does not gel with me at all) to run Warhammer, but there are a few things that I'm worried about (after seeing just the quickstart rules+the material available at the tRoS site):
1) Does it provide much support to handle social interaction?
2) Can the system help a person who's not a skilled tactician play a fighter?
3) Is the layout of the game as atrocious as that in the quickstart rules and the appendix available online?

Post originally by FBM at 2003-04-28 08:54:26
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>>Die pools are medium sized, ranging from 4 to 23 dice in my games, with a potential maximum of 45. You will only ever see a die pool of 45 once, if ever. Most die pools in combat situations range from 10-20 in size.<<

My idea of "medium sized" is 4-10. 20 dice is tons, and 45 is inconcievable.


Sorry, the review was good, the game interesting, I just had to interject.

Post originally by cnath at 2003-04-28 09:06:11
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How long are the quick start rules? I have the book but had some problems getting a handle on things, if I dload the quick start rules will they make things easier or harder? (the quick starts for any of the White Wolf games I've looked at always had messed up shortened versions of the rules)

Post originally by Enoch at 2003-04-28 09:25:43
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Something that should be clarified about the amount of dice needed.

I've ran RoS about a dozen or so times. The reason you need so many dice is because you need to keep track of how many points you have left in your pool. You do not actually roll 20-something dice! (Of course it is feasible to happen, it just has not happened in any of my games). The most rolled in my games would have to be 15 and that was a h00ty attack. The most common amount of dice rolled is around 6-8 in my experience.

-Joshua

Post originally by Enoch at 2003-04-28 09:30:20
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>>1) Does it provide much support to handle >>social interaction?

Hmm...not really. Its the usual method of handling it. A normal skill roll. I will say there is a lot more social interaction in this game than one would expect because you really don't want to get into fights.

>>2) Can the system help a person who's not >>a skilled tactician play a fighter?

Yeah, there is nothing about the system that would make it difficult for those unskilled in combat tactics. You will have to be able to learn to use the system though.

>>3) Is the layout of the game as atrocious >> that in the quickstart rules and the >>pendix available online?

The book didn't have a breathtaking layout or anything, but it was serviceable. Some of the pages have annoying backgrounds that make it difficult to read, but that's about it.

-Joshua

Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2003-04-28 10:11:36
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The Social Aspect is there, and Enoch touches on the reason why. The game has a KICK ASS combat system, but it is not combat FOCUSED...as in if all you do is run around killing stuff you're life will be short.

So you will spend alot of time doing the social interactions that LEAD UP to the climactic combat. This is where the SAs can really shine. Who do you hate, who do you love, where do your loyalties lie, what are you driven to achieve. The SAs really provide a great reference for the type of social interactions that will be important to you.

There are some rather long threads on the ROS forum seeking to adapt the combat rules to include "social combat" so to speak. But its not really necessary.


Fighting does require a hefty bit of player skill, but its not so much player skill with actual combat. Since the game was designed with actual combat tactics in mind, if you are familiar with such things you'll probably pick it up faster, have a head start on learning how to time the best combos, and be better at actually describing your attacks and feints in an authentic fashion.

But none of that is required. You can learn the games fighting tactics from the game itself, and the best recommendation in this regard is to download the free combat simulator from the ROS website and practice with it. Its great at seeing how the dice pools feed into different moves and what the effects of those moves are.


I would concur that the best description for the layout of the book is "serviceable". But the Index is bar none the most complete index ever written for an RPG, so everything becomes findable even if it is scattered.

Post originally by access.denied at 2003-04-28 10:30:43
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Ralph Mazza wrote:
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This is where the SAs can really shine. Who do you hate, who do you love, where do your loyalties lie, what are you driven to achieve. The SAs really provide a great reference for the type of social interactions that will be important to you.
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I think here's my problem: I don't really need the system to discourage my players from trying to kill everything they encounter; they don't try to do that anyway, for a variety of reasons. I'd like a good combat system in my game, but its usefuleness is confined to combat situations; I don't need it to drive the game.
But, while the SAs obviously provide great tools for creating passionate, driven characters, I'm more interested in running conflicted, confused PCs (in the Warhammer milieu that I'm talking about here).
Would it work for that?
From what I can see, the SAs are tools for showing/rewarding "being true to oneself" rather than for dealing with "everybody seems a complete bastard, who can I cast my lots with?" dilemmas I'm more interested in.

Please bear in mind, I'm not trying to diss tRoS. Lots of people have already convinced me that it's a great system for doing what it sets out to do. I'm just wondering how much would it help me to run a game that I'm interested in, and that is something different than what it was designed for (i.e. "blood opera").

Also, I don't think I'd be able to sell the idea of needing to run the combat simulator for a while in order to be an effective fighter. The laziness born of using rules-lite systems for a while now

Post originally by James A Beggs at 2003-04-28 10:56:14
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I have to say, seeing that many dice frightened me a little too. This review almost sold me on it when I saw that comment!

So then, what are you doing with so many dice if you arent rolling them?